So, for the last couple of years I've been writing sort of years in reviews on facebook, but with me more or less deciding not to post on facebook anymore I'm posting this here on my blog, but I'll probably link it there though, so Hi if you've come from there.
I guess I'll first off say why I'm posting here instead of facebook, I think I sort of touched on previously in another blog, but I guess I'll sum it up here. In short, I used to often post on facebook, long winded statuses talking about all manner of things. Eventually I just stopped writing them for a while and when I went back to writing them, I just didn't really find any reason to keep writing them I guess.
I'm writing this pretty much exactly a year from when I started working at my new job (I'm not publishing it until new years eve, but that's besides the point). It's been an incredible year there, I've learnt so much about sustainability that it's kind of hard for me to quantify it all. All I really know is that I thought I knew a decent amount at the start of the year, but I was quite mistaken with that. Same with programming, although it took a while to properly get up to speed with our codebase, but once I got to that point I've been able to expand it quite a bit, to the point where errors that have been there for who knows how long, rear their heads, I've introduced bugs myself, but it's been quite the experience on the software side.
I also left subway after 3 and a half years there. I'll have so many fond memories of that store, customers and creations I had made while there. Sometimes I still don't fully accept that I've hung up my sandwich artist hat, while half asleep the other day I actually went to log in to the sort of staff portal that Subway has to check if there was any training modules I hadn't done or if there was any news I hadn't read (about 4 months after I had left), and I've now been removed from the system. Looking at it now, it's obvious I was removed, but to half asleep Anton that was one of the most confusing things.
It'd be remiss of me not to mention the people at both work places. At subway I've seen so many people come and go during my time there, every single one of them a unique individual, and I know because it's in a work environment it's kind of a bit strange to say this, but I consider pretty much anyone I worked with for any decent amount of time a friend, hell, when I left I wrote a letter to everyone, I wanted to write more for the newer people, but I just didn't have anything really to say, but the number of people I was writing letters too, I'd feel too terrible if I didn't write anything. That reminds me, I need to reply to a couple of messages from old work mates. I'll do that after I publish this I think, maybe in the new year, I guess I'll see about it. Then there's the people from my current work. I don't even know where to start in regards to that. I guess I was always apprehensive about getting a "proper" job as I kind of got used to talking with customers in my time with retail and hospitality, but my current work mates (who I also consider friends removed from work by the way) subdued those concerns rather quickly, also people who work in the shops around my work who recognise me make it easy too (even though it's a bit weird being on the other side of the counter)
One other thing I guess I should mention is that the place of my first job closed down this year (I think it was this year at least). It doesn't really surprise me with all the development happening around that area, also from what I was told the people who took over made some bad decisions with how they ran that store, I'm not going to be too critical as I don't know what's really involved in running a small business, but I knew that store seeing I worked there for a good 4 or so years. Maybe when I've made my millions I'll go back and buy a small corner shop like that one and see how I go, then maybe I'll have more to say.
So that's mostly work without going into too much detail I think. Then There's the Computer Science Students Club at UWA. I was president last year and my wife took over this year. She's a psych major so we're nothing but inclusive. I've kept in contact with a bunch of people who I met through the club and it truly made my last little while at UWA so enjoyable. I've only been marginally involved in the club this year through my wife, but I have liked the fact that I've been able to be involved in it past my graduation.
This year was also the year I started to be involved in Role Playing games, (Like dungeons and dragons, etc). I've wanted to play for years and years but I never really found a group until a friend who I met through the CSSC invited my wife and I to join a game. It was set in the Warhammer 40k Universe using the Dark Heresy 2 rules. In this grimdark universe set some 38 thousand years into the future where demons can randomly burst through into this reality, mess with you until you grow wings and are catatonic from the sheer insanity inflicted upon you, I made myself a botanist. I will probably one day write up a full thing about Petrubius (my characters name) but I've always enjoyed playing, I guess, weird characters. For example my botanist had a gravity hammer and would on fly into a blind rage if needed, probably my most memorable moments with him was when going up against enemy combatants who were in a building, in short the building ended up collapsing, one of the enemies telekinetically flung a bit rubble away which just happened to hit my character and while in this rage, he now considered the collapsed building to be the enemy. On my rolls to break out of the rage, I was failing quite badly, but to hit the building I was rolling exceedingly well, only occasionally hurting the actual enemies. After that campaign we switched systems to cyberpunk. In that system I played a man who may as well be the Phantom of the Opera, and overly patriotic English politician and then a "retired" war criminal with a mech suit which stands over 12 feet tall with a certain partiality to nerve gas.
This year has certainly been something for me, and I'm looking forward to next year and all the things that'll come