I have returned to Indiana. I actually got back on the 18th, but have taken it easy as there was a fair amount of driving involved with this trip. Not much happened with me during the time I was away, however it seems like a good time to update since I’ve effectively had 2 weeks off now.
Brother’s Graduation
My brother got his PhD, which was the reason for the trip. Technically he still has to defend his thesis, but I doubt that will be a problem. It is going to be interesting to see where he ends up once this is all wrapped up. Personally I think he’ll end up in California, because he seemed to like the internship he worked at over there, but he seems to be avoiding any hard plans for the moment. Wherever he ends up, I’m sure he’ll do well for himself.
The graduation itself was a graduation. One thing I’ve always wondered about these things is why there are so many speeches before. This one was fairly light in that regard (thankfully). If I had to guess I would say that the goal is to inspire graduates to go do greater things, which is well and good but I wonder how useful that actually is.
Stellaris
This is a 4X strategy game that recently came out, which I’ve enjoyed quite a bit. Probably too much, to be honest. The game is still pretty bare bones, but I expect it will go the same route as Crusader Kings 2, with plenty of DLC adding more functionality in the future. I’m still not 100% sure how everything works, to be honest. I have around 50 hours in the game so far (which given how recently I’ve gotten home should tell you how much I’m enjoying it).
The biggest issue for me atm is just that I’m playing it far too much, letting it cut into my writing time. Today I decided it is time for that to end, so I’m forcing myself to cut way back. Which leads us right into the next bit of news.
No Writing Done
So during my trip there were problems with my power cable that made writing basically impossible (in addition to just being unable to write given the environment I had). Fortunately it is an easy problem to fix, I bought a new one that is working out just fine. However it has seriously dented my productivity and made me wonder if I should push back my deadline for the book. Decided against it as this time was basically a trail, and I hope to get back to 4 hours of writing/day.
