Into the Netherworld
Just as I thought I might be hitting my stride with this whole “blogging nearly every day” thing, work took a colossal dump on my life.
The project I've been working on for the last several months has lurched from “development” to “production”, and is being used by hundreds of users simultaneously – ramping up to thousands in the coming days. In the middle of the go-live, we realised there was a significant issue deep in the source code – the sort of issue that caused me to stay up until 4am working on, and then continue work on throughout the next day without stopping as the phone rang off the hook, before stumbling home and launching into the usual chores.
After clearing the decks, rather than read emails, write blog posts, or do anything else, I have played Minecraft with the kids. Four of us have headed into the imaginary world together and built houses, explored, and this evening mined enough obsidian to open a portal to the “Netherworld”.
How can I explain this to somebody that hasn't played Minecraft before? If you've seen “Stranger Things”, you'll know exactly what the Netherworld is. It might have even been the inspiration for the “Upside Down”. A horror strewn inversion of the normal world, populated with things that go bump in the night. I've never known the children so excited and terrified at the same time.
So. Here we are. It's just gone 10pm, and I'm wondering about making a hot chocolate before heading to bed. Maybe I'll catch up on some of the sleep I've lost in recent days. Maybe I'll sit here instead and try to catch up on the many and various blog posts I haven't read.
(We all know I'll still be here in an hour, right?)