Me being vulnerable, so don’t be dicks: I have debated sharing this with anyone, because there is a lot of judgement out there on this topic. And rightly so, I suppose. We have decided to travel as a family. We are all taking covid tests prior, which is mandated. Once we reach our destination we will quarantine in a house on the beach. But it’s the airport and the plane that puts us in increased exposure. But everyone on the plane will have to have had the same covid test we all took. Why? My wife starts her new business February which means it’s our last chance for a long while to take this type of a trip. Plus, like everyone we are going nuts in our own home. Unlike me, she works from an office. She will be tethered to it for some time. I’m actually the one that lobbied against the trip. She thinks I’m being too conservative though and that if we mask up and use sanitizer we will be alright. I dunno. I maintain that we have already had it back in January. My whole family got very sick and I was traveling to California a lot. I thought I had pneumonia. I feel guilty though. But it’s gonna happen so I might as well enjoy the hell out of it. I’ve been very strict Re masking up and maintaining a safe social distance throughout the entire affair. I feel like I’m cheating or something. Change of topic. It’s the end of the year. Even without covid this would have been the most challenging year of my life. We moved to NC. I raised $2MM in the midst of a pandemic and the tightest capital market you can imagine, we launched two new products, we furloughed employees and brought most of them back, my kids were virtually schooled, after moving to NC (in to a rental home) we bought a home. We have been doing renovations to the home, like so many people I have been battling some blues. It’s been one hell of a year. Lots of good in there but damn, it’s just too much all at once. I apologize for not being a better hubskier. I used to be so much more active here. I made a podcast at the beginning of covid with steve and I think we should revisit and make Covid podcast part 2. What do you think Steve? I had such a fun time at the Hubski 10 year celebration. It was one of my favorite nights all year. I genuinely felt like I was at a party with the most interesting people. You all are amazing. rezzeJ I was disappointed I didn’t get to talk with you more. BLOB_CASTLE, you were like a wave of positivity. Whatever you’re doing, stay at it. And lil, your one women show is hilarious. I feel like I watched it before. It’s very funny. Great audience inclusion. You’re a great writer and performer. mk and ecib 2021 will be our year. Cheers to everyone! Much love and gratitude to you all. Onward! -tng
My kid has two kids she is allowed to play with outside. They are supposed to socially distance and with one of them she has to wear a mask. Last night we let her have a sleepover with one of the two kids. It wasn't outside, there were no masks. My kid could really needed a break from the grind, it's a risk but it's one that both families talked about and felt was acceptable. I feel conflicted about it. All of us are taking some kinds of risk to make life bearable. We all have different risk tolerances and each of us will make different choices. I think the important thing is that we all show care in thinking about our choices and try our best to limit the dangers we might cause for other people.
I made a suggestion for a future podcast based on our Tenth Hubskiversary party. You asked everyone, “What are you excited about?” (You said, not re the new year, but in general.) of course, Covid part 2 is timely. People are so struggling. As for feeling like you watched it before, you might have. But, you definitely HEARD it all before. I just repackaged all my hubski posts from 2015-16 into a different format. So thank you hubski. I’m glad you found it funny. As I’ve said before in this place: for a good show, make ‘em laugh, make ‘em cry, and give them hope.
I think I am done. This one wrapped up much faster than the last. The chance of me improving upon it is about the same as making it worse, so I decided to move on. I'll probably do some subtle lighting tweaks, but that's it. I'm pretty sure that my nail is regrowing underneath the skin of my amputated finger tip. I'm trying to get an appointment with a hand surgeon, but time is of the essence. I'll be happy if I have some nail there, even if it is just 1/3 of what it was. I started learning Swift. I am going to build an iOS app that I have been planning for a long time. I was originally going to use a Django framework, but went with Postgres/Arc/Swift instead. :) I'd decided to just learn one new thing at a time, and swapping out one API service for another can always be done. Getting SQL data to appear in my Swift app via Arc felt magical. This is the last Pubski of 2020.
It’s beautiful. I think I need to make a final 2020 Etsy shop update. All good news, but mostly lots of sharing pictures of finished product. I’ve been having a lot of fun with the little sticker drawings lately, they’ve been pretty successful. This is my original Kermit sticker drawing from 2 years back or close enough. Fun, right? The reboot, today. I’m feeling pretty proud of the drawings I’ve knocked out recently. My tattoo artist shot me a compliment on Insta, I can bask in that for a while too. :) 126 sales year to date on Etsy as of today. :) Just gonna keep on trying incremental improvements as I see and can convince myself to work on them.
I love the painting. There is something anthropomorphic about those trees. Good luck Re the fingernail. You know you’re living in crazy times when a fella can’t get a consult to save his own nail. Happy new year!
