Personal

I decided this fall would be my Season of Creativity, since it felt like my Year of Transition had nicely wrapped up at that point. I wanted to give myself the freedom to pursue creative projects, and not get myself hung up on what I should or shouldn’t be doing with my time. I enjoy creating, and I owe it to myself to let that enjoyment come through. I think this season was a mixed success. I spent more time reading and writing, focusing on creative projects, and letting my mind wander. However, I also gave myself more to do, both in volunteer work and some freelance work on the side. While these both can tap into my creative side, it doesn’t feel quite the same since they are often dictated by others and their established timelines. ...

We’ve been using a new chocolate chip cookie recipe for several months, but it’s now the holidays and I was able to introduce it to my family. In short, it’s been a big hit. Here’s a direct link to the recipe, with none of the blogging excitement. A key difference in preparation is that this recipe calls for browned butter. I’d never gone through the process before, but it does provide more depth to the flavor. Comparing it to our previous-favorite Toll House recipe, a few other changes are more sugar and less flour. And, specifically with the sugar, this new recipe focuses heavily on brown sugar, whereas the Toll House recipe uses equal amounts of both. ...

My projects and obligations outside work have grown over the past six months. Alongside my usual podcasts and writing, I started volunteering for a tutoring organization, and am looking to take on a contract role for some extra money. With everything building up, I need to reevaluate the tools I use to keep track of everything so I’m not letting anything slip by. The beauty of them being personal projects is I can use whatever system I want. ...

With my Season of Creativity in full-swing, and some potential projects for next year circulating in my brain, I’m thinking more carefully about how I set up my devices. For example, I’ve been working on creating a “work phone” for myself, which I eventually managed by activating separate users on my Android phone. I like this separation of devices, so I’m considering how to setup a creative projects device. Thanks to an older MacBook holding its value surprisingly well, I have enough trade-in value for the newest 11" iPad Pro to take on this new role in my life. ...

In what is now dangerously close to becoming an annual occurrence, I drove back to Minnesota a couple weeks ago. That trip, while exciting because I got to see some friends, did not generate particularly interesting stories. However, the first day driving back to California is vying for the largest rollercoaster of a day I’ve had during a road trip. Let’s explore. ...

As I discussed in my yearly theme check-in a couple of weeks ago, I’ve essentially wrapped up my Year of Transition, and am looking at starting a seasonal theme. I’ve decided to go with the one mentioned in that post: Season of Creativity. ...

Follow me through a brief journey of how I kept track of projects at work over the last year or so. It’s been a doozy. ...

I denoted this year as the Year of Transition. The overall goal was to look forward to, and make the most of, moving to a new city. Along with that came a change in my position at work, and continued adjustments to my lifestyle as the pandemic took its course. But it might be time to transition to a new theme. ...

I set up a Slack workflow to run every Monday morning at 8 a.m. on my company’s slack. It sends me a form to ask a few questions about how the previous week went, and a few looking forward to the upcoming week. I find this short check-in to be incredibly useful. It primes me for the week, and helps keep me accountable to myself. Whether it’s for personal or professional aid, I recommend giving something similar a shot.

The last several years have left me unenthused about celebrating my birthday to any great extent. I always did something a bit special, like going to get a dinner I wouldn’t do every week, but it was never much. I think it was the easiest approach when I was by myself. However, this year just felt different. I turned 25, and wanted to make it feel special. While nothing I did was out of the ordinary—disc golfing, a baseball game, and homemade pizza—telling myself it was special made it better. I brought Erin to the disc golf course I frequent for the first time, and shot a really good round. I upgraded our tickets for the baseball game to be in row 6 off the right field baseline, and managed to catch a ball as a result. And the pizza was excellent alongside the brownies for dessert. ...