Wed 24 November 2010

'Tis the season, apparently.

One more stint of travel before the long and well-anticipated 2 weeks off work for xmas. I've only had one unbroken year in the streak of taking these 2 weeks off before in my entire working life -- I get very grumpy if it doesn't work out.

The last few weeks have been progressively colder at home, so the heating has been bumped up a notch and the Slanket has been seeing more and more use. That tiny roundy cat you see above is also starting to disappear under the duvet for the day when I'm out. Outside, it's got that damp, crisp thing going on. I think I've gotten back to liking this time of year. The last few have been not so good, for reasons I got basically sorted out this year, so in a way I feel like I'm missing something by going away (that and Favourite Lady, of course).

I've been doing a little more Airsoft, when I can. You tend to only really get the serious players out these days, so it's a little less annoying. I've also gotten my ticket to Berget for next year. I didn't go last year because I bought into the lame idea that I have to bring an entire squad, but I think I'd like to head along even with one or two people I know this time.

Work has been progressively more involving. I've been getting a lot more code done recently, and am trying to find a balance between direction-setting and getting-hands-dirty for the project. I'm encouraged to find I still like getting my hands dirty, but there's always last-minute phone calls to encourage people designing software to not pull the theoretical hot saucepan down on top of themselves which impinges on Make Time, as we're to call it these days.

I've also been looking again at Domotics -- I've picked up a Scooba, a few Roombas, and am looking at lawn and garden automation for next year. I'll do a proper post on this at some point. Making Things Talk is a fascinating read so far, it may be the first paper book I bring on a plane in a few years.

Speaking of which, I'm off to California on Sunday. I'm spending a week with the Analytics development team (I manage the Analytics Frontend SRE team), and then am in Seattle for 3 days with the Analytics Backend SRE team. It's my first Mountain View visit in a good long while, almost a year in fact. It'll be good to see videoconference peeps for realsies for a change.

Category: Log Tagged: imported life me november update winter