§…or, Why Didn’t I Start This When I Wasn’t Doing So Much Already?

(the original title reads better anyway)

It’s been a weird and rough few weeks - at work, I’ve gone from a team of two to a team of one. On top of my current role as Supervisor, I’m also doing the day-to-day work of the person who was working under me^[1]. Oh, and backfilling the position, meaning that I’m reviewing resumes and interviewing people. Put all that together and my work day isn’t as inviting as it used to be, which could be why I want to speed up the hiring process. Yes, I know that it’s better to take my time and get the right person and not have to go through this again in three (or six or 12) months.

At home it’s also busy. We’ve been taking the past several months to reduce the stuff all around the house. Anything that didn’t make the cut was moved down into the garage… and once the garage was pretty full we had a big yard sale, and donated a bunch of other stuff. It felt good to get rid of a lot, just time-consuming to get to that point. Since all the stuff is out of the way maybe I can start getting the lingering projects finished and start on the other stuff that needs attention. blech.

I was really hoping I would have more time so I could write for here as well as on some personal projects. It feels like I need at least four more hours a day to get that done (factoring in time to actually get the stuff I need to get done finished). The summer feels like it’s slipping away and there’s still so much to try and cram in before winter hits.

Could I just win the lottery and have someone else do some (ok most) of the less fun junk for me?

§To Do

• Theme
• Layout tweaks
• More plugins
• Write, write, write
• Build out project git repos

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§Early Days

This month, July of 2017, will mark ten years of having a beard. That’s the last time I shaved my face, the last time my cheeks and chin saw direct sunlight, and the last time I had razor burn. I had grown out facial hair a few times in my late teens and twenties, but never for more than a few months before shaving it all off.

My oldest kid is the only one to remember me beardless - my middle was only six months old when I stopped shaving. After a couple of years my wife told me, “I was looking at our wedding pictures and you look weird without the beard, you have to keep it…” (thanks?)

§Then and Now

It’s weird, back when I first grew it out, there weren’t a lot of people with full beards. Yes, there were plenty of people with facial hair - mustaches, goatees, fu manchu, soul patch, etc. etc. - but not a lot of full-on beards. My wife noticed it too, it’s almost a movement with tons more people involved.

Now it’s not uncommon to have a longer beard in the office (at least in my office it’s the case). I like that.

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§It’s Not the Beginning

I can’t count how many times I’ve “started over” this site since it began in May of 2003. I’m sure that if I looked hard enough I could pull up the archived version of everything from the Greymatter, Drupal, and Dokuwiki versions, along with the little one-off pages. I don’t plan on it though; at least not any time in the near future. Maube instead of the middle this is more of a rebirth.

Now? I’m right in the middle. The middle of the year, middle of projects at work and home, hell I’m even middle aged(ish). Middle-age isn’t too bad so far - no plans for a fast car or big changes, I have enough to work on as it is. Still learning and trying apply what I’m learning to life. Sometimes that’s easy; a lot of the time it isn’t.

I’m even in the middle of designing this site, again. Definitely not giving up, just slowly building back up to being visible again.

Luckily I’ve found an SSG (Static Site Generator) that I like, called Hexo. No crazy setup, javascript based, and plays nice with GitLab and GitHub - along with plenty of other options. Posts are written in Markdown so they’re readable by people and machines, no fancy editor needed.

I might backfill some of the posts from other places, or just link to them at some point. It’s really just filling out more of the middle stuff until I can find the edges.

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