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It’s Friday, which means it’s time for another week in review. It’s also the 13th of January, one of the Friday the 13ths. That means that some of my friends are getting a new tattoo today.

My weeks don’t usually begin on Saturdays, but sine this thing happens on Friday, I suppose I’ll include the previous Saturday. This previous weekend began on a scary note. Apparently, I was slightly dehydrated at the beginning of an adventure-filled date and almost passed out. It was not a good look for me, but my lady is a rock, and took care of me, for which I am eternally grateful.

After seeing Moana (excellent!), we wrapped up the night with a visit to the very enchanting Descanso Gardens. That’s definitely a location I’d like to explore some more.

Sunday was a needed day of rest.

Photo credit: Cel Lisboa

Caught a bad case of the Mondays (and a cold, apparently) but I carefully fought it off during the early part of the week. Staying hydrated helped out there a lot.

Monday was the weekly Saberguild practice, and due to a forecast of rain, we relocated for the evening to a gym that a member works at. It was nice to be indoors, in a warm place, for once, although I was more glad because it’s easier to fight a head cold in a warm place.

Awesome Games Done Quick also kicked off on Sunday, and I’m catching parts of it live during the week, when I can. I’d mentioned it on Monday since I wasn’t sure if any friends shared such quirky interests. Now, I know that at least one would like to watch some of the gaming action with me. Hopefully, that’ll happen soon after the on-demand videos become available. I held off on watching some speedruns since they tend to be good the first time.

Photo credit: Lewis Ngugi

Work was fairly quiet, but after, in the hours before bedtime, I managed to squeeze in daily commits to the FreeCodeCamp challenges I’ve been working through for #100DaysOfCode. As of today, Ive completed 8 out of 100 days. It still feels like the beginning, but it’s less of a chore. That feeling when the tests all pass is kind of addicting.

Well, that’s it for this week’s recap. How’s your week been? Looking forward to anything fun this weekend?

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This is it. It’s the first week of 2017, and I’ve gone and made an intention. I’ll write a weekly wrap-up post every week. Here is the first one.

To start the year off epicly, I attended a wedding. It was the first one where the bride and groom aren’t related to me by blood. The vows were uttered shortly after midnight, making it one of the earliest of the new year.

Jonelle + David = #jovid2017

16 Newlywed Couples Who Started The New Year Off With A Bang (that’s #13 above!)
I also continued an earlier intention of posting every day as well as specifically on my site every Monday, and it’s still feeling like a reasonable thing. My first of many busy weekends is coming up, though. I wonder how hard it’s going to be to keep these streaks going.

Sometimes, two reminders are better than one!

 

Since I can’t quite tell what my side project workload should be, I also began a coding challenge. I simply got an itch that I wanted to scratch there and forcing myself to scratch it seemed like the right thing to do. If you want to make a weekly something, then check out this post for inspiration:

The 52-Week Writing Challenge

Alright, now it’s your turn. Comment or post(and pingback!) How did your week go?

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Developer Manton Reece is on a mission to take back short form content for the open web by providing better tools for independent microblogging. Most short form content today is posted through centralized social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, where posts are mixed with promoted content and users have no control of their…

via WordPress Tavern

I spotted this in my reader today, and I decided to add a quick note. This is not the first such service I’ve seen (App.net still exists, after all), but it’s always worth checking out when another contender comes along to give the existing incumbents reason to sit up in their chairs. We’ll see how this shakes out once the service rolls out. What do you think? Will you try Micro.blog? I’ll reserve my handle, of course.

Kickstarter for Micro.blog

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image via Fanpop

Yesterday was interesting. I think that’s the word I’ll use. I’ve been using the WordPress software to power this little blog of mine, and it’s been hosted on a set of VPSes at the company I work for. That’s not unusual since free hosting is a perk of working for a hosting company. I believe, however, that it may not have initially have migrated properly over, and that’s finally started to manifest itself recently.

The problem’s very technical and pretty obscure. It literally does not appear to be a flaw in WordPress, but likely a configuration issue that stemmed from the incomplete(?) migration from a regular shared server, and it only affects my use of the blog (as far as I know). So, after trying literally all the usual troubleshooting steps, it’s come to the “hit the reset button” step of downgrading back to shared and then retrying a migration to another VPS set. The migration process has improved over the years, so I hope this will be a minor blip in this blog’s lifetime.

It’s been a good learning experience and the performance underlying this seems solid to me. We’ll see how it turns out, hopefully in a couple days, when I make a test post or even a new draft.

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“Happiness is … ”

…hearing the rain after a long drought.
…smelling the air outside just after rain has begun.
…hearing your number called in a prize drawing.
…completing a blogging challenge.
…the title screen of a long-awaited and newly acquired game.
…downing an insanely hard boss in that new game.
…seeing “A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…” on the big screen again, and again.
…seeing it with a loved one.
…a silly message from a pal.
…a silly message from the significant other.
…a hug. A real hug.
…waking in a warm place in the morning.
…seeing the beginnings of a big smile on your loved one’s face.
…knowing they’re laughing with you.
…when you first catch sight of your significant other after an absence of any length.
…hard to completely describe.
…a gift.

Prompt: IBMC #10: The Happiness Challenge – Its PH

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Stipula fountain pen
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Stipula_fountain_pen.jpg

It’s a simple intention that I post here, but a habit I hope to keep up. I intend to post something, anything, every single Monday in 2017. I further intend it specifically to be here, on my personal space online. For now, I’ll have it be for #MicroblogMondays since I’ve got a reminder set to remind me. Soon enough, I want it to just be a habit.

More: MicroblogMondays 121: Post in Your Own Space

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As I got off the telephone with her, I imagined showing her this dusk I’d seen a few times while strolling along the shore next to the old fence. She accepted the invitation so easily, and that made me feel less nervous, for the time being. If I am at a loss for words during our stroll, I’ll try and remember and recite this poem, and hope it doesn’t spook her:

In,
search of skin,
color no matter,
brighter or darker,
tell no one,
I will take someone,
Ssssshhhhh!
– ghost, me!

We’ll see how this goes!

Prompt: IBMC #06: The Mass Media Challenge

IBMC-6.png

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past hosted party,
gave future as the present,
present is partying.

My take on this poem is a pretty cool interpretation of the meaning of time. A person exists because of events that happened in the past. The present is always present and a gift of the new past. Then, the dreams of the future exist as an ideal (a party!)

I feel like that’s on optimistic take on time’s meaning. Seems good.

Prompt: IBMC #04: Hunt a Haiku Challenge

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Sometimes I wonder about what’s next in life for me. Winter is pretty much here. You’ve got to be kidding me! A steady blade balances the soul. That’s what I’m going to do. I can’t stop the feeling. Let’s see what I think of next. That was lucky. I’m almost there. The toughest sentence is the first.

Prompt: Incredible Blogger Marathon Challenge #03

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Photo Credit: wanderingnome via Compfight cc

Tis the season for cozying up to someone special and listening to the almost musical crackle of burning logs. It’s a pretty good way to catch up with family as well. Sometimes, my family have the fire going in the aftermath of the Christmas present-opening, while the younger ones romp and play, and we do occasionally sit down to a holiday movie together (a bit rare until the younger nephew grows a bit more and settles down.) It’s time to warm up, and not just temperature-wise.

Prompt: Incredible Blogger Marathon Challenge #02.

IBMC-2