I mean, just when you think things couldn't be more miserable, eh?

The last week has been particularly intense, with the news cycle being what it is. On an extremely personal and selfish level, the worst part for me is that my normally-only-mildly right-wing mother-in-law shows up to be extra mean and unsympathetic to the needs of people in this country. It's mentally very exhausting and it feels like this week has been a sampler for how it'sgoing to be from now until the November election here.

Alex apologised to me about that factor of our lives, but I said it's important to know and see first hand what people outside of our bubble think and how they react to the awful things happening in the US right now, and know how they actually live and react and speak. It's somewhat easier to empathise with their standpoint, even though I could never agree with it.

The rest of this year is going to be even more brutal, though.

I closed down my instagram this week. It's the second time I've done so - the first being when facebook first bought them (when I still had my phae handle) - but when I moved abroad I really missed being able to see folks' lives back home, so I gave in and opened a new account. The lines were drawn a long time ago, but certain companies have started to step onto the sides they wish to align with, and Facebook have made the choice extremely simple for me.

Anyway.

Since my last update, I haven't done a lot of new things. Let's see...

• I did a fireside chat with Harper Reed at JAMStack conf virtual last week. That was pretty fun, although very early in the morning for me. It is the first time I've spoke live wearing 50% pyjamas, though.
• I've taken up doing YouTube fitness videos. I do low-weight ones. I've decided I'm coming out of this pandemic fitter than when I went in, and beat saber isn't full-body enough.
• I've been doing a lot of recruitment work for the project I'm on at the State right now, so I'm living on zoom. I could do with a bit less of that, but it's also the only way I'm speaking to people I don't already know, so it's probably good practice.
• We ordered an air conditioner.
• Alex kindly migrated me off wordpress, and this is the first post I've added since we made the change, so I have no idea if we messed up the RSS or not. Fingers crossed. Also, with the migration, I've lost comments, so... you know. I'm not on facebook or insta anymore, but I do still have email and we can talk.