Where's Mike?

My previous blog entries have never been very peronal in nature (aside from the obligatory "first blog entry"), but this entry is going to have a more personal touch. This is a blog after all, and someday it will be niice to be able to look-back at something and re-live the emotions that I was going through at the time. Lately I've come to realize that I am not properly in touch with my emotions (I am a dev after all). I think that too often in society, being "in touch with one's emotions" is a sign of weakness (unless you are a person who is in touch with their emotions). I don't know, maybe that's just the jock and geek cultures in which I am entrenched (to be clear: I'm not a jock, I'm just a fan). If you're not prepared to deal with this, then tough. If you were looking for one of more "technical" articles, then tough. If however, you were looking for a post featuring some of my self-deprecating wit and parenthetical asides, you're in luck.

I'd like to explain why the flood of posts (if 3 per month is really a flood) has slowed down. We recently bought a new house, and for anyone who has ever moved from one house to another, you know this: its a lot of work. And its always more work than you ever anticipated. My previous moves were relatively minor in scale: apartment-to-apartment, apartment-to-shared-house, shared-house-to-Tiny-House, condo-to-Tiny-House (after I got married). This last one, though, was a pretty big deal: fully-occupied-Tiny-House-to-fully-occupied-new-house. We managed to move the belongings of 5 sentient beings occupying 940 square feet of house to a 2000+ sq. foot house. Granted, 3 of the beings are under 30 pounds (1 baby and 2 dogs) and therefore shouldn't have too much stuff (okay, except for the baby), but they also aren't able to contribute much to the moving process. Indeed, they tend to hurt the process. So the latest 2.5 months have been dedicated to cleaning 2 houses, prepping the new house, packing the old house, and unpacking at the new house. Things have finally settled down (at least at the new house). My wife did most of the work, and my primary contribution was anything that involved tools or heavy-lifting.

We were already pretty determined that the new house was going to be the new house for the next 30 year or so, and the whole moving experience may have cemented that. Here's the thing: you'd think that having a house with twice the floor space would mean that we'd have no problem getting all that stuff into the new house. You'd be wrong. Apparently our limited space was well-utilized (due in no small part to a 500 sq. foot garage that had no cars in it). But the new place is starting to feel as full as the old place. Of course, our garage isn't being correctly utilized, so I know things will get better. Someday. Its just a matter of when will someday come. My wife thinks "someday" will be within the next year, where-as I think "someday" will be 10-15 years. My guess is that she's right (she always is), but I'm still holding out hope.

So, what does this have to do with anything? I tend to write my blog entries either at night while watching TV, or while riding the bus. These past 2 months, TV watching has been replaced by house work (I even missed the the Super Bowl. Don't ruin it for me: I TiVoed it). And riding the bus has been replaced by driving (time spent on the road when driving vs. the bus is mostly a wash for time, the difference is the half hour of bus-specific activities you don't get with a car: walking to and from the bus stop and waiting for the bus to arrive). My goal is to write 3 technical entries per month (I have no goal for non-technical entries, aside from "as often as I can"); I'm hoping to re-establish that pace soon. We're finally watching TV at night, and I'm finally riding the bus again.