Alright. Now that it’s almost the end of November, it must be time for work year 2018 to start, right?
In terms of my career, I have gained a lot more knowledge, became that much more organized, and knocked a few long standing items off of my massive to do list. But I have not yet had time to cross off a few of the items I had hoped to cross off a year ago (like finishing freecodecamp) – but most are infrastructure projects.
2018 started strong with me finally starting to port PHP applications over to React, grasping React.js and these new JavaScript ecosystem, and having systems in place that got my wheels turning so that I could finally start producing work! Then that got put on hold for the most part as we began the process of our migration back to the west coast of Canada after living in the Interior for over 10 years, and dealing with the loss of a beloved family member.
Grief can apparently be a good driver/motivator when packing, cleaning, and renovations are required around your home – especially when that is helping you get closer to home. We had a brief time of “homelessness” at the end of the summer between leaving one place and taking possession of the next (not that our old place has sold yet, but, did you know using UHaul moving pods between cities means they hold your shit hostage for about 2 weeks? neither did we! but enough about the UHaul moving nightmares we endured).
Moved, more renovations, unpacking, and all that finding new homes of shit in a new home ensues for a few months before a trip to San Jose, CA, and then, here we are today! When I am of course, sick as fuck! and not 100% certain that this is all sick/flu and not at least partially from inhaling forest fire smoke for 6 days in California.
I have a new home office and it’s out in the garage which is not insulated. One wall has been painted orange, stuff moved back up against it, and thankfully, most of my belongings unpacked into the bookshelves. I still need to tackle the opposite wall that is covered in shelving that has taken me a while to decide how to tackle. Take them all down? Partially down? Cover and paint? Until I realized one day the reason as to why the screws went into the wall on an angle so I’ve decided to take the wood off of the brackets, tape them, and paint away.
In terms of my office itself, I am happy to have a standing desk with an anti-fatigue mat, monitor stands mounted with 2 external monitors (okay, technically one is in the bedroom because my TV died but the new one is en route!), and my setup tied together with a docking station.
Outstanding items are to get set up for multimedia recording (video/audio), mount my whiteboards, and the painting that I have been procrastinating. And hopefully, figure out how to get two oil heaters going out there without blowing the power bar that seems to only be able to handle one plugged in. More lighting would also be nice, as well as something more on the bare concrete floor.
In terms of work: I have given up being an employee ever again after my 20 years is “not good enough” for how the industry seems to work today. Y’know, the “booming” tech industry that “lacks talent”? I’m not sure what happened to smart employers who could see from your resume that you are capable of swapping out the platform you are working on and clearly capable of picking up new technologies – but, whatever, go for the guy that just launched their first micro-app into production and only touched code for the first time 3-6 months ago!
Whatever chokes your chicken! I’ll just become your competitor instead 🙂