Rambling update...
It feels like it’s been ages since I last posted on here. Things have been busy and my brain has no concept of time… I’ve had a couple beers and now it’s time to let loose on my keyboard and catch up with all the things that have been going on. Strap yourselves in!
Books
So, lets start with books! I have been going through a dry spell on Audible
where none of the books I’m listening to are really grabbing my attention. That
is until recently! Yesterday, I finished listening to Unspeakable by Kevin
O’Brien! What a brilliant book! It’s a thriller that has tons of great
characters, lots of mystery and intrigue, and tons of murder! Loads of
interweaving stories, and some paranormal happenings that are within the realms
of reality make it a real gripping read! I went out for a scenic drive to pick
up milk the other night just so I could listen to it a bit more. That has never
happened! I never pegged myself as a thriller book lover, but Kevin O’Brien has
won me over. I have just started another book of theirs, Terrified. So far
it is similarly written (it is the same author after all…) and it is great!
I want to listen to more! I am also thinking that I should start listening to
horror books. I want to see if I can find a book that genuinely scares me. I can
get scared while watching horror movies, and playing horror games is waaaaay too
stimulating and I am petrified of them when I have played them, but I can’t
remember ever being scared by a horror book. I read The Haunted by Bentley
Little a while back. It was a good book, but it wasn’t very scary… I am
wondering if it is down to the book/writing or my imagination. I think I have a
great imagination, but maybe I don’t 🤷 I’ll have to get into some horror books
and find out!
I listened to The House on the Water by Margot Hunt. This was pretty good.
Another thriller, but not as gripping as Unspeakable. This book was a little
predictable and the characters were a bit two dimensional. Pretty much all the
characters were super unlikable. The main character was a winy bitch that judged
everyone, hated their own life, and blamed everyone else for their shitty life
and shitty mood… I don’t want the characters in my books to be so relatable
dammit! 🤣 But seriously, it was only a ~3 hour listen and it was a fun time.
Finally, in the books category, I listened to Lost Planet Homicide and Ghosts of Zenith by Larry Correia. These are ~2-3 hour books set on a different planet light years from Earth. Basically, we invented ways to slingshot through space and sent out a ship that got lost and now there’s a small human society living on 5 mountains on an acid world. There’s a serious class divide between each mountain that is based on your ancestors status on the original interstellar ship crew. The main character is a police detective that is called in to investigate murders that weren’t gang or corporation related. It is all done in a very LA noir style, with a narrator that is overdoing it a little, but it has a certain charm that I quite like. They have a 3rd one coming out September 19th (which is not that far off now I think of it) that I will be listening to for sure!
Vacation
I am on vacation this week! I haven’t taken any vacation in a long time. I don’t really have any plans other than organising the house and getting things ready for the new baby’s arrival!
I have been using my post-it notes on the fridge and my homemade, 100% recycled, pocket notebook to keep track of all the things that need doing. I am not getting too wrapped up in getting it all done. There’s far too much to do in just 1 week and still have some time to wind down from work… That’s why I decided it was time to take some vacay! I was at work on Monday and decided I need to NOT be at work for a bit. I really love my job and what I do, but I have been working on the same project for aaaaaages and I was burnt out on it weeks ago. The project has been delivered, but I am still tying up loose ends and working on fixes and features that are needed post delivery. It’s time to take some time off and be away from the project so I can go back with a fresh perspective and maybe start working on a new project when I am back.
Work
Work is going great! My boss thinks I am awesome, I love my team as they are all super supportive and they all give a crap about what they do, and I feel like I have the perfect amount of free agency and structured work that I can do what is needed from me as well as escape into a different task when needed without much red tape. I have noticed that I am in a strange position in my team. I am a programmer, but I used to work in a store sales/rentals role and I got into my programming role by being a business analyst/testing team member first. So unlike the other programmers, I am expected to directly communicate with store staff that report tickets and update tickets with task details, documentation and related tickets.
At first I thought I was doing too much and should take a step back to focus on programming, but I think I am expected to do these extra things and the other programmers are meant to be doing this too… BUT, I have ADHD which means because I LOVE programming/coding/computers/technology/documentation/everything that goes with it I am able to easily hyper focus on my work and do all these things relatively easily. I have also used my hyper focus abilities to streamline my job! Let me get into the weeds with my latest setup!
So… I recently changed over from Windows to Linux and I am running Kubuntu (Ubuntu with KDE Desktop Environment). I have custom shell scripts and aliases to launch my VPN session, all the programs I need to start the day (they open in the correct order so my email is on screen last and I can log straight in and start reading email as soon as I arrive). I can jump into a testing session in seconds, with a custom colour scheme so I know which server I am SSH’ed into.
I use Yakuake drop-down terminal for my SSH and Vim sessions. I took the Yakuake hotkey idea and applied it to the other programs I use, so instead of Alt-Tabbing through all open programs I can press Shift-F9 to get into the browser, Shift-F12 for my terminal, Shift-F11 for my Cherrytree notes, etc… Jump straight into the program I need instead of using brain energy to recognise the program I want and getting distracted.
In Vim I am using it on the dev server instead of locally. This is because I need access to a bunch of files all over the dev server in order to grep source code files, use the built in version control program, and run the main program that we are developing. We work with Progress ABL, so there aren’t many IDE plugins available for this language… There are a couple available for Vim that give a bit better syntax highlighting, but the main reason I use Vim is because I can extend it easily with my own functions that let me work with our source code better. Today I finished creating a DB Query tool that works with Vim so I don’t have to use the Progress built-in editor. I have also created functions that grab source code files and show them in a buffer that cannot be modified, and other functions that allow me to fuzzy find source code files and view them, etc…
I have custom scripts to stop my email from logging out, hotkeys for my notes to improve note taking speed and text formatting, and aliases that let me launch sessions on all different servers and work with remote server tools. I love it! I am attempting to create the most streamlined and efficient setup so I can avoid being distracted and just get work done like a boss!
Chess
Chess is awesome! I always enjoyed playing Chess, but was never very good at it… A couple of years ago my brother came to visit and he wanted to play some chess. I bought a chess set for us to play with, and that’s when he got me into chess.com. Since then I have been playing pretty much every day! I got a 400+ day streak on the Daily Puzzles! I have also been crushing through 3 minute games. They are the perfect length to play a decent game of chess without taking up too much time, or being too short and panic inducing.
I am not too fussed about my ratings. I think I am ~1000 ELO on the daily games category and I fluctuate between ~300-500 in the 3 minute games. Much more up and down with those game types.
I still play against my little brother every day. We play the daily games so we both get 24 hours to respond. It is great to be able to have this in common between us! It’s always great fun when we get to play together in realtime and both panic in a few 1 minute games!
Fin.
I had more things to chat about, but I can’t really remember and I am running out of battery and kind of nodding off… I’ll have to get into the other issues soon so I can get them off my chest and out into the world.
Hope that wasn’t too painful to read! Chow bella!
Back to Homepage 🏡