Analog Coast
I’ve read this book before. I guess that’s why they call it a re-read.
Between this book and House Of Chains, the fourth book in the series, I’m not sure which one is more jarring. Normally, you don’t expect to have already read 3000 pages of a series and then find out that the first 400 pages of the next book is dedicated to a character that has seen maybe four pages to that point. So that’s pretty jarring.
That said, I think that book 5 takes it to a whole other level. I’ve read nearly 4000 pages of this series, and then book 5, all of book 5 is dedicated to a people and a continent only referenced in the previous book. The plot is pretty central to the advancement of the bad guy in the series, we get the best comic relief to date, and Erikson still does a really good job of having an incredibly epic scope without losing sight of the people.
The first time I read this book, I didn’t want to read about these people. I wanted to get back to the Bridgeburners, Karsa Orlong, and the Daru contingent. This time around, I got into the world. the differences facing the Letheri and the Edur, and a glimpse of the Crimson Guard. That glimpse made me eager for Ian Cameron Esselmont’s offerings in the same world.
I’m more excited, at this point, to read the next in the series, The Bonehunters, than I was before this re-reading of Midnight Tides, more because I know some of my favourite characters are waiting for me. A town blows up. A platoon gets high on mystical honey. One of the best characters has his most kick-ass moments before… well, I won’t spoil any more.
To the point, I enjoyed Midnight Tides more than I did the last time, and more than I expected to this time around.
There’s always lots of lists flying around this time of year.
This is one of them.
- The world NOT ending – I will be completely bummed if this one lets me down, but probably only for a second or so.
- The Houston Texans in their first playoff game – Assuming that the world doesn’t end in the next 16 hours or so, Houston will host its first playoff game in 18 years.
- 36 years old – this year, thanks to some strange academics, is host to a couple of balances that I think are interesting. I will have been an adult as long as I was a child, and I will have been out of school as long as I was in.
- 9 years with Kim – Tomorrow (Jan 7) marks the ninth anniversary of Kim and I as a couple. I can’t believe it’s only been 9 years. I can’t believe it’s been 9 years already.
- Biking – Even if it’s only a short ride to Intuit, I’m really looking forward to Spring when I can get out again.
- Folk Fest – Each year since I met Kim, we have gone to Folk Fest every summer. One year, we almost didn’t make it because of ticket snafus, but it’s definitely one of my favourite things to do in the summer.
I enjoy reading Earl’s blog. It’s a fun place, full of all kinds of quick-hitters, longer pieces, and pictures from his youth.
It wasn’t until recently, though, that I saw the pictures on his site with envy.
Some friends of mine have been talking about sewing, inspiration, and creativity. It made me think about one Hallowe’en from my youth. I would have been in grade 4 or so. I wanted to go as Superman and my brother wanted to go as the Greatest American Hero.
I don’t know what lit a fire under my mom, but she watched one of the Superman movies more than once, and watched a couple of episodes of The Greatest American Hero. she bought material, she bought tights. She bought red underwear for the wearing outside of the pants. And she sewed.
I know that she sewed the majority of the costumes while I was sleeping, but I watched a little, and she was determined.
In the end, my brother was the school’s only Greatest American Hero, but I was one of at least three Supermans in my class. The whole class agreed that my Superman costume was the best. It wasn’t often that I received the praise of my classmates, so that was pretty special.
I’ve never seen any pictures of that day — we probably didn’t get any — and I never saw the costume again after that day. A small regret, but it sure would be nice to see that costume again.
Liam
I mentioned in my last post that I had a definite list of books that I planned to read this year. For your perusal, mockery, commentary, whatever, here they are. Enjoy!
- Midnight Tides: The fifth book in the Malazan Book of the Fallen. I read this book in Vancouver back in 2007. Since Steven Erikson finished writing the series, I started a re-read back in October.
- The Bonehunters: The sixth book in the Malazan series.
