[ { "id": 0, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": " \u0026ldquo;I’ve wasted a lot of time journaling on “problems” when I just needed to eat breakfast sooner, do 10 push-ups, or get an extra hour of sleep. Sometimes, you think you have to figure out your life’s purpose, but you really just need some macadamia nuts and a cold fucking shower.\u0026rdquo; (Timothy Ferriss, Tools of Titans)\n Yep. My “ExiSTeNTiaL” problems usually have a painfully basic solution. Becoming a runner since the beginning of the year has made me feel 10x better.\n", "dateiso": "2026-03-26 10:53:18 -0400", "date": "10:53 p.m. on Mar 26, 2026", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2026/03/26/ive-wasted-a-lot-of.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2026%2F03%2F26%2Five-wasted-a-lot-of.html" }, { "id": 1, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "My goodness. I just peeked at my Now page and realized I haven\u0026rsquo;t updated it since October of 2024.\nWhere does the time go?\nI\u0026rsquo;m going to have to update that soon. There has been a lot of change in my life since then!\n", "dateiso": "2026-03-26 08:29:39 -0400", "date": "8:29 p.m. on Mar 26, 2026", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2026/03/26/my-goodness-i-just-peeked.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2026%2F03%2F26%2Fmy-goodness-i-just-peeked.html" }, { "id": 2, "type": "post", "title": "Conventional Comments", "text": "I came across conventionalcomments.org yesterday and love the idea. It is a simple convention for making clear comments on others' work products. In particular, code changes.\nIt is easy to unwittingly offend or confuse when commenting on someone else\u0026rsquo;s work, so I like that this gives a framework to set your intention early. Another nice side-effect is that it forces the commenter to think more clearly about what they\u0026rsquo;re actually trying to communicate.\nI shared this with my dev team at work and plan to use it a lot more myself. I can see this being useful in pull requests as intended, but could also see it being useful when commenting on documents, slide decks, etc. I believe this would work well for feedback on any knowledge work product.\nIn case you don\u0026rsquo;t want to read the full web page I linked above, here\u0026rsquo;s a brief summary of the convention and ideas for different labels or tags you could use.\nFormat: \u0026lt;label\u0026gt; [tags]: \u0026lt;subject\u0026gt;\nExample: suggestion (non-blocking): Consider using a framework for this\nLabels (Prefixes):\n praise - Positive feedback nitpick - Trivial preference-based requests suggestion - Proposes improvements issue - Highlights specific problems todo - Small necessary changes question - Potential concern, needs clarification thought - Idea from reviewing (non-blocking) chore - Task that must be done before acceptance note - FYI info (non-blocking) typo - Misspelling polish - Quality improvements (like suggestion) quibble - Like nitpick Decorations (Tags):\n (non-blocking) - Doesn\u0026rsquo;t prevent acceptance (blocking) - Prevents acceptance until resolved (if-minor) - Only resolve if changes are trivial ", "dateiso": "2026-03-20 09:05:06 -0400", "date": "9:05 p.m. on Mar 20, 2026", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2026/03/20/conventional-comments.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2026%2F03%2F20%2Fconventional-comments.html" }, { "id": 3, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": " \u0026ldquo;Creating the conditions for success is a very different project than finding a heroic move that saves the day.\u0026rdquo; (Seth Godin, Analyzing the Last Move)\n This old highlight stood out to me today. I’ve been noticing more “success” popping up in my life from conditions I set up months or years ago.\nThis is a good reminder for me to keep planting seeds and watering them, even though it will be a long while before I see the first sprout.\n", "dateiso": "2026-03-12 16:00:41 -0400", "date": "4:00 p.m. on Mar 12, 2026", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2026/03/12/creating-the-conditions-for-success.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2026%2F03%2F12%2Fcreating-the-conditions-for-success.html" }, { "id": 4, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I love that AI doesn\u0026rsquo;t judge me when I send it messages like:\n CAn yuo kep it shorteR?\n ", "dateiso": "2026-02-27 11:56:01 -0400", "date": "11:56 p.m. on Feb 27, 2026", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2026/02/27/i-love-that-ai-doesnt.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2026%2F02%2F27%2Fi-love-that-ai-doesnt.html" }, { "id": 5, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": " \u0026ldquo;You are not simply your own possession to torture and mistreat. This is partly because your Being is inexorably tied up with that of others, and your mistreatment of yourself can have catastrophic consequences for others.\u0026rdquo; (Jordan B. Peterson, Norman Doidge (Forward), Ethan Van Sciver (Illustrator), 12 Rules for Life)\n I like a simplified version of that first sentence “you are not your own possession”. That’s something to think about. I was discussing that with some friends in Bible study yesterday, related to how we’re called to be light-givers in our community.\n", "dateiso": "2026-02-27 09:58:32 -0400", "date": "9:58 p.m. on Feb 27, 2026", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2026/02/27/you-are-not-simply-your.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2026%2F02%2F27%2Fyou-are-not-simply-your.html" }, { "id": 6, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": " \u0026ldquo;The Internet is a novelty machine that pulls us away from age-old wisdom. Even though we’re just a click away from the greatest authors of all time, from Plato to Tolstoy, we default to novelty instead of timelessness.\u0026rdquo; (David Perell, The Ultimate Guide to Writing Online)\n I find it hard to strike the right balance between novelty and good literature. I don’t think all novelty is bad, the tricky bit is that it has a much stronger gravitational field than classics, at least for me.\n", "dateiso": "2026-02-21 11:57:02 -0400", "date": "11:57 p.m. on Feb 21, 2026", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2026/02/21/the-internet-is-a-novelty.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2026%2F02%2F21%2Fthe-internet-is-a-novelty.html" }, { "id": 7, "type": "post", "title": "Deermons", "text": "My deermons lurk in the shadows of these morning runs. They hear every footfall. They watch with glowing eyes, waiting for me to fall. They taunt me, “Look how far you ARE from what you COULD BE!”\nI retort, “Go lie in your bed of mud, deermon! Man’s fall from his potential is well known. It is his great agony. But do not steal from my heart the great JOY that is running toward THE IMAGE I was created in! You cannot understand what it means to carry this image! Graze your grass, with your head low and your nose in the dirt. As for me, I will climb, eyes ever upward.”\n", "dateiso": "2026-02-21 09:17:38 -0500", "date": "9:17 p.m. on Feb 21, 2026", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2026/02/21/deermons.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2026%2F02%2F21%2Fdeermons.html" }, { "id": 8, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Hot take. I like it.\n \u0026ldquo;People commonly use the word “procrastination” to describe what they do on the Internet. It seems to me too mild to describe what’s happening as merely not-doing-work. We don’t call it procrastination when someone gets drunk instead of working.\u0026rdquo; (Tim Ferriss, 5-Bullet Friday — January 26, 2024)\n ", "dateiso": "2026-02-20 08:53:55 -0500", "date": "8:53 p.m. on Feb 20, 2026", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2026/02/20/hot-take-i-like-it.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2026%2F02%2F20%2Fhot-take-i-like-it.html" }, { "id": 9, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": " \u0026ldquo;Few people ask from books what books can give us. Most commonly we come to books with blurred and divided minds, asking of fiction that it shall be true, of poetry that it shall be false, of biography that it shall be flattering, of history that it shall enforce our own prejudices.\u0026rdquo; (Maria Popova, Virginia Woolf on How to Read a Book)\n I often come to books with a blurred and divided mind. But I come to the book asking it to help me un-blur and un-divide. That the slow process of reading would give me clarity and a singular focus, free from the distraction of short-form or digital media.\n", "dateiso": "2026-02-19 09:54:54 -0500", "date": "9:54 p.m. on Feb 19, 2026", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2026/02/19/few-people-ask-from-books.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2026%2F02%2F19%2Ffew-people-ask-from-books.html" }, { "id": 10, "type": "post", "title": "What choices made you who you are?", "text": " \u0026ldquo;A Question Cal Suggests Asking People More Often “What are some of the choices you’ve made that made you who you are?”\u0026rdquo; (Timothy Ferriss, Tools of Titans)\n I\u0026rsquo;m going to give this a try. I tested it out on myself and found this question made me dig a little deeper than I normally do in conversations.\nHere are some choices I\u0026rsquo;ve made that made me who I am:\n following Jesus switching from a Psychology major to Computer Science marrying my wonderful wife deciding to have children committing to journaling surrounding myself with people who keep me accountable starting this blog staying near family instead of moving somewhere with nicer weather or more job opportunities getting off of Instagram/Facebook, never signing up for Twitter or TikTok and so many more things! It makes me think about the butterfly effect and all the different ways my life could have gone. I\u0026rsquo;m glad things happened the way they have.\n", "dateiso": "2026-02-18 09:36:05 -0500", "date": "9:36 p.m. on Feb 18, 2026", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2026/02/18/what-choices-made-you-who.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2026%2F02%2F18%2Fwhat-choices-made-you-who.html" }, { "id": 11, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "It\u0026rsquo;s been taking me a long time to read through \u0026ldquo;Thus Spake Zarathustra\u0026rdquo;. I pick it up in bits and pieces on my phone. It\u0026rsquo;s hard to read partially due to the heavy concepts and partially due to the antiquated language. I\u0026rsquo;ve realized I have some pretty fundamental disagreements with Nietzche, but it\u0026rsquo;s still interesting to see how he thinks. And every now and then a particular point hits home, usually his critiques of the church.\nI\u0026rsquo;ve been thinking a lot lately about how I\u0026rsquo;ve over-optimized for comfort, so this one really resonated with me and felt convicting.\n To small virtues would they fain lure and laud me; to the ticktack of small happiness would they fain persuade my foot.\nI pass through this people and keep mine eyes open; they have become SMALLER, and ever become smaller:—THE REASON THEREOF IS THEIR DOCTRINE OF HAPPINESS AND VIRTUE.\nFor they are moderate also in virtue,—because they want comfort. With comfort, however, moderate virtue only is compatible.\n ", "dateiso": "2026-02-17 06:47:31 -0500", "date": "6:47 p.m. on Feb 17, 2026", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2026/02/17/its-been-taking-me-a.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2026%2F02%2F17%2Fits-been-taking-me-a.html" }, { "id": 12, "type": "reply", "title": "", "text": "@CaveatLector Of course, I’m glad it resonated.\n", "dateiso": "2026-02-17 07:37:19 -0400", "date": "7:37 p.m. on Feb 17, 2026", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/replies/2026/02/17/84434807.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/jaek/84434807" }, { "id": 13, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Wow\u0026hellip; The chance of a lifetime just fell into my LinkedIn inbox. (sarcasm)\nOn a serious note, anytime I get one of these scam messages, I just feel sad for the vulnerable people that fall for these. On a less serious note, I\u0026rsquo;m starting up a fund to support the victims of these scams. Please send me $100 in Amazon gift cards and your social security number if you want to support it.\n Hello Jake, you have not been responding. I have a business proposal for you. I want to bring to your notice that I have worked in the gold mining sector for more than 30 years. Over these years, I have had local mining contracts across 5 countries, namely: Australia, Brazil, South Africa, Kazakhstan and New Zealand. I also worked with Keneoli Gold Mining under Glory Mining Ltd in Ghana West Africa. Am currently working with a gold company in New Zealand and my contract will expire by next year. I privately bought about 140 KG of gold from some local miners here at a cheaper price. I don\u0026rsquo;t want my company to know I own this gold because contractors are prohibited from buying gold from local miners.\nSo I want to present you as my partner who bought and owns the gold. All legal documentation will be in your name, then the company would ship the gold to your provided address. After you receive it then I can come over to pick it up. I\u0026rsquo;m willing to give you 20% of the total 140KG of gold. All I want from you is honesty and transparency.\nIf you\u0026rsquo;re okay with the proposal, then I will inform the Gold Company and introduce you to them as my partner so they can prepare all documentation in your name before shipment. All this can be done within 8-10 working days.\nNOTE: This is 100% legal business. I bought the gold with my money. Am only doing it this way because as a contractor with the company I\u0026rsquo;m not permitted to buy gold from the local miners. The 140KG of gold is worth more than 7 Million USD if we sell 1KG for 50,000USD. This is unrefined 23 Karat gold with 99% purity.\nIf you need any further clarification, kindly let me know.\nI await your response and readiness to enable us start the process immediately.\n ", "dateiso": "2026-02-16 11:09:26 -0500", "date": "11:09 p.m. on Feb 16, 2026", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2026/02/16/wow-the-chance-of-a.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2026%2F02%2F16%2Fwow-the-chance-of-a.html" }, { "id": 14, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": " The brilliant Japanese writer Haruki Murakami once wrote, “Always remember that to argue, and win, is to break down the reality of the person you are arguing against. It is painful to lose your reality, so be kind, even if you are right.”\n I started doing my daily Readwise reviews again to revisit my old highlights from books and articles. Anytime I reboot a reflective practice like this, I realize how much I missed it. I’m going to start sharing these more to re-process them myself and to share what I have found impactful.\nToday’s highlight is from James Clear’s Why Facts Don’t Change Our Minds\n", "dateiso": "2026-02-16 10:58:02 -0500", "date": "10:58 p.m. on Feb 16, 2026", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2026/02/16/the-brilliant-japanese-writer-haruki.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2026%2F02%2F16%2Fthe-brilliant-japanese-writer-haruki.html" }, { "id": 15, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": " “If you write what you yourself sincerely think and feel and are interested in… you will interest other people.”\n Rachel Carson I have a lot of new things I’m thinking and feeling and interested in here at the early stages of 2026. I’ve been so focused on those things that I haven’t written about them much, but I hope to soon. Things like downgrading my phone, getting into running, and building little personal apps in a day with AI agents.\n", "dateiso": "2026-02-15 09:08:52 -0500", "date": "9:08 p.m. on Feb 15, 2026", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2026/02/15/if-you-write-what-you.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2026%2F02%2F15%2Fif-you-write-what-you.html" }, { "id": 16, "type": "reply", "title": "", "text": "@alexanderk It was definitely good enough for me! I didn’t notice much of a difference from listening on Spotify, but I have no taste for audio quality so ymmv if that’s something you really pay attention to.\n", "dateiso": "2026-02-13 07:02:42 -0400", "date": "7:02 p.m. on Feb 13, 2026", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/replies/2026/02/13/84184066.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/jaek/84184066" }, { "id": 17, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I love this quote from Dostoevsky, writing to his brother after narrowly escaping execution by the tsarist regime:\n When I look back at the past and think how much time was spent in vain, how much of it was lost in delusions, in errors, in idleness, in the inability to live; how I failed to value it, how many times I sinned against my heart and spirit — then my heart contracts in pain. Life is a gift, life is happiness, each moment could have been an eternity of happiness. Si jeunesse savait! [If youth knew!]\n Found in The Marginalian\n", "dateiso": "2026-02-12 07:44:49 -0500", "date": "7:44 p.m. on Feb 12, 2026", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2026/02/12/i-love-this-quote-from.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2026%2F02%2F12%2Fi-love-this-quote-from.html" }, { "id": 18, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "A small detail of life that I love:\nthe way drywall looks when early morning sunlight hits it at a near-parallel angle.\n", "dateiso": "2026-02-07 08:01:24 -0500", "date": "8:01 p.m. on Feb 7, 2026", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2026/02/07/a-small-detail-of-life.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2026%2F02%2F07%2Fa-small-detail-of-life.html" }, { "id": 19, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "My new favorite quick breakfast is cottage cheese + granola + everything bagel seasoning. It\u0026rsquo;s sneaky good. And healthy!\n", "dateiso": "2026-02-06 08:27:18 -0500", "date": "8:27 p.m. on Feb 6, 2026", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2026/02/06/082718.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2026%2F02%2F06%2F082718.html" }, { "id": 20, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "My new favorite quick breakfast is cottage cheese + granola + everything bagel seasoning. It\u0026rsquo;s sneaky good. And healthy!\n", "dateiso": "2026-02-06 08:27:18 -0500", "date": "8:27 p.m. on Feb 6, 2026", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2026/02/06/my-new-favorite-quick-breakfast.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2026%2F02%2F06%2Fmy-new-favorite-quick-breakfast.html" }, { "id": 21, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I had used ezmp3.pro to download mp3s from YouTube video URLs onto my watch for runs, but this morning I came across the command-line tool yt-dlp. So far it has been easy to use and was able to download 96 separate mp3 files from a playlist URL with this command: yt-dlp -x --audio-format mp3 --audio-quality 0 -o \u0026quot;%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s\u0026quot; \u0026quot;URL\u0026quot;\n", "dateiso": "2026-02-02 06:10:50 -0500", "date": "6:10 p.m. on Feb 2, 2026", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2026/02/02/i-had-used-ezmppro-to.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2026%2F02%2F02%2Fi-had-used-ezmppro-to.html" }, { "id": 22, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Today I explained to my daughter how a T-Rex grabs things with its mouth, because its arms are too small to put things in its mouth like we humans do.\nShe said the T-Rex should use a spoon.\nMaybe if they had figured that out, they would still be around.\n", "dateiso": "2026-01-28 17:30:07 -0500", "date": "5:30 p.m. on Jan 28, 2026", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2026/01/28/today-i-explained-to-my.