Weeknotes 2023 W50: Cards

Quick bits:

• I purchased the Software Development by Pearson book bundle. Software engineering is still my primary area of expertise, and keeping my skills fresh is important, which I think this book bundle will help with. I predict I’ll be reading this material during downtime at work.

• I learnt a new word: Brotberuf — a main job that one has because it brings in money.

• The mini-short film for which I wrote the script, Respite,¹¹¹ See Week­notes 2023 W39: Respite.  is lost. The footage is gone and not recoverable. I wasn’t involved beyond writing the script, but at least my own backup strategy borders on the paranoid: I’ve got Time Machine, restic, and Arq, and the latter even does off-site backups.

• The German abbreviation for “Bahnhof“ (station) is “Bhf” while the abbreviation for “Hauptbahnhof” (main station) is “Hbf.” Why is it not “Hbhf?” Where did the missing h go?!

• I’ve been working on my year-in-review post. This requires way more effort than I anticipated. I’m glad I started four weeks early.

Tomorrow, I’m heading back to work, after four weeks of burnout leave.

Earlier this week, I felt like I was quite ready to go back. But near the end of the week, the thought made me unwell. I am still burnt out; four weeks is not enough to recover. Earlier this week, I woke up in the middle of the night, in fear, my heart pounding. That’s not normal.

Still, it will be good to go back at work so that I can figure out how to proceed. The first order of business is a thorough conversation with my manager. Being on sick leave is helpful, but it doesn’t address the core of the problem, which I hope to tackle in the next few weeks.

My employer has started the Betriebliches Eingliederungsmanagement (BEM, or Company Integration Management in English) process, which, to my understanding, covers what I wanted anyway: figure out a way so that this burnout does not happen again.

I’m fortunate that the holiday period is coming up, which means slower business in general — a good time to ease back into it.

I got my ZSA Cards! They took a while to arrive, and had to pay import tax on it, bring the cost to about €50 — a bit more expensive than I anticipated.

I’m not entirely sure how I’ll concretely use them, but I’m sure I’ll find a way. They are (among other things) a way to get creatively unblocked.

One use of the cards is journaling. I drew a random card and it said “Are the limits real, or assumed?” My mind went straight to early 2023, right before I stepped way outside of my comfort zone and signed up for singing lessons and acting classes. I achieved stuff — just for myself, not publicly — that I thought I simply could not do. Assumed limits, not real limits.

The cards are usable as a generic deck of playing cards too. I haven’t played cards in a long time, and most of the games I’ve forgotten, but I have fond memories. I wouldn’t mind playing a game once in a while.

Entertainment:

• I finished The Institute.²²² Stephen King, The Institute (Scribner, 2019).  Verdict: ★★★★☆

  Stephen King has a goofiness to his writing, which to me is a little confusing. It stands in contrast to the concept and ideas behind the story — clearly horror, in my mind. Odd.

• I’ve finished season 2 of Only Murders in the Building,³³³ Only Murders in the Building, written by Steve Martin and John Hoffman (Rhode Island Ave. Productions, Another Hoffman Story Productions, 40 Share Productions, 20th Television, 2021).  and it’s… fine. I find myself not enjoying it as much as I thought I would. Too much of the same, I suppose, and the plot twists often feel forced and unnatural.

  Maybe I’ll just not watch the third season… oh wait, that was a bit of a cliffhanger at the end of season two, was it not? Maybe I’ll just… keep on watching…

  Semi-relatedly, the Disney+ app is awful. It does not remember what I was watching: when attempting to resume a series, it usually starts re-playing episode 1 of season 1. Though one time, it did play the correct next episode… but started at about 60% into the next episode. Very strange.

Links:

• The Most Beautiful Game: Leadhead talking about Dishonored is my genre.

• 52 things I learned in 2023 (Tom Whitwell): Wild stuff!

• Ishkur’s Guide to Electronic Music: This has been around for more than a decade, but I had forgotten about it. It got revamped a few years ago (it’s no longer a Flash site). Be prepared to lose hours in this guide. Delicious, delicious hours.

Tech links:

• Dear anonymous internet user asking for help (Bert Hubert): Relatable!

• Announcing Trusted Publishing on RubyGems.org: Neat! I publish my gems from my own device, but I might look into publishing from CI/CD pipelines.