This month consisted of a lot of looking for apartments to move to. My fiancee and I live in the Chicago suburbs, but we are growing very tired of them. It is the worst of every world. So we have decided to move into the city. I’ll have to deal with a bit of a commute, but it is not bad for Chicago, and I am not planning on going in every day, at least for now. Our current apartment has brought us a lot of anxiety as well. We’ve both realized how important it is to have community. It isn’t easy to make friends in the suburbs, especially during a pandemic. There is a lot more that will be accessible to us in the city. I am looking forward to living near an affordable makerspace.

Lately at work I’ve been working on our reservation system. I wrote a plugin system for it that I am pretty proud of, but I know code review will leave me humbled. Writing a plugin framework for a system that is not designed for one forced me to learn a lot about the system.

I spent some time programming for fun. I have been writing a Matrix chat bot with my friend Matt. My latest plugin allows us to clip the last 30 seconds of mumble calls, which I update to a website of sound bites. I’ve been doing digital spring cleaning as well, getting my directories in order and updating my git repos with anything missing.

I’ve been playing some video games. I finished Inscryption, which surprised me, and one of my favorite games I’ve ever played. Everyone says go in completely blind, and this is essential advice. I picked up Black Mesa as well, since I am a fan of the Half Life series, though never played the original. Every night I’ve been reading some of Leaves of Grass, and sometimes I add in a short story by Chekhov. I spent a few weeks practicing French on duolingo, but have lapsed lately. After the move, I’m planning on looking into adult night classes at the lycée.