A rare venture into nighttime Weston in celebration of a birthday. Generally it was actually fun to be out and about, and even (uncharacteristically) to socialise with almost-new people. I surprise myself sometimes. Later, things were perhaps not so harmonious, but this too is almost a Friday night tradition I suppose. Very drunk, slightly maudlin, but generally OK. Over the past couple of days I've done quite a bit of housekeeping - resigned from the GNOME Foundation Membership & Elections Committee, not necessarily the negative step it sounds. Nice mail from Gman and dmueth in recognition of my (honestly quite limited) work for the committee.
It's the middle of my second week in my new job. I'm all at sea really - I like the work, and the new challenges are most welcome. Its just a bit strange to have moved such a little way, but come so far if that makes any sense at all? People are nice, and tolerate my absurd sense of humour and occasional failures to hear what they're saying (all too frequent - do I need a hearing test?). I'm still enjoying organising my days efficiently, getting things done and bustling through early starts and achieving early finishes. Feel curiously unfulfilled outside work however - maybe its that I'm concentrating my energy on the job right now - keeping all my eggs in one basket so to speak. Reading like fury just now - which is fun of course. But missing GUADEC has had an odd effect - I feel like I've little left to offer the GNOME project (except as an avid and happy user of course). As the platform grows in complexity, I feel less able to attempt to understand it. I also feel somewhat distanced from the core of the community as it grows and seems to be more focused on delivering to its corporate backers. I must reiterate - none of this is bad for GNOME - or for me, because I get to use an increasingly stable desktop environment. My attempts to fill administrative posts have been interesting, but ultimately a bit frustrating. As I've often said (in usually mercifully shorter entries), these are strange times.
The first week at work has gone well - I'm sort of tentative about such statements, but in the sense that I've learned stuff, enjoyed my job and felt somewhat positive, its a success. Today started bright and early - messed around and listened to the radio, then went out. Have had vague plans to visit a small used book store for a few weeks. It's been there for years of course, but somehow I never made it. A brief visit yielded a treasure (for me) and a (hopefully apposite) gift for someone else. I need to spend a day or two in there however. Wandered in the sunshine for awhile, but ended up a little bored and frustrated, despite an important and encouraging phonecall. Lately things have oscillated oddly between positive/negative in strange ways - I won't even mention last weekends electrocution, which the daylog skipped in disbelief. Anyway, today I lost socks which blew away in the wind as I tried to dry them. Does this qualify me for some good stuff? Does the fact a neighbour later returned them disqualify me? As a diversion, and because I think its rather splendid, here is a poem by someone important to me.
Half way through the bank holiday shortened first week at my new job. Its been a bewildering couple of days, partly because the tail-end of the stupid cold I've had is making me feel fuzzy and disconnected - not ideal conditions for appearing efficient and attentive. It's also made me rather subdued and quiet, which hasn't helped with socialising myself into the team. Today however, the fug cleared enough for me to realise I've picked up quite a bit of the basics, and to make a couple of 'friends'. I'm enjoying going to work for the first time in a very long time. Flexible working hours help too, meaning I can start early and use the precious first few hours, when I'm at my most lucid. Otherwise, its been a worrying and difficult week in some ways, and the diversion of the new job has been more than welcome.
Lost::MikeGTN
I've had a home on the web for more years than I care to remember, and a few kind souls persuade me it's worth persisting with keeping it updated. This current incarnation of the site is centred around the blog posts which began back in 1999 as 'the daylog' and continued through my travels and tribulations during the following years.
I don't get out and about nearly as much these days, but I do try to record significant events and trips for posterity. You may also have arrived here by following the trail to my former music blog Songs Heard On Fast Trains. That content is preserved here too.
