…and hoping that there are minimal or preferably zero spanners thrown into the works.
As mentioned in recent posts, I’m in the final fortnight of my course now, and there’s still a lot to do. On my current diary, it’s all looking very doable, but the nature of my work (which usually comes in on very short notice) means that this could change at any time! As such, I’ve scheduled the bulk of the remaining coursework for the first week out of the two. This will hopefully provide me with enough of a buffer that I can also fit in any client work that arrives in my inbox.
It really feels like I’m in the thick of it at the moment, but hopefully by the end of the month I will have a big achievement to celebrate.
I’ve spent pretty much the last month chasing my tail, so I was a bit surprised to realise upon finishing work today that the rest of the week (whisper it) doesn’t have much booked in yet. I really hope it stays that way as it’d be great to be able to crack on with my remaining course modules!
I’ve been fantasising a bit about what I’m going to do in March once the course is over. So far it includes super exciting things such as:
Get a haircut
Play some videogames, maybe? If I have the energy
Try to avoid starting any new creative projects and probably fail
Find some way of conducting a mildly celebratory eating occasion that doesn’t blow my weight loss efforts
On the whole, though, I’m not planning much. Just having a bit of time to myself again will be enough.
It’s been a bit of a struggle to balance work and studying ever since I started the TechUP course back in October, but this coming week is really going to be a challenge. Lots of clients with deadlines, and lots of stuff going on with the course. It’s also week four of the marathon training plan… all of this will be a real balancing act!
Marathon training is still going well with no major aches or pains – I think the mileage buildup must be going at the right pace. Podcasts are really helping still.
I’ve enjoyed the course but I’m really looking forward to having some downtime in March, especially with the long training runs getting longer.
Geth and I did do a New Year’s Day parkrun this morning but I’ll save my regularly scheduled parkrunday post for tomorrow. Lots of 2022 stuff to discuss today!
This year’s non-binding New Year Resolutions:
Sort out the house. It didn’t happen last year and it may not happen this year, but I would at least like to get some more stuff up on the walls (including that spice rack I bought a year ago) and work out a more manageable cleaning schedule.
Don’t book any midweek trips away and assume I can just ‘squeeze any work in’. I’m far too busy to be away during the week. Trips will be weekend-only with very rare exceptions.
Get one or two of my years-in-the-making longer game projects published by focusing on those rather than short things for jams and competitions.
Use the skills from my TechUP course to build at least two fairly complex websites.
Create some games using Python!
Take another big chunk off my marathon PB at the Edinburgh Marathon in May.
Get back to the fitness level I was when everything screeched to a grinding halt in March 2020.
Get my parkrun ‘different events’ total up to at least 30, continue to volunteer once a month, get my Wilson index to 15 (geeky – don’t worry if you don’t know what that is) and take part in parkrun every possible parkrunday!
Listen to more music and keep a closer eye on what’s going on with synthwave, industrial and heritage artists.
Actually leave the UK for the first time in four years (Ireland is the plan… not going far but it’ll be something!).
Catch up with what’s been happening with Doctor Who. It’s my favourite TV series but I’ve drifted away from the fandom over the last few years as I’ve been busy with other things and haven’t been hugely fond of the Whittaker/Chibnall era. I’m about two and a half series behind!
Finish all the books I’m reading. I’ve got into an awful habit over the last year where I start a book, read it for a week or so (last thing at night in bed is my reading time), neglect reading for the following week or so (because I’m anxious about not getting enough sleep if I read… even though I know I sleep better if I do), then abandon it and start a different book. This year, I’m going to concentrate on one at a time and read them right to the end. 20 books in 2022 seems like a good target!
Make a LOT more time for videogaming by keeping my evenings and weekends free. My game backlog is probably 1,000+ now and it’s time to start whittling that down. It’s my favourite way to relax and I most definitely have not been doing enough relaxing in 2021, so this has to be a real priority over the next year.
It’ll be interesting, as ever, to come back to this post in a year’s time! I didn’t make any resolutions last year except the house-sorting one, which was kind of a fail… let’s hope there’ll be more hits than misses in 2022.
Geth’s current videogame (which he has been playing nonstop since Christmas Day) is Shin Megami Tensei V, which I got him for Christmas. I would love to spend as much time videogaming as Geth does, and in order to do so I am planning to reorganise a few things this year.
I always intend to post lots of blogs at the end of the year with lots of big lists of all the things I did and the media I consumed and my highlights… but December is always so insanely busy I never get round to it. Maybe in 2022 I will write them as I go along haha! It’ll just have to be one megapost this year…
This year’s big resolution was to sort the house out. I did not do that and now it is one of 2022’s big resolutions. Other things have just taken more priority.
