The Column
Motto: AAAAAAAAAAA!!!
…AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!
Alright, now that I’ve got that out… let’s get started.
This update will remain “the most recent update” for, at a minimum, the next 11 days. This is because I am traveling to infinity* and beyond**.
- infinity = Japan ** beyond = Thailand
Melissa has been in Thailand for the past 80 days. This, as you can imagine, has been a huge bummer for me. What’s more, she isn’t returning home for another 82 days. This, as you can imagine, is going to be a huge bummer for me. Some people can go 162 days without seeing their S.O. and be absolutely fine - but not me. That’s why I’m using the first time I ever got paid vacation to travel outside of the United States for the first time to see my girlfriend for the first time in 80 days. I leave tomorrow morning and, after 30 hours of plane flights and airports, will spend the next 7 days in beautiful Thailand with beautiful Melissa. Next weekend will be like tomorrow, but played in reverse (Bangkok to Kansas City).
I’m still not fully done packing and preparing… but I’m getting there; and I could use the break.
I am equal parts excited, amped, jacked, agog, thrilled, and aflutter. Add in a double-dose of nervous and anxious for the trip, and you pretty much have explored every corner of Aaron’s current emotional landscape.
That’s Melissa. She’s my girlfriend.
I am just going to leave that picture there for the next couple of weeks.
UNRELATED (but still huge in my life) TOPIC:
I taught myself to write Scripts in Google Spreadsheets. I’m still a novice by every definition of the word, but I’m picking it up quick. Years of experience writing Marcos in Excel have really accelerated the learning process. This is huge in the following ways:
It cuts one of the last remaining ties I have to Microsoft. My next computer could VERY EASILY be Apple-based… or I could move my current computer over to Linux if I catch wind of available prosumer-level multimedia creation programs. GIMP is not quite Photoshop. Also: video and music creators. My Life Tracking System is fully taking shape. It is a Google Form/Spreadsheet with several Scripts associated with it that automatically manipulate and summarize the data in the ways I’ve constructed. It moves me from the echelons of “Google power-user” to “Google Developer”. Calling me a “Developer” is hilariously unjustified at this point… but for my projects I AM looking through reference materials hosted at the Google Developer webpage. I can see a path of awesomeness laid out within Google’s APIs. Any other day and that would warrant much more fervor and coverage on my part. Right now, though, I’ve only focused on one thing.
Top 5: Things I’m excited for over the next 10 days
- Going to a beach house and staying for a few days at “the most beautiful beach I’ve ever seen”
- Thai massages - highly reviewed
- Exploring Buddhist temples & Bangkok
- Seeing hilarious toilets in Japan (I’m flying to Bangkok by way of Japan)
- Getting to see Melissa
Quote:
“You’re really playing it safe with your first vacation!” My coworker