Horrible start to the day, so bad I even vented on Twitter. Not like me, sorry about that. Negativity hasn’t made anyone happy, we should have less of that, especially in social media. So let’s be nice to each other, okay?

Today is the first official workday of the year, which means I’ll leave for the Divide & Conquer studio in a little bit, with Paazu, and joining Emma there. Anders is back tomorrow, and Helena pops by every now and then – she’s on leave at the moment. It’ll be good to get back to some sort of routine, but I have to admit, I’m a bit stressed out by all of the things I couldn’t get done over the holidays due to illness. That’ll have to happen now instead. January is looking grim.

I keep typing “2018”, just like the rest of the world, despite wanting that particular year to be laid to eternal rest. Just like the rest of the world. But I have the upper hand in these journal entries, since they’re named – internally – after date. This means I should get the year right before summer…

Can we just do away with years please? Let’s just number the days and be done with it.

My week’s all screwed up. It’s obviously Saturday today, it could just as well be Wednesday to my mind. It’s due to the holidays of course, but more importantly, because I’ve been ill I haven’t been able to focus on what I wanted. The respite of the whole world being closed, business-wise, is all but gone. Time lost, never to return again. Not much to do about that, other than to keep moving forward. You can’t make up for lost time – it’s gone and that’s that – but you can adapt and plan accordingly. That’s what I’m going to do, thus allowing myself to let go of the stress of that lost time, knowing there’s a system, a solution even, in place that will make it all work out in the end. It’s the same with todo management systems, if you trust it, you won’t get overwhelmed or stressed out.

Of course, said system and solution for lost time needs to be constructed. I guess that’s what I’m doing today, then.

I have a folder (in iA Writer) where all my journal entries, like this one, start out. Each entry is a text file, its contents being plain text with Markdown syntax. I like Markdown, it’s versatile enough for me, and works well with online publishing due to its HTML-y nature.

I couldn’t find yesterday’s journal entry in my folder, nor the one for the day before. Things like these are always scary, because of file sync and the risks of something sinister overwriting your stuff. I use iCloud for these things, because Dropbox has yet to properly support the iOS file system. If the files were in Dropbox, I’d have version support, but iCloud lack this. I wasn’t freaking out over the missing files or anything, they’re published online after all, but if they could disappear, so could a manuscript.

Yikes.

I found the files in the end. They were in the file list, exactly where they should be. There wasn’t an issue at all. It was just me being an idiot, still writing 2018 in the file names and titles, thus them being sorted as such.

It’s been a beautiful day in Stockholm, only slightly tarnished by another snowfall this evening. But hey, it’s not windy anymore, that’s something. I’ve spent it mostly with Paazu, who is living with me over the weekend. Long walks is always nice, but it reminded me that I’m still not fully restored from the monster cold. I’m actually exhausted now, something that rarely happens otherwise. Then again, so is he, so I think we’ll make it an early night.

It’s me and Paazu for the rest of the week. I’m still worn out by the bloody cold I’m battling, so we’ll take it easy, take slow walks in the sun, trying not to get blown away by the storm. And by storm I mean that it’s quite windy but that’s about it, it’s still Sweden, you know.

A slow start for 2019, then. That’s okay. Maybe you should try and do the same, if you can?

Yeah, I’ll get that date wrong a couple of times… Will leave you with a snap from yesterday, a link to the 2018 retrospective at Divide & Conquer (in Swedish, sorry) which obviously isn’t a full calendar year but still, and the promise of writing a more personal 2018 post soon. Happy New Year indeed.

Oh, and today marks a full year of these short journal entries (here’s the first one), with just a few interruptions. I’m pleased with this.

It’s the last day of the year, and I’m not sentimental in the least. While I do condone just about any reason for a party, New Years Eve is one I tend to avoid. A long time ago, when I was married, we always went away over the New Years weekend, just the two of us. Seeing a new place, usually a city, and how they celebrate New Years Eve is a different thing from the hyped up parties that tend to litter Stockholm, and all of Sweden (and quite possibly the world, if you’re a local where you are). I do those parties maybe once every five years. This is definitely not one of those years, since I’m not feeling well yet.

It’ll be a calm night with Malin and Paazu, trying to remind the latter that fireworks are just outside, and not dangerous indoors. He’s calm overall, but gets a bit anxious, so having the flock gathered is probably a good thing.

? Happy New Year, wherever you are! I’ll see you in 2019.

One of the worst things about being sick is how taste and smell gets all skewed, or nonexistent for that matter. I hate it when freshly ground and made coffee doesn’t taste like coffee, when the cognac I drink for my sore throat loses its unique flavor, and when it doesn’t matter if I order fancy or cheap pizza when I’m too tired to cook.

I’m struggling with balance at the moment. Not in the sense that I can’t focus my thoughts, or that I don’t know what to do next. No, it’s more motivational, and emotional. I guess there’ll be a lesson at the end of this too. Until then, I’ll just try to shake this nasty cold, and try not to think about all the things I had planned for the last week of the year.

This cold just won’t let go, so I’ve postponed all my plans for the rest of the year. Granted, that’s not a very long time, but I had hoped to wrap up some projects, and get ahead with another one. Alas, it’s the couch for me for the rest of the year. I might be spending some of it modding a clean install of Skyrim on my gaming PC, and going through the Steam library. It’s been a while.

They finally managed to put my name on the door, so I guess I have officially moved in? The apartment felt like home early on, which was a pleasant surprise. It’s decorated, not counting some minor things left to do, mostly involving cable management, but also hanging two paintings. I need to buy some stuff too, like cutlery for example (borrowing the essentials at the moment), but that’ll have to wait until I feel better. It’s another day on the couch for me, alas.

Well, the holiday plague screwed up my sleep. My throat hurts, and I’m tired. It’s a cold, plain and simple, and it sucks, as it always does. Spending the day on the sofa, watching TV and playing games. I might read a bit too, but no work for me. Unless I want to, which could very well happen, because it’s been way too long, hasn’t it?

My dear little sister brought the plague, which is now growing in my throat. Lovely. I’m at the airport, waiting for my flight, as well as fish and chips, while nursing a beer. I hope you survived the holiday illness, wherever you are.

It’s a slow Christmas Day, as it always is in my family. Everyone’s taking it easy, my siblings have gone home, and I’m not getting much done. In other words, it is as it should be.

That said, I did manage to send a (short) issue of my newsletter. Sorry if you missed it.