Jake Weidokal

weeknotes

Mar 16, 2025 ∞

Weeknotes Vol. 4

My week summarized into 3 highlights, 2 discoveries, and 1 anticipation. It’s been a while! It feels good to be writing a weeknote again!

3 Highlights

1. 10x10 Supersonic Wind Tunnel and SLOPE Lab Tours

I coordinated tours for my team to visit the 10x10 Supersonic Wind Tunnel and SLOPE Lab at NASA Glenn Research Center. The wind tunnel was incredible. It’s the largest wind tunnel capable of supersonic speeds in the country, and can push close to Mach 5. The tunnel complex is spread around 4 acres, as the tunnels weave in and out of buildings containing things like motors, compressors, an air dryer, and more. My favorite part of that tour was getting to see the results of a recent mishap they had. I am the product manager for NASA’s Mishap Information System, so I see incidents reported in our system all the time, but it is a completely different story to see the aftermath of a mishap in-person. I can’t go into detail about the mishap, but luckily nobody was injured, although it had the potential for severe injuries.

The SLOPE Lab was also a great tour. I had visited before, but it’s always neat to get a refresher on the history of tire design for space-faring rovers. Our tour guide was responsible for designing simulated lunar soil as part of her PhD, and I enjoyed listening to her passionately explain the process of simulating lunar regolith based on data collected from the Apollo missions. It’s also fun to get to handle and manipulate their fancy shape-memory alloy springs, which always return to their original shape. Materials science is way over my head, but utterly fascinating.

The best part of both tours was being able to make the time to provide these tours for my team. Most team members had not seen these facilities before and these tours are great for helping us all feel more connected to NASA’s mission. And on top of that they’re just really friggin' cool.

2. Ping Pong

I’m working in the office full-time now. One of the silver linings is that I discovered our building has a ping pong table that sat idle for years.

And idle it shall no longer be.

I have my own paddle that I bought a few years back which has also been collecting dust, so I’m glad to finally get some use out of it! Having ping pong as an active way to pass the time during lunch breaks is such a relief. I’ve already found a few other folks in the office that are excited to play, and one of my coworkers played competitively in tournaments in the open division in the past. He’ll definitely whoop my butt (already has), but I’m excited to play with him and others to sharpen my game and have some fun while at the office.

Semi-related: I also found a golf range nearby the office and went with a coworker this week. I’d like to put a little more time into my golf game this year and finally fix my slice! I’ve never gone to the range much and only play a couple of times a year… and it shows.

3. Swimming Lessons

My daughter had her third swimming lesson this week. I’ve looked forward to this every week since it started. She loves the water and has been doing great! This week she got a little carried away and took off sprinting around the pool while we were practicing getting in and out of the pool. I had to jump up out of the pool quickly to go catch her. My repeated utterances of “Stop! Come back!” had no effect, much to my dismay. But other than that, she has been doing great, and swimming lessons have been a wonderful way for our little family to spend time together learning in a fun way.

We also have some friends who enrolled their kids in the same class, so it has been fun to go through it together! And we get access to the rec center’s pool after lessons, so that has been a fun time to let the kids splash in the shallow end while we parents catch up with each other.

2 Discoveries

1. Airless Bike Tires

There was a recent Kickstarter campaign for airless bike tires based on the wheel design for recent rovers. Apparently an intern at the SLOPE Lab used their internship to develop bike tires based on the interwoven shape-memory alloy spring design used on rover tires. After proving this could work, that intern sold their design to The SMART Tire Company, who is now trying to reduce production costs and commercialize the design.

This is a great example of how NASA science discoveries often spin off into great commercial opportunities here on earth. For more, check out spinoff.nasa.gov/.

2. Libby

I’m very late to the game on this one, but I finally discovered Libby. Libby lets you connect your library card(s) to enjoy free ebooks and audiobooks. I’ve used other library apps, but I’m liking Libby much better so far.

