• I finished NPH/Theory11’s Box One, a puzzle game designed for one player. Liz gave it to me as an anniversary gift as a way to be introverted and happy, but naturally I had Nika help me. It was excellent and I hope they make a sequel.
• I got started on a semi-large project this week. One thing I realized is that, perhaps more than any other job, this one requires archeology before beginning work. I need to work with a bunch of other companies’ APIs, each with various security requirements and levels of documentation. Pile on top of that a hefty amount of business knowledge and I often spend more time researching than actually coding. I think it may be contributing to my imposter syndrome because I rarely get to carry any lessons learned to my next project. An eternal beginner.
• We said goodbye to our quarantine family this week, as Nika will be going into school (masked) this week and their current plan is to be doing remote school from home. It was a pretty tearful goodbye. I hope we can stay in touch some way until everyone can be vaccinated later this year.
• I left my last job pretty broken and joined my current job before that had really healed. I’ve been feeling the old symptoms of burn out come back over the past ten months. I assume that it’s happening for everyone more or less but it’s been harder and harder for me to ignore. After therapy last Monday, I decided to reach out to my manager and ask about taking a pretty substantial leave in order to reset and refresh. It’s never easy to ask for help and I didn’t have high hopes, but it wasn’t met with derision or outright rejection. He and HR are still mulling over what our options are but so far everyone has been very supportive. I’m cautiously hopeful.
• I had started on a relationship check-in app a while back and I’m resurrecting it this weekend. Liz and I have checked in intermittently for a number of years but I want to see if having it happen more reliably helps ensure both of our needs are met. If it resonates with anyone else, let me know and I can throw you into a closed beta to help test it out.
• Liz has been going through medical weight loss. This past week, her carb limit was dropped from 50g to 30g per day. It has been… interesting trying to come up with meals that an eight-year-old will eat that also can live comfortably under 30g per day.
• I’ve finally come back to playing the piano! I fell in love with Bo Burnham’s Inside and started learning the songs. It’s been quite a while since I regularly sat down at a piano but it’s slowly coming back to me.