- Reaper’s Gale: I had a hard time with this one. I didn’t finish it, more because of shiny things than book quality. I guess at this point it stops being a re-read of the series and starts being a … um… read.
- Toll the Hounds: Yet another Malazan book.
- Dust of Dreams: Yet another Malazan book.
- The Crippled God: The last Malazan book — at least the last one written by Steven Erikson. I haven’t picked up any by Ian Cameron Esselmont, but I intend to at some point.
- The Eye Of The World: I have read this book more than any other. Since Brandon Sanderson has finished writing the last book in the Wheel of Time series, it’ll kick off a Wheel of Time re-read. I first read this book in 1990.
- The Great Hunt: The second book in the Wheel of Time series
- The Dragon Reborn: Book 3 in the Wheel of Time
- The Shadow Rising: Book 4 in the Wheel of Time
- The Fires of Heaven: Book 5 in the Wheel of Time
- Lord of Chaos: Book 6 in the Wheel of Time
- A Crown of Swords: Book 7 in the Wheel of Time
- The Path of Daggers: Book 8 in the Wheel of Time
- Winter’s Heart: Book 9 in the Wheel of Time
- Crossroads of Twilight: Book 10 in the Wheel of Time
- Knife of Dreams: Book 11 in the Wheel of Time
- The Gathering Storm: Book 12 in the Wheel of Time
- Towers of Midnight: Book 13 in the Wheel of Time
- The Lies of Locke Lamora: I learned that the third book in the Gentlemen Bastards sequence is going to be released in the spring. So I re-read.
- Red Seas Under Red Skies: Book 2 in the Gentlemen Bastards Sequence
- Iron Council: The third book in China Miéville’s Bas-Lag series.
- Embassytown: A real-world-ish book by China Miéville
- The City & The City: Another China Miéville novel.
- Railsea: Another China Miéville book.
- Midnight’s Children: I read the Grimus a few years ago. Though I missed a whole pile of allusions, I enjoyed it, and I want to make my way through all of Rushdie’s books.
- The Alloy of Law: the latest Mistborn novel. I’ve heard bad things about it, but that hasn’t dampened my enthusiasm for the series.
- Blood Meridian: The Road gets a lot more press, mostly because of Aragorn, if you ask me, but all I read is how much better Blood Meridian is.
- I am Legend: I enjoyed the movie in a popcorn-eating way, but I’ve heard good things about the book on a deeper level, so I will give it a try.
- Fragile Things: I started this short story collection in 2008, when I was working at Haemonetics. Shiny things flashed, and I turned my head, but I want to get back to it.
- Interworld: I didn’t even know this existed until I started looking for books to read this year. Looking forward to it.
- White Gold Wielder: The last book in the Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant The Unbeliever.
Those are the concrete books that I have definite plans on reading. There are three more, but they haven’t been released yet, so I don’t know if I’ll get the chance to read them this year.
A Memory of Light: It’s hard to believe that I’ve been reading this series for 20+ years. But it’s finally coming to a close and all the speculation and wondering will finally be over.
Republic of Thieves: I haven’t been as filled with anticipation over this one as I had been over A Dance With Dragons or The Wise Man’s Fear, but I am looking very much forward to it, and the wait has been fairly long.
Caliban’s War: The second book in The Expanse, a science fiction series by Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, writing under the name James SA Corey. The first one was completely awesome and I have no doubt that expanding on the world (solar system…?) they’ve created will only improve the experience.
Bonus: King’s Blood: The second book in Daniel Abraham’s Dagger and Coin series is set to release this year as well. Probably for King’s Blood and Caliban’s War, I’ll drop whatever I’m reading to get through them — same with A Memory of Light, so long as I’ve finished the Wheel of Time re-read.
There you have it, a whole pile of words that you can read about a whole pile of words that I’m going to read.
Happy New Year!