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2026%2F01%2F28%2Ftoday-i-explained-to-my.html" }, { "id": 23, "type": "post", "title": "Zone 2 Feels Really Slow", "text": "I\u0026rsquo;ve started running. It has felt hard, but I want to get better at it. So I\u0026rsquo;ve been researching how to run correctly and how to train my cardiopulmonary system for sustained effort.\nThe main thing that keeps coming up in my research is the importance of Zone 2 training. Zone 2 is a heart rate range where you can keep up conversation fairly easily. It would be considered an \u0026ldquo;easy\u0026rdquo; effort level. For me, Zone 2 is roughly 136-153bpm.\nZone 2 training involves exercising in a way that keeps your heart rate in that zone for a long period of time. This is apparently one of the best ways to build cardiopulmonary endurance.\nDespite how \u0026ldquo;easy\u0026rdquo; it is to workout this way, it\u0026rsquo;s hard for me. I\u0026rsquo;ve never done training like this. My major fitness influences to this point in my life have been wrestling and CrossFit, which both are very high-intensity for shorter intervals. Training at a low-intensity for a long time feels\u0026hellip; wrong.\nWrestling and CrossFit ingrained in me the macho-mentality that if you\u0026rsquo;re not giving your all, you\u0026rsquo;re not doing enough. So every workout I would go out there and push myself as hard as I could. Surely, I thought, that is the only way growth happens? At the very edge of capability?\nBut now I\u0026rsquo;m trying to unlearn that. In fact, for the running training I\u0026rsquo;m doing, about 80% of my training should be \u0026ldquo;easy\u0026rdquo; Zone 2 work to build my cardio base, and the rest should be interval training to build my VO2 max and anaerobic endurance.\nYesterday I went for a 3.5 mile zone 2 run and I was shocked at how slow I had to go to maintain that heart rate. On inclines, there were sections where I had to walk because even a mega-slow jog uphill was elevating my heart rate too high.\nWhile this type of training is tough for me mentally and feels watered down compared to what I\u0026rsquo;ve done before, I\u0026rsquo;m going to trust the science and keep at it. Over time I expect that my Zone 2 speed will increase and I will have a much bigger gas tank. For now I just need to eat my humble pie and do my granny runs around town.\nAt least I look cool with my safety vest and headlamp. /s\n", "dateiso": "2026-01-25 09:20:31 -0500", "date": "9:20 p.m. on Jan 25, 2026", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2026/01/25/zone-feels-really-slow.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2026%2F01%2F25%2Fzone-feels-really-slow.html" }, { "id": 24, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Today I discovered miniature-calendar.com\nThese miniature scenes with everyday objects are so fun to look at.\n", "dateiso": "2026-01-24 10:32:02 -0500", "date": "10:32 p.m. on Jan 24, 2026", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2026/01/24/today-i-discovered-httpsminiaturecalendarcom-these.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2026%2F01%2F24%2Ftoday-i-discovered-httpsminiaturecalendarcom-these.html" }, { "id": 25, "type": "post", "title": "WCF + Reflection = WTF", "text": "My morning consisted of investigating legacy WCF service code that was using reflection-based pattern matching to apply custom validators.\nI had to increase my coffee intake for that one 😅☕\nIt\u0026rsquo;s really easy to just ask an AI agent what the code is doing in these situations, but I like looking at it myself to make sure I really internalize and understand it. Also, agents can be very wrong and confident at the same time. Mine confidently told me how the logic was working, but was only about 75% correct and missed key details that misrepresented the flow.\nOn the other hand\u0026hellip; My agent wrote a dang good analysis summary into a markdown file after I made sure it had all the details correct.\n", "dateiso": "2026-01-23 10:33:41 -0500", "date": "10:33 p.m. on Jan 23, 2026", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2026/01/23/wcf-reflection-wtf.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2026%2F01%2F23%2Fwcf-reflection-wtf.html" }, { "id": 26, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I\u0026rsquo;m concerned. The cleaning place with the AI voice agent called back. This time I asked if this is an AI voice agent. The voice chuckled and said \u0026ldquo;No, I\u0026rsquo;m not, I get that all the time\u0026rdquo;. But I know that was not a real person. Why set up these voice agents to lie about what they are? Spooky.\n", "dateiso": "2026-01-16 09:12:31 -0500", "date": "9:12 p.m. on Jan 16, 2026", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2026/01/16/im-concerned-the-cleaning-place.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2026%2F01%2F16%2Fim-concerned-the-cleaning-place.html" }, { "id": 27, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Today I discovered onthegomap.com for planning out running and walking routes. Free, simple, no-ads. It\u0026rsquo;s amazing!\n", "dateiso": "2026-01-10 06:24:43 -0500", "date": "6:24 p.m. on Jan 10, 2026", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2026/01/10/today-i-discovered-onthegomapcom-for.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2026%2F01%2F10%2Ftoday-i-discovered-onthegomapcom-for.html" }, { "id": 28, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I was calling cleaning services and just had my first AI voice call. It was eerie. I didn\u0026rsquo;t notice it was AI until maybe 20 seconds in. It sounded very real. The AI even stutters, makes mistakes, or says \u0026ldquo;um\u0026rdquo; like a real person would. But there was something off about the perfectly consistent vocal inflections and it said \u0026ldquo;okay\u0026rdquo; the exact same, very curt way after each of my responses. I\u0026rsquo;m guessing in 5 years I won\u0026rsquo;t be able to tell if I\u0026rsquo;m talking to a person or AI.\n", "dateiso": "2026-01-09 11:39:43 -0500", "date": "11:39 p.m. on Jan 9, 2026", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2026/01/09/i-was-calling-cleaning-services.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2026%2F01%2F09%2Fi-was-calling-cleaning-services.html" }, { "id": 29, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Went to Ray\u0026rsquo;s Indoor Mountain Bike Park yesterday with some friends. I can\u0026rsquo;t believe I haven\u0026rsquo;t been before! It was a lot of fun and is a marvel of planning and construction. The space is MASSIVE in an old factory. I\u0026rsquo;m looking forward to going back! My phone died, so here\u0026rsquo;s a pic I found online. It\u0026rsquo;s hard to do it justice with one picture though, there are so many different rooms and narrow passageways to ride between.\n", "dateiso": "2026-01-07 09:00:01 -0500", "date": "9:00 p.m. on Jan 7, 2026", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2026/01/07/went-to-rays-indoor-mountain.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2026%2F01%2F07%2Fwent-to-rays-indoor-mountain.html" }, { "id": 30, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I\u0026rsquo;m not crying, you\u0026rsquo;re crying.\nDO IT ANYWAY - YouTube\nA really inspiring mini-documentary (10 minutes) about a young man with cerebral palsy overcoming obstacles to complete a marathon.\n", "dateiso": "2026-01-05 11:06:01 -0500", "date": "11:06 p.m. on Jan 5, 2026", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2026/01/05/im-not-crying-youre-crying.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2026%2F01%2F05%2Fim-not-crying-youre-crying.html" }, { "id": 31, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I just discovered skyrunner.com and it is an epic throwback to early 2000s personal websites. Very simple, kind of confusing, completely unique. And the people of the r/running Reddit community love this post on The Screw Shoe.\n", "dateiso": "2026-01-05 06:01:18 -0500", "date": "6:01 p.m. on Jan 5, 2026", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2026/01/05/i-just-discovered-skyrunnercom-and.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2026%2F01%2F05%2Fi-just-discovered-skyrunnercom-and.html" }, { "id": 32, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I\u0026rsquo;m thinking about critics and creatives. Most criticism comes from critics, of course. A criticism is a critic-ism. But ironically, their criticism matters least. A critic is a fallen creative. And who can criticize a creative but an equal or greater creative?\n", "dateiso": "2026-01-03 14:11:12 -0500", "date": "2:11 p.m. on Jan 3, 2026", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2026/01/03/im-thinking-about-critics-and.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2026%2F01%2F03%2Fim-thinking-about-critics-and.html" }, { "id": 33, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "With the new year I was ready for a change to my site. I switched to a new, more minimal black and white theme, simplified the main navigation, and added all of the site pages to the footer to make them more discoverable than they were before.\n", "dateiso": "2026-01-02 15:47:05 -0500", "date": "3:47 p.m. on Jan 2, 2026", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2026/01/02/with-the-new-year-i.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2026%2F01%2F02%2Fwith-the-new-year-i.html" }, { "id": 34, "type": "post", "title": "Golgotha: Turning Misogi Into a Christian Spiritual Discipline", "text": "I am introducing a new spiritual discipline I\u0026rsquo;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.\n 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.\nI was skeptical, but I checked out the guest to see what kind of qualifications he had to grant the listener a “rich life”. The guest was Jesse Itzler, an entrepreneur, author, endurance athlete, and the creator of The Big Ass Calendar. I\u0026rsquo;m a sucker for niche productivity products, and I was intrigued by The Big Ass Calendar, so I went ahead and listened to the episode.\n A snapshot of the conversation between Jesse and Shaan. To my surprise, it was actually a fantastic episode and much less productivity-focused than I expected. I highly recommend you listen to it. Jesse shared some ideas I hadn\u0026rsquo;t heard before about how to intentionally plan out a year. I won\u0026rsquo;t regurgitate all the ideas he shared, but one in particular got lodged in my heart and had me all fired up.\nIt was the idea of scheduling one Misogi every year.\nThe concept is simple: one year-defining event each year that is really hard. Something you may not be able to accomplish. It is a beacon that guides your actions throughout the year, and something that could truly define your year in the sense that you could look back and say \u0026ldquo;2026 was the year of (insert deeply meaningful personal challenge)\u0026rdquo;. Now imagine being 80 years old and having 50+ Misogis that have shaped the person you\u0026rsquo;ve become and filled you with stories to pass on. That sounds like a rich life.\nBut something about the modern concept of Misogi didn\u0026rsquo;t sit right with me. The Japanese word \u0026ldquo;misogi\u0026rdquo; originally referred to a traditional Japanese purification ritual involving cold water immersion to cleanse the body, mind, and spirit. The modern, secular Misogi borrows the word but, as far as I can tell, does not meaningfully acknowledge the original spiritual practice it came from. It seems to strip the word of spirituality and replace it with a pseudo-spiritual self-enlightenment through difficulty.\nI actually don\u0026rsquo;t think this is terrible, because doing hard things is noble and supports growth, but it feels lacking. That\u0026rsquo;s why I have adapted this discipline to restore the spiritual element and give it a new name:\nGolgotha\nWhat makes something a Golgotha? A Golgotha, from the outside, appears nearly identical to a Misogi. It is a yearly commitment to do something so challenging that it can define that year. But internally, it incorporates additional practices of reflection and prayer.\nGolgotha is a reference to \u0026ldquo;the place of the skull\u0026rdquo;, the hill outside of ancient Jerusalem where Jesus was crucified. I chose Golgotha as the name because this annual discipline is meant to point me back to the sacrifice that Jesus made at the cross. I know that any suffering I willingly undertake will be insignificant compared to what Jesus bore at the cross, but I want to to be reminded of what Jesus went through. This is not about adding to what Jesus finished on the cross, but it is about forming myself more into his image in obedience. It is a sort of annual communion: but instead of eating and drinking with Jesus, the aim is to carry a burden with him.\nI am self-conscious of this becoming a shallow, thinly veiled, re-branded fitness goal, so I want to give the Golgotha some clear guardrails. Here is what I am starting with:\n It must be difficult enough that there is a real chance of failure. It must be chosen prayerfully. It must not just be for my ego. It must be sacrificial in a way that echoes the cross, whether that be comfort, time, pride or something else. It must push me to depend on God, not just on my own will. A Golgotha is not meant to be an ego booster, but a reliance on God that forms me more into the likeness of Christ.\nHow the practice actually looks Like many spiritual disciplines, Golgotha has an outer practice and an inner posture. On the outside it might look like training, planning, committing, or enduring. On the inside, it is meant to train my mind on Jesus' journey to the cross.\n There is a season of anticipation and preparation, like Jesus “setting his face to go to Jerusalem,” knowing where the road would lead. There is a Gethsemane moment, where the weight feels too heavy and the honest prayer is “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” There is a kind of death: the point in the challenge where something in me has to die, such as my comfort, my image, or my illusion of control so that obedience can live. The ordinary spiritual disciplines are woven through the preparation for my Golgotha: scripture, prayer, silence, journaling, worship. The Golgotha does not replace these disciplines, but focuses them in a time-bound season of obedience and dependence through difficulty. My aim is that this season will reframe my mindset away from typical comfort-seeking and push me further into the spiritual disciplines and reliance on God amid discomfort and difficulty.\nExamples of possible Golgothas A Golgotha could be physical, mental, spiritual, relational, or anything really, as long as it fits those criteria. Here are some examples I\u0026rsquo;ve considered:\n Training for and completing an endurance event far outside my current capability as an extended prayerful meditation on perseverance. Committing to an uncomfortably long silent retreat or pilgrimage to leave culture and wrestle with God. Taking on a daunting sacrificial service project, such as launching a ministry event or initiative. Though my temptation will be to choose something that looks impressive, what really matters is that it pushes me to reflect Jesus' prayer in Gethsemane: \u0026ldquo;not my will, but yours be done.\u0026rdquo;\nMy 2026 Golgotha For 2026, I\u0026rsquo;m feeling a lot of excitement toward a Golgotha that is both physically demanding and spiritually formative. I am looking for something that:\n Requires months of consistent, uncomfortable preparation. Forces me to confront my limits instead of working around them. Gives me plenty of space to pray the Gethsemane prayer: “yet not my will, but yours be done.” While I don\u0026rsquo;t want to publicly announce my Golgotha, I\u0026rsquo;ve been shopping an idea around in conversation with family and friends. Most have been cautiously supportive, with one family member saying \u0026ldquo;I don\u0026rsquo;t think that\u0026rsquo;s such a good idea\u0026rdquo;. I was happy to receive that doubt though, because that\u0026rsquo;s a good sign that my Golgotha will be sufficiently difficult.\nDespite the difficulty ahead, I\u0026rsquo;m really excited to start this discipline and I hope you are too! If Golgotha or Misogi are something that you choose to commit to in the new year due to this article, I would love to hear about it!\nAlso, a gentle reminder I\u0026rsquo;m saying to myself: if you try this, resist the urge to compare your Golgotha to anyone else\u0026rsquo;s. The point is not to match someone else\u0026rsquo;s hill, but to meet God on yours.\nWishing you love and health in 2026. Happy new year!\n", "dateiso": "2026-01-02 14:13:33 -0500", "date": "2:13 p.m. on Jan 2, 2026", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2026/01/02/i-am-introducing-a-new.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2026%2F01%2F02%2Fi-am-introducing-a-new.html" }, { "id": 35, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Here\u0026rsquo;s an example of poor design from the YouVersion browser app. Snackbar notifications should not stack on each other, otherwise you get this and the screen becomes non interactive\u0026hellip; Their mobile app does not trigger these snack bar notifications, so the experience is much better than in the browser.\n", "dateiso": "2026-01-01 12:00:17 -0500", "date": "12:00 p.m. on Jan 1, 2026", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2026/01/01/heres-an-example-of-poor.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2026%2F01%2F01%2Fheres-an-example-of-poor.html" }, { "id": 36, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Reading this makes me want to vibe code my own bookshelf.\nVibe coding a bookshelf with Claude Code\n", "dateiso": "2025-12-29 20:24:00 -0500", "date": "8:24 p.m. on Dec 29, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/12/29/reading-this-makes-me-want.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F12%2F29%2Freading-this-makes-me-want.html" }, { "id": 37, "type": "post", "title": "Reading as an antidote to screen time", "text": "The author of Reading Cannot Be Replaced, Here\u0026rsquo;s Why gave words to the hollow feeling I have after sitting in front of a screen for too long:\n Then, it occurred to me that the feeling wasn’t sadness per se, but a crash from being overstimulated.\n A crash. Screens evoke the neurological equivalent of a sugar rush. Or at least it feels that way.\nThis 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. I would fold the paper up and carry it with me everywhere until I finished the article. While this felt like a stroke of genius when I dreamed it up, the habit fizzled out quickly. It turns out, 8 point font on creased printer paper makes a poor reading experience.\nWhich brought to mind another quote from the article, this one from Dr. Ruth Simmons:\n “I know a lot of people today that like to do things on the fly”, she said, “you can’t read a book on the fly… Thank goodness.”\n This was the root of my problem. I was trying to force reading into something I could do “on the fly”. But deep, meaningful reading doesn\u0026rsquo;t work that way. I found I made pretty much no meaningful progress if I didn\u0026rsquo;t have at least 5 minutes to read. It takes time to bask in the author\u0026rsquo;s worldview and allow their thesis permeate your mind. Even when I felt like I was making “progress” through the page, there was no chance I retained what I read by darting through it in short spurts.\nI\u0026rsquo;m still working on finding the correct daily balance of screen time, but it feels like recently it has been too much. I\u0026rsquo;m adding more deep, focused reading time as an antidote to my sugar-rush addiction to screens. I\u0026rsquo;ll be shooting for at least 15 minutes each morning, but I hope to read more. I\u0026rsquo;m not sure 15 minutes will be enough, but I want to start small to give myself a good shot of keeping the habit, and then expanding it someday.\nOn a related note, my wife got me C.S. Lewis\u0026rsquo;s \u0026ldquo;The Space Trilogy\u0026rdquo; (\u0026ldquo;Out of the Silent Planet\u0026rdquo;, \u0026ldquo;Perelandra\u0026rdquo;, \u0026ldquo;That Hideous Strength\u0026rdquo;) and I\u0026rsquo;ve enjoyed getting started on that series! I loved reading Isaac Asimov\u0026rsquo;s \u0026ldquo;Foundation\u0026rdquo; series. I find early sci-fi charming, particularly the way that authors imagined space travel before we had accomplished it. So I\u0026rsquo;m sure I will enjoy this series as well, since it was written in the 40s!