The office is closed for at least the rest of this week, possibly longer, because an employee tested positive for COVID.
Officially, management does not get to say who the person is. Unofficially, I was given a clear hint. It’s not somebody I ever have contact with and I think my personal risk is pretty low. Given the timing, I would have shown symptoms if I was going to. So the most likely thing is that I don’t have it. The less likely thing is, I have it, my spouse probably has it and we’re both asymptomatic. And less likely still is it wasn’t Delta, but broke through to infect an unvaccinated person anyway and then the chances that I have it are even less.
Anyway. I’m not worried for myself. I hope my coworker gets through OK and nobody else in the office has it.
But my parents are concerned and think it’s best if I cancel my trip to visit them next week. Which is a bummer, but of course I will respect their wishes. I could simply have not mentioned it, but I don’t think that would have been fair or right.
My expectation is I’ll just take the vacation days anyway and stay home.
The time between an album release and the start of the next one often feels awkward to me. It’s been less than two weeks since the release of Pulse Code but I haven’t felt ready to start recording something new yet. I told myself a few times I was going to wait until after my trip, but with that not happening, it seems like those vacation days would be a good time to work on it.
But there’s no “publish or die” pressure, no contract or deadline or anything. Any feeling of guilt that I’m not constantly turning out products is entirely unwarranted and I’d like to purge that… but not with the obvious step of “don’t make any music!”
Maybe more jamming with the Model:Cycles, the uke, mandolin, bass guitar etc. are the answer? Or maybe, just start doing stuff with the modular and don’t worry about it. Eh.
I’ve played through several character classes in Guild Wars 2 over the past few months and the shine is wearing off again. It’s probably time to uninstall.
I really haven’t been playing much Dirt Rally though. I don’t know if the wheel controller — its increased difficulty, requirement to set things up, extra physical tension and (minor) exertion — is the real culprit or if it’s simply that I like Art of Rally more. Some of each? Art of Rally has a very nice balance between casual friendliness and tricky simulation. Dirt Rally is a bit more hardcore to begin with and the wheel makes it much more so. Maybe I’ll try playing it with the XBox controller again and see how that feels for me, and sell the wheel on eBay if it makes me happier to do so.
Speaking of which, the “RB” button on my XBox controller is dead. This isn’t a problem for Art of Rally, but it is for some others. The cost to have an XBox controller repaired is more than the cost of a new one. I guess I will poke around for third-party or used controllers to replace it, or consider going all-out on a custom color one from Microsoft.