Despite the whimper that was the basically October onward, 2011 was the most post-heavy year in In The Now history. 94 posts graced this site, and while the majority of those came throughout the Summer Blog Challenge, they were words that I wrote, and you can’t take them away from me.
I want to write more. I want to do a lot of things. Generally, when I’m doing one of those things, I get distracted by the thought of all the things I’m NOT doing. Like right now, I’m writing, but I’m thinking about reading, unless I’m thinking about learning guitar.
A thing that I learned in the last year is that I can pine to do all the things I want to do. I can. And I can put it off, thinking that it’s going to be awesome when I fulfill those goals that I have. What I learned, though, is that if I don’t try to fulfill those goals, I will not have accomplished anything.
I have a very strong inner editor. I talk myself out of doing things because I will not be able to do them right. I see it in Nick and it frustrates the heck out of me, but they say that the faults you see in yourself are the ones that drive you crazy in someone else.
As I was saying, I can sit around and think that things are going to be awesome when I finally start to learn the guitar in earnest, or I can suck for awhile and get better by practicing and doing the things that are required for improvement.
One goal I put off and put off was the goal of fitness.
Those of you who know me will likely say, “Oh, no, you’re fine!” but the fact is that I’m a fat guy. I have been my whole life. I have a modicum of athletic ability that enables me to overcome my love of salty fried foods in unhealthy quantities, and I know that I’m not a threat to be a shut-in anytime soon, but the simple fact is that, besides not liking what I see in the mirror, I have found the excess weight that I carry limiting. Now, I’m a fat 30-something with a creaky knee, but in ten, twenty years, I could be a fat old guy who doesn’t get around so well anymore. I’ve had a long-term goal of being somewhere around the 200-pound mark since I looked up and was 260 pounds at Halliburton. But I haven’t done anything significant about it. Heroic efforts that I dropped after a couple of weeks. Biking to work was a good start, as was floor hockey in the mornings. But it wasn’t enough. And any sort of organized fitness plan was a great idea for some day when I wasn’t so: busy, sore, tired, wrapped up in some other soon-aborted plan, or other excuse. Well, in November, I decided that I was busy, I was tired, and I had lots of things on the go, but I was tired of excuses, I was down on myself for giving up on NaNoWriMo, and it was time that I delivered on a challenge because I said I would.
Enter: Cardio Insanity.
You’ll remember last year, I tried P90X. That was well and good. It taught me that my energy isn’t a dwindling resource — that I could push myself and that, not only would it not kill me, but that I would thrive. I don’t remember what it was that made me give up on P90X, but I did, and I regret it a little. However, I took what I learned with that and applied it to Insanity. It’s made by the same people that put out P90X, but it’s cardio-focused, where the other is more about resistance training. I thought about it and chose cardio/plyometrics because, right now, it’s about fat-loss and weight loss. I don’t need bulging biceps and I don’t need to be the chin-up king. Having less toll on my body by carrying less me around, though, is something I can see tremendous benefit in going forward.
I can hear you doing the math. November. Insanity is 60 days. He must be almost done. The truth is, there have been a few setbacks, and I’ve had to put the program on hold a couple of times because I have a bad back and my ankles have been through the wringer. But I’ve done all the workouts so far, pushing the end-date back each time I have to miss. I’m just shy of half-way. I started on November 28, and I’m 26 days in, so you can do all the math there, if you like.
How are the results? I’m sure you are all super curious about how I’m doing. I have to say, it’s going really well. I can see definition in places that I didn’t before. I can see less of me in the mid-section. I feel like I have more power in my legs. I can run for the bus, even if it’s a couple blocks away, without breathing heavy.
I almost talked myself into quitting. I’ve been having back issues, as I mentioned, and my neck felt like it went out of joint. I took nearly a week off and chastised myself about it. The motivation went away, and I even felt myself giving up at work. Then I gave myself a pep-talk, kicked my ass into a 2 am workout, and have been back on track ever since.
