Real Life and What's Happening...

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It's a thing I yell at my friends about. Most of them are just a touch younger than me and I tell them to not be stubborn old men and get stuff checked out. I'm pretty open about my health issues (minor as they are) so that they maybe will hear it and go get it checked out, even if they don't announce it.
 
Raleel said:
Spring break here. Taking some vacation. Road trip with the kid for half of it. We mountain biked for 3 days and abused ourselves. Even he was tired at the end. Day break and traveled to meet mom who had to work. Now staying at a weirdly wonderful house with a view of a waterfall that flows 100 yards from the house out one side and a nearly unparalleled view of the Columbia gorge out the other. We liked it enough that we discussed wanting to buy it if we won the lottery, but then read the story of it and decided we couldn't do that to the family, so we are just content o rent it. Genuinely one of the best we've stayed at.
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Sounds amazing mate
 
I havent been around much lately, besides my overnight check ins, because I am in love. With a once-in-a-lifetime girl. Seriously, I've managed to pull some pretty girls over the years, but this one is a solid Ten AND she's a total geek, which is rare for me - usually I end up dating girly-girls whose interests include "fashion magazines" and "online shopping" and look at my hobbies as, at best, a harmless affectation or quirk that instills bemusement or disdain.

She may show up here at some point, we talked about it. She's very interested in ttrpgs. But for now, we're having 6 hour phone calls on the daily, so my free time has gone out the window. It won't be forever, but I figured I'd say why, and take the chance to brag a bit, because holy fuck, she is like the hottest woman who has ever liked me.
 
Got news today that a person who had been helping us with some stuff overseas 6 years ago is going to be helping us again. She's quite driven and a good asset in the corner. It gives me a lot more faith.
 
I went out for coffee with my wife; we just got back to work. On the drive back, when we were descending a fairly steep grade (8%) a group of wild turkeys suddenly emerged on one side of road and headed across it at speed. My wife, who is a better driver than I am, managed to avoid the lead bird.

I said, "Wow, thank goodness you didn't hit one. Imagine that on the grill."
My wife said, "Grilled turkey..."
 
Well, we have a little 4-year old girl living with us now - has been for the last week and its going brilliantly. She's having some issues at night but that's to be expected considering how crazy this must all seem to her. She's a proper sweetie though and really funny. Wish I could share a full pic of her, but have to be really careful with adopting children and anything online. Here's a pic of her checking out some of my dice though...

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... We may have a gamer, folks! She's already telling me which miniatures to paint and that she'll help me! :grin:
 
Mosker said:
At least I've learned to stop printing them out until I'm absolute sure it's time to read them--trees have been haunting my dreams...
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Right? I used to print out every pdf I got, no more. Now I wait to see if I'm going to use it at a table. Those I'll print up. My ink cartridge and paper costs have gone waaaay down.
 
Picked up a new mentor today, a very senior person at my work who hired me back in the day. She's clawed her way to the top and is not popular, not even with me. But she's good at what she does and she gets a perspective I don't. Her mentorship, from my perspective, is in service of me getting another promotion before I retire. That won't be for quite a few years (8-15), but I need to start now.

Her advice was pretty straight forward. She didn't say it like this but "find the super nodes in the social network graph and find the proxies". Essentially, people who can connect you with lots and people who can advocate for you.

She gave me some insights on some stuff that happened a few years back and more on some of the structure of the org. I did not reveal some stuff that would have caused havoc. So... good day.
 
Raleel said:
Her advice was pretty straight forward. She didn't say it like this but "find the super nodes in the social network graph and find the proxies". Essentially, people who can connect you with lots and people who can advocate for you.

She gave me some insights on some stuff that happened a few years back and more on some of the structure of the org. I did not reveal some stuff that would have caused havoc. So... good day.
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Yeah, networking can be super-important for a lot of roles. That is something that I am slowly learning.

I handed in my last knowledge assignment for my Apprenticeship/Degree, had Stage Gate 3 signed off for my project, so I could start working on it, and put the survey live, so that was a very productive couple of weeks. Next week I am going the the National Union of Students (NUS) UK Conference for a couple of days, to give them hell over why they always forget about Apprentices, and am then going to an Apprenticeship event in Manchester. So, three days worth of Apprenticeship stuff, I'll either be dead on my feet on Friday or I'll be buzzing so much that they won't be able to shut me up, we'll see.
 
Raleel said:
Picked up a new mentor today, a very senior person at my work who hired me back in the day. She's clawed her way to the top and is not popular, not even with me. But she's good at what she does and she gets a perspective I don't.
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The best mentor I ever had was someone who wasn't very popular among his peers (library directors) in the area, or even most of his staff. He had a lot of ideas they thought were "radical," and liked to push the buttons of the ones who were resistant to change. He was very effective at his job and had a lot of very good ideas that became more widely accepted in later years, but his enjoyment of "poking the bear" kept him from being more influential than he was. I learned more from him than all of my other mentors combined, in any job field, and I always liked him. I think I was one of the few that understood him, though.
 
soltakss said:
Yeah, networking can be super-important for a lot of roles. That is something that I am slowly learning.
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Not. My network is solid already. The fact that I can call on her is an attestment to that. She provides access herself. She’s a proxy for me ;)
 
What with the obsession of all things Unicorn with Bella (our newly adopted 4 year old), I've naturally succumbed!

However, I thought I'd pick up the old pencils and art pad again... Going to do this as a painting but the sketch is coming out nicely. Since I've not drawn in about two decades, I'm copying from an old black and white piece of fantasy art - one of my favourite Easley pieces from a Dragonlance module:

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Copying freehand but its starting to come back to me! I'll feel more like it being something other than a copy when it becomes a painting - I'll have took it to a new place beyond the original piece...
 
This afternoon, for the first time, I heard myself being described as "an old man walking his dog".

I mean, fair enough. That's not wrong and not really a surprise. It's just that that was the first time I've heard someone refer to me as "old".
 
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If you're feeling old go get a nice cane. Oak or some other good, robust hardwood. A nice topper like a steel & hold inlay dragon, skull, or gothic flanged mace head.

And remember not to skip arm day at the gym.
 
Telok said:
If you're feeling old go get a nice cane. Oak or some other good, robust hardwood. A nice topper like a steel & hold inlay dragon, skull, or gothic flanged mace head.

And remember not to skip arm day at the gym.
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I already have two canes! One is an heirloom for showing off, one is for occasions I'd feel like having a backup weapon would be handy, but haven't needed it.
 
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