\n", "dateiso": "2025-12-27 15:57:59 -0500", "date": "3:57 p.m. on Dec 27, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/12/27/reading-as-an-antidote-to.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F12%2F27%2Freading-as-an-antidote-to.html" }, { "id": 38, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "A Jersey Mike\u0026rsquo;s just opened down the road from our house. I placed my first order at the new location today, and was delighted to discover that the Jersey Mike\u0026rsquo;s website is awesome! You can tell they put a lot of care into the user experience. Adding an item to the \u0026ldquo;bag\u0026rdquo; (cart) is very satisfying. A little image of the item flies over to the bag and disappears inside while the bag bounces up and down. Do they need those animations? No. But it makes for a delightful little ordering experience. Well done Jersey Mike\u0026rsquo;s.\n", "dateiso": "2025-12-23 12:03:54 -0500", "date": "12:03 p.m. on Dec 23, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/12/23/a-jersey-mikes-just-opened.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F12%2F23%2Fa-jersey-mikes-just-opened.html" }, { "id": 39, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Interesting write up from a 16 year old that discovered a major cross-site scripting vulnerability impacting companies including X and Discord:\nThe discussion on Hacker News helps to explain the impact.\n", "dateiso": "2025-12-18 21:41:33 -0500", "date": "9:41 p.m. on Dec 18, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/12/18/interesting-write-up-from-a.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F12%2F18%2Finteresting-write-up-from-a.html" }, { "id": 40, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Why is it that when I try to get ice out of my fridge, it goes painfully slow? But when I accidentally have it set to ice instead of water and I try to fill a small cup with water, suddenly 37 cubes of ice come out at once and fly across the floor?\n", "dateiso": "2025-12-16 20:50:20 -0500", "date": "8:50 p.m. on Dec 16, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/12/16/why-is-it-that-when.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F12%2F16%2Fwhy-is-it-that-when.html" }, { "id": 41, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "This is a great exploration of the sizes of different forms and building blocks of life. With gorgeous illustrations! neal.fun/size-of-l\u0026hellip;\n", "dateiso": "2025-12-11 17:06:00 -0500", "date": "5:06 p.m. on Dec 11, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/12/11/this-is-a-great-exploration.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F12%2F11%2Fthis-is-a-great-exploration.html" }, { "id": 42, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "me: *making breakfast for my family this morning *\nwife: Daddy\u0026rsquo;s making us breakfast because he\u0026rsquo;s a saint.\ndaughter: No, he\u0026rsquo;s not a saint. He\u0026rsquo;s just a yucky guy.\nme and wife: 😲😲🤣🤣\n", "dateiso": "2025-11-25 09:16:55 -0500", "date": "9:16 p.m. on Nov 25, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/11/25/me-making-breakfast-for-my.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F11%2F25%2Fme-making-breakfast-for-my.html" }, { "id": 43, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "We got a new bookshelf and went through all of our books when we set it up. I\u0026rsquo;ve been married to my wife for 5 years and didn\u0026rsquo;t realize she had a bunch of great books I want to read! Of the five shelves of books we had, these are the ones I\u0026rsquo;m hoping to read soon. What else should I add to my list?\n", "dateiso": "2025-11-22 11:24:03 -0500", "date": "11:24 p.m. on Nov 22, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/11/22/we-got-a-new-bookshelf.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F11%2F22%2Fwe-got-a-new-bookshelf.html" }, { "id": 44, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "A brontosaurus with its heart beating out of its\u0026hellip; neck?\n", "dateiso": "2025-11-22 06:44:30 -0500", "date": "6:44 p.m. on Nov 22, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/11/22/a-brontosaurus-with-its-heart.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F11%2F22%2Fa-brontosaurus-with-its-heart.html" }, { "id": 45, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Bacon? On a weekday!?\nYes. 🥓🥓🥓\n", "dateiso": "2025-11-20 07:26:28 -0500", "date": "7:26 p.m. on Nov 20, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/11/20/bacon-on-a-weekday-yes.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F11%2F20%2Fbacon-on-a-weekday-yes.html" }, { "id": 46, "type": "post", "title": "What the first week as a senior software engineer actually looks like", "text": "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.\nSo now that I\u0026rsquo;m a week in, I wanted to write my own post about what the first week is like as a senior software engineer. This is the resource I was looking for and wish I would have had before I started.\nFirst, I\u0026rsquo;ll explain what happened in my first week that is likely to happen for all senior software engineer roles. Then I\u0026rsquo;ll dive into what I\u0026rsquo;m doing to learn fast and make a good impression early.\nWhat happens in the first week? A lot of what happens in the first week will depend on the organization and the job, but I\u0026rsquo;ll talk about my experience with Progressive. I\u0026rsquo;m sure much of it could be generalized across the industry.\nThe tasks you need to complete during your first week don\u0026rsquo;t differ much between the junior to senior level. The main difference is that as a senior, you\u0026rsquo;ll need to be more proactive in your own onboarding. There will be less hand-holding, but my experience has been that my team has still been patient with giving me time to learn and get up-to-speed.\nNobody expects you to contribute right away. So don\u0026rsquo;t try to rush it to the point that you\u0026rsquo;re not learning the things you need to learn early on. Feeling like you need to (and can) solve all the team\u0026rsquo;s problems is an arrogant belief that will lead to technical and relational mistakes. You need to build context before you can make meaningful changes.\nIn the first week, you can expect to:\n Meet the team Get added to all the chats, email distros, and meetings Machine Setup Learn the business context Learn the high-level system architecture Learn the codebase Learn the logging and analytics Meet the team I met my team on the first day by attending the Daily Standup meeting, where everyone discusses what they\u0026rsquo;re working on and any blockers they\u0026rsquo;re encountering.\nMeeting the team has two levels:\n Meeting the whole team together Scheduling time to meet with team members individually While you\u0026rsquo;ll be able to associate names to faces by joining the Standup, meeting everyone individually is an important step that often isn\u0026rsquo;t required when you join. These one-on-one meetings are the perfect opportunity to find out what work each person is doing, what their strengths are, personal details of their lives, and who else they think you should talk to. That last one is a great way to build your internal network early-on.\nBut have some tact about when you schedule those meetings. Understand that the team may have an urgent priority they\u0026rsquo;re working on. Try to schedule a time when your meetings will not be too disruptive. I try to do it at the beginning of a new work cycle. I have not scheduled mine yet, because the day after I joined, my team had a big launch they had been working toward for months. So I\u0026rsquo;m planning to wait another week or two until things settle a bit.\nGet added to all the chats, email distros, and meetings If you\u0026rsquo;re at an enterprise org like me, there are lots of chats and distros you\u0026rsquo;ll need to be part of. I\u0026rsquo;ve never had this all get sorted out easily on my first day. Something(s) always gets missed. Make sure to be proactive about following up and asking various team members if there are chats or distros you should be part of. Sometimes you get assigned a person to help with this, but even that person may not be aware of all the chats that will be helpful to you, so ask around.\nMachine Setup Hopefully this step will be well documented. If not, you will likely get assigned someone to help walk you through it. Just make sure to get everything installed and set up early on. There are some things you might not need right away, but you\u0026rsquo;ll be embarrassed if you wait until you\u0026rsquo;re past onboarding and need to ask for help setting up something you should have already had.\nIn my case this includes things like:\n Change the default browser to Chrome instead of Edge Install VS Code and Visual Studio and get them configured how I like Get access to GitHub Copilot Install necessary browser extensions (e.g., Redux DevTools, Angular DevTools) Clone the repos I\u0026rsquo;ll be working on and get the code to build and run Get access to the databases via a Database Management System Set up my container engine (e.g., Docker) Start saving bookmarks left and right to all the links I\u0026rsquo;ll need later Machine setup is tedious, but taking the time to do it well will set you up to be successful later.\nLearn the business context Before I jump too far into the code, I try to broadly understand the business context that the code lives in and serves. I ask questions like:\n What is the company mission? What is my department\u0026rsquo;s mission? How does it contribute to the company\u0026rsquo;s mission? What is my team\u0026rsquo;s mission? How does it contribute to my department\u0026rsquo;s mission? These questions help me understand the “Why” behind the changes we are making. Once I feel like I have a decent grasp on those questions, then I try to understand the “What/Who”.\nWho is involved? What does the data look like? How do people talk about data and relationships between entities? In my case, since I\u0026rsquo;m working on the claims side of Progressive, pretty much everything falls within the scope of an insurance claim. Within that, I am on the payments team, so I work at the end of the lifecycle of a claim when payments are sent out.\nSo who is involved? Internal claims reps that process payments.\nWhat does the data look like? Key data entities include invoices, line items, properties, parties, payments, correspondence, etc. Each department and team will have their own set of shared language to describe their data entities and the relationships between them.\nIt\u0026rsquo;s smart to learn this language quickly so you can have coherent conversations with your team about the problems you\u0026rsquo;re trying to solve. Knowing the \u0026ldquo;Why\u0026rdquo; will also help you steer your team away from trying to solve the wrong problems.\nLearn the high-level system architecture Learn the systems involved, where they live, how they\u0026rsquo;re organized, and how they talk to each other. Are things hosted on-prem, in the cloud, or both? What\u0026rsquo;s the tech stack (languages, frameworks, versions, important libraries, etc.)? Especially for the systems you support, figure out what the dependencies are. Which systems are you consuming, and which systems are you serving?\nHopefully there is documentation in place with diagrams to help you understand how everything fits together. I like to make my own system diagrams as I learn how things are architected. Then, I ask knowledgeable members of the team to critique my designs to test my understanding. Once I know that my diagram is correct, I\u0026rsquo;ll add it to the team\u0026rsquo;s documentation for others to reference later.\nLearn the codebase This part often feels the most overwhelming. Especially at a large enterprise, there is no way one person could understand and remember the entire codebase. It\u0026rsquo;s just too big.\nSome people try to read all the code when they start. While I think there\u0026rsquo;s a place for reading, I find it\u0026rsquo;s hard for me to get a deep understanding from reading alone. I prefer to debug the application. I\u0026rsquo;ll pick a breakpoint, figure out how to hit it, and then observe the call stack and step through the code slowly. This is really helpful at first, when I have a very loose understanding of the classes in the code. I find it very helpful to see the actual data being passed around and manipulated at runtime.\nI also love pair programming for this. In the beginning, I let someone else on the team drive so I can observe their workflow. This is a great opportunity to ask questions about why certain parts of the code work the way that they do. Or get insider knowledge on which parts of the code are minefields and which parts of the code have been written well. Much like a country, every codebase has good and bad areas. If someone doesn\u0026rsquo;t get assigned as a mentor for you to pair with, you need to seek this out. And try to pair with different members of the team, as everyone will have their own areas of expertise and ways of doing things that you can learn from.\nFor an example of using debugging to learn, I noticed that I was getting a 404 error from our API when trying to play around in our web client. When I debugged the API, I found that the stored procedure it calls was returning an empty array unexpectedly. When I went to test the stored procedure, I realized that the query had hard-coded values in it, instead of using the input parameters from the stored procedure. This looked like someone had accidentally modified the stored procedure while doing some testing, so I reached out to the team about it and one of the team members confirmed they had accidentally made this change. This was a pretty simple issue to debug, but it took me a little longer because I don\u0026rsquo;t know the codebase yet. But these are the perfect kind of issues to debug when you\u0026rsquo;re starting out, to see how everything connects between web, API, database, and any other layers you have in your architecture. I learned a lot from this simple debugging session.\nThese are the kind of things that help learn the codebase. Even if someone else finds a fix for a bug, see if you can dive deeper into the root cause and check with the team to see if your understanding makes sense.\nLearn the logging and analytics If you\u0026rsquo;re going to do any kind of production support, it\u0026rsquo;s important to learn where you can access your system logs and what kind of analytics you have available to you. Make sure to get access to team dashboards, and learn how to query any analytics tools our team is using. In my case, my team uses Splunk so I intend to brush up on my Splunk queries to be able to pinpoint issues we are encountering across our environments.\nThings to focus on in the first week While the topics above are things you\u0026rsquo;ll be told to do when you start, below you\u0026rsquo;ll find things that you probably won\u0026rsquo;t be explicitly told to do, but you should do if you want to start strong. These are all the things I focused on in my first week and will be continuing to focus on.\nThese include things like:\n How to make a good impression Embrace the beginner\u0026rsquo;s mindset Figure out the strategic focus Make little improvements Document everything Keep a WTF Notebook Play How to make a good impression You don\u0026rsquo;t get to make a good impression twice. It\u0026rsquo;s tempting to try to create a good image of yourself by boasting or being impressive, but don\u0026rsquo;t fall into that trap.\nInstead, I focused on being curious and listening well. My team doesn\u0026rsquo;t need to learn everything about me the first week. At a minimum, I just want my teammates to feel like they were listened to and respected after each of our interactions.\nAlso, I like to observe the team\u0026rsquo;s chats to see what kind of humor the team has developed over time. What jokes are they telling? Are people making fun of each other playfully? Memes? GIFs?\nLearning the team\u0026rsquo;s humor will help you participate in it and is a good way to start connecting with your team.\nGood listening and humor will go a long way toward making a good impression. Even more than elegant code, especially in your first week.\nEmbrace the beginner\u0026rsquo;s mindset I noticed that my ego kept popping up in the first week. I wanted to prove myself. Especially since I am coming from a non-technical role back into a technical role, I wanted to prove to my team (but probably mostly to myself) that I am technically competent and will excel in my new role. But this is all ego and pride, and needs to be put aside.\nThe first week is not about proving anything. It\u0026rsquo;s a time to learn and absorb. The best way to do that is to let go of ego, and ask questions. It feels silly to get stuck on things and need to ask questions, especially when your new teammates seem to do things so effortlessly. But they\u0026rsquo;ve had years to work on this stuff. Acknowledge that they know more than you, and seek to use their knowledge as a resource.\nWhether true or not, I\u0026rsquo;ve found it helpful to assume that everyone is smarter than me. At the very least, I assume that everybody has something to teach me, and it\u0026rsquo;s my job to figure out what it is.\nFigure out the strategic focus Leadership loves strategy. Figure out what are the primary strategic focuses in your area. Or in other words, figure out what leadership wants. Once you figure out what these are, commit to helping push the strategy forward.\nIn my case, leadership is very focused on getting GitHub Copilot into the hands of developers and focusing on new ways to integrate LLMs into our workflows. So, I\u0026rsquo;m committed to learning how to use Copilot to speed up my development workflows. To take it even a step further, I plan to become an expert on it so that I can be a resource for other members of my team and department.\nAlso, innovation is a big strategic focus for my department. To support innovation, they host quarterly hackathons. These hackathons are optional, and relative to the size of the organization, attendance is small. Leadership really wants more people to be participating in these hackathons they\u0026rsquo;ve set up. So, I\u0026rsquo;ve already submitted two ideas for our next hackathon coming up in December and plan to lead at least one of them so I can bring others into the hackathon with me.\nAs an example of contributing to strategic initiatives outside your normal development work, I\u0026rsquo;ll share the experiments I submitted. My ideas both incorporate LLMs since that is the big strategic push right now. One is to set up a RAG chat interface for our internal technical docs, so that we can \u0026ldquo;talk with our docs\u0026rdquo;. My other idea is to assemble the biggest team I can, and then to have everybody use AI to make small scripts or CLI tools to speed up development workflows. The idea here is that instead of using AI as the tool for everything, we can use AI to make our own bespoke tools, perfectly crafted to individuals, teams, or specific workflows.\nYour organization may not have hackathons, and AI may not be one of their strategic initiatives, but try to figure out what those initiatives are and how you can contribute to making them successful. This should give you more opportunities for interesting work while also making you more visible across the organization, which will help with growing your career.\nMake little improvements When I\u0026rsquo;m getting started, no task is beneath me. I want to signal that I\u0026rsquo;m here to help early on, so I look for little helpful things I can do that are unlikely to get in the way. One of the first places I always look is documentation. Especially onboarding documentation. As a new hire, I have a unique vantage point on the onboarding docs. Almost always, there will be sections that have gone stale or are completely missing. I clean up the onboarding docs and make improvements to them as I go.