Doing a good bit of work stuff on a program that I finished major work on about a year ago. Nice that at KMC I can get paid for these hours. Hoping this gets the job done.
Watching some python programming videos to improve my fluency in that language. Not my favorite language, but useful in a number of places.
Also been looking at my old wargames. Hoping I may fond folks interested in trying a few things out at work. My current challenge is to find all of right parts for games I haven’t played in a long time.
Microgames…probably more suitable for short time play.…and the lower shelves in my home office…bigger games
Quite a few of these appear to have bits missing that I’m going to have to locate. Hoping that I can (should as I am unlikely to have thrown any of this stuff away). I’m sorting through all my old storage boxes in any case so I should have a good shot. I’ll likely take backup scans of a bunch of this stuff for personal use as digital is likely to be more robust in the long term.
Back at work after the annual KMC week off between Christmas and New Years. KMC is the first place I’ve had this sort of stretch of time off without something else to get done in a long time…not off on vacation but just at home for the holiday.
Woke up to a rosy red dawn over the pond this morning.
Quiet one this year as Alyssa is on deployment and its just the two of us and the in-laws. Went for a goat hike (SLR pictures coming soon) before Christmas and got various work around the house done but otherwise was a quiet time. No gift exchanges in the house this year…neither of us really needed anything and we’re trying to budget wisely.
Got a bit of sandbox programming done (and pushed to github). Hoping to keep the momentum up and get this tool working rather than rehashing the same bits of code (with improvements) again and again.
Looking at improving my python programming as well. Not my favorite language but (as with Java) an important language to have in the toolbox in the modern world. This stuff can provide a nice side line when tool building is a bit much so should keep rolling over the next few weeks.
In the process of staining the big plywood reindeer that sometimes stands out in front of the porch at Christmas time and then coating it in spar urethane. Staining is done, sealing is a longer process as the spar urethane takes some time to cure between coats. Expecting that this will take the balance of the week if not a bit longer to wrap up.
Still plenty of sorting to do as can be seen from the other half of the back basement…
Boxes of paperback books on the shelves but the stuff to the right needs sorting…
Once the work table is clear of reindeer parts I’m going to see if I can reassemble to partially broken monitor from the office and perhaps use it on the VR machine (which currently has two really old monitors attached) to play some of the steam games I’ve got loaded there.
I moved that machine to clear room around the heavy bag but it is going to have to move again to get it close enough to the open area in front of the TV for the VR to be usable. Got to get to that soon so that I can try out doom VR…had intended to try that over Christmas but wound up doing more practical things instead.
Sometime between early morning and mid-afternoon on New Years day our light pole toppled over. The cause remains a mystery at this point as the pole is part way up the driveway and a pretty stout piece of metal. It had been bumped in the fall by the guy who clears our leaves, but was still firmly standing. Currently the steel pole is torn loose from the cement footing and only vertical because I have two six foot steel bars propping it up.
I expect that I’ll have to dig out the footing i the spring and buy a replacement post. A quick online search found only black and white posts so perhaps we’ll have to live with a color mismatch…we’ll see come spring. Perhaps they’ll have stocked up on additional color options at that point.
We had some real snow New Year’s eve but by the time I went to bed it had mostly melted away.
Bought a new snow blower but haven’t needed it yet this year. I’m expecting that an Ariens should last me at least as long as the Craftsman is replaced 🙂
The happy new snow blower in its new winter quarters
Ringing out a year of higher highs and lower lows, many of which I still can’t discuss in detail. It seems that we ring out 2018 in about the same spot we rang it in. Some things looking a bit up and others less than happy but nothing major to complain about.
Hoping for a more stable year to come with an upward course along the way. Much is in process and moving steadily ahead as we slide into 2019 but far more is nascent than ready to go.
I expect that we’ll soon have the basement squared away (it has been a bit of a nightmare as I embarked on a long deferred cleaning out of things no longer needed). I hope to have much of the pending work on the house squared away as the year runs on.
We’re budgeting better than we have in the recent past and finances should be in a better place when 2019 rolls over to 2020 than they were when 2018 arrived.
With the basement in a usable state and friends willing to help out, I’m expecting to get my long stalled RepRap 3D printer work moving forward again and I will be disappointed if I don’t have a working printer in service by this time next year.
A new snow blower is now in the garage so the twenty year old craftsman model that dies a year ago has finally been replace and shoveling is less of a concern. The walkway to the in-law apartment won’t get its finishing touches until the spring thaw but it is largely complete.
I’ve found time over the KMC winter break to get some programming work that I’ve had pending for a long time moving forward again and have hopes that I’ll finish some tools I need to get built. Previously this has tended to be ‘two steps forward, one and three quarters back’ as other priorities intruded.
I’m hoping that I can get this work wrapped up and spend time on some other projects I want to play with including some VR programming and some more web development (angular, vue and/or react). Working on my drawing and learning how to run blender competently would be good as well.
We’re expecting a bit less on the vacation front this year with a week in Orlando (cruise only, no time at Disney) and a week in San Diego to visit Alyssa. It will be great to see ‘Lys and I’m looking forward to seeing more of the San Diego area as well.
Overall, I’m guardedly optimistic that 2019 will be a good year. Likely one without the spectacular potential that 2018 offered, but hopefully without the major down-sides as well. Getting back to a stable course and with a firmer hand on the tiller is a worthy goal…