Business exploded in a good way this year, which means that I’m now working a lot more hours. It’s taking a while to adjust my life to this, and I’m beginning to realise that I can no longer just plan a trip away midweek on the assumption that I won’t have much work to squeeze in. 2022 will be a lot stricter in this regard.
I continued writing and coding text adventures and being involved in the wider interactive fiction community, and managed to release four games for various competitions. My highlights were winning the Scott’s Choice Award from legendary text adventure game creator Scott Adams for Barry Basic and the Quick Escape, and winning PunyJam #2 with Morris, my first ever PunyInform release. I also enjoyed making a short game for ParserComp based on photos of the beautiful area around Causey Arch after visiting it with Mum and Dad, and my first ever attempt at speed IF for EctoComp!
Since October I’ve also been very busy with studying for the TechUP Software Development course. I have learnt a lot of Python and other very interesting things that I will be taking forward as my career gradually transitions more towards tech. (The Python knowledge will also enable me to do some very fun stuff with my game development!)
Running has continued on a more positive trajectory this year, with races and parkruns returning. I am nowhere near as fit as I was in March 2020 when everything shut down, but I have still managed two important PBs in 2021 – I took nearly five minutes off my 10k PB at the Sunderland 10k, and more than 45 minutes off my marathon PB at the London Marathon. I have also completed the second year of my daily run streak today and am hugely proud of that, as it’s been very difficult at times. Finally, parkrun-wise I have visited two new-to-me parkruns (Girvan Prom and Southwark) and earned my V25 t-shirt with my 25th volunteer stint!
As usual, I didn’t listen to much new music, but I absolutely loved the long-awaited new Duran Duran album Future Past, and I was over the moon at finally being able to see them live in Birmingham in September. Geth and I then saw Andy Taylor the very next night back home in Newcastle, and we had a great time seeing Soft Cell in Leeds in November. Lots more COVID-postponed gigs to come in 2022 (and some reviews of the ones I’ve recently attended!).
I watched pretty much zero new TV shows and films this year, though there were a few I added to my ‘buy the BluRay at some point’ list. I did record a lot of stuff on my digibox though! Geth has watched thousands of hours of YouTube channels about gaming and running, and I’ve enjoyed those by virtue of being in the same room. I did enjoy the Strictly series in the autumn, as ever.
I didn’t manage to find nearly as much time for videogaming this year as I would have liked, but there have still been a good few games to enjoy. In addition to playing all the other text adventure games in the jams and competitions I entered (see above – and also finishing off the Adventuron Christmas jam games from last year in January!), I finished Bravely Second in time for the much-anticipated Bravely Default II coming out, played Bravely Default II on and off from February but have still not made much headway ten months later, played the interesting demo of Project Triangle Strategy (set for full release on Switch in 2022 as just Triangle Strategy), finished Final Fantasy I (finally! I will be moving onto FFII for 2022), got very freaked out by Return of the Obra Dinn, got most of the way through The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles, played about ten minutes of Pikmin Bloom before deciding it wasn’t for me, enjoyed a couple of old ’90s platformers for Christmas that I’ve loved since childhood, started Braid again (will actually finish it this time!), continued enjoying the lovely meditative filler game Link-A-Pix Colour, and COMPLETED EVERY SINGLE DEMO ON THE NINTENDO 3DS ESHOP (a project I’ve been working on for years). Watch out for next year, when I will be putting some serious effort into finding a lot more time for games!
I have lots of plans and resolutions for 2022, but I’ll talk about those tomorrow…
Snowflake leggings and new silver nails – all ready for New Year.
I’ll do a separate earworm playlist post soon…. maybe (I’m considering starting to log that separately from the blog and doing a yearly chart instead). So far it’s three weeks’ worth of Christmas music and Disney/Pixar soundtracks. I must admit I am looking forward to listening to something else in January in order to clear it all from my brain.
I’m still working this week, but I’m managing to get some Christmas celebration done as well. Geth and I cooked our pre-Christmas roast today and have plenty leftovers to eat tomorrow. I made a really nice veggie option that I’ll be making again to have on Christmas Day with the family 🙂
We’re also making good headway through our usual list of Christmas films! Muppet Christmas Carol now watched, and It’s A Wonderful Life lined up for tomorrow…
I’ve got two more work weeks to go before I can take my Christmas break, but I’m hoping there’ll be a gradual wind down now after a very busy year. Business has picked up over the course of 2021 in a way that I couldn’t have imagined at the start of the year, which has been amazing, but I’m still getting used to the vastly increased workload and will be having a bit of a rethink over Christmas about better ways of managing it all. My hours are much closer to full-time now, which has become very apparent as I’ve tried to fit my TechUp studying around work over the last couple of months, and next year my life needs to be planned accordingly. I can no longer just arrange midweek travelling on the assumption that I’ll only have to fit in a couple of days’ worth of work over the course of the week – I need to be at home so that I can get everything done. As such, it’ll be weekend travelling only in 2022, especially as I expect to be fairly busy with taking the first steps towards a career change post-TechUp.