Looks like I'll reach my reading goal this year, something that didn't happen as often as I would like this decade. Crime and Punishment made most of December's quota, but wasn't as interesting as I remembered. Shop Class as Soulcraft, a Hubski Book Club selection, was refreshing and much more grounded than Pirsig's meditations on motorcycle maintenance. That left 150 pages to go for the annual target, and I couldn't decide if something somber and serious was the way to end this year, or something light and distracting. I ended up with Borges, because it's always the right time for Borges. Hope everyone enjoys a healthy and happy 2021!
What was your reading goal? I'm working on adjusting my evening routine to include 30 minutes of reading before bed. It's a good way to get away from screens before sleep. Currently I'm re-reading paperbacks I have that I'll probably donate but wanted to read one more time. I just started Stranger in a Strange Land. I pre-ordered Alexi Pappas' book Bravey. It's out 1/12, and I'm looking forward to it.
My target is 10,000 pages per year. Half an hour a day would probably get me most of the way there, though I'm a slow reader. Keeping my smartphone away from the bed has helped. I usually drop off after ten or fifteen minutes with the Kindle, but that makes it easier to get up earlier for some morning reading time.
Wednesday, and I’m first in the pub! Subheadings. Cooking Roasting Brussels sprouts right now. Putting a broccoli soup in slow cooker shortly. Next Event Jan 1, mother’s 94th birthday, or as she says, “I’m a million years old “ After that, no more events or holidays, just everyday gratitude for now, now, and — oh! now. Personal Hopes but not Resolutions I’d like to hear yours.
Putting "casting" in the bag. Have checklists. Have knowledge. Have opinions about wax, investment and alloys. Survived a runaway melter getting hot enough to flash zinc into vapor, which caused molten copper to fly about. Am ready to return to production once said-same runaway melter has been refurbished. Actually owned three; donated a broken one to my mentor who got it working within two hours, have another with my cousin that I need to borrow back. Need to actually cast the pieces that I'm supposed to cast, but designs are finalized, molds are hardening and wax technique is established. Am so on-beyond-zebra when it comes to conventional jewelry casting that I've had to pioneer some shit. Fuckin' whipped out a mongrelbrass christmas ornament in 20 hours. Have yet to so much as give myself a burn, at least if you don't count the curled knuckle hairs through leather gauntlets from an incandescent carbon flask held 12" away in tongs. Bitch was about 2500 degrees, or an easy 600 degrees hotter than intended. Moving on to cloisonne. You "flash" fine silver by getting it riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight to the melting point on one side, but not both sides, and then backing the fuck off so that it legit crystallizes and looks all lovely. You're supposed to do it with a combination of kiln and welding torch and measuring things to the second and such. I am six for six with a home depot propane torch. In evaluating the basic premise of cloisonne it appears that I can save myself a fuckload of time and effort through a modest application of Fusion360 and 3Dprinting. There is no combination of those words that produces a relevant search result. I am exceptionally good at an extremely esoteric set of skills that are largely denigrated by the populace at large. That used to make me sad. Now it makes me angry. I'm having a hard time not taking it out on people.
So my cat is dead now. It fucking sucks but that is what you sign up for. You love a pet an incredible amount and then it dies. I think that there is something beautiful in the fact that even now when it hurts so much that she is gone the pain of losing her is a price worth paying for having had her. I'm relieved it wasn't a preventable accident, I'm relieved we did everything we could for her and I am at peace knowing we didn't put her through any unnecessary suffering. I've never been this sad before though, I've been deeply depressed and I have definitely felt worse, but never this sad. I know that I will be okay and happy in the future, but life now is in a real sense worse in a way that can't ever be fixed.
I'm fairly certain my capacity for empathy has been permanently damaged by the events of this year. I get too much bone deep joy from verbally abusing the religious, its a near narcotic sensation of pleasure. Feels like fighting back against those who have prevented me and the dead from accessing our Healthcare. I really feel like I'm losing it slowly. I see the faces of people whove died in my sleep, I see them when I close my eyes. I think all the time about a young father of three who died of Covid back in April. Hw was a bus driver and made multiple public outcries for protections for city employees and Essential workers. I hear the pain and complete grief of a mother who lost her baby daughter because they couldn't keep their regular appointments to keep her baby healthy. Who remembers these poverty-stricken dead? What use is their pain and suffering if it does not galvanize those who bear witness to help? What justice do they receive while theives and villains loot our public institutions in the open? I tell my therapist, I tell my family doc. We just keep adding more plastic and pharmaceuticals to my diet. We are still waiting for the owners of the home we bought to move out. The way the deal was structured from our initial offer they get 14 days occupancy free and then I become a landlord with exorbitant rates. I just wish I could dump boxes in the garage of the new place. The stack of boxes in my living room is growing precariously tall.