\nI find ways to do this in other documentation too. For example, my team has documentation of our app with a section for dependencies. This section was pretty outdated, so I spent some time digging in the config files to see all the dependencies we consume. I reviewed the config files of other apps across the company to see what other apps were consuming the APIs my team supports.\nAnother place I found to make little improvements was my department\u0026rsquo;s internal video library. The problem I found was that the videos have no description, so I would sometimes realize halfway into a video that there wasn\u0026rsquo;t any useful information for me. So to prevent that, I started downloading the transcripts and running them through an LLM to generate a summary of each video. I then pasted these into the description of the video in Microsoft Clipchamp, so that everybody else who clicks on these videos in the future can quickly see what they are about.\nDocument everything The previous section focused on team documentation, but this section is all about personal documentation. I assume that I am incapable of remembering anything, which is nearly true. Based on that assumption, I write down anything and everything that I might need to remember later. If it is not written, it is not remembered.\nI did not do great at this early in my career, and it came back to bite me during my job interviews. I could barely remember what I had worked on just a few years ago! I struggled to remember concrete examples of features I implemented or production issues I debugged and resolved.\nSo now I\u0026rsquo;ve started keeping a daily-log.md file that is always open in Notepad. This file is just one long list of everything noteworthy that happened each day, paraphrased in my own words. In the morning, I make a heading for the day, and then I just make bullets of each thing that happened. It looks something like this:\n## November 3, 2025 Monday - debugged form validation issue with John (#12344321) - started building out new table - meeting with manager: timesheets due every friday, focus on AI, update on functional reqs docs ## October 31, 2025 Friday ... ## October 30, 2025 Thursday ... I write down anything notable that happened so that I have a record of it. Then every Monday morning, I look over all the past week\u0026rsquo;s daily notes and summarize them into the top 5 highlights for my weekly-log.md file. It looks like this:\n## 2025 W45 Nov 3 - Nov 7 1. notable thing 2. notable thing 3. notable thing 4. notable thing 5. notable thing ## 2025 W44 Oct 27 - Oct 31 ... Keeping a log like this is pretty low effort, but it at least gives me something to look back on to remember what I\u0026rsquo;ve accomplished. This is especially helpful for performance review season. If you do something like this, you could also ask your manager if they want a weekly email of your top 5 highlights each week.\nKeep a WTF Notebook I really like the premise of the WTF Notebook from this article. The idea is that you keep a log of everything that makes you say “What the f\u0026hellip;” as you are learning about your new team.\nWriting it down is meant to prevent you from jumping to conclusions right away, because there may be historical reasons the team is doing something that you are not aware of. It also serves to capture your valuable perspective as someone with fresh eyes. You can then share these reactions and opinions at a later time, once you\u0026rsquo;ve had a chance to reflect on whether they are valid or not.\nI\u0026rsquo;ve started my own WTF Notebook and plan to share with my manager and team in a few weeks.\nPlay The best way to learn is play. So I\u0026rsquo;ve gotten all of our code running and have been trying to navigate through our application, pretending I am one of our users. I\u0026rsquo;ve also been trying out SQL Queries against the database to find out how the tables relate and what the data looks like. Luckily, my team has put together something they call the “Super Query”, which joins together all the related tables under our main parent table and displays all the data together. If your team doesn\u0026rsquo;t have a super query, building one would be a great way to learn the data and would be a great resource for the team.\nConclusion The first week of any job is a crucial time. It\u0026rsquo;s a unique space where not much is expected of you, and you have free rein to ask questions and learn. As a new senior software engineer, you can expect the usual first week things like meeting the team, chat setup, machine setup, and learning all about the business and technology. On top of that, it\u0026rsquo;s important to go the extra mile to make it an excellent experience. To do that, I like to focus on making a good impression, embracing a beginner\u0026rsquo;s mindset, understanding the strategy, making little improvements, documenting everything, tracking my WTFs, and playing around.\nThese points have helped my onboarding go extremely smooth, and I hope they can do the same for you if you\u0026rsquo;re looking to jump into a similar career path. The best engineers begin not with code or architecture, but with understanding.\n", "dateiso": "2025-11-04 18:30:00 -0500", "date": "6:30 p.m. on Nov 4, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/11/04/what-the-first-week-as.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F11%2F04%2Fwhat-the-first-week-as.html" }, { "id": 47, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Green grapes are undeniably better than red grapes. I was surprised to realize this. I think I was prejudiced against green grapes because I like red apples better than green apples.\n", "dateiso": "2025-11-02 11:19:36 -0500", "date": "11:19 p.m. on Nov 2, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/11/02/green-grapes-are-undeniably-better.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F11%2F02%2Fgreen-grapes-are-undeniably-better.html" }, { "id": 48, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "IT FINALLY HAPPENED! I made latte art that roughly approximates a heart. I can\u0026rsquo;t believe it took me months just to get my first heart. But now that I figured out how to pour in a way to get the foam to sit on top, I\u0026rsquo;m hopeful I can get the heart mastered soon and then move on to learning the tulip.\n", "dateiso": "2025-11-02 06:58:01 -0500", "date": "6:58 p.m. on Nov 2, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/11/02/it-finally-happened-i-made.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F11%2F02%2Fit-finally-happened-i-made.html" }, { "id": 49, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Doing one of my favorite things today: working from a coffee shop ☕ I\u0026rsquo;m trying a cozy new spot nearby that I\u0026rsquo;ve never been to before! Their latte art game is strong and this orange-cardamom flavor is delicious. It reminds me that I have a long way to go with my lattes/art!\n", "dateiso": "2025-10-22 11:12:39 -0500", "date": "11:12 p.m. on Oct 22, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/10/22/doing-one-of-my-favorite.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F10%2F22%2Fdoing-one-of-my-favorite.html" }, { "id": 50, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "me: we\u0026rsquo;re going to the barber shop so I can get a haircut.\n2yo daughter: I DON\u0026rsquo;T WANT TO GO TO BARBECUE SAUCE GUYS!!! 😭😭😭\n", "dateiso": "2025-10-22 10:40:22 -0500", "date": "10:40 p.m. on Oct 22, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/10/22/me-were-going-to-the.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F10%2F22%2Fme-were-going-to-the.html" }, { "id": 51, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I wrote Are you looking in the right places? about a month ago. The phone that inspired that essay has been missing ever since, but today my daughter pulled it out from under the fridge. I guess sometimes to find what we\u0026rsquo;re looking for, we need to stop looking so much. 🤷‍♂️\n", "dateiso": "2025-10-21 12:58:09 -0500", "date": "12:58 p.m. on Oct 21, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/10/21/i-wrote-are-you-looking.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F10%2F21%2Fi-wrote-are-you-looking.html" }, { "id": 52, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I came across this old roommate agreement from college 😂🤣\nWe definitely considered mutual back massages, I can\u0026rsquo;t remember if it ever happened though\u0026hellip; 🤔💭\n", "dateiso": "2025-10-10 08:00:32 -0500", "date": "8:00 p.m. on Oct 10, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/10/10/i-came-across-this-old.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F10%2F10%2Fi-came-across-this-old.html" }, { "id": 53, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Is it normal for a toddler to want spicy pickled garlic for breakfast? 😅\n", "dateiso": "2025-09-28 08:16:26 -0500", "date": "8:16 p.m. on Sep 28, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/09/28/is-it-normal-for-a.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F09%2F28%2Fis-it-normal-for-a.html" }, { "id": 54, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I scribbled in the margins this morning that the passage below made me think of the amplifying effect of social media. But then I was struck by the idea that I might still have this Bible in 50 years. If I come across my marginalia 5 decades from now, will social media seem like a distant memory? I think so. But what will have risen in its place? It got me thinking a lot about what stands the test of time, and what doesn\u0026rsquo;t. It\u0026rsquo;s crazy to me that I can\u0026rsquo;t imagine social media, at least as it is now, being around for 50 more years, but these words are from 2,000 years ago.\n Ephesians 4:17-19 NIV\n[17] So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. [18] They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. [19] Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.\n ", "dateiso": "2025-09-25 05:10:59 -0500", "date": "5:10 p.m. on Sep 25, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/09/25/i-scribbled-in-the-margins.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F09%2F25%2Fi-scribbled-in-the-margins.html" }, { "id": 55, "type": "post", "title": "You have plenty of time, the problem is emotional overwhelm", "text": "I really enjoyed this conversation between Brett Kistler and Joe Hudson. They discuss that what we call \u0026ldquo;time scarcity\u0026rdquo; is really emotional overwhelm.\nThe key to overcoming that overwhelm and feeling like you have more time? Being present.\nThis message really resonated with me. It\u0026rsquo;s easy to whip out my phone when I\u0026rsquo;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.\nHere are some quotes that stood out to me, I recommend giving it a listen for yourself!\n \u0026ldquo;Because we’re present. Yes. But in that time scarcity thing, what we are is we’re in the future. And so that’s the other big component of time scarcity: we are in the future. We’re thinking about what we have to do next.\u0026rdquo;\n \u0026ldquo;Time scarcity is almost always a response to stress. And stress, we like to think, is that we have too many things to do and not enough time. But stress is often about not feeling our emotions.\u0026rdquo;\n \u0026ldquo;So if you think of that, 80% of society feels time scarcity, you could just also say 80% of society is not present most of their time.\u0026rdquo;\n \u0026ldquo;Branson, who said the best time management is exercise. If you\u0026rsquo;re exercising, you feel like it creates more presence. Anything that you do that creates more presence creates less time urgency, or less time poverty or whatever — the worst scarcity.\u0026rdquo;\n \u0026ldquo;It also reminds me of the saying, which is: if you want something done, ask the busy person.\u0026rdquo;\n That last one stung a bit. The busy people are busy because they say yes to everything.\nLet me know if you like posts like these, I\u0026rsquo;m thinking about curating more content I\u0026rsquo;ve found impactful from around the web. More of the off-the-beaten-path type of stuff that isn\u0026rsquo;t making the rounds on social media.\n", "dateiso": "2025-09-22 07:41:00 -0500", "date": "7:41 p.m. on Sep 22, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/09/22/you-have-plenty-of-time.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F09%2F22%2Fyou-have-plenty-of-time.html" }, { "id": 56, "type": "post", "title": "The joy of indexing", "text": "Indexing is one of my favorite parts of journaling. It\u0026rsquo;s joyfully tedious. There\u0026rsquo;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.\n", "dateiso": "2025-09-20 06:47:58 -0500", "date": "6:47 p.m. on Sep 20, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/09/20/the-joy-of-indexing.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F09%2F20%2Fthe-joy-of-indexing.html" }, { "id": 57, "type": "post", "title": "This redesign was long overdue", "text": "I have to admit, when I first launched Fed Meetup, I wasn\u0026rsquo;t very proud of the UX . I pieced it together quickly to meet a need at NASA, and didn\u0026rsquo;t make the time to go back and clean it up.\nBut that bad user experience has been a thorn in my side ever since I launched the tool. That\u0026rsquo;s why I redesigned it from the ground up.\nThe result is a clean, intuitive, and much more beautiful interface. The new 4-step progress indicator helps you track exactly where you are in the process. Everything is now clearer and simpler.\nThis was a fun passion project to elevate the user experience. If you\u0026rsquo;re a federal travel coordinator, I hope you love using it as much as I loved building it.\nCheck it out and let me know what you think!\nfedmeetup.com\n", "dateiso": "2025-09-20 06:35:04 -0500", "date": "6:35 p.m. on Sep 20, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/09/20/this-redesign-was-long-overdue.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F09%2F20%2Fthis-redesign-was-long-overdue.html" }, { "id": 58, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I spent this morning writing an outline for a blog post with the draft title: \u0026ldquo;I spent eight years crafting the ultimate pocket journal setup\u0026rdquo;. I\u0026rsquo;ve been wanting to do this post for years, but it feels like it\u0026rsquo;s going to be a huge undertaking. I care about this a lot, so I really want to do it right and share all the details with more pictures than anyone probably cares to see. I can\u0026rsquo;t promise it will come soon, but I\u0026rsquo;m excited to start working on it.\n", "dateiso": "2025-09-20 06:32:19 -0500", "date": "6:32 p.m. on Sep 20, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/09/20/i-spent-this-morning-writing.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F09%2F20%2Fi-spent-this-morning-writing.html" }, { "id": 59, "type": "post", "title": "Are you looking in the right places?", "text": "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\u0026rsquo;s phone. \u0026ldquo;Let\u0026rsquo;s find phone!\u0026rdquo; my two year old shouted. And off she went, scouring the house for a little purple phone.\nI laughed when I saw the first place she looked.\nShe walked over beside our couch, lifted up an air vent cover, and peeked inside. \u0026ldquo;Phoooooone?\u0026rdquo;, she yelled down into the vent.\nIt was nearly impossible for the phone to be in the vent, because it\u0026rsquo;s too big to fit through the vent cover. But she was determined to find it there. When I told my wife about this, she said she\u0026rsquo;d shown our daughter how to check the air vents a few days earlier after we had guests.\nShe learned a search pattern, checking vents, but applied it where it didn\u0026rsquo;t belong. We can make the same mistake with the \u0026ldquo;universal aims\u0026rdquo;: Love. Belonging. Purpose. Joy. Peace.\nWe look for love in hookup culture, romance novels, and AI companions.\nWe look for belonging in anonymous forums, likes on our posts, and parasocial fandoms.\nWe look for purpose in status games, promotions, and hustle.\nWe look for joy in binging TV, retail therapy, and quick dopamine hits.\nWe look for peace in riches, wellness fads, and week-long vacations.\nDo any of these resonate with you? I know some do for me. Some of these methods you may think will actually lead to the aim. For example, maybe you think wellness will bring you peace. I don\u0026rsquo;t think that\u0026rsquo;s quite right. Focusing on wellness will significantly improve your quality of life, especially if you haven\u0026rsquo;t focused on it before. But I\u0026rsquo;m convinced it will not bring you true and lasting peace. The key words are \u0026ldquo;true and lasting\u0026rdquo;.\nI\u0026rsquo;m sure that if we could flip a switch and become omniscient, seeing ourselves looking in these places would be just as absurd as my daughter looking down into the air vent and shouting for her toy phone.\nNow, my list above assumes that everybody is aiming at these universal aims. While this does happen on a subconscious level, many, maybe most, people get their methods confused with their aims. They think their aim is riches, or hustle, or hookups, or time to sit and read their romance novels. This is a tragic misunderstanding. And it\u0026rsquo;s a prime reason many people are so dissatisfied and utterly confused about it. They thought riches were what they needed, so they attained it, but something still feels wrong. They feel discontent, empty. This is because what they were really searching for was peace, and riches wasn\u0026rsquo;t the way to attain that in the first place. Instead, they probably assume something is wrong with them internally because everyone else seems to be made happy by their riches, especially scrolling through Instagram. So they medicate to numb the pain and make themselves look as happy as they can on their social media, feeding the algorithmic illusion for others. Maybe this sounds familiar?\nThe key to breaking this cycle is to stop and consider your aims. Ask the questions: Why are we here? Why am I here? What are the highest aims that surface in great literature across time? Why do these highest aims keep surfacing? Where do they come from? What are they?\nI don\u0026rsquo;t have perfect answers to these questions, but they are deep questions that have been helpful for me to consider in formulating my aims.\nOnce you have your aims figured out, then it\u0026rsquo;s worth considering where to search.\nYou\u0026rsquo;ve already been searching, so take some time to consider where you spend most of your time. Do a minute-by-minute audit of your days. Where you spend your time is where you\u0026rsquo;re searching. Again, it\u0026rsquo;s important to look back at literature across time to find the correct ways to search. If you look to your friends or present day examples, they will be searching in the ways I listed out above. But the true aims, and the methods of moving toward them, surface in literature across time, because they\u0026rsquo;re true, and truth is eternal. For me, the Bible is the clearest source. But the Bible is not the only place truth can be found. Truth is powerful and makes its way into human expression across time. For example, I can learn from the Bible that riches are not peace, but I can also see this theme in A Christmas Carol or Great Expectations.\n \u0026ldquo;Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income\u0026rdquo;\nEcclesiastes 5:10\n The author of Ecclesiastes highlights the unsatisfiable nature of greed.\n \u0026ldquo;There was a time, when you were another man. All your other hopes have merged into the hope of being beyond the chance of its sordid reproach. I have seen your nobler aspirations fall off one by one, until the master-passion, Gain, engrosses you.\u0026rdquo;\nCharles Dickens, A Christmas Carol\n Dickens shows that the pursuit of riches can become all consuming and change who you are.\n \u0026ldquo;He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him.\u0026rdquo;\nF. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby\n Fitzgerald points out that a false search can take us right past our true aim.