B.C.'s "Holmes-Page"

B.C.'s Holmes-Page

What's New and Interesting! (December 7th, 2002)

(More frequent updates can be found on my LiveJournal).

Lots of stuff has happened over the last several months, and it's been a long time since I updated this journal.

As I write this, I'm just about to return to work after being off for about a month. I'm starting to chew the curtains, so it's probably a good thing that I'm going back to work.

Around my birthday, I went to Boston to attend alt.polycon 9. I had a great time there. I had started to feel like there was a lot of distance between me and the alt.poly crowd lately, and I really feel like I got a warm and reaffirming welcome from a lot of people at the con. It did a lot to help me feel like part of that group again. I got to catch up with some people that I'm rather fond of: fairest one, Ian H., Aahz, Stef, and Sue. I also feel like I got to know some others a bit better: piglet, Rivka, Charles, LoRe and others. This was also the first time I got to meet some people face-to-face: serene, nicole, Kimster, and Tal. I wish I could have spent more time with just about everyone I saw there. More time with Ruth Anne. More time with LoRe. More time with Angi. More time with Bearpaw. More time with Joe (after three polycons with the guy, you'd think I'd have found a chance to talk with him).

Lately, we've been working on the house. Roxton Manor, as many have heard me say, is a former crackhouse, and when we moved in we put a fair amount of work into it. Then we tired out and got lazy for several years. Now, we're working on it again. We're going to be selling it some time soon.

And I bought a condominium/loft thingie, which isn't yet built, but which has fired my imagination, 'cause I'm mentally decorating it. The loft is causing me some financial worry. I'm putting certain downpayments on it before I'll have sold the house. Not so good, as I need to scare up some interim funding. And I got myself into a lot of debt because of another major purchase at the same time. And I was just off work for a month. Hurmph. I think everything's going to work out, but I get a bit stressed at times.

What else? I finished my project at work in August, and spent some time working on an open-source tool called Amakihi (available on SourceForge). Must get back to that soon.

Over the summer, I went to Haiti, which was a major event for me. I spent two weeks down there, and was, at the same time, stunned by the level of poverty there and fascinated by the place. At the time I came back, I'd had enough, but now I'm contemplating going back. Maybe in 2004. Although there are a lot of other places I'd like to get to. India. Turkey. Go back to Australia again. Who knows when these things will happen, though.

Also, I went to North Carolina again, for my annual spiritual retreat. I drove down this year, figuring it'd be nice to drive (and save a bit of money in the process). I was supposed to have a driving partner, but that plan got changed at the last minute. No worries. I enjoyed my trip a lot, although for reasons too complicated to go in to, I couldn't eat most of the food at the retreat, and I started to get a bit unhappy about that by the end of the retreat. Once again, I met new and interesting people at the retreat, and I enjoyed myself a lot.

I don't have a lot planned over the Christmas holidays. Siobhan's family is being a bit weird about the holidays. They keep telling her to bring Axel to their family Christmas events. To my knowledge, they've never invited me to any of their Christmas events. Sigh. Siobhan wonders if they think we've broken up. I keep pointing out that they've never really acknowledged us as partners.

Are you reading my page? Please, send me e-mail me and tell me what you think.

BCing you