It’s a bit daunting but it’s also exciting. I wonder what things will be like this time next year.
It’s been a busy week for me with work and my wee trip to Edinburgh. Some work things now coming in for next week but I’m really hoping to get the last of my pre-Christmas TechUp modules done as well!
In the meantime, though, I’m looking forward to a quiet-ish weekend. Geth and I are volunteering at parkrun tomorrow (doing a new role!) and then possibly doing a run outside once we’re back, but after that I will be getting my weekend hibernation on.
Dad found me another old computer book! This one belonged to Grandad and came out in 1984, so it’s an interesting historical read.
Cast of Yanomamo! – ‘Burn Them Trees’* Cast of Yanomamo! – ‘Forest People’ Cast of Yanomamo! – ‘The Jaguar’ Amilcare Ponchielli – ‘Dance Of The Hours’ The Beatles – ‘Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’
Monday
911 – ‘Party People… Friday Night’ Duran Duran – ‘Is There Something I Should Know?’
Tuesday
The Carpenters – ‘Rainy Days And Mondays’ Marvin Gaye and Kim Weston – ‘It Takes Two’ Perry Como – ‘It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas’
Wednesday
Geraldine McQueen – ‘Once Upon A Christmas Song’
Thursday
Eartha Kitt – ‘Santa Baby’
Friday
Sia – ‘Cheap Thrills’ Chris Isaak – ‘Wicked Game’ Cream – ‘White Room’ Mika – ‘Grace Kelly’
*The Yanomamo! tracks were a bit of a flashback to a primary school performance. Apparently there was also a TV version shown in 1988, which I need to track down.
Friday evening is here, and so we move from weekday busy to weekend busy. A nice change of scenery!
It’s been a really busy week with work and so I’ve not had time to do any studying. Hopefully I will be able to fit that in next week. The course organisers have just released three new modules so there’s plenty to get on with between now and Christmas.
Geth and I were meant to be volunteering at Jesmond Dene parkrun tomorrow, but unfortunately they’ve had to cancel. Under normal circumstances this would mean I’d be scrabbling around trying to decide on a replacement parkrun, but there’s an all-day TechUp online event tomorrow and it’d be nice to attend all the sessions for that, so I think it’ll be another week with no parkrun. I definitely want to get back to it next week though!
On Sunday I’ve got my last race of the season. A bit late this year – next year I’ll definitely be ending the season with the GNR in September! But it’ll be nice to tootle along for 10k and get some fresh air, assuming the weather’s not awful. We’re then seeing Mum and Dad later in the day, which will be lovely.
The weekend after should be a lot quieter… which will be a well-timed lull before the busy Christmas visiting period!
Same new hair as on every haircut day, but this time with bonus tree lights.
This week’s earworm playlists:
Saturday
Masashi Hamauzu – ‘Thunder Plains’ The Running Channel – ‘Run With Me’ Celine Dion – ‘It’s All Coming Back To Me’
Sunday
Bing Crosby – ‘White Christmas’
Monday
Chris Rea – ‘Driving Home For Christmas’ Masashi Hamauzu – ‘Thunder Plains’
Tuesday
Herman Hupfeld – ‘As Time Goes By’
Wednesday
Elton John – ‘I’m Still Standing’
Thursday
Masashi Hamauzu – ‘Thunder Plains’
Friday
Masashi Hamauzu – ‘Thunder Plains’ Boyzone – ‘A Different Beat’
I’ve not set foot outside the house for nine days. It’s cold out there and it’s got to that point in the year where I’d far rather be on the treadmill with a YouTube video in the background than outside running in the cold, even though the treadmill is not at all ideal for my running. I’ve got some outdoor time booked for the weekend, and I need to go to the post office at some point, but in general I am very happy staying at home. To be honest, that tends to be the case all year round.
Things are still very busy with work and studying but I’m getting lots ticked off the list every day. I’m not going to wish December away, because I absolutely love the run-up to Christmas (and I always get really depressed in January when I have to take the decorations down), but I will be really glad when I can sign off on Christmas Eve for a couple of weeks of downtime. In the meantime, it’s one day at a time, as ever.
The snow has mostly melted now, but it’s been very pretty over the last few days.
