Suddenly, out of nowhere, and without warning, my writing muse roared back into my head and demanded I produce. (It also brought inspiration in the deal, so, you know, all good.) Between that and how well school is going for tigerphoenix, I'm feeling pretty good.

Still waiting for my pay increases to go through. For complicated reasons, the government increases you by a within-grade step, then by grade, so sometime in April I should start receiving the full force of my two-grade jump. But on the more-awesome side, the time-in-grade requirements are being eliminated; that means I no longer have to spend 52 weeks at grade 9, but can go to 11 as soon as I meet the requirements for doing so, and thence to 12. Considering it's about $10k per any grade jump I do (7->9->11->12), good deal, I say. Actual incentive to work hard? I'm all over it.