Update for 12/11/2016

Project updates

  • Christmas
    • Projects – I’m trying to remember that I have time to work on these over my vacation, so I don’t have to stress myself out trying to finish them before I leave, especially since traveling makes me tense enough. But I did make a key decision on one of these projects that removed a major roadblock, and now the rest of the way looks clear and navigable. On the other project I just have to push myself through it.
    • Travel – The weather is turning this year’s Christmas vacation into an exercise in worry management, and it’s reminding me that one of my main coping mechanisms is contingency planning. My first stop is my friend’s wedding in North Carolina, and I have a pretty tight window for getting there, so if there’s too much snow and my flight gets canceled, either I’ll have a tighter window, or I’ll be late, or I’ll have to miss it and fly straight to Texas. If I do make it to NC, I was thinking of doing some sightseeing after the wedding because it’s near some places I grew up visiting, but the mountain driving and forecast of rain are making me think I’ll spare myself the stress and just hang out at the inn, and anyway I was always there during summer rather than winter, so it wouldn’t be the same. Once I’m in Texas, things should be easier, and my weather app says the temperatures will be much warmer than I was expecting, so that’s a relief.
  • Bookmarks – This one is plodding a bit, and I’m thinking I should leave it till I get to Texas or even till I get back, since it takes more concentration and time than I can really spare right now.
  • Project map – I’d like to say I’m ready to post, but I still have stuff to think through, especially the differences between what I need from this map and what my site visitors need. I might wait till January to finish this one.
  • Coffee – I’ve been on a leisurely stroll through varieties of instant–so far Café Bustelo and Starbucks VIA Columbian, Italian, Mocha, Caramel, and Pumpkin Spice–and next is Mount Hagen, which I found at Whole Foods, where I also found an intriguing Ekobrew reusable Keurig container that lets you use your own coffee, so if that’s compatible with our machine it work, I’ll be trying that too.
  • Books – I finished The Long Earth, which is the good kind of science fiction where they propose a concept and then explore its consequences for society, all while following the characters through some kind of adventure, and it set up the next book in the series really well, so I’ll probably get to that in the nearish future. But next I’m listening to David Foster Wallace’s Girl with Curious Hair, if I don’t get bored and drop it. I’ve been curious about DFW for several years, I’ve been kind of in the mood for literary fiction lately, which is highly unusual, so it seemed like a good time for it.

Life updates

  • Christmas party – Our superdepartment had its Christmas party last Wednesday, complete with our annual Christmas Olympics, a series of silly games (this year from Minute to Win It) that we compete in as four large teams for silly trophies, which was almost traumatizing for me the first time we held it because I hate those kinds of games, but once I knew what to expect after the first year, I could disengage enough from the experience to stay calm, and this year I was so detached I sort of regretted the decision, so maybe I’ll let myself participate more next year, especially since one of this year’s games was the kind of object sorting I would do for fun anyway, so I guess not all the games are evil.
This entry was posted in Books, Coffee, Coping, Holidays, Life updates, Party games, People, Programming, Project updates, Projects, Travel. Bookmark the permalink.

One Response to Update for 12/11/2016

  1. Jeremy says:

    Games are never evil you silly man. I feel like I should be giving you grief for putting offyou projects, but that is too much work. Enjoy your trip!

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