You know the saying, "You can't choose your family". Well, it has been definitely that this month, and issues related to that (I won't go deeper), work is challenging at times with the amount I am learning and the dreaded imposter syndrome, plus the changing of the seasons to the dark and cold of Winter, means I have been seriously reduced in spoons. But it is almost a month since my last blog post so it is time to look back on what I have done, and what the plans are for the next month.
Work
If you didn't know, my day job since June has been as a senior software engineer for S&P Global. This means my day to day work involves Python programming, serverless computing, cloud computing, and event-driven computing, all while getting my head around finance concepts that the software is being designed to support. It's been moments of "Oh yes, I know how to do this," and "Oh shit, oh shit, they will see I am a fraud".
But despite these swings of emotions and the learning curve, I have passed my probation early, which means I can sigh a lot of relief. It has been quite the year, what with health scares for my wife, losing my job, hunting for a new one, and trying to pass the AWS exam. And I have to say, these last few months working with my line manager have been great as his understanding of my situation has been great. It's been something I have been missing from most of my jobs for a while, and the benefits from the job make life a lot less stressful - even when family life has gone to the dogs.
A highlight the other week was finally driving over to the Manchester office and meeting some of the team (the rest of the team are in India and the US), and meeting in person the grads I mentored, and with some of them I headed to a university recruitment fair to represent the company. It was great fun chatting to the undergrads and even attracting a Ph.D. student to the idea of working for S&P, especially as we knew each other's Ph.D. supervisor (mine still works at the University of Manchester today).
All of this - the day-to-day work, the team skills, the outreach skills, and I think my honesty about things at work, are proving useful and are going to make a great end-of-year review for me (which also ties into that bonus!)
Hobby
Given the time of year, and the fact that friends are moving between jobs and just out of spoons, gaming has slowed down a bit, but the Necromunda campaign rumbles along, and we are into the final quarter of it. Hopefully, more games will get fitted in between now and Xmas, and the campaign can be wrapped up in the new year, allowing a bit of time to play other things before planning the next campaign - will it be Necromunda again, Warcry, or perhaps Epic! And yes, I am going in heavy on the new Epic, as it is a real return to how I first got started in the hobby.
Also on the hobby desk as a whole host of new Necromunda models to paint, my Tyranids to finish (they are what burnt me out on the painting front), and my Khador and Cygnar armies that arrived the other day for the new edition of Warmachine. It is still amazing that these models are all 3d printed as there are hardly any layer lines.
Somewhat related to the hobby, which has been the distraction and thing to fill my time while I burn out on painting minis, is Cyberpunk 2077 and the Phantom Liberty DLC. Starting all over again and playing through the game but diving into this new content and the Bond-esque plot that takes place around the new part of Night City that is unlocked - Dog Town - has been a blast. The voice acting, music, and plots have been incredible, and I am still amazed by the graphics when I run this game on my RTX 30 series computer.
Writing
Nothing too much to report, as I finished my writing for the latest Iron Kingdoms project and for another game that I hope to chat about soon. It's unlikely I will have more writing to do before Xmas, but that is alright. I need the rest, as it allows me to think about other game pitches for games I have worked on, and just not having to be in a the rat race of one writing gig after another.
Xmas and the New Year
So now is as a good time to make some plans. I'm not going to be at Dragonmeet again this year, but I do intend to be at both events for Chillcon that take place in Sheffield and Derby in the new year. Likewise, my main priority this year is to be at UK games expo again, and perhaps make a trip up to Scotland for a gaming event there so I meet some of the Rookery team in person.
Work wise I have plans to start investigating Large Language Models, and generative AI (but for generating shitty art or shitty text), while also learning more Typescript so I can design my own websites front and back.
Also this coming year should see the end of all the renovation work in the house. There is one room to finish, and then the bits left in all rooms to door since we have some ceilings to paint, plus door frames to repair and doors to paint.
More than anything, I am just grateful to have gotten to what is a happy place with my career, both day job and freelance work, and that I can easily support myself and my wife, given she has had quite the year of it with her health - trying to rest, heal, and strengthen while blighted with a chronic illness, only to have a health scare then, is not easy, and less so when you don't get the support or understanding you would hope to expect. But together, we are making steps forward, and I have good feelings for the coming year.
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