Completely personal post

Personal, that is, in that this will be a post entirely about me (Jack Jackson), not that in it I will reveal my deepest darkest secrets (no, that's strictly reserved for drunken online chat).

Today, I moved into my new home for the next six months.  For those of you who haven't been keeping track at home, I was recently offered a job with a Web Development company based in St. Albans called MB Interactive, which I start on Monday.  The house itself (268, Hatfield Road, St. Albans, AL1 4UN for all those love letters!) is really nice - I've got a really decent double room, the kitchen and lounge are fully furnished (I'll admit, the XBox 360 plugged into the massive TV, and the unlimited broadband, were pretty big draws for me), all bills are included in the pretty low rent, and I'm sharing with five other guys, the three of whom I've conversed with so far seem to be really great guys - Damien has an Irish brogue and plays guitar when he's not cuddling the girl I assume is his girlfriend, Chris has been really welcoming and interested in my background, and Tim, the web hosting engineer, is an AirSoft aficianado who's offered to take me along next time he plays.  Oh yeah, and one of the first things I was told when I entered the house was "yeah, we're a pretty good house for culinary skills, you'll find you get fed a lot" - I AM GOING TO LIKE IT HERE!

Despite having forgotten quite a few things (though not as many as I would have expected), and being a little nervous about my first day of real employment tomorrow, I'm really happy to have fallen on my feet quite so well, to be in such a great situation, and to have found a job that I think I will enjoy and do well at.  And, to go a little more airy-fairy touchy-feely, I'm also really thankful to have such wonderful, supportive, kind, and generous friends and family who've helped me through depression, self-doubt, and anxiety issues, to be able to be in the brilliant situation that I'm at now.  I'm incredibly lucky, you people are truly wonderful; most days I feel like I don't deserve you, and I wonder why you're all still around, but I thank my lucky stars that you are.  I don't think I'll ever quite kick my stupid habits of not believing in myself, or seeing the manifest evidence of my own worth that's regularly staring me in the face, but it always helps to have amazing people around to give me a kick up the arse when I'm being a numbskull.  You are wonderful.

Edit: this space used to contain a paragraph I wrote about a post on Reddit claiming that the poster was willing to donate £21 to charity for every upvote (similar to a Facebook "like") that he got.  Turns out (as people who aren't as naive as I probably knew all along) that it was all a hoax.  Ah well.  As someone commented in the "reveal post": "The best part is that by being such a dick and doing this for his own twisted pleasure, he has probably inspired many other people to donate their own money to the cause".  So at least something good came out of it!

And, FWIW, my faith in humanity is not affected one jot.  There are always gonna be dickheads (especially on the internet!) - just try to surround yourself with good people, and you'll do fine.