The Lost Realm

Lowlight of my day:

• Realising that the bug I spent half the day tracking is not so much a bug as the debug build itself

Highlights of my day:

• Fresh doughnut holes
• A nice, warm shower
• Toodly-Poo

So, working from home.

Yes, I work from home now. No, it wasn’t really my decision. Yes, it’s permanent. No, I’m not going to say anything further, as I have no desire to get myself dooced.

I have, however, been keeping some notes on what it’s been like working at home for the last few weeks. I thought I’d post them here for others to consider. Or for me to consider.

Advantages:

• No more peak hour traffic.
• Thanks to no traffic, I can sleep in until 9:30 and still finish work in time for dinner.
• I get to wear whatever I want all day.
• When I want to, I get to listen to the loudest, most obnoxious music at full volume.
• When I want to, I get absolute quiet.
• I can stop in the middle of the afternoon to take a nice, warm shower.
• My environment is less stressful.
• I get to spend more time with my family.

Disadvantages:

• School holidays are just a little loud.
• My toes, unused to the cold floor, got chilblains.
• The dog barks a lot (though that’s hard to hear over the school-holiday noise).
• Did I mention that school holidays are loud?
• Er… that’s it.

The really sad part is that in a few days, when the school holidays are over, my disadvantages list is going to be pretty empty. That’s not to say it’s perfect here, but with the addition of some nice warm socks, I’m finding that working from home is a bit of a break; a holiday without having to stop working.

Tomorrow I will be pow(2, 5).

I’m hoping I don’t overflow.

Yes, today was Chilli Festival time again. I can’t quite explain why I like this particular little vegetable so much. This year saw us bring home quite a sizeable loot, so I think we should be well stocked for a while. I believe my dream of having chilli for breakfast, lunch, and dinner (in a single day) may now come true.

This year Ely came along with us. While she is possibly more of a chilli eater than Carolyn, she discovered the hard way why you shouldn’t just dive into the hottest chilli for tasting. After much arm waving, tongue dousing, and general jumping up and down, she recovered enough to make the most of the huge range of things to scoff. I mean taste. Yes, taste. We were all consummate professionals.

Lessons learned today:

• Almost no one is polite or well-mannered these days. Please, thank you, or just a friendly smile is far too difficult for most.
• People will smoke at a smoke-free event. Sitting in the dry leaf litter.
• The majority of parents don’t seem very concerned about their toddlers falling into large bodies of water.
• Some chilli really is just too hot. But it’s fun to burn your sinuses clean once in a while.

Also, the made-at-home-this-evening chilli ice cream (ice cream topped with caramel nutty chilli crunchy things) was excellent. Take that, people who refuse to sell me proper chilli ice cream.

Did you know that, after six weeks of doing absolutely nothing, doing something is hard. My brain has turned into a purposeless, mushy substance.

My plan was to blog more. I’d simply wait for interesting things to happen, and then write about them.

This plan has been thwarted, though in the best of ways.

I’m about half-way through my holiday and, so far, it has meant a whole lot of doing absolutely nothing. This is, of course, my definition of the perfect holiday. It has been over 10 years since I’ve taken a real break from work. The last time I can remember having this much time to myself was during my undergraduate years.

I’ve been just hanging out at home, relaxing, tinkering with things, playing Nintendo Wii (a family Christmas present) with the kids, playing PC games until far too late at night, and sleeping in (oh, how I will miss sleeping in). Carolyn and I even managed to have a real, actual date, just like grown ups! Not only was it almost two years to the day since we met, but I believe it was the first time we’ve actually had a “romantic” night out.

So if you’re wonder where all the blogging is, it’s not here. It’s on holiday, doing as little as possible.