Week of 2023-02-05

📷 Photography

This wasn't a great week for taking pictures. I got out a few times and have a few exposures waiting to be processed, but nothing really inspired me.

I've been here before and I've learned that the best thing to do is not think about it much. The weather hasn't changed a ton lately, I haven't had many changes of scenery, so it makes sense that here we are in February and I'm not feeling inspired.

✏️ Writing

Most of my writing time this week went to working on a quick start guide for weblog.lol. It's meant to help people who are new to omg.lol and maybe somewhat new to blogging get from a blank page to something they can personalize and customize a little.

It was pretty easy to get into a flow state with the writing, and I enjoyed the work of doing a thing, writing it down, doing a thing, writing it down. I used to write a lot of tutorials and howtos and it was always a nice mental space to be in.

Next up will be some documentation about weblog.lol's git-based publishing workflow, then on to the general reference.

📚 Reading

Still working through Shards of Earth. I spent more time playing video games this week than reading.

In fact ...

🕹️ Gaming

I got a new-to-me Playstation 4 and was immediately blown away at how much stuff there is in the online store for very little money. As a pretty devoted casual, I went in just wanting to grab a few arcade games and get a little better experience on the big screen than a Switch can manage.

I found Elite Dangerous, based on the original 8-bit Elite from the '80s, and love it so much. It captures the look and mechanics of the original but adds some welcome depth and detail. Al noted how slow a game it seems to be -- the way you spend a lot of time just going between places -- and I realized how much I enjoyed that part of it. There's always stuff to do, but it happens at this pace that feels rare. A few times I found myself reaching for something to read while I traversed a system. When I took little 30-minute gaming breaks that was usually enough to do one mission of some kind.

⚙️ Organization

Pretty steady state here. I've hit some sort of groove with tracking what I need to do, making sure I do it, etc. I have days where it takes a little work to make myself bear down and do a thing, but I feel very on top of everything.

I have moments where I think about fiddling with Things or OmniFocus or something, but I think about all the clicking and arranging and organizing, and then I look at the Markdown-based boards I'm maintaining and how well they're working for me as simple as they are, and I set the idea aside.

🫥 How are you feeling?

Good.

I mentioned last week that I got some health news. This week was a lot about the continuing adjustments that requires. Things are going okay there. I'm not ready to talk about it in a ton of detail, but:

Something I've always sort of liked about myself and how I come at the world is my capacity for acceptance. I didn't like the news -- to the extent it was given I had some inkling -- but with it has come some changes, and some medication that is helping things I thought were just age catching up to me that were not after all. My sleep has gotten better, some annoying things have stopped being things at all, and the required lifestyle changes are pretty welcome. I'm realizing now how much I probably knew something was going on and just wasn't facing it head on.

I had a great time working on the weblog.lol documentation. It was easy to get into flow and easy to stick with a given writing sprint's objective. Some of that, I think, was benefits of addressing the health stuff I've had to deal with: Being better rested and having more energy does a lot for the ability to just sit and do a thing.

Other stuff:

A former colleague recommended me for a role at their place, and it felt great to be thought of that way. We'll see where that goes. Still wresting with how to engage the network and how to do some self-promotion. Something that's definitely come out of laying back is that when I look down my job board I can see what I'm interested in and what has gone unapplied for. So I'm more clear on what I want.

I got out more on my bike than I have in a while, rain and shine. It feels great to bike on a sunny day, but there is something about riding on a rainy day that I really love. I've got decent gear so I don't get uncomfortable and it just feels energizing.