\nSo test your aims and your methods against the cautionary tales that have stood the test of time. Look for truth, and ask: Are you looking in the right places?\n", "dateiso": "2025-09-14 06:54:45 -0500", "date": "6:54 p.m. on Sep 14, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/09/14/are-you-looking-in-the.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F09%2F14%2Fare-you-looking-in-the.html" }, { "id": 60, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Testing out a new newsletter template. It\u0026rsquo;s crazy how quickly I can make these changes with Claude\u0026rsquo;s help.\n", "dateiso": "2025-09-12 09:41:21 -0500", "date": "9:41 p.m. on Sep 12, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/09/12/testing-out-a-new-newsletter.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F09%2F12%2Ftesting-out-a-new-newsletter.html" }, { "id": 61, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I found a better way to migrate my Google Photos between accounts. I realized I can use Partner Sharing to automatically \u0026ldquo;save\u0026rdquo; the photos to a new account. It makes me a little hesitant, because it says the photos don\u0026rsquo;t count against my storage quota, so they must still be saved under the original account technically. Apparently, when the photos are deleted on the original account, then they will be saved into the new account that they have been shared with. It smells fishy, but I\u0026rsquo;m going to try it out. I\u0026rsquo;m making backups of all photos first before I try it though. I\u0026rsquo;m really hoping this saves me from all the downloading, unzipping, and uploading 🤞\nThank you to the good people of reddit and UConn for sharing this method. I\u0026rsquo;m glad I came across this because I was already seeing issues with missing metadata from some of the photos I was exporting from Google Takeout.\n", "dateiso": "2025-09-12 07:56:43 -0500", "date": "7:56 p.m. on Sep 12, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/09/12/i-found-a-better-way.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F09%2F12%2Fi-found-a-better-way.html" }, { "id": 62, "type": "post", "title": "Free and unlimited for life...", "text": "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\u0026rsquo;t find the old policy for storage, but here is the policy for email.\n 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.\n So, of course, we took advantage of it. We\u0026rsquo;ve been using those alumni accounts for Google Drive and Google Photos for years, since the storage was free.\nBut recently, Kent decided to change their policy on storage.\n Your ability to access FlashLine, Canvas, Kaltura, email, Google Drive and Microsoft services will be deactivated on October 14, 2025. After this date, you will no longer have access to your email or cloud storage (such as Google Drive or OneDrive). Please review the instructions below to ensure you do not lose anything you wish to retain.\n Now we have until October 14 to move all of our files and photos, or lose them all.\nI expected this would happen someday, because how in the world could Kent expect to maintain unlimited storage forever for a growing alumni body? But still, it sucks now that it\u0026rsquo;s happening.\nThose accounts have all the photos and videos from when we were first married, our first house, our daughter, everything. Not to mention, I have all sorts of important tax and legal docs stored in Drive.\nSo my heart sank when I first heard the news from Kent, but now I\u0026rsquo;m in the middle of the dull monotony of downloading and re-uploading a terabyte of data. I bought a Google One account for storage, because we\u0026rsquo;ve been happy with Google\u0026rsquo;s various cloud services. I expected Google would have an easy way to magically move data between Google accounts, but that was not the case for many of their services.\nGoogle has two services called Transfer and Takeout. Transfer is the good one, that automatically moves your data to a new account, and works with Gmail and Drive. But for Photos, where I have most of my data, I have to use Google Takeout. That\u0026rsquo;s their service for downloading your data to your device.\nSo the roughly Terabyte of photos and videos that I need to migrate is getting chunked into 50GB zip files that I then need to download, unzip, and re-upload into Photos in my personal account.\nIt\u0026rsquo;s taking a long time, and I\u0026rsquo;m bored.\nI\u0026rsquo;ll be looking into redundant storage options, because I don\u0026rsquo;t want to go through this all over again if Google discontinues Photos. It wouldn\u0026rsquo;t be the first thing they\u0026rsquo;ve discontinued.\n Update September 12, 2025 8:56 AM\nI found a better way to migrate my Google Photos between accounts. I realized I can use Partner Sharing to automatically \u0026ldquo;save\u0026rdquo; the photos to a new account. It makes me a little hesitant, because it says the photos don\u0026rsquo;t count against my storage quota, so they must still be saved under the original account technically. Apparently, when the photos are deleted on the original account, then they will be saved into the new account that they have been shared with. It smells fishy, but I\u0026rsquo;m going to try it out. I\u0026rsquo;m making backups of all photos first before I try it though. I\u0026rsquo;m really hoping this saves me from all the downloading, unzipping, and uploading 🤞\nThank you to the good people of reddit and UConn for sharing this method. I\u0026rsquo;m glad I came across this because I was already seeing issues with missing metadata from some of the photos I was exporting from Google Takeout.\n ", "dateiso": "2025-09-12 05:16:19 -0500", "date": "5:16 p.m. on Sep 12, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/09/12/free-and-unlimited-for-life.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F09%2F12%2Ffree-and-unlimited-for-life.html" }, { "id": 63, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I re-inked my Pilot Kakuno with Pilot Iroshizuku fuyu-gaki. I like this orange ink as an accent color for journaling. My main color is a deep blue-black, Sailor Seiboku, in my Lamy Safari.\nI love these little rituals that come with analog journaling. I haven\u0026rsquo;t found a satisfying digital equivalent.\n", "dateiso": "2025-09-10 05:54:14 -0500", "date": "5:54 p.m. on Sep 10, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/09/10/i-reinked-my-pilot-kakuno.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F09%2F10%2Fi-reinked-my-pilot-kakuno.html" }, { "id": 64, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I tried to make a heart but it wanted to be a mushroom instead. Maybe I\u0026rsquo;ll save all these failed latte art images and use them for Rorschach inkblot tests. Then I could make use of the year that I majored in Psychology before switching to Computer Science.\n", "dateiso": "2025-09-10 04:31:52 -0500", "date": "4:31 p.m. on Sep 10, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/09/10/i-tried-to-make-a.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F09%2F10%2Fi-tried-to-make-a.html" }, { "id": 65, "type": "post", "title": "Sharing all of my book, article, and podcast highlights", "text": "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\u0026rsquo;ve highlighted and taken notes on:\nJakes Digital Garden - 400 Readwise Highlights\nAs I mentioned earlier this week, I\u0026rsquo;ve been reading a lot more physical books and I haven\u0026rsquo;t made the effort to save my highlights from those into Readwise. I probably never will, because that\u0026rsquo;s a ton of manual work. If you\u0026rsquo;re interested in the books I\u0026rsquo;m reading, send me a friend request on Goodreads!\nAnd as always, reach out if you see anything that piques your interest!\n", "dateiso": "2025-09-04 16:41:01 -0500", "date": "4:41 p.m. on Sep 4, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/09/04/sharing-all-of-my-book.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F09%2F04%2Fsharing-all-of-my-book.html" }, { "id": 66, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "My first of many manicures, courtesy of my daughter. Also, this is the launch of my hand modeling business. Reply with HANDYMAN for a special introductory offer on my hand modeling services. If you know me, you know that being a hand model is the only way I could call myself a handyman.\n", "dateiso": "2025-09-03 16:21:00 -0500", "date": "4:21 p.m. on Sep 3, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/09/03/my-first-of-many-manicures.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F09%2F03%2Fmy-first-of-many-manicures.html" }, { "id": 67, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I\u0026rsquo;m getting closer with my latte art, but still have the same issue that I\u0026rsquo;m having with my workouts: consistency. I still haven\u0026rsquo;t figured out how to get the milk to the right consistency where the foam sits on top but isn\u0026rsquo;t thick like whipped cream.\n", "dateiso": "2025-09-03 08:30:22 -0500", "date": "8:30 p.m. on Sep 3, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/09/03/im-getting-closer-with-my.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F09%2F03%2Fim-getting-closer-with-my.html" }, { "id": 68, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I was just minding my business this morning when I came across these modern-take-on-ancient-slings and now I feel like I need to channel my inner-David and buy one. Somebody please talk me out of it. Pan Slings\n", "dateiso": "2025-08-31 11:42:54 -0500", "date": "11:42 p.m. on Aug 31, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/08/31/i-was-just-minding-my.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F08%2F31%2Fi-was-just-minding-my.html" }, { "id": 69, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I\u0026rsquo;m getting back to reading physical books and dog-earing, underlining, and taking notes in the margins. Hand cramping has become a strong signal for the quality of a book.\n", "dateiso": "2025-08-31 11:31:33 -0500", "date": "11:31 p.m. on Aug 31, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/08/31/im-getting-back-to-reading.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F08%2F31%2Fim-getting-back-to-reading.html" }, { "id": 70, "type": "post", "title": "A new season", "text": "I love that it\u0026rsquo;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\u0026rsquo;s been much more pleasant to take long walks on nature trails with my girls. I\u0026rsquo;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.\nYou may have noticed it has been a while since I posted more than a quick pic of latte art (can I call it that?) on my site. That\u0026rsquo;s because I\u0026rsquo;ve jumped into an exciting, chaotic, and scary new normal, and I\u0026rsquo;m worried about sharing too much publicly. But I fear this worry has clouded my creativity and made it harder to write about anything.\nThis big change is good. It is actually one of the freest and happiest times of my life. But I\u0026rsquo;m hesitant about oversharing the details right now.\nWith change has come stress, and I\u0026rsquo;ve found that has made it hard to get excited about new things to write. It has been a while since I\u0026rsquo;ve furiously scribbled exciting new ideas in the shower.\nSo with this little post, I hope to get the ball rolling back in the right direction.\nI believe God drops little gifts of insight into our laps, and those gifts are meant to be shared. They can be profound, or not. They can resonate with a lot of people, or nobody. But each gift of insight that we chase is valuable, at least in the pursuit of conveying it as clearly as we can. The pursuit is a source of joy and growth.\nFor example, this bible verse has been stuck in my head for weeks since I first came across it. It just feels so relevant to my situation right now:\n Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.\nJeremiah 6:16, NIV\n As I see it, I\u0026rsquo;m standing at a crossroads in life. My desire is to jump right in and figure things out, but this verse says \u0026ldquo;and look\u0026rdquo;, inviting me to pause and consider my situation. Should I go left, right, or straight? I love the idea of looking for the ancient paths and the good way. For some reason, \u0026ldquo;ancient paths\u0026rdquo; brings to mind an old dirt trail overgrown on the sides by long grasses that leads to a dense thicket of blueberries. This imagery is refreshing, especially contrasted with my natural way of trying to figure things out: burying myself in YouTube videos, articles, and other short-lived, digital sources. If I had it my way, I would sprint down the right path once I\u0026rsquo;ve found it, but this verse reminds me to \u0026ldquo;walk in it\u0026rdquo;. That is the way to a restful soul. And in a time of change, nothing sounds better to me.\nThat\u0026rsquo;s a little insight, and I could have never shared it with anyone. And maybe sharing it now will have no value to anyone else. But that\u0026rsquo;s okay. The pursuit of conveying the idea has itself been valuable to me.\nSo to wrap this up, I\u0026rsquo;m still here and still longing to share. I\u0026rsquo;ve had some big changes that I\u0026rsquo;m both excited and scared about, but above all I\u0026rsquo;m grateful for this new season I\u0026rsquo;ve stepped into. I\u0026rsquo;ve been using big life change as an excuse to keep me from seeking and sharing the insights coming my way. But starting today, I\u0026rsquo;ll be seeking, and I\u0026rsquo;m excited to share what I find with you.\n", "dateiso": "2025-08-30 17:05:29 -0500", "date": "5:05 p.m. on Aug 30, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/08/30/a-new-season.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F08%2F30%2Fa-new-season.html" }, { "id": 71, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "An update: My latte art still needs some work.\n", "dateiso": "2025-08-21 08:13:17 -0500", "date": "8:13 p.m. on Aug 21, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/08/21/an-update-my-latte-art.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F08%2F21%2Fan-update-my-latte-art.html" }, { "id": 72, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "If you give a mouse a cookie, he\u0026rsquo;ll ask for a glass of milk. 🥛\nIf you give a car mechanic a tire replacement, he\u0026rsquo;ll ask for a rear pad/rotor/caliper replacement and a front caliper clean and lube. 🙃\n", "dateiso": "2025-08-05 10:26:58 -0500", "date": "10:26 p.m. on Aug 5, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/08/05/if-you-give-a-mouse.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F08%2F05%2Fif-you-give-a-mouse.html" }, { "id": 73, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Attempt #1 at latte art 😅 My wife helped with this one lol. Latte art is the newest micro-skill I\u0026rsquo;m determined to learn!\n", "dateiso": "2025-08-05 07:34:16 -0500", "date": "7:34 p.m. on Aug 5, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/08/05/attempt-at-latte-art-my.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F08%2F05%2Fattempt-at-latte-art-my.html" }, { "id": 74, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "We love our local winery. Not pictured: the goats who love eating weeds out of my daughter\u0026rsquo;s hand ❤️🐐\n", "dateiso": "2025-08-05 07:30:14 -0500", "date": "7:30 p.m. on Aug 5, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/08/05/we-love-our-local-winery.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F08%2F05%2Fwe-love-our-local-winery.html" }, { "id": 75, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I love my wife.\nI walked up the stairs and turned the corner to see her slathering cream cheese on a piece of sourdough.\nShe looked me in the eyes, wide-eyed, and said \u0026ldquo;I\u0026rsquo;ve been caught breadhanded!\u0026rdquo;\nThen proceeded to laugh maniacally like an evil villain.\n", "dateiso": "2025-07-19 13:38:50 -0500", "date": "1:38 p.m. on Jul 19, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/07/19/i-love-my-wife-i.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F07%2F19%2Fi-love-my-wife-i.html" }, { "id": 76, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Imagine having a binder full of all the terms of service you have agreed to and are currently subject to. How thick is it? How much have you read? Any? I\u0026rsquo;d wager most people\u0026rsquo;s binders are at least floor to ceiling. Sounds stressful but\u0026hellip; who cares? Mostly no one. I never think about terms of service. Until this random Sunday morning. Strange.\n", "dateiso": "2025-07-13 05:19:23 -0500", "date": "5:19 p.m. on Jul 13, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/07/13/imagine-having-a-binder-full.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F07%2F13%2Fimagine-having-a-binder-full.html" }, { "id": 77, "type": "post", "title": "Thoughts on homeschool", "text": "Three years ago, homeschooling was not on my mind. But now that I have a daughter, I\u0026rsquo;ve been thinking about it more. I want the best for her and I\u0026rsquo;m trying to figure out who would give her a better education: the school system, or me? I have my doubts in the school system, but then I also have my doubts in myself. Like others who grew up in the public school system, I have unfounded prejudices against homeschooling and admittedly don\u0026rsquo;t know much about it. But as I\u0026rsquo;ve looked into it, I think it might be a good path for my family. So I decided to take my wife and daughter to a homeschool convention to learn more about what it takes to be a homeschool family.\nBefore I went, when I told people where I was going, I got the sense that most people hadn\u0026rsquo;t thought much about homeschool either. When I said \u0026ldquo;homeschool convention\u0026rdquo;, the initial response was a twitched eyebrow and an attempt to not make a weird face. \u0026ldquo;Oh\u0026hellip; why?\u0026rdquo;, they would ask.\nI started seriously considering homeschooling when my wife became pregnant with our first child. She was pro-homeschool. I was\u0026hellip; getting there. But through lots of conversation and research, we\u0026rsquo;ve come to be aligned in our views on homeschooling. Homeschooling is now my go-to answer for the question, \u0026ldquo;What\u0026rsquo;s something you\u0026rsquo;ve changed your mind about?\u0026rdquo;\nI had a hard time getting over the stigma with homeschool. I wondered, \u0026ldquo;If our kid did that, won\u0026rsquo;t she grow up isolated and weird?\u0026rdquo; Isn\u0026rsquo;t homeschooling only for mega hardcore religious fundamentalists, and people deeply distrustful of \u0026ldquo;the system\u0026rdquo;? Or for sweet but socially awkward midwestern families? Or for kids who just can\u0026rsquo;t cut it in a public school? Or for backwoods recluses? Or for\u0026hellip; you get it.\nI still wrestle with that worry, because homeschooling is unfamiliar to me. My wife and I came up in the Ohio public school system. We did well in school. I went on to graduate college and have a successful career in software development. Neither of us had horribly traumatic experiences in the public school system, other than the trauma du jour of adolescence. So then my question is, how could I do any better teaching my kid than what the public school system did for me? At least I got socialized, kind of.\nI\u0026rsquo;m not sure I can do better. And that\u0026rsquo;s why I wanted to go to a convention to learn more about homeschool. So down to Columbus, Ohio I drove with my wife and my two-year-old daughter to attend the Great Homeschool Convention.\nThe Convention The first thing I learned is that this convention was not designed for two-year-olds. It mostly consisted of workshops (presentations) and an exhibit hall swarming with hundreds of vendors. There was a daycare for kids, but the minimum age was three years old, so we lugged our daughter from workshop to workshop, exhausting our supply of snacks and toys to keep her entertained.\nWhat set me most at ease about homeschooling was observing the people. I was keen to measure the weird-factor of other attendees to see if my prejudices of homeschoolers were justified. Much to my relief, they were not. The parents looked like any other parents. The kids seemed normal.