As some of you may have noticed, the new millenium has now rolled around for both geeks and non-geeks alike. To celebrate this I went to Lake Tahoe for six days with Jim and many other people. There was beautiful scenery and good food and interesting alcohol, and winter sports for those so inclined. Jim went snowboarding, but I chose instead to lie about like a slug, reading Storm Constantine and playing Baldur's Gate (which was a birthday present from Jim but has been underused due to Asheron's Call) and occasionally rousing myself to game D&D and Mage (not simultaneously). In retrospect I'm a bit sad I didn't do more stuff outdoors than a walk to the lake on the last night, but I seem to have badly needed the down-time. I came back to work on Wednesday genki and determined, and this mood has continued through today, although it's slowed down a bit as Friday afternoon progresses. I have hope it will continue, though, along with the getting up early and getting things done around the house and being more mentally organised about food -- yes, the great New Year's Food Plan is going forward, slowly but surely. I love this time of year, when I have so much energy to change things in my life so that I'm living more in the way I want to live. It's so nice to know that I'm done travelling for a while, too. I had a very nice time during both the family visiting and Tahoe, but it's so tiring to be away from home for weeks on end. And I missed my cats.

Work is cheerful not only because of my mood, but also because I have a tidy little project to do all by myself, albeit with help as I need it from the nice French guys. It's good to have something to do that's complete within itself, instead of the usual work on a small piece of something large. It's good also to be talking about it beforehand, and to know that I understand what I'm talking about. It's like seeing my programming thought-processes at work, something which usually doesn't happen, as they go from my head straight into code and I don't really analyse where they came from. Discussions beforehand are better, even if they're nerve-wracking. I remind myself that with practise they won't be.

Jumping topics again... I read a lot during my vacation, mostly random sf. Wilhelmina Baird deserves a loud mention for her three cyberpunk-ish books (Crashcourse, Clipjoint, and Psykosis), which feature among many other enjoyable things a quiet little functional poly relationship. I would have liked the books without it, I think, but that addition made it for me. I also read Nick O'Donohoe's Too Too Solid Flesh, which was bleak but fabulously done, and a handful of fantasy stuff (Lynn Abbey, Marion Zimmer-Bradley) not particularly worth mentioning. Since being home I've read another of my Powell's haul, a book called The Secrets of Mariko that describes a year in the life of a 'typical' Japanese housewife and her family. It took me a while to get into it but ended up being nice stuff, nothing spectacular but endearing in its ordinariness. It's good to be reading a wide variety of stuff again.

I wrote some, during the Chicago part of the vacation. Just a little, but every bit helps.