There have been 147 posts since 2019, but I've been complaining on the internet since long before then. Subscribe via RSS.
Just like in the good ol' days, there's a blog post chain going around, this one started by Colin Devroe. I saw the original post and it's been really interesting seeing how other web developers go about their days. I'm not a web developer per se but Dave Rupert made an open call, and Mr. Devroe himself told me to, so here's mine.
6:15 AM - My partner's alarm goes off, and he gets up for work (he still goes to work, as in, at a place that isn't our apartment). I lay in bed with the dog, catching up on Twitter and the news. This probably isn't a great morning habit but four years of endless crises have pretty much drilled into me to take a glance at what's going on in the world as soon as my eyes are open. Dave usually brings me a cuppa in bed, which I forget about until...
7:00 AM - Out of bed, drink the tea, Dave goes to work and I take the dog for a walk. I like a little fresh air in the morning, and I'm looking forward to a few weeks from now when the sunrise coincides with walk time.
8:00 AM - Usually have a quick shower, and make breakfast. Most mornings, that's a slice of sourdough toast topped with hummus, a fried egg (over-easy, the only correct way to fry an egg), hot sauce, and a couple of strips of bacon. Bacon is optional but highly recommended. I wasn't always a breakfast person, but this takes 30 minutes to cook, eat, and clean up after, and it carries me through to lunch. Also, it's friggin' delicious.
8:30 AM - Catch up on RSS feeds, maybe watch some Youtube.
9:00 AM - Begin day job! Mostly that means answering emails. Zeus begins a hard day of napping in various comfy spots around the apartment and occasionally chewing on a toy.
12:00 PM - Lunch time. On a good day this is leftovers from a previous dinner, but if we're keeping it 100, most days are either delivery or an assortment of chips, cookies, and chocolates
lying around the place. I should get better at this, but I just actually hate leftovers most of the time (also, I don't own a microwave). Zeus also gets another walk, then he gets lunch (he won't eat breakfast in the morning, don't ask me why) and then he promptly goes back to sleep.
1:00 PM - Back to work!
3:00 PM - Meetings, if any, usually take place in the late afternoon when it's hardest to go back to work after.
5:00 PM - Close the work laptop (I try not to slam it) and spend some time puttering around the apartment, tidying up after the day. Reset from staring at a screen all day.
5:30 PM - Boyfriend gets home from work and takes Zeus for a walk. I start chopping potatoes (all of our dinners seem to involve chopping potatoes, somehow).
6:30 PM - Everyone is home, dinner is cooking, wine is poured, and Zeus gets fed. Chat with boyfriend until we're sitting at the table stuffing our faces, at which point we've usually turned on the TV.
8:00 PM - After the kitchen is cleaned up (I cooked, boyfriend cleans), we retire to the couch to — wait for it — continue watching TV.
9:00 PM - I take Zeus for another walk, and this is the one that makes me really wish Vancouver was the type of place where you could have a backyard, so I could just 'let him out' instead. Alas, it's not, so instead I walk my dog along the beach 3-4 times a day. I truly have nothing to complain about! Back home, I can usually only handle so much TV, so towards the end of the evening I usually grab the laptop or iPad to play on the internet.
10:00 PM - Bedtime. Trying really hard to read a bit before falling asleep, at least a chapter, so I can get through twelve books in twelve months in 2021. This is going well so far!
Well, there it is. The things I do day after day after day - wasn't this fun! One day I hope to be able to shuffle my time around so less of it is taken up with a day job and more of it gets to be spent fiddling with code, but all in all my days aren't too awful.
2020 has gone by in the blink of an eye; it turns out working from home and hardly leaving your apartment does very strange things to your sense of time. As the year comes to an end, I've found myself thinking about the things I want to do next year, the things I want to work on and the things I want to change.
Read more books
Despite having an abundance of time at home, I can't actually say I finished a single book this year. I have made some progress in Scott Lynch's Red Seas Under Red Skies, however it seems to lack some of the appeal of the previous book, which I enjoyed thoroughly. I want to read more books, and getting stuck in a book I'm not into is sapping any desire to spend time reading in the first place. Time to ditch this one.
In fact, I don't just want to read 'more books'. I want to read at least 12 books in 2021, and I'll write about them here. That's only one a month; surely something I can manage. To that end, I figured it was worth taking the time to read some of the classics (ahem, the fantasy classics) that I never got to. I've decided to start with Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time Series, which is only a little daunting at fourteen volumes. I'm a couple of chapters into The Eye of the World, and I've resolved to have this first book finished and reviewed here (insomuch as I have any authority to review anything) by the end of January. I'm not committing to the entire series as the twelve books to read this year, but I certainly want to get one or two under my belt.
Write more fewer Better Words
I want to be a better writer, and the only way to do that is to write more. Really, this is a major factor in getting this lil' blog up and running - it gives me somewhere to write. I'll write about the books I'm reading, the art I've seen, and the process by which this site and any other coding projects I work on take shape. I don't really expect anyone to read it, save for myself, but I want to write it all the same.
Code More Things
See again, this very website. I want to have a few projects finished and online this year, and this is the first of them. This domain is my playground, and I want to build my skills as a designer and developer in 2021.
The end of the year is a time when everyone makes resolutions for next year, but it's also a great time to reflect on the past year and what has been accomplished. The pandemic still gripping the world has defined the year and limited our abilities to lead 'normal' lives, though I have been spared the worst of it. We've been under an endless barrage of crises ranging from political to ecological and it doesn't look like things are going to let up any time soon, however my company is flexible and have provided everything I need to work remotely, indefinitely if necessary. I have my health, job security, a kick-ass partner and a wonderful dog, and we live in the most beautiful city. Altogether, I have a pretty great life - and I never want to lose sight of that.