See, I told you I’d be back on the WEAK NOTES.

It’s not all work, work, work.

Oh wait.

On the bright side, over the course of the weekend it looks like all the bits that were in doubt might get signed off… so maybe my immediate employment future isn’t quite as bleak as I’d previously mentioned. Nothing on the dotted line though, and still a big deadline this week.

I briefly dabbled with the 25th Anniversary update of Half-Life (now Deck verified) because I’ve never actually played it before. And… it’s still a 25 year old game and has all the clunk associated with that. I lost interest after couple of hours, to be honest. I’m sure it’s great, but it’s not ticking the relaxation box.

But it’s also the only “new” game I’ve played - with all the work stuff going on (plus me recent 100% Platinum run through Spider-Man 2) I’m mainly replaying old games to switch my brain off. On PS5 I’m going through Spider-Man Remastered. I’m missing the parry mechanic from S-M2, and I played the PS4 version originally and my progress doesn’t seem to have transferred over but it’s still an amazing game.

And, somewhat brilliantly I’ve just started replaying Mad Max on the Steam Deck because it was FOUR WHOLE QUID in the Steam autumn sale. Lovely crunchy Arkham-style combat, great voice acting… it’s criminally underrated, possibly because of it’s movie tie-in status (it’s sort of a prequel to Fury Road) but definitely worth your time given it’s cheaper than a pint.

I think I’m re-playing a couple of map games which have a lot easy to check off icons because it’s relaxing to complete easy tasks compared to mass of complex code that I’m currently wrangling.

Managed not to buy anything in the Black Friday sales, but I have paid full price for a new Fender Jazz Bass neck to go on my busted Squier Jazz Bass. And some full price Gotoh tuners. And I’ve got my eyes on an aluminium pickguard. And I need to remember to put in a bid on some Toltec pickups on eBay later. And maybe a new wiring loom from James’ Home of Tone. And I might matte the body the way I did my Les Paul. And rename it “The Bastard” or something.

I properly love my Bass IV (which I’ve had for a year now!) but I miss having a proper long scale bass in the house to thump. So that’s going to be my hands-on job for this week (along with sorting out all of Christmas).

It’s been 20 years since Microsoft started doing Patch Tuesday (i.e. all their security patches for all their products come out on the second Tuesday of every month). Someone on Slashdot accused them of celebrating 20 years of failure, but I rather like the idea it embraces - successful software is never finished, it’s continually evolving and moving on. And continuous development means new usage scenarios, new features, new development… and all development makes bugs. Even with the most rigorous testing regimen you can’t guarantee to catch ‘em all.

They’re not Pokemon.

Goals achieved from the previous week:

  • get back on the healthy eating pretty good
  • run a bit twice, despite the freezing weather
  • cycle a lot yep
  • don’t worry, be happy (doooo do do do-do-do, etc) doooo do do do do-do-do
  • play guitar not as much as I’d have liked, to be honest

Goals for the coming week:

  • Build-a-bass Workshop
  • More running
  • More health

Right, that’s enough. See you next week.