I should come here more often and then maybe you’d get less of a stream of consciousness. It is what it is.

  • I left my previous place of employment this year. The hunt for a job was a weird one. There’s still no struggle for a software developer to find somewhere else, but some businesses are putting very unusual barriers in place. During one particular process, after two interviews, they asked me to do a Myers Briggs like test wherein - and I’m not exaggerating here - they asked “Would your mother consider you a joyous person?” I got a rejection from these people, based on this questionnaire.
  • I now find myself in a much larger team - larger than I’d usually be interested in. However, it’s been a delight. With three dozen developers comes great pace, platforms built solidly, and always a mentor around with time. We have a team dedicated to making the lives of developers better by (in part) ensuring their local setups are cleverly thought out. I type vagrant up and I have the whole ecosystem running locally with production-like datasets. It’s wonderful.
  • This year I released a podcast about writing, which was the closest thing to feeling productive and creative I’ve done in a while. I’ve been quite pleased with the response; people have been kind. It might be fun to do something else like that again, but I perpetually struggle with having literally nothing to say which is ordinarily a fine state for a human, but leaves me feeling terribly unimportant.
  • I continue to struggle to find a printer that works as I want. It took seven months and a replacement for Epson to say, “that’s just the normal quality of the printer.” I contacted someone from PrinterLand.co.uk and they immediately told me, “yes, you don’t want that for printing nice things. You should try the Epson XP15000, a photo printer.” I exasperatedly asked, “but that has a lower printing DPI than the Workforce I have. What part of the specification tells me the XP is a better printer?” The guy responded, “there’s nothing in the specs. You have to be in the industry to understand what makes a good printer.” Ladies and gentlemen, the printing industry is a sham.
  • Due to the chip shortage, and then a festive related pecuniary shortage, I’ve not got the printer yet but will report back.
  • I’ve been bookbinding a whole bunch, and am getting better at it every time. Next year will certainly be the year most people get notebooks from me as gifts. I’m buying and building bulkier and bulkier equipment for this hobby and a surprising amount of expensive cardboard.
  • I’m having a very bad time getting a particular project going, and it’s shockingly simple so my failure is extra frustrating. I want to get a Pi to continually play The Matrix on a loop, remembering where it left off, and immediately starting against once power has been restored. Dodgy old Pis, cables left in the wrong house, SD cards giving up. Christ.
  • I’ve done very little with my garden this year which brings me great shame. It hasn’t actually made it onto my themes for the year, so I suppose shame isn’t a great motivator for me.
  • I’ve always been excited about owning a shop, and am currently saving for such an adventure. Leasing is fairly expensive, despite high streets becoming barren. I recently thought to myself, for the first time, I could instead just get a mortgage for commercial building. This helps the dream happen much faster and is financially less risky since I could rent it out until I’m ready to leave full time work. My partner, jokingly, said, “just mind you don’t become a robber land baron” and it shook me more than it should have. Suddenly, I’m questioning everything about land ownership.
  • My podcast of the year award goes to Comedy! Bang! Bang!
  • We’re watching Poirot. It’s good. Modern Family disappeared from Netflix, which is most distressing.