What’s next? Well, I want to keep going, that’s for sure. It seems that a number of my other goals are going to have to take a back seat this year because there are a lot of places I want to take this. I want to run. When I finish Insanity, I’m going to spend a month and see how much running I can get in. After that, I have the long shadow of P90X staring me in the face. That would take me into May or June, when I will be distracted with the thought of getting another contract. But by then, I should be fairly well-aware of what my body can do, and maybe I’ll focus on something else. Or maybe I’ll train for a half-marathon.
There are other goals I have this year. I have my standard reading goal, slightly modified. Instead of 50 books, I have 35 on the list. But I do have a list, and most of the books are wickedly long. There is a post to be written about that goal later on. Also, based on the sheer number of posts I cranked out last year, I want to break the century mark this year. 100 posts. Yessir. If I’d realized where I was post-count wise last year, I would have put in the effort and done it then, but I didn’t, so I’ll have to make up for that in 2012. Combining the two goals, I want to blog about every book I read this year. I like doing that, but I usually don’t. I’ll have to change that, I suppose.
I know that there are a lot of goals that go unfulfilled every year, and I have at least one each year that I don’t reach. I don’t care about that. That’s in the past, and 2012 is a whole new year.
You have goals? Resolutions? What are they?
I look in Olivia’s eyes and what I see both heartens and intimidates me. I see the promise of her intellect coming forward. I see every idea she has, every emotion she feels. She wears them without self-consciousness. I see her joys and her pains. I can feel her disappointments and her triumphs seemingly before they happen.
I see a responsibility placed on me. A trust that I will keep her safe, keep her eyes wide in wonder and keep her trusting. It breaks my heart that this will not always be the case. Even when she is angry, even at me, I see the trust she places in my decisions. She’s willing to go along because she knows me. Because she loves me. And, being a toddler, that love is given completely, without reservation, without fear of disappointment.
The fear I feel is for how she will see me if I let her down, when the wide-eyed curiosity and the soft eyes of innocence are hardened by experience. I can hope that she will forgive me my faults and understand that, while a certain amount awe never goes away, I am a man and, as such, I make mistakes, but that my intentions are as pure as the love I have for her.
She is opinionated, loud, intense, quick to temper, and occasionally, incredibly grumpy. She is amazing, amazed. Feats that she takes for granted leave me gasping at how far she has come. Jokes are funnier because they come from her. Her smile is a revelation, her tears a call to arms. I don’t know that I will be a parent to a toddler again, and while the attraction in our society is to look forward to a time when things are easier, as a coping mechanism, the thought of Olivia as a big kid breaks my heart at exactly the same time as it excites me. She won’t be a toddler for long and I wanted this piece to remind me how frustrating, how completely amazing, and how wonderful she is, and I want to remember that I didn’t take this time in her life for granted, wishing my life were less intense. Nor did I wish it could last forever. She fills me to bursting with such a mix of emotions and I am happy to live in the now with what I have.
I was watching an NFL Films Presents special about Joe Gibbs and how he hosted an event for his former players. It was a quick glimpse at players I sort of remember from when I started watching football. I couldn’t help but be a little surprised at how close the Washington Redskins were back then. Then I was surprised that my first reaction had been surprise. They played together, worked together, moved in the same direction. Why would it be surprising to me that a team that did that and reached the pinnacle of success would not cherish that time as special. Then it was clear to me.
It surprised me because they were a team I didn’t cheer for. I had my opinions of them — horribly biased opinions largely based on less than hearsay, and it was clear to me back then that these guys were the guys in the black hats. I could feel good in not cheering for them because they were the bad guys.
Life after high school was such a period of moral certainty. Black was black and white was white. Obviously the stuff I believed was right. I had no reason to question that. High school, I guess, didn’t leave me with a whole pile of critical thinking skills.
I’m much smarter now, because I am beginning to understand just how little I know.
Fear paralyses me. I’m introspective because I think a lot. Thinking a lot means I imagine all the ways I might fail.
