I am neck-deep in Access and VBA coding at work, now that I am back from our annual training conference in Chicago.

By some miracle, I was able to fly home from Chicago yesterday, in the middle of the polar vortex. My flight was on time, and half empty, even though most of the other flights on the board were canceled, and half my company got stranded by lack of flights.

I’m looking forward to this (-24°F) soon. 🙄

I am happy to learn that I am not the only person who has to charge their AirPods all the time now. Bring on version two, because I will buy them.

Marc Marin’s interview with Aaron Sorkin was really good.

While packing for my business trip tonight, I spent far more time looking for the pill pack I always bring everywhere than on packing everything else.

I have been working very hard on the next version of SwiftoDo Desktop for the past week or so. And when I’m not, I’m playing Breath of the Wild, or, you know, doing my day job or taking care of my family like I’m supposed to. I’m heading to Chicago on Sunday for my company’s Annual Training event, and I have been really anxious about it, due to the government shutdown and the snow and frigid temperatures in Chicago’s weather forecast.

I think I enjoy music because I can listen to it while doing creative endeavors, such as writing or coding, and during most of my workday as well. I’m not sure I like listening to music without doing something else, though, which is a little weird.

The most intensely focused music listening sessions of my life involved trying to learn to sing and/or play a part, which I no longer do, unfortunately. Now, most of my music listening happens during work, and a small, but usually more satisfying, amount happens while I am writing and coding on my own time late in the evening.

I think that listening to music while I am doing something else occupies that part of my mind that wants to wander and do something else, so that I can focus more closely on the task at hand.

🎵 One of the joys of an “all you can eat” music subscription is that I never miss new albums by my old favorites. Case in point: Guster, who just dropped a new album,”Look Alive”. I’m giving it a listen now with my best setup.

Who picks the colors for municipal gymnasiums? (It looks more drab and greener in real life.)

I have noticed that, since December, Amazon has pretty much completely stopped shipping to my house via UPS or FedEx. Everything goes through their private service now.

I am happy that the Exponent podcast is back now. Fortunately for me, its hiatus was short and not a permanent one.

The bad Brexit news continues. The whole situation is baffling, like so much else that has happened since 2016. I knew the moment that Brexit passed that Donald Trump would be the next U.S. president, and the pace of insanity in world events has only accelerated.

I spent half the morning researching how to evaluate the results of attribute sample testing—once again. It’s hard to remember the parts of statistics that I don’t use very often.

I’m happy that Dialog is out of beta today. It’s great to have a real, out-of-beta Android app for Micro.blog. I don’t know when I’m going to fire up my Essential Phone again to try it out, though. It has been in a drawer for over a month.

I helped my daughter with her homework, in which she had to draw a bunch of random things. I tried to demonstrate for her how to draw some things. 😂 (I’m glad I’m not in grade school anymore.)

My 2013 MacBook Pro, which I mostly use in clamshell mode connected to a big display, keeps dying rather than waking up via the keyboard or mouse. I am this close to ditching it for a Mac mini or an iMac, just to resolve this issue—but that would be incredibly foolish, financially speaking.

I have been playing “Breath of the Wild” way too much lately, but mostly late at night when my brain is too tired to do anything more productive.

After many years of avoiding it, my wife and I are seeing “Stomp” tonight. Ot was part of a theatre subscription we signed up for. It is good? I hope so.

My new version of SwiftoDo Desktop is shaping up nicely so far.

🎵 I am a sucker for reverb on a well-produced track. Case in point: “Rill Rill” by Sleigh Bells.

The New York Times identified today a “trend” that I first was a part of 15 years ago, when I got my first work-issued laptop with a VPN connection to the office: The Death of the Sick Day.

I am unreasonably excited to be receiving New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe tomorrow.

Every January 2nd, I spend some time archiving the prior year’s emails and files on my computer. I’m finding things I worked on back in March that I barely remember, which is a little sad, but is also the main reason for moving older stuff aside.

I need to get back into the blogging game. I have been coding in all the “free time” I have had since I decided to rewrite my Mac App. Happy new year, everyone!