Great expectations, and coping
I was hoping to share a screenshot of Conky today, with the weather conditions beautifully displayed. Instead, I'll have to settle for the results on the command line, conditionally formatted:
I failed to account for the necessary transition to pixels when working with Conky. I think I'll need to manipulate the returned JSON directly — as opposed to calling a script to parse it — or reconsider how I want the results formatted. A decision for another day.
I'm a lot better at dealing with disappointment these days; and on a much bigger scale than some failed hacking, let me quickly add! Not long after I first moved to the UK — more than a decade ago now — I blew a PSU.
And completely lost it.
It's embarrassing to remember, frankly, and really scared my ex at the time. Most of that embarrassment is due to the extent of my overreaction, but a small part of it is because, while I did read the instructions on the PSU, I failed to take in that its wide tolerance of voltage was predicated on throwing a (very prominent, in their defence) switch on the back of it. Unbelievably, it was the only casualty of that mistake: the motherboard, and all the attached components, served me well for another eight years. (In fact, the hard disk drive is still working well in my current tower.)
Fast forward ten years, and that reaction seems completely alien to me. Part of that is having young children: things get smashed, lost, they explode; life loses much of its predictability. Part of it is one of the many happy consequences of years of psychotherapy. Part of it is simply getting older.
It feels good. Particularly in the light of the criticism I've been levelling at myself recently: what could, ungenerously, be deemed a regression in my anxiety levels as lockdown has continued.
End of Day 25 — a quarter of the way!
— jlj #100DaysToOffload
I'm writing this as part of the 100 Days To Offload project; join us at: https://100daystooffload.com/