\nBut I didn\u0026rsquo;t go only to judge people. I also wanted to learn. There were hundreds of workshops to choose from, with some on homeschooling, parenting, literature, math, organization, and more. The workshops we chose to attend were a mixed bag ranging from \u0026ldquo;wow, that was great!\u0026rdquo; to \u0026ldquo;get me out of here, now\u0026rdquo;. But through the good and the bad, there were some important lessons I took away.\nThe Lessons 1. Cultivate a Love for Learning In the first workshop we attended, the speaker mentioned that cultivating a love for learning should be the primary goal of the homeschooling parent. \u0026ldquo;Yes!\u0026rdquo;, I thought, \u0026ldquo;That\u0026rsquo;s it!\u0026rdquo;. I knew there was something in homeschooling that I didn\u0026rsquo;t see in the public school system, and this was it.\nIn public schools, I have no idea what kind of teachers my kid will get. She may get the inspiring, lifelong learner who motivates her students. Or she may get the guy that clocks in, follows the curriculum, and clocks out. Or she may get someone with a nihilistically warped view of the world. It\u0026rsquo;s a random grab bag, and I suspect the odds are skewed more in the negative direction. I don\u0026rsquo;t feel that way through any fault of the teachers. I have friends who are great teachers, but our system does not respect or reward great teachers. The salary is meager and it is unfortunately not a position that is held in high esteem. I wish it were different, but this is the system we have.\nI\u0026rsquo;m fortunate to have a love for learning now, but I don\u0026rsquo;t think it was the public school system that gave that to me. I certainly wasn\u0026rsquo;t actively trying to learn outside of school. I did what I had to do, and I saw learning as something that \u0026ldquo;had to be done\u0026rdquo;. But I wish I saw it as something that I was blessed to do. That I was so lucky and privileged to do. And that\u0026rsquo;s what I want to pass on to my daughter too.\nI\u0026rsquo;m 100% certain that my passion and enthusiasm for learning could match that of some of the best public school teachers. And I think that\u0026rsquo;s really the most important thing. I don\u0026rsquo;t have all the credentials or know any teaching theory, but I love learning. And I plan on sharing that love for learning with my kids!\n2. Learn for Yourself First and Lead by Example I certainly couldn\u0026rsquo;t teach a love for learning though if I didn\u0026rsquo;t have it myself. So another big takeaway from the convention is that I really need to prioritize learning for myself. My daughter is only two, so there\u0026rsquo;s not a ton of homeschooling to be doing right now. But I can dive into my own learning to become a more complete and well-rounded man.\nOne of the workshops that really inspired me to learn was on \u0026ldquo;painful books\u0026rdquo;. It was two gentlemen discussing classic tragic novels that have powerful messages. A few of them were books that I had read in school. I really want to revisit those books and some of the others that were discussed. Now that I am older, I can see the importance of these books. But in school they just seemed like some dusty and crusty relic I had to crack to get a good grade. So I didn\u0026rsquo;t internalize the lessons as much as I could have. But the lessons are there. These are books that I would love for my daughter to read some day, but how could I take myself seriously if I thought they were important for her but not for me!\nAnother inspiring workshop was on entrepreneurship. I really want my daughter to have an entrepreneurial mindset, but I have not done much entrepreneurial work myself! My internal hypocrite alarm bells were going off. I came away from this workshop excited about learning how to start a micro-business, which is something I had already been thinking about with Indie Hacking, so that I can share that with my daughter someday. I get really excited thinking about her trying to start her own business as a kid, and the excitement she\u0026rsquo;ll get when the first dollar rolls in as a result of something she has created. I see this as a great way to learn all those important life skills that I lament not learning from public school: personal finance, self-organization, persuasion, etc.\n3. Leverage What Works for You Every time I turned around at this convention, somebody was trying to sell me something. A lot of vendors were trying to sell a philosophy. I was surprised at all the competing philosophies for homeschooling. There\u0026rsquo;s the classical philosophy, which is pretty rigid and focuses on classical literature. Then there\u0026rsquo;s unschooling, which focuses on child-led experiential learning. And there\u0026rsquo;s a whole gamut in between.\nBut all the vendors want to lock you into THEIR philosophy because it is THE BEST way to learn.\nBut the first workshop reinforced an important lesson: Just do what works. Every single kid is different. No philosophy is best, and you might need a smattering of them.\nI\u0026rsquo;m probably biased by my work experience in software development, but it reminded of the agile principles. Simplicity, sustainability, and regular reflection. I think that\u0026rsquo;s the key, and that\u0026rsquo;s how I want to run my homeschool. We\u0026rsquo;ll try things out, and we\u0026rsquo;ll discard what isn\u0026rsquo;t working. Constant iteration and feedback.\n4. Live Boldly Since I had a pre-conceived notion of homeschoolers being quiet and awkward, I was surprised by the contrast of how boldly people endorsed it. I got to hear from a lot of people who homeschooled their kids, had an amazing experience, and were incredibly proud of it.\nAnother interesting aspect of the convention was that it leaned heavily Christian. Many of the speakers were Christian speakers, and I was impressed by the way they boldly shared the interplay between their faith and their choice to homeschool.\nThat was convicting to me. I felt inspired to live more boldly, not just in my faith and homeschooling, but in all areas.\n5. Take Side Quests This lesson didn\u0026rsquo;t come from any of the workshops. I just found that some of the best parts of the convention were when we left and did our own thing. For example, one day we went and explored Columbus\u0026rsquo;s North Market. That was a really fun couple of hours that we could have easily missed out on!\nWhile the convention was the reason we were in Columbus, it wasn\u0026rsquo;t lost on me that there was a lot more to explore. Some of which might be an even better experience for my family than the convention. My takeaway was that wherever I find myself, I want to make sure to keep my eyes open so I don\u0026rsquo;t miss the opportunities right down the street. There\u0026rsquo;s usually a side quest worth pursuing, if you\u0026rsquo;re willing to set aside your main quest for a little bit.\n6. Don\u0026rsquo;t be Afraid to Leave a Crappy Situation Vendors sure know how to drag you into a conversation you don\u0026rsquo;t want to be a part of. I wish I had been better at saying, \u0026ldquo;Actually, I\u0026rsquo;m not interested\u0026rdquo; as they launched into their canned spiel about their product or service. I got better at this as the convention went on, but yeesh it feels icky getting stuck in those situations. And it\u0026rsquo;s okay to just end it! It\u0026rsquo;s actually the more humane thing to do. I\u0026rsquo;d rather not let this person waste their breath on me knowing full well that I will forget their product as soon as I step away from the table.\nI did just get up and leave in the middle of one of the workshops. My wife was with our daughter while she napped, so I went to a workshop on her behalf about working as a medical transcriptionist while homeschooling.\nLooking back, it is painfully obvious that this was always going to go how it did. The speaker launched right into a story about her becoming a transcriptionist and starting a company for it and so on. But it became clear immediately that this was a sales pitch to buy her company\u0026rsquo;s multi-thousand dollar course to become a medical transcriptionist. I wish I would have looked into her company before going to the workshop. No thanks. I got up, shuffled past the bright-eyed moms in the room, and got out of their as soon as I could.\nYou don\u0026rsquo;t need to stay in a crappy situation. Once you see it for what it is, leave.\nThe End I\u0026rsquo;m glad I went to the homeschool convention, but it was an exhausting couple of days. I\u0026rsquo;m not sure whether I\u0026rsquo;ll go back. I\u0026rsquo;ve had the experience once, and now that I\u0026rsquo;ve had it, I think I can just do research online and look up products/services for homeschooling closer to when I need them. In my mind, the value of bringing all these people together in-person should be connecting with other like-minded people to learn from them, but that wasn\u0026rsquo;t structurally part of it. It felt more like a sales floor than a place of community and connection. Which is a bummer.\nBut on a positive note, I left filled with ideas of ways I want to improve myself and prepare to be a homeschooling dad. It still feels weird to identify with homeschool, but I no longer see it as a bad thing. I choose to boldly be what I believe is best for my daughter so that I can give her something that will serve her throughout her life: a deep love for learning.\n", "dateiso": "2025-07-05 07:02:33 -0500", "date": "7:02 p.m. on Jul 5, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/07/05/thoughts-on-homeschool.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F07%2F05%2Fthoughts-on-homeschool.html" }, { "id": 78, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "So far, I think I\u0026rsquo;m most proud to have passed on a love of pocket journals to my daughter ❤️ She loves scribbling on the pages and showing off what she drew.\nAfter taking this picture, she disassembled the pen she was using, pulled out the refill, blew on it, and squealed \u0026ldquo;Blow bubbles!\u0026rdquo;. She has now been dipping the pen refill in and out of the pen body and blowing on it for the past few minutes pretending to blow bubbles. She is such a sweet soul. My heart is full.\n", "dateiso": "2025-06-14 10:26:49 -0500", "date": "10:26 p.m. on Jun 14, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/06/14/so-far-i-think-im.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F06%2F14%2Fso-far-i-think-im.html" }, { "id": 79, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I have much more important tasks to do, but it was nice to just sit on the couch for hours this morning with a coffee and put tabs on my Bible. It felt really good to accomplish something I want to do. The \u0026ldquo;have to dos\u0026rdquo; will have to wait.\n", "dateiso": "2025-06-14 07:35:15 -0500", "date": "7:35 p.m. on Jun 14, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/06/14/i-have-much-more-important.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F06%2F14%2Fi-have-much-more-important.html" }, { "id": 80, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "My toddler was walking down the stairs on her own and yelled \u0026ldquo;big girl\u0026rdquo;! Then she saw me walking down next to her, pointed at me, and said \u0026ldquo;Dada big girl\u0026rdquo;! Takes one to know one. I\u0026rsquo;m honored.\n", "dateiso": "2025-06-10 17:58:48 -0500", "date": "5:58 p.m. on Jun 10, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/06/10/my-toddler-was-walking-down.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F06%2F10%2Fmy-toddler-was-walking-down.html" }, { "id": 81, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I appreciate the people who put funny stickers around town. Always nice to have a surprise laugh!\n", "dateiso": "2025-06-10 16:00:53 -0500", "date": "4:00 p.m. on Jun 10, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/06/10/i-appreciate-the-people-who.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F06%2F10%2Fi-appreciate-the-people-who.html" }, { "id": 82, "type": "post", "title": "Ghost Soldiers by Hampton Sides", "text": "It\u0026rsquo;s jarring to read my own writing after finishing a captivating book from a talented author. It reminds me that there\u0026rsquo;s still ample room for improvement! I think the true mark of a skillful writer is when the reader doesn\u0026rsquo;t realize there is any skill involved. The words drift into the mind effortlessly.\nI just finished \u0026ldquo;Ghost Soldiers\u0026rdquo; by Hampton Sides. It is a disturbing and enlightening account of a rescue mission for POWs in the Philippines during WW2. I highly recommend it. The story was eye-opening for me.\nI became aware of this book through my father-in-law. His mother gifted it to him since his father lived in the Philippines during the time of the Bataan Death March. I originally read it to learn more about an aspect of Filipino history, but came away with a moving story of American and Filipino cooperation during the war. I also couldn\u0026rsquo;t believe some of the horrible atrocities that are detailed in this book. I am filled with gratitude for living when and where I am. Our nation is not perfect, but this is an incredible story of heroism and redemption in the face of extreme difficulty.\n", "dateiso": "2025-06-06 10:46:50 -0500", "date": "10:46 p.m. on Jun 6, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/06/06/ghost-soldiers-by-hampton-sides.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F06%2F06%2Fghost-soldiers-by-hampton-sides.html" }, { "id": 83, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "A friend just called me by accident. It turned into a long call where he shared hard stuff he\u0026rsquo;s going through and I was able to pray with him. These kinds of \u0026ldquo;accidents\u0026rdquo; are the little nudges of the Spirit that help me see a quiet God in a noisy world.\n", "dateiso": "2025-06-03 07:47:52 -0500", "date": "7:47 p.m. on Jun 3, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/06/03/a-friend-just-called-me.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F06%2F03%2Fa-friend-just-called-me.html" }, { "id": 84, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Thank you Ace Hardware for your eclectic mix of products.\n", "dateiso": "2025-05-31 13:40:09 -0500", "date": "1:40 p.m. on May 31, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/05/31/thank-you-ace-hardware-for.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F05%2F31%2Fthank-you-ace-hardware-for.html" }, { "id": 85, "type": "post", "title": "The New NASA Budget is Bleak", "text": "Yesterday, the NASA budget request was released for Fiscal Year 2026. A lot is getting cut.\nThe high-level view is that NASA\u0026rsquo;s focus is putting people on Mars and back on the Moon. The science budget is being heavily cut, as the agency makes a big shift away from science towards operations. The top-level budget is cut from $24.8B to $18.8B, a 25% reduction. And the agency is planning to take on the most daring space missions in it\u0026rsquo;s history. I am interested and worried to see how NASA pursues more aggressive space exploration with a significantly reduced budget.\nBut selfishly, I\u0026rsquo;ve been primarily concerned with where I fall in the new budget. I am part of the Agency Technical Authorities (ATA). You can think of these as three organizations of independent authorities that make sure things are being done safely and correctly at NASA.\n Safety: Office of Safety and Mission Assurance (OSMA) Engineering: Office of the Chief Engineer (OCE) Health: Office of the Chief Health and Medical Officer (OCHMO) I am part of OSMA, specifically in the sub-office called the NASA Safety Center.\nThe overall ATA budget is being reduced from $196.1M in FY24 to $69.6M in FY26. That\u0026rsquo;s a 65% reduction. It is not yet clear how exactly that overall cut will trickle down into OSMA. For more info on the ATA budget, start at page 379 of \u0026ldquo;Fiscal Year 2026 Budget Technical Supplement\u0026rdquo;\nThe budget request does spell out certain areas of the Technical Authorities will be \u0026ldquo;substantially reduced\u0026rdquo;, with the overall goal being consolidation of the Tech Authorities. It looks like the primary targets for reduction are the NASA Engineering Safety Center, part of OCE, and the Independent Verification and Validation (IV\u0026amp;V) program. IV\u0026amp;V functions like part of OSMA, because most of its funding comes from OSMA, although it is technically not part of OSMA. But in the new budget, it looks like OSMA will be reducing the money it gives to IV\u0026amp;V by about 75%.\nThese are huge cuts that we\u0026rsquo;re staring down. I am not sure what exactly this will mean for me or the people I work with day-to-day, but I anticipate tough times ahead. I\u0026rsquo;ll be interested to see what more we learn about this budget in the coming weeks.\nOn a related note, it sounds like NASA\u0026rsquo;s nominee for Administrator, Jared Isaacman, will be confirmed by the Senate soon. There\u0026rsquo;s no vote on the calendar yet, but I\u0026rsquo;m hearing that it\u0026rsquo;s close. I anticipate once he does get confirmed, things will start changing around NASA pretty quickly. I personally am looking forward to it, because we\u0026rsquo;ve been in a prolonged state of anticipation, with current agency leadership not wanting to make any long-term decisions. It will be nice to have clarity on what changes are actually going to happen instead of constantly spinning on the rumor mill.\nThis new budget and shift in priorities are going to be tough, but NASA has some of the finest people. I know we will adjust and continue to achieve great things. At least, those of us who remain. It\u0026rsquo;s going to be sad to see so many talented people leaving.\n", "dateiso": "2025-05-31 06:27:35 -0500", "date": "6:27 p.m. on May 31, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/05/31/the-new-nasa-budget-is.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F05%2F31%2Fthe-new-nasa-budget-is.html" }, { "id": 86, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Yester\u0026rsquo;s luxury\nPresently necessity\nTomorrow\u0026rsquo;s vestige\n", "dateiso": "2025-05-27 20:36:18 -0500", "date": "8:36 p.m. on May 27, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/05/27/yesters-luxury-presently-necessity-tomorrows.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F05%2F27%2Fyesters-luxury-presently-necessity-tomorrows.html" }, { "id": 87, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "🔥🌭🤤🌥️🌳 Feels like summer!\n", "dateiso": "2025-05-27 15:51:10 -0500", "date": "3:51 p.m. on May 27, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/05/27/feels-like-summer.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F05%2F27%2Ffeels-like-summer.html" }, { "id": 88, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I enjoyed a beautiful sunrise this morning from the back deck. Coffee and sunrises were made for each other. ☕🌄\nAlso, you can see the new houses that have been popping up on the street behind us.\n", "dateiso": "2025-05-27 13:25:53 -0500", "date": "1:25 p.m. on May 27, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/05/27/i-enjoyed-a-beautiful-sunrise.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F05%2F27%2Fi-enjoyed-a-beautiful-sunrise.html" }, { "id": 89, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I deleted my account with follow.it and moved my newsletter feed to be hosted by Micro.blog. The poor quality of follow.it wasn\u0026rsquo;t worth the $5/month I was saving by staying off of Micro.blog Premium.\n", "dateiso": "2025-05-17 14:02:57 -0500", "date": "2:02 p.m. on May 17, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/05/17/i-deleted-my-account-with.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F05%2F17%2Fi-deleted-my-account-with.html" }, { "id": 90, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Ew. I just noticed that follow.it changed how emails are delivered to my subscribers. This is such a bad experience for people who are subscribed. Sorry for cheaping out on a free subscription service. I\u0026rsquo;m going to switch to a new service soon.