With my new commute, I’m trying to transform myself into an audiobook guy. I much prefer reading visually so I can go over things slowly and take notes, but I’m adjusting to the audio format. The new audiobook feature on Spotify had me all excited, but then I realized there was a limit on how much I could listen to each month. Boo.

So now I’m using Libby instead. Another nice perk of Libby is that I can set bookmarks and highlights in audiobooks, to take notes. So in theory, it should be pretty easy to bookmark something that stuck out to me while driving, and then I can come back to it later to take notes and export those notes outside of Libby. I’ve yet to test that process, but it seems like it will work, and I’m excited to figure it out.

Another awesome feature of Libby is that it can send ebooks straight to your Kindle, so there’s no need to read ebooks on my phone. I just tested it out this morning with “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”, and it seemed to work great. I’m curious to see what happens to all my notes and highlights when I need to “return” the ebook. To avoid heartbreak and be safe, I’m going to export all my highlights and notes before returning the book, but I’m hoping they all stay in the Kindle app somehow.

1 Anticipation

NASA’s Reduction in Force Plan

NASA is due to submit their Reductions in Force (RIF) plan this upcoming week. The deadline across the government was March 13, but NASA got an extension until March 20 due to all the space activities this week, including the Crew 10 mission to the International Space Station, a lunar landing, and more. For those interested, here is the OPM memo that spells out the steps agencies need to take to reduce their workforce and restructure.

I’m not sure what to expect for this RIF. It’s hard to tell whether my position would be affected or not, as it all depends on which areas they target for reductions. Some folks around me are very worried about their jobs.

But truth be told, I feel at peace with it. Despite how chaotic things are on the ground, I believe there is a God who is over it all. What comes will come, and I’ll figure it out. The only certain thing is change is coming, one way or another.

Jan 20, 2025 ∞

Weeknotes Vol. 3

My week summarized into 3 highlights, 2 discoveries, and 1 anticipation.

3 Highlights

The Office - I went into the office on Tuesday this week, which was a highlight for two reasons. First, I got an InBody scan as part of a twelve-week fitness challenge I am doing through NASA. The results were what I expected, and I have some work to do to get my body composition to where I want it! Second, my team celebrated the past year by going to Topgolf! It was great being able to chat with coworkers without work being the main topic, and golfing in whiteout conditions was beautiful! Although driving home afterward was a little scary.

The Basement - We finally got the last quote on our basement, and it was our best yet. It’s beginning to feel a lot more real and my wife and I have been spending all week deciding on various finishes for the basement.

The Barn - We met up with my parents and grandparents for lunch at a local place serving up “country cooking”. The best part was getting to see my grandparents and talk with them, but the all-you-can-eat soup, salad, and bread bar was pretty good too.

2 Discoveries

Inside look at modern web browser (part 1) - This four part blog series from Google is a really neat deep-dive into how browsers work, with lots of fun illustrations to help with the concepts. I haven’t made it through all four parts yet, but I’ve already learned from it. I shared this with my team at work this week since we work on web apps that run in-browser and while knowing browsers at this level detail isn’t always necessary day-to-day, it can come in handy. And helps build an appreciation for what is really happening in between raw code and interactive website.

For Every Winner a Loser - This was a fascinating article on how modern finance works. The gist is that most finance is not actually about trading or lending money for goods and services, it’s about betting on prices moving up or down. This paragraph blew my mind…

The total value of all the economic activity in the world is estimated at $105 trillion. That’s the mangoes. The value of the financial derivatives which arise from this activity – that’s the subsequent trading – is $667 trillion. That makes it the biggest business in the world. And in terms of the things it produces, that business is useless. It does nothing and adds no value. It is just one speculator betting against another and for every winner, on every single transaction, there is an exactly equivalent loser.

1 Anticipation

A new president - I tend to be pretty apolitical, but I have been paying close attention the upcoming administration change. That is neither an endorsement nor an indictment, but this is my first administration change as a federal employee, so this has a much more direct impact on my life than I have felt before. And beyond just the change of party, this particular president seems to have a focus on government efficiency. While government efficiency sounds good (who wouldn’t want that?), it seems like part of the plan is to make things tougher for federal employees. Including return to office mandates, layoffs, worse retirement/insurance benefits, and more. As a federal employee, that does not sound appealing. I am curious to see how much of it is talk, or frivolous bills that go nowhere in congress, and how much of it ends up becoming real and impacting my life.

