I haven’t been here in awhile. I wish there was a good reason, but this year so far has been full of striving to build a better future for myself–mostly on the financial front–while trying to keep up with the finicky flow of life. Here’s what’s happening.
Work. Work is still going strong, and I’m still doing the same work as mentioned in my last State of the Sushi post. However, I’m in the physical office only three days a week for the moment, which gives me a chance to work on a well-paying short-term project. The end result is that I’m making about the same amount of money in the same amount of time (although I do need to be careful about fun things like taxes), but my commute time is halved. I’m also managing to save money and even put some aside for retirement, both of which I hadn’t been able to do much of for the first half of last year.
NaNo. I barely won April’s Camp NaNoWriMo session and have no idea what to work on for July’s camp. My half-lifeaversary is next month, bringing both amazement that I’ve been doing NaNo for half my life and awe that a lifetime has passed since starting NaNo. I’m also going to this year’s Night of Writing Dangerously! Will you be there too?
Non-NaNo writing. Hahahahahahahaha… what non-NaNo writing? Or rather, what writing in general? This blog post and a few journal entries are all I’ve written since I don’t even remember when. It feels good to be writing this post, shallow as the contents may be.
Reading. Compared to last year, I’m way behind on my 80-book goal for this year, and I’m falling even more behind after taking NaNo season into account. So far this year I’ve read 34 books, which is just over a book a week and nowhere near where I want to be right now. Nonfiction audiobooks have made up the bulk of my books read so far, followed by short and fast YA reads. Those YA reads are great, but I miss sinking my teeth into longer fiction that take more than a lazy Sunday afternoon to read. I’m also making the executive decision not to go back and review all the books read this year; if you’re curious about my ratings, here’s my Goodreads profile.
Running. Hahahahahahaha… I haven’t done much of this in ages, either. The problem with run commuting is that I regularly go to other places after leaving the office, and I take my laptop to those places. There’s no way I’m running with a laptop. But I did run the three miles to the office last Wednesday for the first time in a few months and was still feeling the aftereffects on Friday night. I do need to get back into this, but it’ll be a challenge with all the laptop-carrying I do these days.
Pokemon Go. Yes, this gets its own section now. I reached level 39 over the weekend at Community Day, which clearly means a max level increase is coming soon. I also have a shiny Kyogre, my very first shiny legendary! And yes, I finally caught Mew (and Mewtwo).
Travel. 2018 hasn’t been much of a traveling year so far, but I did go to Oklahoma for the first time over Easter weekend for the American Atheists conference. Oklahoma City was surprisingly fun, though I’m not sure what I originally had in mind. If you find yourself there, try out Tapwerks, Max’s Magic Theatre, and the Museum of Osteology.
Social. Pokemon Go and getting a roommate have helped a little bit on the social front when I’m not hosting friends from out of town. If nothing else, these things ensure I see another human on a daily basis.
Things that don’t fit anywhere else. I SAW HAMILTON! And Carbon Leaf! And… look, this feels like one of those conversation with a friend I haven’t seen in years when they ask me how I’ve been. I don’t know, I don’t know because I don’t know where to begin.
What’s new with you?