\n", "dateiso": "2025-05-13 16:45:38 -0500", "date": "4:45 p.m. on May 13, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/05/13/ew-i-just-noticed-that.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F05%2F13%2Few-i-just-noticed-that.html" }, { "id": 91, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I just realized that during the pandemic I missed an opportunity to make jokes about Nickelback getting popular again because Covid made everybody lose their taste.\n", "dateiso": "2025-05-13 06:53:05 -0500", "date": "6:53 p.m. on May 13, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/05/13/i-just-realized-that-during.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F05%2F13%2Fi-just-realized-that-during.html" }, { "id": 92, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "As an uninitiated observer currently immersed in theatre culture, I marvel at the intermission bathroom experience. People leapt out of their chairs as soon as the lights dropped 0.3 lumens. There are multiple employees in red suit jackets directing the ladies on how to form a line for the bathroom. The men\u0026rsquo;s restroom was a large square with urinals dotting every open stretch of each wall, except for two stalls. Each occupied, with a long line out the bathroom. The atmosphere was polite but\u0026hellip; competitive. The musical has been fantastic, but the sociological aspect is just as exciting. I love the little details of subcultures.\n", "dateiso": "2025-05-03 14:00:28 -0500", "date": "2:00 p.m. on May 3, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/05/03/as-an-uninitiated-observer-currently.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F05%2F03%2Fas-an-uninitiated-observer-currently.html" }, { "id": 93, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "At Connor\u0026rsquo;s Palace for Shucked. The building is gorgeous. It sets a great vibe for a musical!\n", "dateiso": "2025-05-03 12:31:22 -0500", "date": "12:31 p.m. on May 3, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/05/03/at-connors-palace-for-shucked.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F05%2F03%2Fat-connors-palace-for-shucked.html" }, { "id": 94, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I never know what my brain will throw at me while I\u0026rsquo;m doing mundane tasks.\nme: brushing my teeth\nbrain: I think it\u0026rsquo;s my destiny to create the first naan-profit organization.\n", "dateiso": "2025-05-02 04:29:33 -0500", "date": "4:29 p.m. on May 2, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/05/02/i-never-know-what-my.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F05%2F02%2Fi-never-know-what-my.html" }, { "id": 95, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "After spraying our basement ceiling today I\u0026rsquo;m thinking of starting a makeup tutorial blog. Shoot me a message if you want a tutorial on how to get this look. 👨‍🎤\n", "dateiso": "2025-04-29 19:14:13 -0500", "date": "7:14 p.m. on Apr 29, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/04/29/after-spraying-our-basement-ceiling.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F04%2F29%2Fafter-spraying-our-basement-ceiling.html" }, { "id": 96, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I just opened YouTube and the ad that played before a video was clearly AI generated. A handsome businessman reclined in a chair talking about his success as a stock trader. He said to join his Whatsapp chat to learn all his secrets. Spooky stuff. These hoaxes are obvious now, but in 5 years? We\u0026rsquo;ll see.\n", "dateiso": "2025-04-18 13:16:19 -0500", "date": "1:16 p.m. on Apr 18, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/04/18/i-just-opened-youtube-and.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F04%2F18%2Fi-just-opened-youtube-and.html" }, { "id": 97, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "The key to doing your own taxes in 2025 is getting really good at inputting 6-digit verification codes. That\u0026rsquo;s at least 50% of it. Hopefully passkeys are more common in 2026.\n", "dateiso": "2025-04-13 12:03:14 -0500", "date": "12:03 p.m. on Apr 13, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/04/13/the-key-to-doing-your.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F04%2F13%2Fthe-key-to-doing-your.html" }, { "id": 98, "type": "post", "title": "The little things matter", "text": "The following post is based on an audio recording from April 9, 2025.\nThe little things matter. Maybe even more than the big things.\nToday, my email inbox got flooded with probably about 20 different messages from co-workers thanking me and appreciating a little thing that I did. I even had one guy call me just out of the blue. This was a gentleman I had never talked to before. He said something like, \u0026ldquo;Hey man, I really appreciated what you did. I\u0026rsquo;ve never seen anyone do that that way, and if you ever want me to run your name up the chain and give you a job or something like that, I would be happy to do it.\u0026rdquo; I said, \u0026ldquo;No, no, thank you. That\u0026rsquo;s okay, I\u0026rsquo;m perfectly happy with what I\u0026rsquo;m doing now.\u0026rdquo;\nBut the thing I did that generated all this commotion and appreciation was just taking meeting notes in a meeting and sharing them out. We had a big all-hands meeting with our whole organization today and leadership shared a lot of really important organizational updates and strategy thoughts about where things are going. And like I always do in meetings, I just took notes. I tend to take pretty detailed notes, and usually I just keep them to myself, or maybe I\u0026rsquo;ll share them with a small subset of people on my team or someone who was out of the office, for example.\nBut today, I was like, I don\u0026rsquo;t know, there was so much good stuff in that meeting. Why don\u0026rsquo;t I just send it out to the whole organization? I think the invite list was 200 or 300 people, and I thought, \u0026ldquo;Ah, what the heck? I\u0026rsquo;ll just send it.\u0026rdquo; I didn\u0026rsquo;t expect to get much of a reply, but the kind of outpouring of love and support was shocking to me. A lot of people really appreciated that and seemed hungry for more things like that.\nCareer Impact of Small Details It just got me thinking about how, especially in your career, those little things can have so much leverage and might be even more important than the big things in some ways. I\u0026rsquo;ve delivered on major organizational priorities well ahead of time, and I think with better quality than we expected. This is what everyone focuses on in their job - those kinds of things. But never have I gotten the same level of recognition or love for doing something like that.\nThese major things that we think are priorities for the organization and our priorities, but I think what people really notice and appreciate and care about, and what really can set you apart, is just doing the little things really well, and just having attention to detail. I think the way that you do one thing or the way that you do a little thing kind of represents the way that you do everything, and people pick up on that.\nPractical Examples of Impactful Small Actions I just thought that was a really cool example today and wanted to share about that. I think there are all sorts of other little things that we can focus on doing better that would make a big difference.\nOne is taking meeting notes like that. The other thing that I\u0026rsquo;ll do with meeting notes that I think is really high leverage and high impact is just reviewing them after you take them. After you take your notes, give yourself five or ten minutes to go through them and then kind of extract. What I\u0026rsquo;ll do is put a key takeaways or actions section at the top and just extract from the notes and pull out what is the really important stuff. Because a lot of times, as I\u0026rsquo;m writing the notes I might not know what is going to be the most important thing that gets shared, so I\u0026rsquo;ll go after the fact and pull out what I really need to know.\nI think honestly, a lot of little things just boil down to that. Just to reviewing things. Like another little thing is put some attention and detail into emails. Don\u0026rsquo;t just type something up real quick and fire it off - give it another one minute review. Just looking over an email almost every time. When I reread my email, I\u0026rsquo;ll find something to fix and usually more than just a typo, just like, \u0026ldquo;Oh yeah, this sentence or two maybe wasn\u0026rsquo;t that clear. Maybe I can combine them.\u0026rdquo; Or \u0026ldquo;This thing that I put down at the bottom I really should put up top because that\u0026rsquo;s the most important thing or what I really want someone to see.\u0026rdquo; So, I think just being concise and paying attention in emails or Teams or Slack messages goes a really long way.\nPersonal Connections Matter Another little thing, too, even just outside of work, that I think is really important and so small is just to call people by their first name. Like, the first sentence you\u0026rsquo;re saying with someone in a conversation, just use their name. Be like, \u0026ldquo;Oh, hey, Jake, what? Yeah, sure, whatever.\u0026rdquo; You know, I think that goes a long way. I\u0026rsquo;ve noticed too, like when other people do that to me, it feels special. It\u0026rsquo;s weird, it\u0026rsquo;s such a small and minor thing, but it feels really meaningful when someone just recognizes your name and speaks to you with your first name and listens closely.\nConclusion So those are some of the little things that I try to focus on, especially how I\u0026rsquo;m communicating or documenting things, and I think it goes a really, really long way, and does end up contributing to those bigger things or bigger organizational priorities as well.\nBut yeah, I think just putting that attention into those little things - people will notice that, and it will mean a lot to them. And I think if you can elevate your game, that will make others around you want to do the same too.\n", "dateiso": "2025-04-09 15:52:52 -0500", "date": "3:52 p.m. on Apr 9, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/04/09/the-little-things-matter.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F04%2F09%2Fthe-little-things-matter.html" }, { "id": 99, "type": "post", "title": "I want the itty bitty nitty gritty", "text": "The following post was transcribed from an audio during my commute to work on April 8, 2025.\nIt\u0026rsquo;s been a long time since I\u0026rsquo;ve been involved on social media outside of LinkedIn. With LinkedIn being really my only source of social media, I find myself longing for more personal, nitty-gritty, really in-depth content from individuals.\nThe Depth I\u0026rsquo;m Missing I think there\u0026rsquo;s the news and news stories that might go deep on a specific subject that a journalist is looking into, or on LinkedIn, someone might go deep on some technical thing they\u0026rsquo;re trying to explain. But I find that what I long for or crave is just a person talking really in depth about something they do or something they have and getting hyper specific into how exactly they do it, why they do it that way, what led them to that point. I find it\u0026rsquo;s just hard to find those things on the web.\nThe Indie Web When I started my blog, I got into this subculture on the internet called the Indie web, where it\u0026rsquo;s a lot of people starting their own websites or space on the internet, kind of as this revolt against social media and having a company own all your data that you\u0026rsquo;re uploading and you don\u0026rsquo;t necessarily have control over it.\nThe idea of the Indie web is that you own your content, publish to your own site or your own space first and then can syndicate or send that out to the various social media platforms for more reach or distribution. As someone with my own personal blog, I know I don\u0026rsquo;t get a ton of visitors on there. I\u0026rsquo;ve kind of just been posting into the void for the most part.\nWe Can Get Grittier Some of what I\u0026rsquo;ve tried to do on my own blog and would like to do more is just really geek out and get hyper nitty-gritty specific on things that I\u0026rsquo;m really interested in, and that\u0026rsquo;s what I wish I saw more of from other people. Like, especially people in my own life, my friends or my family.\nEven just in conversations, people will talk some about something they\u0026rsquo;re interested in, but I think people have a fear of you not being interested enough or caring. Maybe feeling like what they have to share is invalid or is just weird, so people just seem to not go too deep into whatever it is they\u0026rsquo;re talking about.\nSometimes I\u0026rsquo;ll try to ask people questions and prod, and especially if I can sense that someone is excited that I\u0026rsquo;m asking about something. I love the experience of that and being able to ask them and let them expand on what they\u0026rsquo;re interested in, but it just seems like in oral conversation, people never really go as deep as they wish they could. And then I feel like online or in writing, people just feel like they need to filter themselves or folks will see them as weird if they go too deep on one particular niche subject.\nMy Dream World My dream world would just be a place where people all had their own blogs and they were hyper specific into all their stuff that they\u0026rsquo;re really interested in. From reading about what people are interested in, you could get a sense of who they are and what really makes them tick and exactly how they\u0026rsquo;re doing things.\nWhen I have seen examples of people getting into the details of how they do things, I learn from that. If I can see really hyper specific examples of how someone does something, I can take that and incorporate that into my own way of doing things, too.\nI think people tend to want to share from some layer of abstraction or high level about what they\u0026rsquo;re doing or what they\u0026rsquo;ve done, but I would love to just see more people getting into details. Show pictures, show screenshots. Show me the inputs. Show me the outputs. Show me what\u0026rsquo;s happening in between all of that. And really talk about the why and what makes you really excited about that thing.\nA Good Example I think one person I\u0026rsquo;ve seen that does a good job of this is Simon Willison. He has a blog - he\u0026rsquo;s a professor somewhere. I don\u0026rsquo;t remember where I stumbled upon his blog not too long ago, but his main focus is AI. He does crazy in-depth blog posts about how he\u0026rsquo;s prompting AI or using it to build these little web tools he creates, and he gets really into details sharing the prompts, sharing the whole conversation, exactly what the output was from AI, what he\u0026rsquo;s learning about how to prompt it, and I just love that.\nI would love to see more of that beyond his very hyper-focused AI content, because that\u0026rsquo;s his interest. It paints a picture of who he is and what he\u0026rsquo;s interested in and what he cares about. But I would love to see that for other things from all sorts of people.\nMy friends - I\u0026rsquo;m sure if my friends had blogs where they did things like that, I would get to see this side of them that, you know, I\u0026rsquo;m their friend, but maybe I don\u0026rsquo;t know that side of them that they just don\u0026rsquo;t want to share, for whatever reason. Maybe we haven\u0026rsquo;t been able to get into it deeply in conversation or just share through short little posts on X or whatever. I would love to see more of that.\nMy Nitty Gritty I\u0026rsquo;d like to do more of that with the things I\u0026rsquo;m interested in, too. There are some posts I\u0026rsquo;ve got in the backlog. I\u0026rsquo;d like to write that have been in like a draft or idea state for a long time.\nOne example is my wallet, which is also a journal. It\u0026rsquo;s this custom setup that I created and have had for years and have kind of built up and changed and swapped around a bunch over the years. I would love to do just a really long detailed post all about my pocket journal wallet combo and how I\u0026rsquo;ve perfected it exactly to how I want it and how I like it to be and share that.\nI\u0026rsquo;m sure other people would find that interesting - there\u0026rsquo;s people out there on the web, across millions of people, who could benefit from that or be interested in it. And you know, it tells you something about me and who I am and the things that I care about.\nLooking Forward So, expect to see some more of that from me, if and when I can find some more free time to write on the blog. I\u0026rsquo;m still figuring out the new routine of driving into the office every day, as I\u0026rsquo;m doing right now while I voice record this blog post, but I look forward to doing more of those in-depth nitty-gritty posts.\nAnd as you being someone reading this, I would love to see the same thing from you. If this inspires you to do more of that, whether on your own blog or in a diary or journal or just on traditional social media, I would love to hear about it. So drop me an email or something, and I would be more than happy to read all the way through your super in-depth geeky post about whatever thing it is that you\u0026rsquo;re interested in.\n", "dateiso": "2025-04-09 13:49:49 -0500", "date": "1:49 p.m. on Apr 9, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/04/09/i-want-the-itty-bitty.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F04%2F09%2Fi-want-the-itty-bitty.html" }, { "id": 100, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Our disc golf league started up again for the season. It was a little wet today\u0026hellip;\n", "dateiso": "2025-04-05 09:57:33 -0500", "date": "9:57 p.m. on Apr 5, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/04/05/our-disc-golf-league-started.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F04%2F05%2Four-disc-golf-league-started.html" }, { "id": 101, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Early morning indie hacking on the back deck with coffee brewing\u0026hellip; Bliss ☕💻\n", "dateiso": "2025-03-29 07:03:41 -0500", "date": "7:03 p.m. on Mar 29, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/03/29/early-morning-indie-hacking-on.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F03%2F29%2Fearly-morning-indie-hacking-on.html" }, { "id": 102, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I cracked open our back door to be serenaded by the birds this morning. Every Spring I\u0026rsquo;m reminded how much I missed them during the Winter. 🐦\n", "dateiso": "2025-03-29 06:42:47 -0500", "date": "6:42 p.m. on Mar 29, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/03/29/i-cracked-open-our-back.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F03%2F29%2Fi-cracked-open-our-back.html" }, { "id": 103, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I present to you\u0026hellip; \u0026ldquo;Jake Jobs\u0026rdquo;. Google AI Studio is fun 😂\n", "dateiso": "2025-03-20 13:51:44 -0500", "date": "1:51 p.m. on Mar 20, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/03/20/i-present-to-you-jake.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F03%2F20%2Fi-present-to-you-jake.html" }, { "id": 104, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Yesterday I listened to my daughter\u0026rsquo;s heartbeat. It got me thinking that the heart is incredible. Let\u0026rsquo;s say you live to be 90 and average 70 beats per minute:\n90 years * 365 days * 24 hours * 60 minutes * 70 beats per minute\n= 3,311,280,000 heartbeats in a lifetime.\nWe are a wondrous creation. ❤️\n", "dateiso": "2025-03-16 06:59:41 -0500", "date": "6:59 p.m. on Mar 16, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/03/16/yesterday-i-listened-to-my.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F03%2F16%2Fyesterday-i-listened-to-my.html" }, { "id": 105, "type": "post", "title": "Weeknotes Vol. 4", "text": "My week summarized into 3 highlights, 2 discoveries, and 1 anticipation. It\u0026rsquo;s been a while! It feels good to be writing a weeknote again!\n3 Highlights 1. 