I just happened to be in the room when my recruiter got a call from someone looking to fill a vacancy. I have no experience in the industry or anything like it, let alone the qualifications, but have the really basic general skills required. They put me forward anyway. I got the job - it’s basically stress free, great people, decent pay, clear advancement track, extremely low employee turn over and the commute is really short.

Easily the most confused I’ve been getting a job.

My first child was born in February.

I aced my first university exam. I had very low expectations so I’m unusually happy it turned out this way

Wife and I were granted permanent residency. I didn’t expect us to get it as early as we did, so it was a nice surprise.

I finally moved out on my own and have peace of mind.

I got a raise at mŭ job!

I was told a couple of weeks ago that my workplace wants to promote me. Said promotion won’t happen until next year as that’s when the position will open up due to a retirement, but it came out of nowhere and it gives me something to look forward to.

I got a grant to do independent research on the AI alignment problem and was able to quit my job.

Watched a Mike Boyd video about indoor climbing.

Thought it looked fun, always enjoyed climbing as a kid, signed up for an intro lesson and been doing it 6months now. I’m stronger and fitter now in my mid thirties than I’ve ever been in my life before now.

I fucking love climbing.

Learned that going for walks are awesome. Queue some podcasts and off I go, each day. Has become a very enjoyable part of the day for me.

Sold a Warhammer Box to a random guy via this countries version of craigslist, asked whether he wanted to play sometime, already played a round with him and his friends.

So pretty randomly made some new friends :)

A music label that I like posted one of my songs on their YouTube channel

Watched a video from the “Townsend” channel on youtube while I was off work after a surgery back in January. He does a lot of 18th century cooking, in a kitchen without any modern equipment. I remember him making some bread and I thought “Wait - that’s not impossible, it doesn’t even look difficult”.

I tried to make some bread and it was amazing. Which lead me to try making something else… and now, in December, I’m able to cook a bunch of cool things that even my daughter will eat. I made cookies for Thanksgiving (chocolate chip, and some chai spice cookies I was experimenting with) and they all vanished, while my aunt, who makes cookies for a living, kept reminding people that she had made some cookies too.

My wife and I are visibly thinner and healthier than we were this time last year. We keep trying to cook new things, and it keeps working.

A lot of my weekends start with an early-morning motorcycle ride to the store to get the one or two things I need to make something, and I hope that the image of a large, unpleasant looking bearded man on a harley running to the store for stuff to make cookies tickles everyone.

I found a gold ring in a vent behind the rear mirror in my car.

It’s been really cold and I had heated the car before driving. As I was making a sharp turn some water dripped from behind the rear mirror. I guess it was condensation that had frozen and then heated? I stopped the car and used my phone flashlight to see where the water came from. Then I saw a flash of gold from something behind a vent that could be removed behind the rear mirror, where there’s wires for the radar and stuff. It was an 18k gold ring, engraved from the early sixties. I’ve had the car for a year and the former owner was a company with many people using the car. I guess someone his the ring and then forgot about it?

In January, I thought I was going to be asked to leave my job. In June they gave me a huge promotion.