I’ve failed at maintaining this blog because of it. Fear. It occurred to that maybe this blog should have more focus, but what? Then it occurred to me that perhaps it’s getting too focused, on autism in particular. Then I got to thinking what do I want this blog to be? Are all the autism posts going to expose me too much, will people stop reading, because I complain too much? Will the people who follow me because of the autism connection stop reading because they couldn’t care less about my chickens? So I stopped writing to think about it. Now there’s a way to please everyone. Ooops, I guess not. Instead I’II go back to writing for me
I’ve also been really focused on a new Website. I’m finally finding myself at a point in my life where I think I can build something for myself. Become someone I want to be. Elijah is doing better than ever, and the baby, well… he isn’t much of one at all. I have a passion for knitting, and I’m good at it, really good at it.
With a little coaxing from a friend, she and I submitted a knitting book proposal to an agent. She loved it. She would represent it. Yay! But, it needed more polishing, and we needed a solid platform. Booo. We could have polished it, that would be easy. But as for building a platform, that was going to take some time and thought on how to do it.
Building a website could work. I’m fussy though, it couldn’t just be any generic site. It would have to be polished, look clean, professional and be able to compete with other knitting sites. As a one income family with a kid in therapy, others in activities, a mortgage to pay, and Kyle’s unknown employment next year there was no money to pay anyone. Fear. Could I get it to look good enough? How would we do it? It took us months to get the site up. It’s lovely in its simplicity. I think an expert likely could have done it in weeks. Thankfully, Kyle is a genius, and can figure just about anything out, given enough time. We learned CSS and HTML, we figured out plugins. I worked on content while Kyle worked on the majority of the tech stuff.
There was no way I could come up with a handful of patterns to feature in a short amount of time. So with my friend’s blessing we pulled our book, by choosing not to re-submit the proposal. Fear. I hope it was the right thing to do. I’m not sure, but it didn’t come without a lot of thought. The idea is that in the future with a strong platform I will have the same opportunity. Only l’ll have a stronger platform and I’ll be a stronger designer. Walking away still scares me.
I’ve decided to actually pursue knitwear. Fear. What if I’m not good enough? What if I’m not ready? What if I suck? What if knitters hate me? What if I’m wasting my family’s time on a pipe dream that will never happen?
Pushing past that fear, I continued to learn about web design and work on content. I submitted my designs to be test knit by other knitters. Test knitting proved that my first pattern…well… it sucked. Fear. The design was good, but boy-o-boy did it have a lot of mistakes. I am so lucky to have had an amazing tester who essentially took my hand and helped me make it right, she helped me do better, she helped me learn about proper pattern writing. Then she praised me, told me it was great, and lifted me up. She gave me confidence, and then said she couldn’t wait to work with me again. Praise God.
When I come up with an idea, it’s always big. So…I have big ideas for my site. It took me some time to accept that it wasn’t all going to be done when I first launched the website. Fear. I often fear that if I don’t do it all at once it won’t get done. I had to let it go. The site would never be ready if I kept waiting for perfection, so many of my big ideas are stuffed in my brain, waiting to roll out a little bit at a time.
I have a whole branding idea in mind, for that I needed a logo. As much as Kyle and I can figure things out, and as much as I have an idea in my mind, I stink at drawing, and the idea of trying to learn to use illustrator to come out with mediocre product was not going to be the best use of my time. I know an amazing illustrator, but I don’t want to take advantage of my friends, I’d want to pay him full out, and I was pretty sure I couldn’t afford it. Instead I hired another graphic artist who had an affordable rate in the hopes of having a graphic ready for when my website went live.
