Newsletter #16 - November 2020 (COVID-19, moving & more) (Patreon)

I'm sorry for the recent radio silence, but sadly this has become a unwanted necessity of mine lately (due to quick COVID-19 related turnovers in my day-job company and my recent move).

I want to focus on that last point especially, because all of you were a big part in making this happen, and I want to give credit where credit is due.

So let's get started...

Why the latest radio silence?

Just like so many others out there, COVID-19 has affected me as well, with several acquaintances of mine catching the disease, multiple lock-downs being put in place and, of course, having to go through all the changes the pandemic forced on my regular work-life.

Unlike most people, who might have lost their jobs, or even worse (I pray all of you make it through these trying times as unscathed as possible), my workload pretty much doubled, with stricter deadlines being put in place so that the company's offerings would be ready for deployment when they were needed.

Overall, the company went through a rather fast paradigm shift. We went from providing on-site security solutions to remote-schooling software, forcing me and my co-workers to quickly adapt and churn out lots of new software in a rather short amount of time. We were essentially playing a constant game of cat & mouse with the market, trying to stay on top of the ever changing needs of it in regard to the changes the COVID-19 lock-down restrictions put on us.

With lock-downs becoming a daily part of the people's lives here, a need for remote-schooling software and a bunch of other remote-working tools was born, and we planned to be ready ahead of time.

This is the main reason I had very little time to sink into actual Patreon work lately, but there's more.

So what about this move you mentioned?

It's no secret, and I've mentioned it many times over the last 2 years, but I was operating out of a small apartment, with the intent to built my own home some day.

A place I could truly call home and, maybe, have a family in someday.

And so, I've been saving money for 2 years straight to make it all happen, doing overtime / second & third jobs where I could, reducing my recurring monthly / annual costs where possible and of course, providing new and interesting content to all of you who so graciously decided to share in my interests and support me.

Long story short: This endeavor of mine came to an end just recently, with the time between my last update and this post being mostly spent applying spit & polish to the new place, moving all the remainder things over, and of course, restoring the old apartment I used to call home to its prior prim & proper state for handover to its next occupant.

As things are finally settling down again here, I want to use this chance to thank each and every one of you who made this possible.

All of this was made possible in no small part by all of you and I have trouble putting my feelings into words that would do you guys justice.

All summed up: You guys rock and I can't wait to sink my teeth into some more Patreon work again.

But more on this next...

So, what's next?

I hate nothing more than giving ETAs, mostly because I hate deadlines of any sort (no matter if they are self-imposed or not).

They tend to make me rush things, trying to hit them exactly, which, more often than not, ends in internal Alpha-testing being cut (too) short, things being missed and follow-up 0-day patches trying to make up for previous oversights.

So I will refrain from giving any of these. Instead, I will tell you about the way I tend to work, and when you will be able to expect major upcoming updates.

Long story short, I tend to work in one of two ways, switching as needed depending on the current real-life situation.

When time allows me to, I tend to get my day-job's daily quota done, then attach another 3-4 hours after work for Patreon, and slowly work my way towards another big update.

When that isn't an option (like recently, where I already work 12~16 hour shifts every day due to COVID-19 related changes at work), I tend to pause Patreon work during regular work-days and power-rush several 16 hour days of work in whenever I get some holidays approved at my day-job.

As such, I've opened up two time-slots exclusively for progressing Patreon work.

The first will be the 21. ~ 24th. of November with the second being the 26th. ~ 29th. of December.

While the first one is already pretty much clocked in, the second one might shift a little back or forth, maybe even get a small extension of 2-3 additional days, depending on the situation at my day-job.

In that time I hope to make the move to Android 9 (or even 10 if we are lucky) for the XD+. As for Android 11, I haven't given it much of a thought just yet, as I am waiting for the LineageOS upstream sources to settle in a place where I feel comfortable working on them.

All summed up; or tl;dr...

• COVID-19 keeps affecting my day-job, stealing most of my spare-time;
• I've decided to power-rush some Android 9 / 10 Patreon updates out over a dedicated 8-day timespan in November / December;
• I'm (finally) a home-owner, thanks to all of you in no small part!

With that all out of the way, I wish all of you only the best and as always...

I'll keep you posted.

- Black-Seraph