Jake Weidokal logo Jake Weidokal

Google Gemini on the Pixel phone is so nice. I got paper mail from my HOA about a meeting and was able to:

  1. Take a pic of it
  2. Hold the power button to open Gemini
  3. Say “add this to my calendar”

All the details, including location, were saved at the correct time on my calendar. Took seconds.

Today I added a weekly microblogs counter to the top of my homepage. Clicking the link takes you to see all of my microblogs. A while ago I changed my homepage to only list long articles. But this made it hard to surface microblogs, especially on mobile. This remedies that. Plus counters are cool!

A mobile interface displays a blog profile for "Jake Weidokal" featuring recent posts with "5 microblogs this week" at the top.

I’ve been on a weight loss journey and decided it was time for a new professional headshot! I’m fortunate to work with a group of NASA photographers and videographers so I was able to do this for free in our studio!

A smiling person wearing a dark suit jacket and a light-colored shirt stands against a blurred dark blue background.

How I Got Into This Line of Work

A new blogging format was experimented with during a morning commute, focusing on personal career stories and reflecting on the journey that led to working as a product manager at NASA.

Trying beans from a new coffee roaster today. Really excited about this place. The owner has personally traveled the world to many of the farms where he sources beans and they only serve pour overs in the shop. I haven’t gotten a pour over there yet, but hope to soon. Troubadour Coffee Roasters A picture of a bag of coffee sitting on a car dashboard with a bright, blurry background

My Current Work Routine

A colleague asked me yesterday what routines and practices I’ve been using to manage our new normal of working onsite every day. I typed up this response, and decided it was worth turning into a blog post so I could share it more broadly in case others were interested. I’ve had all of three days to figure out this new routine, so it’s ill-defined in its current iteration. I’m sure it will get crisper over time, but here’s what I have been doing the past few days.
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I shared this picture of the joke board with our contractor team today (who are still remote for now) and the responses were:

  • “are the ‘jokes’ written on paper towel?”
  • “We are resigned to using parchment like our ancestors”
  • “you shouldn’t write jokes on the dead sea scrolls”
Jokes written on a large piece of paper attached to the back of a tall desk.

My wife picked up a leather bound journal for me at a thrift store today. I like testing a few pens in a new journal to break the tension of the blank page. After I finished the first page, my daughter climbed up on the couch with me and added her own finishing touches.

a collage with a brown leather notebook on the right, and on the left a notebook page is filled with scribbled text including pen tests and ideas for using a journal, with some red highlighted marks

I packed up my home office yesterday and moved all my NASA IT equipment into the office today. After getting settled in, I put up this joke board on the outer wall of my desk to be a little speck of joy as we adjust to the new normal.

A paper on a wall displays a joke about programmers and bugs, labeled "App Dev Joke of the Week" dated 2/28/25.

Today held happy water-themed beginnings. It was my daughter’s first time peeing in a full-sized toilet and her first day of swim lessons.