It didn’t happen, it wasn’t ready, and I decided that instead of waiting, my website could go live and still be “good” enough. It did well, I was pleased. I continued to wait for my vector (graphic design image). In the end it didn’t work out, not for lack of trying by my designer, but because it wasn’t entirely what I had in mind. I had already paid her, and I didn’t feel it was going in the right direction. I felt she had worked for the money I did pay her, and at this point she was now working for free. I wasn’t comfortable with that. People deserve to be paid for their work. It was a difficult decision to tell her to stop. Fear. I was stalled. I was working in the direction of what I was going to do with this logo. Now what?
Plan B. Actually talk to the illustrator friend. Nervous, I did it. After talking and emailing him I felt things were going to go in a really good direction I was excited. Then I got the cost. It was way too much for me right now. We probably could have made it work. I really wanted to make it work, but the stress on our bank account was just going to be too much right now. Fear. What the hell do you do when plan B doesn’t work out? And how do you settle for hiring someone with less vision when you think you’ve found the person you want to do it. How do you reconcile that you can’t spend the money when you know it takes money to make money? Well…I re-wrote Plan A: after some clear thought, I had to decide that there are better places to put that money right now. As much as I want a drop dead gorgeous website and clear direction for branding, working at improving my patterns, by paying a tech editor, test knitters, buying a dress form, yarn and perhaps taking some classes are all better uses for our money right now. My website looks good, and if that temporary photo needs to be temporary longer – it can be. It’s content that needs to be strong, no one is coming back for the prettiness if the patterns are not worth it. Not that I didn’t sulk. I did. A lot.
And now we’re here… today. Everytime you saw fear, I wanted to quit, I could have quit, but the thing is: I want this more than the than the idea of quitting feels good at the time. I’m scared I’ll fail. I’m scared people see me as a bit flaky, with several stay at home business attempts in my past. I’m scared I won’t be respected. I’m scared I won’t be loved. I’m scared it’s going to be harder than I think. I’m scared my luck is going to run out. I’m scared others are going to start later and get to the finish sooner. The thing is, now, here today, time has already been invested, and it’s not just my own, it’s the time of many others, Kyle , my kids, test knitters ,and the tech editor I did hire after serious conversation with another designer about how necessary it really is. There’s no turning back, and I don’t want to.
I know that it is impossible to fail at something you don’t give up at. It might take more time, and you might have to work harder than some (talk about a huge lesson learned from Elijah!), but you can’t get worse at something, only better. The only way to fail is to stop committing to its success. I have talent, it’s there, I am an expert at the things I know. These days I have office hours where we’ve made time in the week set aside for me to work. I have plans. I have patterns written in my mind, and even though I don’t know the right path to my success right now. I’m blazing it. I am committed to my happiness, and this makes me happy. I will be more than self-published, you’ll see me in magazines eventually, and I can’t wait to do book signings. It may seem overly ambitious, but I can’t dream small, it’s not who I am. I don’t expect to become a celebrity knitwear designer, but I do expect to become a knitwear designer. I want to be happy, and I want to be profitable. This is my beginning, it’s not everything I wanted it to be, but that’s what beginnings are for: starting, improving, a place to become more from. Now I just have to get over the fear of it not happening all at once, and the fear that I’m not ready. I am. It will happen. I will make it. It will take time. Expect big things from me.
You want to know what else I’m fearful of? Saying this out loud/hitting publish. I should probably just stop thinking right now.
House of Chains is the fourth book in Steven Erikson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen. This entry deals with a lot of fallout from the second book.
The Malazan Book of the Fallen is Epic Fantasy, though it would probably be more appropriate to call it Eeeeeeepiiiiiiic, since it is ten books long and each book is at least 800 pages long.
The scope of the book is epic as well, as some of the non-human beings on the world live tens of thousands of years. Some are undead as well, but I wouldn’t exactly call them zombies. They are bound by a vow that reaches beyond the grave.
In this book, the Malazan army is marching across the Holy Desert to get retribution for the slaughter that saw the end of the Chain of Dogs. There are two or three other stories that intersect this one, but that is the main thrust.
