you should have been more specific.

If the three humans of the household had grown up now, we would all be labeled what is now called "twice exceptional" ("EE" or "2E" for short). I know that I've always been super smart, and also I get over-stimulated or overwhelmed and I shut down and retreat inward. And I have ADHD, and it turns out the old joke isn't actually a joke.

"Knock, knock."

"Who's there?"

"ADHD kid."

"ADHD kid wh—"

"LET'S GO RIDE BIKES!!!"

Anyway. I have to keep learning things, not from any kind of principle, but because it's who and what I am, and I could no more stop learning than you could stop breathing. I once sought out boring podcasts I could fall asleep to: histories of Byzantium and philosophy, two topics I find hyper-detailed and dull. They stopped putting me to sleep after one or two dozen episodes, because my brain adapted and started the process of enthusiastic learning. It's who I am. I have to roll with it, or suffer needlessly.

Luckily, the world has more stuff than I could learn in a thousand lifetimes! I've long thought it would be fun to know (at least a little bit) how to fly a plane, but I do not want to actually fly a plane. It's grotesquely expensive, the radio protocols are not friendly to my brain which often blips on audio, and the noise, vibration, and sickening motion of small planes hit me pretty hard. The most intensive flight simulation rigs can have VR, an eye tracker, and several monitors, enough to qualify for real-world training, and still be a fraction of an actual plane. So I bought the best-cheapest flying hardware (a Logitech joystick) and X-Plane, the biggest simulator for Macs, famous both for being cross-platform, and for having a physics engine enabling users to create the Space Shuttle, or the enormous wings of an airplane on Mars. Maybe someday I'll upgrade to more complex hardware, but for now I'm enjoying a light involvement, at the Indiana Jones level.

the haps.

I keep starting blog posts, thinking about Tim, and I'm not finding much to say that isn't private for one reason or another; it never stops being weird to miss someone even if you never saw or talked to them.

It's a big month: our anniversary, Tim's birthday, my friend J.D.'s yahrzeit, a niece's birthday, Dad's birthday.

I hit my 4-year anniversary of picking up the violin. If I were out in playing in the world, I would be enjoying the looks I get when I tell people I started when I was 40. It is an idiotically awkward instrument, and I think folks have trouble imagining that anyone could learn it without the plasticity and parent-enforcement of childhood. But no, I just wanted to play cool Scandinavian tunes.

We have momentarily discouraged the Oriental cockroaches—who much prefer to stay outside–by the simple expedient of having a bunch of guys demolish the concrete behind the house. Looking at the underside of the concrete, which of course is as uneven as the ground it was poured over (and obviously not flattened beforehand) I think they actually don't live as far underground as I'd thought, and as the ground settled over the years, they had the underside of the concrete to live and travel in. Maybe shared with the ants, when those are around.

The boy is doing well, if "boy" can describe someone several inches taller than me, and with considerably more facial hair. He's back in person at school, vaccinated. Learning stuff, occasionally talking to other teenagers, and generally being a delight to have around.

My previous company filed for an IPO this week! So that's a new experience. The date and price are kept under SEC-enforced lock and key, and then there's usually a 6-month lockout period for current and former employees (or something). 

My current company remains a big ship to steer, self-encumbered in new and exciting ways, but it's moving along. The tech job market is nuts, though. My former minions departing my former company are scoring absurd levels of compensation at new jobs. It's unreal.

And, finally, I've been reading a lot about machining, out of curiosity. I've been watching machining videos for a long time, mostly Clickspring and This Old Tony, and wanted to know how it worked. How do you take the messy, uneven, nonlinear materials of the world, and make flat surfaces? How do you create something accurate to within 0.0001 inches? (About the thickness the ink a Sharpie dispenses.) The answer, it turns out, is "kind of a pain in the ass, actually," but mostly it starts with somebody rubbing 3 plates of material (granite or cast iron, usually) against each other, and scraping down the high spots. When each is perfectly flat against the other two, they're all flat, because the surface common to them all is a flat plane. Few people do that themselves, and instead you usually acquire a "surface plate" for your shop, and use it to calibrate the more complicated gear that absorbs daily wear and tear.

Dunno. Could be worse.