2 Years is a Pretty Long Time

It feels a bit weird that I haven’t written anything here in two years. It felt like the last post was more recent than that. A lot of things have happened since then as you can imagine, but still not much has changed.

The Covid pandemic happened. Of course this didn’t affect me very much since I don’t go out very much. It did slow things down at work for a while though. Now things are close to back to normal, though large events like this always leave a mark of some sort, though it can be difficult to tell exactly what.

There’s also the recent war between Russia and Ukraine. This of course also has an effect on the world, though to a lesser extent than a global pandemic.

New Living Arrangements

The biggest news, which is the reason I wanted to write something here, is that I just bought a house. The contract was signed yesterday. I will get access to it in roughly a month. I found out I have 3 months notice on canceling the apartment I’m renting, but that’ll give me a bunch of time to get stuff moved to the house at least. Assuming they don’t find a replacement tenant earlier and release me.

Houses are expensive. I’ve had to take a loan for the first time in my life. 750 000 kr. A hefty sum, but less than the house is really worth, so it’s a good deal. I only have the economy being in shambles to thank for that most likely.

The house is decently big. 2 floors and a basement with a garage. 4 rooms. Obviously bigger than my apartment with its 3 rooms.

It’s both exciting and terrifying, mostly because it’s all very new. Taking out a loan. Owning a house. Handling all the bills and responsibilities. It’ll be quite different from just renting an apartment. Of course it also comes with freedom I do not have now. I can do whatever I want (mostly). While now I can only make temporary changes. That is, pretty much none at all.

It’ll definitely be worth it though. Apart from more freedom, most of all, I want more peace and quiet! My current neighbours are so noisy sometimes, and the walls are very thin. I hate listening to screaming children in the evenings. I’ll also no longer have to deal with tobacco stink in the stairs, or even my own apartment when someone is smoking on their balcony next door.

The YouTubes

It’s been a very long time since I last made a video for the YouTube channel now. Less time than since the past post here, but still about a year.

It was sometime before the pandemic. I’d decided I needed a bit of a break. And then that whole thing happened, and a short break turned into a much longer break than intended.

I’d like to get back into it, but getting started again after not doing it for so long is harder than you’d think. I don’t really need to do it, but I’d like to. And I still have the habit of not playing a game because I’d like to record me doing it.

I also have a project I’m working on that once completed will need an announcement video. That will certainly be an opportunity to restart the channel that I could not pass up. I can’t say how long it will take to complete though unfortunately. There’s still quite a bit left to do.

Love?

None for me thanks. Well, not the romantic kind at least. I don’t seem to have much luck with that. I’ve tried a bit but nothing’s really worked out so far. It’s not a huge deal, but I do feel a bit lonely now and then. That’s just how it is.

I’m still reminded of Z occasionally which sucks. I’m sure she doesn’t care about me at all, but I miss her a lot. Unfortunately I can’t just turn those feelings off. Even as they uselessly linger many years later.

I even met her briefly not too long ago. She was as beautiful and friendly as ever, which doesn’t exactly make it easier. Quite the opposite. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to forget her completely. But that’s just something I’ll have to bear I guess.

I even thought I saw her while waiting in line at a local burger place one day. It was strange. I saw a woman approach the gas station next to the burger place, then walk up to the end of the queue, briefly stand at the end of it, and then leave.

Part of me hoped that it was her and that she’d seen me and wanted to talk to me. It was very odd. I sent her a text asking if she had been by the burger place recently, but she just replied “No”. Hopes deleted.

Side work

I’ve had my own small business for a long time now. I’ve almost certainly mentioned it before here but I can’t be bothered to check right now. I might do that later.

The business basically just let me do freelance web development work on the side occasionally. I don’t have any advertising beyond word of mouth though, so not much happens there.

But my previous boss, amusingly enough, calls me up now and then to do stuff. Mostly it’s fixes or changes to old website systems that I’m basically the only one who knows how they work now who will work on them.

The reason it’s amusing of course is because I was forced to resign from my previous job because the boss and (mostly) his wife didn’t think I was doing a good job and didn’t like that I was listening to a stream while working one time. I’m sure they connected the complaints they were receiving from the clients with me listening to a stream one time.

Now my ex-boss seems to start every call (at least when some time has passed between them) asking if I’m happy at my current job still. I don’t know about you but this gives me the impression that he’d want me to work for him again full time if I for some reason left my current job. Unfortunately for him I’m quite happy at my current job.

It’s varying and interesting work with good pay.

Anyway.

Surprisingly little has happened in my life in the last two years. Despite a lot happening in the world. Still, as time passes there will always be tiny changes over time. And there’s at least one big change! Well, it’s still in-progress, but soon I’ll have my own house!

Well that was an experience

Wellp. Zandra broke up with me. And I honestly kind of suspected it was going to happen, although I was hoping I was wrong of course.

Sticking her tongue out, adorable
From the Europe trip

Maybe it was for the best. She never really seemed particularly interested most of the time. She was withdrawn, didn’t like being touched, never initiated anything on her own.

But sometimes she would seem to open up slightly and give me a fluttery feeling, re-affirming my love for her.

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Relations Update

I’m not sure how I should feel right now. I know how I do feel, but I’m not sure how I’m supposed to feel.

It’s about a week since we returned from the Europe trip. Zandra has been… distant, this past week. We haven’t really talked since just after we returned. I went over once to give here some of her stuff I’d gotten with me and to talk a bit, which we did. It might just be the contrast of going from being with her every day to being apart from her.

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A Trip, And A Return

A report of the Europe trip

A great trip later (many small ones) and one huge experience richer. It’s of course impossible to summarize the entire trip as a whole except to say it was… interesting into the last minute. I’ve learned things and experienced things and felt things. I’ve had expectations tossed onto their heads and also experienced some pain.

When I was little we went on a number of vacations, sometimes to the coast, sometimes to the mountains between Sweden and Norway to ski, and sometimes we went out camping with our caravan. In later years we started renting a sailboat each year for a few years until dad bought his own which we then went out with up until I moved out. This has been my first proper vacation with no family.

The trip in question is a car trip across Europe, from Sweden to Spain, passing through Denmark, Germany and France to get there. The trip took place because my best friend Eric got married, and was planned by him and Elin, his now wife. They decided that instead of going on a honeymoon on their own they’d organize a trip with some friends. The trip involved them, me and Zandra and Filip, who is a long time friend of me and Eric.

The trip was also going to include a sixth person but they were unable to come.

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Bowling

Went out bowling with my girlfriend and a group of friends last weekend. First we had a nice meal at the restaurant.

The bowling didn’t go well at first, and didn’t seem to go very well overall, but then I ended up winning somehow anyway, although the margin probably wasn’t that large. But still.

Always a nice surprise to win at something I guess. I continue to annoy my girlfriend by being surprisingly good at bowling. I’m sure she’ll end up winning at some point.

We’re supposedly going to have a go again in about a month, as 3 out of the 6 of us have our birthdays pretty close together. We’ll see how it goes then!

I need to look up how scoring works in bowling.

Life Things

A not-so-brief update on my life.

I’ve not written anything in a while. I realize I didn’t have a distinct plan for this blog thing when I set it up. It seems I’ve decided it’ll be a mix of personal stuff and posts about various projects.

Things are happening, good things! I just left a part-time job, that I held for about a month and a half, for a full time job at a place I worked earlier this year. At the time they weren’t able to keep two programmers on board, but now the other programmer left for a different job and I got to replace him.

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