So Elder is going off on her first sleep-away camp this afternoon. After she gets back from church I’ll be driving her out to the Girl Scout camp and dropping her off. She’s done a weekend camping trip with her troop before, but I don’t think there will be anyone she knows at this one. She spent yesterday packing her bags, she’s bringing a lot of stuff. They told her to pack eight changes of clothes and a laundry list of stuff, her suitcases are filled to the brim.
I didn’t want Younger to feel left out, so I booked her for day camp. It’s a forty-five minute drive each way, so I’m trying to figure out if anyone else in the area is making the trip, but I’m probably the only idiot that did this. I’m really not looking forward to driving ninety minutes a day to taxi her around, but having the house empty of kids during working hours could be worth it.
Next week is going to be a critical one for work. Everyone has been busy as hell getting ready for this 426Live event. I can’t say much more than that. We’ve been in crunch mode for the last couple weeks, and besides a bit of wet paint following the event, we should be able to go back into a more relaxed tempo once that’s over. I’ve got a lot of work to do this week, then I need to focus more on being an actual product/project manager. I’ve been neglecting it lately.
I’ve been neglecting things around the house as well. I’ve just been doing the bare minimum on upkeep. I haven’t really been working on the projects I have around here, like taking care of this mining rig that is sitting on the table behind me. It needs to be disassembled, cleaned up, and disposed or sold. Problem is the price on graphics cards is so low right now it’s not even worth the cost. I always sucked at timing the market. I should have sold them a year ago. Buy high, sell low.
Missus is doing well. Two more weeks and she’s officially one-hundred percent union and no longer beholden to the management and bureaucracy of the VA hospital. It looks like she might also get that special dispensation for telework. Meaning she’ll be in control of her own schedule and able to stay home. I can already tell the difference in her mood, and she helps out with the girls and the housework when she has breaks. She’s also been shopping for new windows, trying to figure out how she can put twenty thousand dollars on her credit card so she can get a Southwest Companion Pass so that we can travel with a free plane ticket.
I’ve been maintaining. I haven’t been as physically active. It’s too hot to run much, although I did get out to run Friday morning. Haven’t broken a ten-minute mile lately. I had a number of injuries from climbing that have finally healed up, scabs and bruises are finally gone. I’m playing music, trying to make a daily practice of playing piano and the beat pad. I just got an adapter that lets me plug my Macbook up to the piano, which has nicer action than my M-Audio keyboard. The girls aren’t as enthusiastic about it, but maybe that’ll change. I actually broke the guitar out this week. I’ve had Running Up That Hill stuck in my head constantly and found a cover from this guitar duo that I wanted to pick up. It’s a simple song, mostly built around a iii-II-I progression in the key of B. Very similar to All Along The Watchtower with a few differences. Makes me wonder what other songs use that, but quick search turns up nil.
I’ve been using this online Pomodoro timer to use with work. It’s not motivating me, but it is adding a bit of disciple that helps me break through the procrastination. It helps me stay focused on the task, and sometimes I even stick to the short 5-minute breaks. It depends whether I’m doing stuff I enjoy or not. Doing 25 minutes in Melodics on the keys, then taking a break before doing another session on pads is easy, but when I’m working on a work presentation that takes me four hours to do I might cheat a little bit.
I’ve been playing Tarkov constantly, haven’t even opened any other games. The PMC runs are still terrifying, filled with moments of terror as I slowly walk through the maps at night, listening for the sounds of other players or scavs running through the woods next to me. The scav runs aren’t bad at all, but it feels like most of my time is spent playing Tetris in my hideout. I finally hit level 15 this week and unlocked the flea market, so I’m building out my hideout as much as possible, using scavs for loot runs and running quests with my PMCs. I’m actually handicapping my PMC as much as possible, running around Woods with a bolt-action rifle, trying to pop off headshots from a distance. It’s a bit of a problem when I run into other PMCs up close — I’m not good at no-scoping headshots, but I’m running cheap rigs so I just load up and go back out. I’m getting to the point now with some of the quest lines where I’m going to start taking some of my better gear. And today is my regular Sunday play sessions with my brother, and it’s time to go.