Happy New Year!

Yeah, I’m a little late on this one. Some time back in April I got distracted (read: fell into a fiction rabbit hole) and stopped working on things, including this blog. I even had a post all written up that just needed to be posted, which is now live (I used the old date, because why not?) for your reading (dis)pleasure.

And now I’m back for 2024.

Sorta.

What’s Been Happening?

Nothing.

No, seriously.

Six months ago I dug a nice comfy hole in my couch and curled up in it with my iPad and my cats to read stuff. I’ve only recently resurfaced. I swear it’s some kind of disorder; once I start reading, I just can’t stop!

I won’t talk about what I’ve been reading; it’s all trash anyway. I’m just an escapist at heart. Reading lets me forget about all the ugly crap in the world and live in my own little world where none of that is a thing, and everyone lives happily ever after.

What’s Going To Happen Now?

And that is the question, isn’t it?

One of these days, I’ll get around to working on LetterBox again. The next experiment is sitting partially completed on my workbench (complete with the unconnected shift registers, which is where I stopped working on it). Once that’s done, I should be able to design the boards and the enclosure.

I’ll get around to it at some point.

My current thing, and the only thing to change around here in more than six months, is that I’ve started tinkering with indoor gardening. I’ll post about that soon. I started my little garden on Boxing Day, but it’s interesting so far.

Annnnd…?

Yeah, okay.

I’ve been idling for too long, and cash is getting thin. It’s probably time to go get a job again.

Joy.

I’m really not sure what exactly I’ll be looking for. On the one hand, a nice remote work IT job sounds great. On the other hand, though, I’ve lived in Texas for – holy moly, has it really been eight years? I still don’t really know anybody here, so I should probably go get an office job. There would be some value to that.

Yeah, I’m not very social. It’s a thing.

Of course, I need to do up a resume first, and it’s time for a major update (I haven’t changed the format in a decade, and it’s time to modernize it). That’ll be a bit of a chore, but no matter. I like a good looking resume.

Then I have to find out where all the good places are to go hunting. Last time I did this it was Dice and Monster, and I somehow doubt those are as popular these days. That’s the part I’m not looking forward to.

Soon, though, I will give up my freedom and rejoin the rat race.

That makes me sad.

Other Minutiae

I also have an update to the blog layout that I was working on when I was last active that will add share buttons. I need to finish that. It’s not a hard problem in the technical sense – just a bunch of links, really – but making it work visually is annoying.

I have no head for UI design.

So that’s creeping up on my list, as it will help get the word out if I post something here that some poor sod actually finds interesting. I’m curious to see just how much that drives traffic, given the random and totally niche nature of this blog. My bet?

It won’t do squat!

But we’ll see.

Beyond that, I really don’t know. One of the problems when you’re unemployed and idle for two straight years is, simply put, inertia. I haven’t really thought much about the future, but now it’s time.

Oh, and I need a new laptop. The one I’m writing this on is a MacBook Pro from early 2013, and while it works well enough for my purposes, the keyboard is starting to die.

It’s supremely annoying.

Time to Update All The Things!

My wallet hurts already…

Welcome to 2024, everyone!