Jan 12, 2025 ∞

Weeknotes Vol. 2

My week summarized into 3 highlights, 2 discoveries, and 1 anticipation.

3 Highlights

Eating in
My wife and I have a chronic problem with being unprepared when dinner time rolls around, so we often end up ordering food or going out. My belt and my bank statements would attest that this is not a good practice. But this week we did much better eating in for most of our meals. I found the Tasty app and have been using that to plan our meals each Saturday so we can pick up groceries on Sunday. Since writing this, I’ve switched over to the Paprika app so I can get recipes from more sources (I’ve enjoyed Budget Bytes, but I am taking recommendations). I like that the interface is bare-bones, with no fluffy advertising or bright pictures/text. Cooking and eating together has been a delightful time for our family. My daughter has been using the toddler tower that my parents got her for Christmas to help while cooking. She likes taste-testing ingredients as we cook and watching hot pans on the stove from a distance.

Helping Hands
I didn’t have to work on Thursday since federal agencies were closed in remembrance of President Jimmy Carter. Instead, I spent the whole day working on the house with my wife, while each of our moms came over at different times to help watch our daughter. It’s amazing how much can get done on a free day with minimal child watching responsibilities. And it was fantastic getting to see and talk with each of our moms.

Green Owl
This week I got back on DuoLingo to try to revive my Spanish skills. I nearly minored in Spanish in college. I dropped my minor during my last semester, with only two classes left, so that I could focus on my internship. It feels a bit tragic to have been so close and not made it across the finish line, but I would make the same decision again. Since then, I’ve been noticing my Spanish comprehension slowly slipping away year by year. I’ve been having a lot of fun this week dusting off the cobwebs and experiencing “Aha!” moments as the intricacies of the Spanish language slowly come back to me. Also, I’ve noticed DuoLingo has changed a lot since I last used it a couple of years ago. I read an article about how they are big on “gamification”, but it’s crazy all the tricks they use to make it fun (and addicting) to learn a language. I guess dopamine reward circuit hijacking is okay if it’s for a good purpose?

2 Discoveries

AI App-Building Platforms
I’ve known about these AI coding platforms for a while, but just started playing with them this week and I can’t believe how good they are! The main one I’ve been messing around with is lovable.dev. You just give it a prompt, and it will build an app for you in seconds. Then you can tweak the app with more prompts. Once it’s ready, you can hook up a database with Supabase and deploy with Netlify or Vercel. Gone are the days of people saying with a straight face, “I have SUCH GOOD app ideas! I would be a millionaire if only I knew how to build them!”. There are no excuses for not building now. Check out this post if you want to learn more: A guide to AI prototyping for product managers

Wesley Huff
Wesley Huff is a biblical scholar with a personal website packed with resources on biblical history. I came across him this week on a podcast. His knowledge on original source documents for scripture is impressive. I can tell that he is very well studied from listening to him, and his website has a lot of great infographics that he has made himself on the bible, manuscripts, archaeology, translation, and more.

1 Anticipation

Fitness Challenge
I signed up for a twelve-week fitness challenge through NASA. The main reason I signed up is that I will receive three free body composition reports via calipers and InBody tests, each spaced six weeks apart. I just started intermittent fasting and regular exercise a couple of weeks ago, so I’m excited to use these reports as extra motivation to stick with it and see how my body composition changes over the next twelve weeks. I’ve already lost 5 pounds in the last week, if my scale can be trusted! I’ll have my first test on Tuesday.

Jan 5, 2025 ∞

Weeknotes Vol. 1

I’m on the couch, coffee in hand, excited to try a new format.

I actually have no idea what the true format will be, but I know that I am going to write weekly. The plan is to have a consistent format for these weeknotes, but I’m more concerned with actually doing the thing, so I’m starting without the format. Jump first, find a parachute later, right?

