I blew through all 300 pages of Masters of Doom yesterday. Go read it, it's fucking fantastic. Aside from it being consistently fascinating, funny, and getting me to wanna drop everything to load up TrenchBroom several times, I really found John Carmack's continued insistence that happiness is a closet with a computer, a Coke, and a good pizza amazingly relatable. I mean, I don't eat quite that badly, but I'm a simple boy. I want my Caby, I want financial comfort, and I want to be able to pursue my hobbies. Literally whatever lifestyle enables that is what I want.

I would've bought immediately a copy off Amazon to keep (I just read a PDF copy) if I wasn't conscious of the money I'm spending that should really be saved up for my rapidly-approaching trip to see Caby. I'm not sure how much money I'll spend in all; I know the flight costs are mine, and obviously I'll have my debit card, but I don't need to spend money on a hotel or anything because I'll be staying with Caby's folks, and I'm sure she'll partially be paying for anything fun we do because she's hosting me.

That said, here's a small list of stuff, for me more than for you, that I still gotta get sorted before I head off in May. (I know I've been saying April, but May is when Caby's school lets out, and it just makes more sense to wait that extra bit.)

• Actually scheduling the damn flight. I'll probably leave on a weekday since those flights are apparently the cheapest. I'll actually be flying to London, and Caby and I will stay in town for the evening and following together before heading back to Wales. (The UK is small enough that you can take day trips between capital cities! Fucked!)
• Enroll in that TSA PreCheck thing. Hey, if I get to not have my laptop drive wiped and not have to take my shoes off in the TSA line, that's preferred by me. That fact that I also board the plane far quicker is a huge bonus, since I have no clue how long boarding normally takes.
• Letting my bank and phone carrier know I'm going roaming. The former so my account doesn't get randomly frozen, the latter for international text and call support. Also gonna pay some of my bills before I head off since I don't really have autopay set up on the accounts and I don't want the house back home to suddenly not have cable while I'm gone.
• Clothes shopping. I very rarely go out outside of work, so all I have are my work clothes and then sweats and old t-shirts. (It's funny Setter always wears jeans, because I really do not care for jeans at all.) Caby and I don't mind, but I should probably make a better impression on her parents than that.
• Uh, quitting my job. I'm finding it kinda annoying repeatedly explaining to people who hear that I'm about to quit and immediately ask why I'm not just asking for time off. Three weeks is already long enough to ask for off, but when I get back home, I'd like to recharge and not have to worry about a job for another few weeks, and I know I'm not getting six or more weeks in all. I'm putting in my two weeks and doing things the legit way so if I can't find another job when I come back, I'm still in good standing with my store and can reapply. It's not the worst grocery store chain, it's just that my store is uniquely mismanaged. I still don't mind it most nights.

I've been feeling more alive than ever lately. I'm maybe a good 1,200 words off from having Kevin and Theo finished for Caby, and once that's done, all bets are off. I've been working a ton on cammy.somnol now that I've got a good testing environment. Lining more graphics, fixing misspellings, punching up alt-text, redoing pages, getting photo galleries ready for all the ones I'll take on the trip... I'm supremely proud of how it's turning out.

I'm just enthusiastic about things again. As I implied, I'd like to return to mapping this year. I'd like to make another EP this year! I miss how quick I used to make everything. I feel 2023, especially sitting in town, working right next to my best friend in the whole world, will be the year all that hits me again like a rocket.