Sunday 22 September 2013

Back to the Land of Nod...

Having landed from our 6 month travelling trip around SE Asia and a bum numbing 36 hour journey including a truck, boat, bus, three flights and a car journey I have arrived back in the U.K. Amongst other things I have a long and extensive list of jobs, projects and tasks needing to be done to get back into the world of Software Engineering and computing.

I have a few ideas of various applications both web and mobile based which are related to travelling and which I will investigate the feasibility of, technology and any possible existing apps, maybe only writing them down in some detail whilst they are fresh so when time permits I can attempt to make them. I have a Linux Cinnamon plug-in which hasn’t been working for nearly 3 months since GitHub changed their restful based API and I have been unable to change code and commit any fixes whilst being away, some users reporting issues and it looks like popularity had dropped because of it. I plan on refreshing my Linux Mint install with the latest version and generally cleaning up my PC which before I went again always seemed to be last on the list of things to do on a weekend for obvious reasons. I have literally thousands of emails from various mailing lists I am members of which to be honest I will most likely just clear out and start again, picking up with the latest chatter and developments from now. Of the probably 5000+ emails I reckon only about 100 are relevant which relate to things I need to follow up on check and take some action, many off which are job related which before I went away I paid little attention to, oh how this has changed! Obviously I need to start thinking about jobs and where to work, what to do and where to live, updating my CV (Resume Link) and LinkedIn profile.

I have travelling related jobs as well as well including sorting out the thousands of photos I have form the trip, selecting some to show friends and family since I don’t think they can endure spending an entire day looking though so many. I have washing and other clean up jobs to do from the trip. I have a few blogs to post from the travelling along with getting used to British weather and generally just getting used to be in the U.K.

Not only has travelling been eye opening and truly the most enjoyable thing I have ever done it also allows you to completely disconnect yourself and clear your mind, not being connectable by phone, text or Skype (unless you want to), not having a PC or laptop and just having a small phone to check your emails and write the blog (occasionally), not having to perform your daily routines and chores has be highly enjoyable and free. I hope to take from it so much but also just a fresh and clean start not only in body but in mind and perspective on things from work, life, family, friends and everything else that they entail and mean to me. Technology and engineering was a passion of mine before I left and I don’t plan to change this, maybe the way I code will change, maybe not, hopefully the way I interact with people will change, maybe challenges will seem smaller?

I have work to do...

James