Last week was [hopefully] my last week of work for the year. I'll try and now give myself the next few weeks off... not that I work full weeks these days anyway (I'm either working part time, or semi-retired, I'm not sure which - probably just a slacker that gets by). Being self-employed can have its perks (if one earns enough), but I was reminded this week there are actually a few non-perks: no holiday pay, no sick pay, and no work's Christmas do... I mean, I could have one, but it would be pretty lame.

While the year before had been pretty dire income-wise, this past year had a couple of plusses. Firstly there was the whole 'end of Windows 10 thing' so I got to "upgrade" various clients to Windows 11, and then a local business changed hands and, due to a few people there knowing me, I was put forward as someone to help transition the tech stuff, and I've been their I.T. guy ever since; it's nice, but still no Christmas do; the staff were all off to theirs while I was doing battle with installing software...

"Getting absolutely smashed" at the boss's expense, as one member of staff exclaimed, is not my cup of tea, but at least I wasn't obliged to partake in Secret Santa.

A further downside to being a lowly self-employed person with little work, is that my life is quiet and I've become even more "withdrawn", and I wasn't all that outgoing to begin with! It's not that it bothers me so much, it's just how I am. I sort of became more that way ever since high school and my time online began. I spoke previously of the GeoCities days, but they also included Yahoo! Chat, where I discovered chatting online with people was easier than face-to-face. It seemed ideal then but these days I think it was sort of detrimental. Now everyone chats online and the concern is with people befriending A.I. "companions" over real people. Really it's just another step in the direction of  whatever hell-Matrix we appear to have been heading all along. Even when I do find myself in the physical company of others I fail to make eye contact half (most) of the time (autistic trait) and they end up on their phone (A.I. companions don't typically get distracted, not that I recommend them).

I've just finished reading a short but concise 125-page book on Freudian Psychology. I found it to be insightful and I wrote down copious "notes", but I don't know what to do with them, as tends to be the case when I read books and take notes. I'd never come across the term "cathexes" before. I wonder if I could work my way back through what I absorbed and use it for actual self-improvement; remove some self-imposed hindrances...