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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.

No need to read between the lines on the latest email to feds about “What did you do last week?” They moved on to open mockery. I will say, despite all the ill-will and distraction thrown at my colleagues, it has been inspiring to see everyone stick to the mission and deliver on our work.

Targeted by Trump and Musk - On Being a Federal Employee

In my weeknotes post from January 20, 2025, hours before the inauguration ceremony of Donald Trump, I wrote about being uncertain about what a Trump presidency would hold for me as a federal employee. 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.
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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!
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New site feature! I added a sidebar for recent microblogs. This will only appear on desktop, not mobile devices.

A blog page displays entries for 2025 and 2024, recent microblog updates, and various post titles and dates.

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.
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I updated the link styles on my blog:

  • removed underlines from links for readability
  • added a box-shadow animation when hovering links for enjoyability