The Proverbial Getting--This-Down-From-The-Shelf-And-Blowing-All-The-Dust-Off Post

*cough* *cough*

Blimey that really is a lot of accumulated crud. Might have to take a wet cloth to this at some point. So, I wonder if this still works...yes, I think that's the light coming on.....

Hello, again.

It's been...blimey, quite a long time actually. Usual reasons - life, depression, lack of things to say. So what have I been up to in the meantime? Well, against all expectation and the trend of the current economy I got a job. It was only temporary, but it was work - and work I could do and enjoyed doing to boot. I know, lucky so-and-so. The people were great, my manager was great, it was a nice enough building and not too bad a journey there. Contract got extended a couple of times, which was fantastic from a money and actually still having a job point of view, but did kind of screw up our plans for the summer. Sorry Granddad and P, sorry everyone in Dublin that we'd said we'd come visit. Maybe next year.

J finished and submitted her thesis, not that there was much doubt she wouldn't, and now just has the stress of having to figure out when they can actually hold her viva. The boy has had a summer holiday that hasn't consisted entirely of computer games - the rain hasn't helped with getting him doing other things though. He's fully got used to having two mums now, and doesn't even seem phased by explaining that to other children. We went to the Gathering, and despite the depression rearing it's head again I still ended up enjoying the last couple of days (so. much. angst.) and am actually looking forward to next year instead of wondering whether I ought to bother. The boy is well and truly old enough to be trusted to just go and play with other kids while we're there, and I'm beginning to feel less guilty about letting him do so.

So with just a few more days until school starts again, this seemed like a good time to start blogging again. Reading Just A Geek has probably influenced that a bit too. I'm currently trying to restart my own career, realising I do need to do something else and to stop seeing myself as a failed mathematician, struggling with lack-of-work related depression, worrying about how I'm going to support my family....yeah, I can sympathise a lot with Wheaton's experiences there and have a great deal of admiration for the way he handled it at the time, and his honesty in writing about it. I know I'm not going to become the new Wil Wheaton (apart from anything else, I'd look rubbish with a beard), but maybe blogging again will at least give me a focus and something to do every day (more or less).

The other New Term's Resolution I've made (well, one of them, the last being Wii Fit again) is to actually learn more computery stuff, and I've already made a start by brushing up and learning more mySQL. Being an utter geek, I've made a database to catalogue books, starting with comics. Need to populate it some more and then maybe try some simple php forms to add and extract info. It seems a not-too-stupid way to practise and expand on the very simple tutorial I worked through a while back. Skills I will probably never need, but it keeps me occupied and may, you never know, lead on to other things.

If I manage to keep it up. A look back through the archive of this blog is all the evidence that is needed that I'm not very good at sticking with things. Good intentions, and all that. Still, I seem to heading that way anyway, so once again I say: I can but try.