Busy as Hell

Boy have I not posted in a while. As excuses go, I actually have a pretty good one for once: I’ve been swamped in being ridiculously productive. The best part about it is that it’s been so fun I don’t even mind. And to think it all started when I finished a video game.

Beginning the Expedition

I think this deserves a bit of backstory. I completed a game called Expedition 33 back in June, and it was so good I played through it a second time in New Game+. This game is a genuine masterpiece, and it’ll be a literal crime if it doesn’t win Game of the Year on every list. It’s so good that it’s broken into my top five games of all time, and I’m hardly the only one gushing about it. The battle system, the atmosphere, the art, the sound design, the music, the story—all of it comes together in a symphony of near perfection.

But how could that prompt my descent into productive madness? First of all: spoiler warning. If you haven’t played Expedition 33 and you have any love at all for RPGs, stop reading this and go play it right now. I promise I’ll understand.

Back? Ok, so the ending of the game delves deeply into the philosophy of reality, family, fulfillment, and so much more. Most importantly is the tone of the conclusion itself: will you lose yourself to the fantasy, or face the world in all its complexities? As I get older, I realize I’ve been embracing the former far longer than I should. Sure having a hobby of avidly delving into video games, or fiction, or Anime is enjoyable, but what do I have to show for it? It’s spiritual junk food, and I am most definitely an unapologetic glutton. I lost myself in the stories, and forget all about the harshness of reality.

What I do accomplish feels truncated somehow, as if I’m wasting my potential by frittering it away on trivialities. So I decided to do something about it, and perhaps it’ll make some kind of difference.

Code Complete

Part of that journey was finally dusting off my coding skills and writing some Postgres extensions. This is something I’ve been meaning to do for over a decade now. How did I do? In the last month or so, I’ve produced no less than three extensions:

• noddl - A beginner extension to learn the ropes, it just blocks DDL execution and not much else. A proof-of-concept of sorts.
• pg_meminfo - Presents a view of Linux kernel PID smap information for all running Postgres processes.
• pg_walsizer - Increases the size of the Postgres WAL whenever it detects excessive forced checkpoint activity.

And then I wrote lazy_arena, a ridiculously over-simplified Arena allocator. Why that in particular? The Postgres code includes a fairly sophisticated context memory management system that strongly reminded me of arena allocation, so I wanted to write one. That’s the only reason. It was burning a hole in my brain so fervently that night I couldn’t really sleep, so I scrambled to finish it the next day before publishing it on GitHub.

I’ve always had the ability to do that, but I just… haven’t. What else have I missed while I was nose-deep in a book or vanquishing the latest RPG boss? Sure I wrote a book or two, but that feels like small potatoes now.

Business or Bust

I also finally got around to starting a business of sorts. Being laid off twice in a year sucks, but having no backup plan is worse. I always bounce back, but what if it takes longer the next time, should that ever come around? So I needed a side gig to potentially get me through the lean times. And so, after much paperwork and more than a few fees, DB Grid was born. Here’s the logo:

I haven’t had time to create a website for it yet, but I do have a working email account. It’s already doing well, as I’m assisting a company with an AWS migration, and a past coworker has reached out to see if I could help with a project where he’s currently working. Why didn’t I do this 20 years ago?

A Frantic Pace

I know this can’t go on forever, but I’m feeling great churning out code, and migration plans, and whatever else my brain latches onto. My idea of fun isn’t exactly normal, but losing sleep over a really cool code idea isn’t something I’ve done in a very long time. Perhaps that’s also why I’m also doing a five-day fast starting today.

I did a three day fast a year or two ago just to say I could. The first two days were utterly dreadful, but by day three, I felt like I could have extended it almost indefinitely. The hunger finally left, and what replaced it was a kind of contentment with or without food. I’d already decided to limit the fast to three days, so I ended it the next morning.

I feel like this is just the beginning even though I’m turning 48 in a couple of weeks. What else can I do? I’m not trying to prove anything; I’m just currently enamored with how much I can accomplish now that I’m actually trying. I even have an outline for another Postgres book! I had to put it on the backburner because I’m actually a bit too busy right now and my first choice publisher came back with too much feedback for me to incorporate while I’m juggling everything else.

I’ll see how things look in a week and revisit. They have some weird limitations that would severely curtail my original vision, and hey, maybe I could self-publish anyway. I’ve done everything else, so why not that too? I guess we’ll see.

Until Tomorrow