Another work related one, and given that's all I've seemingly been doing lately (as per my last post), then that's what you're going to get.

Ran into this bit of code today:

.p-noborder > .p-tabview .p-tabview-panels {
  border: 0 !important;
}

.p-noborder > .p-tabview .p-tabview-panels {
  border: 0 !important;
}

Exact same code, and right next to each other in the file. According to GitLens, one was from 2 years ago, the other 3 years.

Job security, am I right?

I didn't want June to slip by without a post, but when realizing I hadn't written in some time, I also realized I didn't really have much to say. The biggest thing is work. We had a huge project at work whose deadline came and went (We all waved at it as it went zooming by), and I've been dealing with the mop up (re: bugs) for the past six weeks. Starting towards the end of April, project management let us all know that we needed to get this project done ASAP as they were going to present it to our government client for free, as a way to "grease the wheels", as we were up for recompete.

It was without a doubt, one of the most poorly planed projects I've been on. I won't go into details, but to put things in perspective, we had not one, but two post-mortems about what could have gone better. There might have been a third, but management threw in the towel.

There's finally light at the end of the tunnel... I'm down to less than twenty bugs, so yay. They would be easy enough to clear out but I have normal sprint work as well. So, they sit in the backlog and I get to them when caught up on work.

But yeah... that's where most of my focus as been. 60+ hour weeks, some weekends, too many meetings, and blah.

I think it's time to take some days off.

I've recently found myself exploring options other than Goodreads for tracking books I want to read and have read. While I do enjoy some of the features the Goodreads app on my phone has, mainly being able to scan a barcode and have it added to my "To Read" list, I really don't visit bookstores nearly as much as I used to, and instead rely on algorithms and reviews on book sites to tell me what my next read should be. To be truthful, my primary reason for moving away from Goodreads is the fact that it's Amazon-owned. As I already give them enough of my data, any little action I can do to take back some control of my reading habits is a good reason to switch.

So I've signed up with StoryGraph, and I have downloaded Book Tracker and Reading List on my iPad and phone. After some consideration, I opted to pay for Reading List, and hope to make good use of its "pro" features such as iCloud syncing (I currently do most of my reading on my iPad), statistics, and I can share it with the wife if she desires. She recently purchased Book Tracker, so it might make for an interesting comparison. Though she does 95% of her reading via Audible books, so not sure how that'll go.

I also purchased a refurbished Kobo Forma eReader, as another way to remove myself from Amazon's greedy tendrils. The Forma has another draw for me over the Kindle I currently have: physical buttons. The Forma has buttons on the side for page turning, AND it can rotate the screen, so I can hold it with my left or right hand and click the buttons with out too much effort. I never really enjoyed having a touch screen to turn pages, because, well, I would often touch the screen and turn pages. I am a klutz so it happened often. And, most importantly, it accesses Libby, the app I use to access my Library. Which is why I don't visit bookstores nearly as often any longer. I love my library! And the other two I have cards for as well. If you don't have at least ONE library card, you really should take a look. They're so much more than books nowadays.

After my recent post about getting out and engaging more, I found myself coordinating a team lunch for some co-workers in the area. As a few of the people were going to meet in the office beforehand, I decided to go in, even if it meant driving past where we were all meeting for lunch, and then backtracking.

It was a bit surreal to be back in the office itself. And, I realized with a bit of a start, it was almost exactly four years to the day that we'd gone remote full-time. Most of the desks have been removed, along with some of the conference tables as well. Right before we'd all gone home for good, I'd been reassigned to a different office and desk (we have three suites in this particular building), but, to be quite frank, I didn't remember what desk was mine. Ended up sitting at a table in the kitchen area.

Some of my co-workers and I discussed coming back into the office, for one day a week, or month... not sure where everyone landed on that. But honestly, I would be ok with going back once a week. I do really enjoy my setup at home, but it's nice to get some face-time in with co-workers as well. It was great catching up at lunch, and more than one person thanked me personally for arranging for all of us to meet. Seems I'm not the only one who was grateful for a bit of social contact again.

Like many people, I have found myself a little less outgoing since Covid. Prior to 2020, I was involved in community theater, went camping often, and was at my local pub at least once a week. Several times, I organized happy hours for friends, and was much more outgoing.

After things opened back up and life started getting back to normal, I found I was just as happy staying at home and watching TV or playing on the computer. I don't go camping any longer (not having to sleep on the ground is ok by me!), and I'm no longer invloved with theater in any way. My pub formally shut its doors during Covid, though if rumors are true, Covid was just the nail in the coffin.

So this year -- four years on since the first days of Covid which feels crazy to say -- I've made more of an effort to get out. If I'm invited somewhere, I make the effort to join. Further, I've started hosting trivia at the winery the wife works at. I spend about four hours researching categories and questions and twice a month I drive with the wife out to the winery and host a two-hour trivia tournament. It's been a lot of fun, and I'm really enjoying having something to look forward to, that gets me out of the house.

Plus, I get paid, which is nice bonus! Helps me pay for those things I want but never get myself as alluded to in my last post.