I am introducing a new spiritual discipline I’ve created for myself called Golgotha. It is a modified version of Misogi, a once‑a‑year, 50/50‑chance‑of‑success challenge with the tongue‑in‑cheek rule ‘don’t die’”, adapted to incorporate Christian reflection and prayer. Earlier this week, I came across a podcast episode with a clickbait-y title, obviously intended to capitalize on the self-improvement aspirations that accompany the transition to a new year. It was this episode of the “My First Million” podcast: If you want a rich life, watch this before 2026.

The author of Reading Cannot Be Replaced, Here’s Why gave words to the hollow feeling I have after sitting in front of a screen for too long: Then, it occurred to me that the feeling wasn’t sadness per se, but a crash from being overstimulated. A crash. Screens evoke the neurological equivalent of a sugar rush. Or at least it feels that way. This reminded me that for a short period of time, I was so fed up with screens that I started printing articles in 8 point font.

This past week, I started a new job as a senior software engineer at Progressive Insurance (contracting via Dexian). Before starting, I read a lot of blog posts and forums online to discover what this job might be like. I wanted to know what to expect and what I could focus on to grow quickly. So now that I’m a week in, I wanted to write my own post about what the first week is like as a senior software engineer.

I really enjoyed this conversation between Brett Kistler and Joe Hudson. They discuss that what we call “time scarcity” is really emotional overwhelm. The key to overcoming that overwhelm and feeling like you have more time? Being present. This message really resonated with me. It’s easy to whip out my phone when I’m feeling overwhelmed, which creates a vicious cycle. But the times when I lock myself in, be present, and experience my emotions are when I feel the most fulfilled and time abundant.

Indexing is one of my favorite parts of journaling. It’s joyfully tedious. There’s no way to do it quickly, and the slower the better in my opinion. I love going through each page one by one, and copying the gist into the index at the front of the journal. The end result of having a fully indexed journal is satisfying, but even better is the process and getting lost reminiscing in long forgotten memories.

I have to admit, when I first launched Fed Meetup, I wasn’t very proud of the UX . I pieced it together quickly to meet a need at NASA, and didn’t make the time to go back and clean it up. But that bad user experience has been a thorn in my side ever since I launched the tool. That’s why I redesigned it from the ground up. The result is a clean, intuitive, and much more beautiful interface.

This morning I was assembling a Minnie Mouse puzzle with my daughter and all was going well, until we got to the end and realized we were missing Minnie’s phone. “Let’s find phone!” my two year old shouted. And off she went, scouring the house for a little purple phone. I laughed when I saw the first place she looked. She walked over beside our couch, lifted up an air vent cover, and peeked inside.

I got a notification from my old college that I was hoping I would never get. When my wife and I created our Google accounts through Kent State University, they included an awesome promise, free unlimited storage for life. I couldn’t find the old policy for storage, but here is the policy for email. Kent state university will maintain a students' email account for the life of the student to facilitate communication as an alumnus, or until such time that a former student requests that the account be closed.

I finally got my Readwise Highlights synced into Obsidian in a way that lets me share all my highlights from my digital garden (garden.weidok.al). Take a peek if you want to see the books, articles, and podcasts I’ve highlighted and taken notes on: Jakes Digital Garden - 400 Readwise Highlights As I mentioned earlier this week, I’ve been reading a lot more physical books and I haven’t made the effort to save my highlights from those into Readwise.

I love that it’s starting to feel like fall again. This summer has been brutally hot. My poor lawn looks like withered, uncooked, squiggly spaghetti. But cool breezes have begun to weave their way back into the air. It’s been much more pleasant to take long walks on nature trails with my girls. I’ve even been able to wear a hoodie a few times. The changing weather feels especially significant because it aligns with some significant change in my life.