The first couple of hundred pages are dedicated to the origin of Karsa Orlong, who starts out like your average barbarian, but who shapes into something way more. Glory is his main motivation but as he travels, he comes to understand more about the world and what is important.
He is a power character. There are several of them in the series, which I tend to think is a weakness of the stories. You can actually feel the characters levelling up.
The book also deals with Fiddler, a sapper in the Bridgeburners marine corps. He is one of the huge strengths of the series. He has the training to use explosives, which makes him pretty powerful, but in the end, he’s just another soldier. He suffers massive heartbreak in this book and, while a lot of Erikson’s time is spent setting up the massive scope of the world and its history, he takes time to acknowledge small moments.
With this series, the payoff is always worth the length of the book, even though I always feel like I need a break from his books after I read one.
Nevertheless, having just finished House of Chains, I’m moving straight to Midnight Tides, a book I finished when I was in Vancouver, staying with my brother-in-law.
Hi! My name is Liam Johnstone.Now, probably most of you already knew that, but I thought it would be fair to reintroduce myself, since it’s been so long.
I don’t usually feel bad for not blogging. At least, I don’t feel bad for you guys. The arrangement is fairly simple. I blog when I feel like it and have time, and you guys read it when you have time and when you feel like it. Oh, it usually helps when there’s some content there, as well. It’s a contract I feel I set up fairly early in the process, and the internet hasn’t kicked me out yet.
Still, I’ve been wanting to write up a post or two for awhile now and I just haven’t. They were good ideas, too. Not that they’re suddenly untimely or less relevant. It’s not like I’m going to abandon the posts just because they molder in my brain a little while longer.
But those ideas are not what this post is about. This one’s a quick-hitter. A way to let you know that, hey, I am thinking of you guys, and I do have some things to say, so stop complaining about what this post isn’t, and just enjoy what it is.
NANOWRIMO
Yet again, I attempted NaNoWriMo, and yet again, I failed. I had a good story, and I was going strong, but I stopped working on it a week in. I guess it’s Inner Editor 7, Liam 1. I’ll still try again next year.
HAEMONETICS
It’s been almost a month since my last day at the big H. I miss working from home, spending the day so close to Kim and the kids. There are a lot of people I’ll miss working with. But I don’t miss the work at all.
Not to get on a huge rant or anything, but despite the fact that the product was a good one, a stable one, and one that will most definitely find its way to market, the work was not exciting. I am an ambivalent tester — I will happily ensure that my code works as I expect it to, but when it comes to rigorous QA-type testing, I am not it.
INTUIT
I knew, when I interviewed for this position, that they needed someone right away, and they had a whole lot of work to do. Now I actually know what that means. I’ve been working 10 hours a day since my second week in an attempt to meet a code complete date that is looming ever closer. The group is intense and hard-working. We’re sequestered in a war room, keeping domain knowledge and technical ability in close proximity. We’re making good progress and seem to be on time, but there isn’t any room in the schedule for mistakes. It’s a great job so far, especially now that I can work my way through the code.
FITNESS
I’ve started a new fitness program. It’s going well, thank you. I hurt my foot the other day (too much jumping around maybe) but the physiotherapist made it better and assured me that I could keep going, if at a slightly moderated effort level.
READING
So, my goal of 50 books fell by the wayside this year. Working from home meant that I didn’t read on my commute. Not to mention that I’ve been re-reading the Malazan Book of the Fallen, each book of which is somewhere near a thousand pages, which has slowed my progress considerably. As of right now, I’m less than halfway to my goal of 50 books. I’m okay with that, though. I can’t do everything I want, and I still spend a lot of time reading.
So, a very brief look into what’s going on with me. I have some ideas for the blog (more than the ones I’ve already put on the back-burner) and we’ll have to see how it goes. Given the length of this piece, you wouldn’t think that it took me three days to write it, but you would be wrong in that case.
If I don’t get back here before then, merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, happy Winter Solstice, good day, be safe, and all that jazz.
Liam
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