Weeknotes #014: Time off

What I did in the 50th week of 2020

Work

I worked Monday and Tuesday this week and then took some time off. I have found pandemic-life changes the calculation around leave. I have found it difficult to take leave during 2020. Time off tends to look a bit like an extended weekend. That is nice enough, but I miss getting to go see people and new places with some leave.

I have an impulse to store it all up for when “this is all over”™, but that could still be a while off.

So I took some this week.

Read

I stalled a bit on “Who We Are and How We got Here”, letting fiction fill the gap.

I am about half way through “A closed and common orbit”, which has not been what I expected but is still pretty good.

Listened to

99% Invisible’s Katie Mingle has put together a long form series: “According to Need”. It’s great. The first four episodes (plus a prologue) are now out.

The whole series has its own page here.

I used to work for a Charity in the UK that works to end homelessness. It is intriguing hearing about the US and pondering similarities and differences.

Some familiar stories and problems, but the basic safety net seems even more threadbare in the USA. Both here and there it is primarily a question of attention and resources. It is a problem well within our gift to solve. When it remains, it is because a society has made the choice to let it continue.

| Huw