Synfull

Whilst I'm not overly active on dA any more, I still pop in once in a while and thought I'd do a bit of a life update for anyone else who still lurks around here.

The last few months have been a bit of a whirlwind for me. At the end of June, the software company I worked for failed to get the investment it needed, meaning that I lost my job along with the majority of out Dev and QA team. I'd been working in the same company for nearly 10 years and really enjoyed my time there, so it was a shame I had to leave.

Luckily for me, I had quite a long notice period (9 weeks) which was long enough to find a new job and then have a few weeks off. This gave me the chance to spend a lot of time with my sister and her family (who were visiting from America) and go for a number of walks in my local national park called The Peak District.

I started my new role a few weeks ago. I think it's going ok but it will take some time to adjust to working in a new company. It didn't help that I caught covid in my first week - I'm just about recovered though have some smell/taste loss still.

As the days get shorter, I imagine I will get less chances to go hiking but look forward to the idea of picking up some craft projects.

I think that's about all I have to share. I hope all of you are doing ok. Take care

Happy New Year!

I just realised that I didn't write a single journal in 2022. Whoops. I am still lurking around here and pop in a few times a week, but I haven't had much to post/update.

So what was 2022 like for me? Quite mixed.

The year started off strong. I spent the Spring months working on my house - I painted the fences, shed and decking, decorated a blank wall in my office and then spent a few days painting my bathroom.

Over the summer, things hit a bump in the road. I had a number of fun plans arranged, which all had to be scrapped as I (and a friend staying with me) caught Covid. Fortunately no long lasting effects, and we both made the most of the situation, but it wasn't quite the relaxing week we had planned. Oh well.

In Autumn, I tried to make up for missed opportunities, and think I took on a little too much at once. I filled a lot of my free time with meetups or walks or other house improvements, which resulted in feeling exhausted since around the end of October. It's meant that I've spent the last couple of months just waiting for the end of the year so I could have some time off and hopefully recover.

So what does 2023 have for me? I'm not really sure. I'm hoping to paint the hall, stairs and landing as that's the last area of the house in need of renovation. I would like to get out walking more, though an long-lasting ankle injury hasn't been helping with that.  Other than that, we'll have to wait and see.

Hope you are all doing well, and wishing you the best for the new year!

With the blink of an eye it's now December and NaNoEmo has finished for another year. It has been an absolute delight to see a number of emoticonist take part, breathing some life back into a community that is dormant for much of the year.

To add to the celebrations, two of the entries received a Daily Deviation (DD) and one emoticonist ( @MerelyCubed) managed to complete the "30 in 30" challenge - a truly impressive achievement.

Without further ado, here are a selection of the entries from this year:

@MerelyCubed

30 entries

@Phlum

6 entries

@BlissfullySarcastic

7 entries

@nillemotes

11 entries

Emotes submitted privately