Recent Hobbies

I haven't been writing as much as I've wanted to, lately. So, what have I been doing with all this extra time? Well, not much really. But let's find out!

Excuses

For one, work has been super busy lately. A lot of major projects are coming down around the same time. Also, I was promoted to senior grade earlier this year (yay!) but I'm beginning to feel the consequences of that now too. So, it's hard to come home every day with the same level of energy to do things you enjoy.

Running

I've still been going to Marin Running Club (mostly) weekly, same with Marina Run Club in SF. In September, I ran a total of 75km! (Yes, I'm now counting in the metric system.) When you convert that to miles, I only ran around 47mi, 3 fewer than my 50 mile/month goal. But to be fair, last month was when I spent 2 weeks in New Zealand and did a lot of walking and hiking. In fact, my total activity distance for the month of September was a whopping 175km! (And that's only for walks that I measured.) So far for this month, I'm well on track at 89km of running!

Gaming

I've also been doing a bit of gaming. I recently set up a Minecraft Server with Docker on Minecraft version 1.7, released in 2014! Minecraft 1.7 made the base game much more stable, and added a ton of new features such as new blocks, commands, and a ton of new biomes.

The game is still in-progress. Our base is set up in a mega-taiga biome (one of the new additions) and we've reached the Nether, and I've built a decently-producing mob farm. Right now I still need to slay several enderman in order to gain the items needed to complete the end portal, which we haven't looked for yet.

Gardening

I've made a few updates to my garden, adding a "rock river" which meanders through the middle of the garden. I've uprooted some of the aloe vera plant offshoots, and planted them around the river. I have several empty pots ready to be used for potted plants.

Reading

I bet you weren't expecting to see this one! Believe it or not, I've recently finished not one but two books! The first one was Tell Me What You Did by Carter Wilson. In an extremely short summary that doesn't do it any justice, this book is about a podcaster who interviews criminals, asking the title of the book. In the book, someone joins her podcast for an interview, claiming to be her mother's killer, and manages to turn the tables on her. I don't want to spoil too much, but it's a crazy story.

I liked that book so much, that I decided to check out another book by the same author, called Mister Tender's Girl. This not only takes place in the same "universe" as Tell Me What You Did, but the main characters actually know each other. This book was about a girl who had a tragic accident when she was younger which triggered crazy stalkers to worship her in twisted ways. I highly recommend either of these books if you like mysteries or crime.

Believe it or not, I've actually started a third book, called The Cuckoo's Egg, recommended by my colleagues. I've only read the first chapter, but from what I've heard, it's about a scientist who has to defend against a hacker who cracked into the national laboratory network.

Conclusion

So, that's what I've been up to lately, not including shorter day-trips and other adventures. There are so many hobbies that I want to take up (like woodworking and welding) and I have an ever-growing laundry list of chores to take care of. I don't know how everyone else keeps it together; I feel like I need to take several months off work just to catch up with life!