oh hi

It’s been an exhausting but ultimately satisfying couple of weeks. I’ve been Doing Things non-stop since the end of November, with no real end in sight – but for the moment, at least, I’m able to sit and breathe and think without something exploding off to my right that I really ought to deal with.

I’m not complaining, honest. Everything I’ve done has been rewarding in one way or another, and the only real casualties were a few lost hours of sleep, possibly being flagged in a government database as a Bad Person, and a Fallout 4 game that has been sorely neglected.

Doin’ Stuff:

On November 26th, I (and Sam and several others) got to play Social Media Elf at the Pan Pacific Christmas Wish Breakfast. I tweeted and instagrammed all the action as over 5000 Vancouverites brought new, unwrapped toys into the hotel in exchange for breakfast and entertainment. It was a lot of fun and I would absolutely do it again – there were SO MANY TOYS! We elves were totally spoiled, too – we got to spend a night in the hotel and have a fancy dinner in the lounge, in addition to a morning spent in the jolliest environment I could imagine. It was awesome.
The following Tuesday, a group of people got together at work to put together gifts for the Shoebox Project. Sam organized everything, and at the end of the evening we had 18 gift boxes each filled with a variety of small luxury goodies, ready to be distributed at shelters in Vancouver. I don’t really have anyone to buy gifts for, so I kind of went crazy buying things for the shoeboxes. I like giving presents, damnit.
It was then off to Seattle for Ed’s work Christmas party. I had to skip my own work party, but it was a pretty good trade off: we took the train over the border, spent three nights at a Fancy Ass Hotel in downtown Seattle, and enjoyed the company people who are more friends than coworkers. Love those people. Also, I could really get used to spending time in luxury hotels. 4 nights in 11 days? Yes please.
On Tuesday the 8th, we hosted 25 kids at work for the Hour of Code. I put in a metric shit ton of work into the event even though I am terrified of kids, and I think it went well – we’ve been getting thank you emails from the parents all week, the kids all said they had fun, and I got to play to my two main strengths: organizing events and writing tutorials.
That same week, we had a 2-day Hackathon at work. Everyone created totally awesome things – my own work seems kind of lame in comparison, but I’m pretty happy with the outcome: I ended up building a custom JIRA tool that tracks the tools used by the department and the budgets required. The project was my boss’s brain child, but I managed to do things in two different programs I’d never done before and make them talk to one another. It’s a small achievement, but it’s mine. We got the project to a point where we could demo it, but I want to finish it because I didn’t get to implement a few things I think would be super cool (as cool as anything JIRA-related can be, of course). I’m not a huge fan of “pencils down” deadlines – I got pretty fucking stressed trying to coordinate everything on time – but it was fun to push myself and see what I could do, all fuelled by Diet Coke and loud swearing.
This morning, I found something I thought I lost forever
My Christmas present from Ed arrived and it is ridiculous and makes me go “eeeeeeee”
I’m still going to Barcelona in February, and that is balls out crazy nuts
BLOOD ORANGE IS BACK AT PINKBERRY HOLY SHIT