Check-In

Hey! A check-in for January. What went well. What didn’t go well, and what I’ve been doing.

Work

New year, new challenges!

The start of a quarter is usually busier after a holiday break. A lot of people with time off - including me - are coming back and trying to kickstart things, getting into the zone again and returning to the usual flow. If you add the fact that it is the beginning of the year, yes too many things to tackle! A to-do list with items to be done always does the trick for me.

Overall, I can’t complain. Many things done, with good results! It was a good month.

Reading

Five books already. I know I won’t be able to keep up this pace, but I enjoyed every moment! I’ve also picked up Turn the Ship around (again) as an audiobook. Still in progress.

The Last House on Needless Street - Catriona Ward

“This is the story of a serial killer. A stolen child. Revenge. Death. And an ordinary house at the end of an ordinary street.”. This is the only thing I will say (copied/pasted, really) regarding the plot so as not to spoil anything. I read it in one sitting.

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe - Douglas Adams

I loved the HGTTG. I can’t remember the last time I laughed so much with a book. This one was “more difficult”. Well not difficult, I still liked it, but for a 300 pages book, it took me a while to finish it. The constant action and scenery change probably had something to do with it. Not sure. It’s a good one either way!

I hope they paid good money to the people translating these series into other languages. This must have been a difficult job.

Stephen King Corner

Lisey’s Story

Lisey is Scott Landon’s widow. Scott was a successful writer. We see her life after his death, their life together and Scott’s life.

Slow start. Amazing storytelling. It’s impressive to see King in his 70s and, after all these books, still writing and writing good stories.

Misery

This is a classic. A writer (again) is kept captive by an unstable fan of his work.

I’ve yet to see the movie. This is a good one.

It

Mysterious disappearances, murders, and pure evil in the form of a clown. What else do you need?

I love Stephen King’s characters. They are flawed and somehow real, even when they are a bit over the top.

The greek version is two books with a total of 1700+ pages. Is it a beast to read? Yes. Are the surroundings sometimes too descriptive for my taste? Yes, but it’s fantastic.

A warning about this book though. There are some awkward scenes that may or not make sense and can make you unconfortable. Don’t ignore this book because of it, if you haven’t read it already.

Writing

I got three articles out there. One coding, one about Disqus and one about leadership. A good start!