Bear with me while I sort things out for the first 5, 10, or 50 of these.

The holiday marathon has come to an end, and it feels like I’m settling in for winter now that snow has fallen and stayed for more than 24 hours.

Basement

Being stuck inside, my attention has turned toward my house and projects that need to be done. The biggest of these is finishing the basement. My wife and I have been getting quotes, with the last of these being last week. We also took a trip to the three major big box stores near us, and must have taken at least $100 worth of samples.

I have completely lost my kitchen island to paint and flooring samples. It looks like a detective is trying to solve a murder, and the primary suspects are green-ish paint, blue-ish paint, and vinyl plank.

1Zpresso

I bought a really nice manual coffee grinder this week, the 1Zpresso J. I thought about it for 7 days and 7 nights, and then decided to go for it.

It feels outrageously-priced for something where I still need to grind my own coffee, but I convinced myself it was worth it after reading endless forum discussions on coffee grinders. Supposedly the machining is incredibly precise and there were people who had been using theirs for 10+ years.

I’m excited to feel more connected with my coffee. I’m looking forward to the morning ritual of grinding my own beans fresh, and then making a pour over in my Chemex. I’m also dreaming of sharing this experience with people who haven’t had high quality coffee before. Coffee can be such a wonderfully communal experience.

Anyways, that’s probably just all the feel-good stuff I told myself to justify the purchase. It worked.

Work

I went into the office on Thursday and it was pretty quiet. I talked with our IT guy and got to meet the new designer who just joined on the contract.

I had a lot of time off and most people are out of the office, but our team is also all hands on deck for a major release to the NASA Mishap Information System on Jan 12. So it’s been one of those quiet-but-busy type of weeks.

Health

I’ve been back on intermittent fasting, which has been going well so far. I’m trying to only eat between 12-8, but shorter is better. I’ve always found that to be the easiest eating pattern for me to follow. I started before the Holiday stretch, which was a bad idea, but things have leveled out now.

I’ve also started working out this week (classic New Year). My wife and I have been following along to work out videos on YouTube from our living room each evening, and then stretching afterward. We found a guy that makes videos of Tabata workouts from scenic locations and doesn’t do any talking. That was perfect for us.

In addition to our evening workouts we do together, I’ve been working out in the mornings. We got this treadmill/stair stepper way on sale on Facebook Marketplace recently, so some mornings I use that, or I’ve been using the resistance bands I got for Christmas.

I’m not sure that I would have ever bought resistance bands for myself, but I’m really excited for them now that I have them. They’re easy to use, and I can do all sorts of different things with them. I’m keeping them in my office near my standing desk so that I can get some exercise while I’m in meetings for work.

Devotional

My wife got me the Grace for the Moment devotional for Christmas, and I have used it every day since. Each page is super short, but leaves some space for writing in your own thoughts/reactions. I like being able to slow down with something really short and process through how I feel about it.

This is the first thing I do in the morning (well… after I get my coffee) and it has felt right to prioritize the first part of my morning to look up to God.

Analog

I can feel myself moving into an analog renaissance (again). What I mean by that is I’m using a lot less digital tools and a lot more physical tools in my day to day.

I have been using my bullet journal to capture daily to-dos and track things on a monthly cadence, including my intermittent fasting. I also started printing off articles on pieces of paper to carry with me so I don’t pull out my phone as much. And I’m moving toward taking my sermon notes in a journal instead of digitally, although it has been super cool to see all of my sermon notes and share them from my digital garden. I’m having fun taking notes more visually, drawing ideas/concepts that really resonate with me.

Weeknotes Vol. 1 Postmortem

It felt nice to reflect on my week, but this is definitely not the final format.

I want to keep these weeknotes shorter and punchier. I’ll be more likely to keep up with it that way. I like how Tim Ferris does his 5 Bullet Friday, so it may end up similar to that.

But I did it. I’ll take my win, and I’ll see you next week.