10x10 Supersonic Wind Tunnel and SLOPE Lab Tours\nI 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\u0026rsquo;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\u0026rsquo;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\u0026rsquo;t go into detail about the mishap, but luckily nobody was injured, although it had the potential for severe injuries.\nThe SLOPE Lab was also a great tour. I had visited before, but it\u0026rsquo;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\u0026rsquo;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.\nThe 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\u0026rsquo;s mission. And on top of that they\u0026rsquo;re just really friggin' cool.\n2. Ping Pong\nI\u0026rsquo;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.\nAnd idle it shall no longer be.\nI have my own paddle that I bought a few years back which has also been collecting dust, so I\u0026rsquo;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\u0026rsquo;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\u0026rsquo;ll definitely whoop my butt (already has), but I\u0026rsquo;m excited to play with him and others to sharpen my game and have some fun while at the office.\nSemi-related: I also found a golf range nearby the office and went with a coworker this week. I\u0026rsquo;d like to put a little more time into my golf game this year and finally fix my slice! I\u0026rsquo;ve never gone to the range much and only play a couple of times a year\u0026hellip; and it shows.\n3. Swimming Lessons\nMy daughter had her third swimming lesson this week. I\u0026rsquo;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 \u0026ldquo;Stop! Come back!\u0026rdquo; 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.\nWe 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\u0026rsquo;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.\n2 Discoveries 1. Airless Bike Tires\nThere 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.\nThis 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/.\n2. Libby\nI\u0026rsquo;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\u0026rsquo;ve used other library apps, but I\u0026rsquo;m liking Libby much better so far.\nWith my new commute, I\u0026rsquo;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\u0026rsquo;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.\nSo now I\u0026rsquo;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\u0026rsquo;ve yet to test that process, but it seems like it will work, and I\u0026rsquo;m excited to figure it out.\nAnother awesome feature of Libby is that it can send ebooks straight to your Kindle, so there\u0026rsquo;s no need to read ebooks on my phone. I just tested it out this morning with \u0026ldquo;The Hitchhiker\u0026rsquo;s Guide to the Galaxy\u0026rdquo;, and it seemed to work great. I\u0026rsquo;m curious to see what happens to all my notes and highlights when I need to \u0026ldquo;return\u0026rdquo; the ebook. To avoid heartbreak and be safe, I\u0026rsquo;m going to export all my highlights and notes before returning the book, but I\u0026rsquo;m hoping they all stay in the Kindle app somehow.\n1 Anticipation NASA\u0026rsquo;s Reduction in Force Plan\nNASA 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.\nI\u0026rsquo;m not sure what to expect for this RIF. It\u0026rsquo;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.\nBut 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\u0026rsquo;ll figure it out. The only certain thing is change is coming, one way or another.\n", "dateiso": "2025-03-16 06:39:11 -0500", "date": "6:39 p.m. on Mar 16, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/03/16/weeknotes-vol.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F03%2F16%2Fweeknotes-vol.html" }, { "id": 106, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Google Gemini on the Pixel phone is so nice. I got paper mail from my HOA about a meeting and was able to:\n Take a pic of it Hold the power button to open Gemini Say \u0026ldquo;add this to my calendar\u0026rdquo; All the details, including location, were saved at the correct time on my calendar. Took seconds.\n", "dateiso": "2025-03-08 20:14:43 -0500", "date": "8:14 p.m. on Mar 8, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/03/08/google-gemini-on-the-pixel.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F03%2F08%2Fgoogle-gemini-on-the-pixel.html" }, { "id": 107, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "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!\n", "dateiso": "2025-03-08 10:59:25 -0500", "date": "10:59 p.m. on Mar 8, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/03/08/today-i-added-a-weekly.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F03%2F08%2Ftoday-i-added-a-weekly.html" }, { "id": 108, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I\u0026rsquo;ve been on a weight loss journey and decided it was time for a new professional headshot! I\u0026rsquo;m fortunate to work with a group of NASA photographers and videographers so I was able to do this for free in our studio!\n", "dateiso": "2025-03-08 07:01:49 -0500", "date": "7:01 p.m. on Mar 8, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/03/08/ive-been-on-a-weight.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F03%2F08%2Five-been-on-a-weight.html" }, { "id": 109, "type": "transcript", "title": "", "text": "I\u0026rsquo;m trying something new here.\nI\u0026rsquo;m going to call a commute post.\nIt\u0026rsquo;s 618 a.m.\non Wednesday, March 5th.\nI\u0026rsquo;m driving into work for the morning.\nI got probably like 42 minutes until I get into work, so I figured instead of just listening to music or a podcast or a book, I would try to talk into my phone and do a blog post just talking out loud, which is something I\u0026rsquo;ve never tried before.\nBut with coming into the office more in a longer commute, I found it harder and harder to have time to just sit down and write.\nSo I wanted to try something different, shake things up and see how this format works.\nSo in thinking about it, I was trying to figure out what type of topics would work to just talk about in a car because I feel like typically when I\u0026rsquo;m writing, I have some idea or concept or maybe even just a concept of a title in my mind and through writing about it, I\u0026rsquo;m thinking about new angles to think of or write about or counterpoints or through the writing, I figure out what I\u0026rsquo;m actually writing about.\nI typically never start with a completely coherent vision of that, so I wasn\u0026rsquo;t sure how it would work just talking through that and had some fears of just sounding dumb, to be quite frank, of working through those things in real time.\nBut after thinking about it, I thought a topic that might work would be just telling stories from my life, things that I\u0026rsquo;ve told a couple times to different people that might be interesting to just have up on the blog and have a record of for myself because I found that as time goes on and on and I get further and further from each of these stories, some of the details slip away a little bit more.\nSo kind of to just immemorialize them up on the blog and also be able to share them out with people that way, be it family or friends or whoever.\nSo yeah, that\u0026rsquo;s what I\u0026rsquo;m trying to do here.\nFor this first one, I figured I would start with something easy and something that comes up through work a lot, but just to talk about how I got into the line of work that I\u0026rsquo;m in now.\nSo I now am working at NASA as a product manager.\nI own a few of the products at the NASA Safety Center, so that includes the NASA mishap information system, the NASA cause analysis tool.\nIt\u0026rsquo;s all applications for safety personnel at NASA to use.\nSo a lot of it is for data entry and storage for mishaps that happen at NASA, which could be all the way down to something as small as someone trips and falls and we have to have a record of that injury, even if it\u0026rsquo;s just a skinned knee, all the way up to millions of dollars of property damage if we lose a satellite or something along those lines.\nSo that\u0026rsquo;s NIMIS.\nThat\u0026rsquo;s one of the applications I work with.\nThat\u0026rsquo;s what I\u0026rsquo;m doing now.\nI came from a computer science and software background in college and was a software engineer right out of college, but how about I start back at the beginning and can talk about kind of where things started, at least in my mind, and then just progress through the windy road in my career to where I ended up, which I\u0026rsquo;m excited to share.\nI wish I could hear more about other people, too, and their career journeys because I feel like every single person that I\u0026rsquo;ve talked to, when I asked them about where they are now and how they got there, almost nobody I\u0026rsquo;ve ever talked to had just a clear vision and followed it to a T and knew exactly where they would be now 10 years ago.\nIt seems like everybody has this very windy, very interesting path where they\u0026rsquo;re sort of going along slowly and finding their way, and that\u0026rsquo;s how it happened for me, too.\nBut I think a good place to start would be sometime between when I was 7 or 16 years old, I would say I was probably around 11, my dad bought me a Python programming book for kids, which sounds like the perfect start to the story for someone in my line of work, but while I\u0026rsquo;m picking this as the beginning, it seemed, and I think really was, pretty inconsequential at the time because he bought me this book when I was 11, and I really just didn\u0026rsquo;t care for it at all.\nIt felt like more school to me, and I just wanted to go outside and play.\nSo I think I looked at it maybe three times, we might have attempted together, they had different coding exercises you could do in the book, kind of like build a little game to show you how to code, but also make it a little fun.\nI think maybe we did one of those, and then I thought, nah, screw this, I\u0026rsquo;m going to go outside and play.\nSo that was all that really was at that point in my life, but it\u0026rsquo;s still something that I remember and think back on as something that might have at least opened up my eyes and my mind to the possibility that coding is something that I can do.\nSo fast forward into high school, it was time finally to get a job, and I had two places I was going to apply to.\nOne was, there\u0026rsquo;s a little restaurant right down the road from my parents' place, where I was going to apply to be, or I had applied to be a dishwasher, and then was thinking about applying at Chipotle too, they just had some jobs that opened up, and I don\u0026rsquo;t remember exactly how it went, but I believe before I even had an offer at Chipotle, and just saw that it was possible to apply, I called the restaurant right away and said, hey, you know what, I\u0026rsquo;m not interested anymore, I\u0026rsquo;m going to go work at Chipotle, and just basically broke up with them right then and there, and then went and told my mom about it, and she was not happy, because I had nothing solidified at that point, so she said, you call them back right now and tell them that you\u0026rsquo;re still interested in the job.\nSo I very sheepishly got back on the phone, called that restaurant back and asked them if I could still be considered to work there.\nI don\u0026rsquo;t remember if I had an offer at the time, I think I might have, but anyways, I called them back, I did all that, the way it ended up working out was I did get a job at Chipotle Mexican Grill, so I ended up working there through a lot of high school, I think my, I don\u0026rsquo;t know if I worked there my junior year at all, but I think it was my junior and senior year of high school, and I think I came back maybe on one winter break in college as well.\nThat was an interesting place to work, I mean I get anyone who\u0026rsquo;s been in some sort of food service, I\u0026rsquo;m sure will know it\u0026rsquo;s hot, it\u0026rsquo;s fast paced, and I am not really a fast paced person, as probably you can imagine someone who takes time to just sit slowly and write on a blog, I like to, I\u0026rsquo;m more in my head and like to really think through things and understand them, and there\u0026rsquo;s some of that, you know, working at Chipotle, but a lot of it was just get these burritos out and get them out fast.\nSo, it was an interesting time in my life, I enjoyed the people and I definitely enjoyed sampling the food, but could tell that that definitely wasn\u0026rsquo;t anything I wanted to do long term.\nSo, then in college, well shortly before college actually, you know, there\u0026rsquo;s that period where you know college is ahead of you, I\u0026rsquo;m trying to figure out what do I want to be for the rest of my life, who am I, where am I going, wrestling with all these big questions and trying to figure out what my major should be, and I had already been thinking maybe something along the lines of psychology, and I think what probably got me there was being raised in the church, and very much thinking about and constantly hearing messages about serving and helping other people, that was something that I felt called to and I felt was really important and something I would be interested in.\nI didn\u0026rsquo;t quite want to go into the church to be a pastor, it seemed weird to me to mix my income with my place of worship, just that it wasn\u0026rsquo;t something for me, but something that kind of further confirmed that idea of going into psychology was our church actually did these, I can\u0026rsquo;t remember what they were called, but some sort of survey where it would give you recommendations about what your job would be.\nSo I took this survey and the three recommendations were actually youth pastor, bartender, and psychologist.\nSo, I already had decided I didn\u0026rsquo;t want to do the youth pastor thing, bartender I thought, oh, hmm, that\u0026rsquo;s interesting, but I don\u0026rsquo;t know if that\u0026rsquo;s for me.\nAnd then that kind of just confirmed further that, oh, hey, maybe I should go and get a psychology degree.\nSo I went to college for psychology for my first year, I think in the spring semester of that year I got a job working as an undergraduate research assistant in a psychology lab.\nI went to Kent State University and Manfred van Dolmen had the van Dolmen lab and a lot of the graduate students were doing research that I think the general focus was romantic relationships, but got to work on a bunch of interesting studies through that.\nI wasn\u0026rsquo;t super involved, it was more so helping with data collection or running different, oh, what\u0026rsquo;s the word for it, different sessions with participants.\nSo some of the things I did was they would have these couples go into a room by themselves and just answer questions together.\nSome of it was about splitting housework, how would they do that, and sometimes these were people who already lived together, sometimes it wasn\u0026rsquo;t, but how they would split housework and also to dream about their future.\nSo one of my jobs was to just watch these recordings and transcribe them.\nThis was before easy transcription services or AI, so I was just in there doing it myself, but that was really interesting to just listen to all these conversations between my peers trying to figure out their relationships.\nAnother one was an eye movement study where I would bring participants into a room.\nWe had a computer set up with a face harness in front of it so they would set their chin on there, kind of like if you go to the eye doctor and you set your chin on the thing and they pull the glasses up.\nIt was a lot like that.\nSo we would set them in the harness.\nRight either underneath or below the monitor there was a camera that was positioned at their eyes, so I would get that all configured with their eyes so I could figure out where they\u0026rsquo;re looking on the screen, and then I would leave and just play some images up on the screen and just see what they looked at.\nThat was just the study.\nI think it was images either of males and females just alone or together as couples.\nThe study was trying to look at, based on if you\u0026rsquo;re presented an image of a couple or an individual, where are you looking at?\nAre you looking at the person\u0026rsquo;s face, their body, something else?\nSo I didn\u0026rsquo;t stay around at the lab long enough to find the results of that study, but that was another interesting one to be a part of.\nBut part of working in that lab, one of the things I got to do that definitely led me to where I am now was data coding.\nAll this data they would get at the end, I would have it in a big Excel sheet and aggregate it, and they had some program, I can\u0026rsquo;t remember what it was, but where they would analyze this data, and the grad students had always done it pretty much manually or would have one of their undergrad research assistants do it manually, but I found that through this program it had a little section where you could write scripts and write these scripts to automate some of the manual work that we were doing.\nSo I got to work figuring out how to do that and implemented that for the lab, which sped up that data analysis process for the whole lab, and for me too, I didn\u0026rsquo;t have to sit there doing all this mindless work going through each data element and analyzing and coding and tagging each thing.\nSo that was maybe the first thing that really piqued my interest in like, oh, this is really rewarding to be able to just write something on the computer, make the computer do things for me, but it\u0026rsquo;s just a small task that I can accomplish and at the end I can see, oh, this worked and now it\u0026rsquo;s done, and I found that really rewarding.\nAnd so I was doing that, I was enjoying it, but also while I was working in the lab I was observing these grad students who were doing their research and just observing that I don\u0026rsquo;t think this is the future for me.\nThey were spending a lot of time in the lab, they seemed stressed, they\u0026rsquo;re all working on their papers, I helped them some with their papers and references at the bottom, and the slog of all of that and the research, I just thought, man, I don\u0026rsquo;t know if I can, I don\u0026rsquo;t know if this is for me and if I can do this and if this is what I want.\nAnd especially the way I was thinking of going, of becoming an actual psychologist, it was almost guaranteed that I would need to go to some sort of graduate school and just my undergraduate degree wouldn\u0026rsquo;t get me very far.\nSo thinking about not enjoying that process and all the money that would come with having to go to grad school, I then, as I neared the end of the semester and got into summer, was like, man, I really need to figure something else out because this is just not going to work for me.\nSo I was thinking, well, if not psychology, what the heck do I do?\nBecause that was, I mean, that was it, that was the plan that I went to college with and I had nothing else in mind.\nBut that\u0026rsquo;s when I thought back to the data coding in the lab that I enjoyed doing, which was basically, it wasn\u0026rsquo;t Excel, it was something like Excel, but it was basically just writing little scripts in Excel.\nAnd then I thought back, too, to that Python book that my dad had got me when I was a kid and how, even though I paid no attention to it really at the time, it was memorable enough that it stuck with me even to now.\nSo I was like, I don\u0026rsquo;t know, maybe there\u0026rsquo;s something here for me to explore.\nSo I guess that\u0026rsquo;s a side effect of doing these car posts, a car just almost rear-ended me, but I am okay.\nBut anyways, where the heck was I?\nYeah, that Python book.\nSo I was thinking back on that.\nI think I went and looked for it and never found it.\nI don\u0026rsquo;t know if we donated the book or not, but yeah, I don\u0026rsquo;t know whatever happened to it.\nIt\u0026rsquo;s like a ghost.\nI really, maybe it didn\u0026rsquo;t even happen and I made the whole thing up.\nI\u0026rsquo;ll have to double check with my dad.\nI\u0026rsquo;m pretty sure it\u0026rsquo;s real, but I\u0026rsquo;ve never found the book, but it was memorable.\nSo that summer, what I started to do was I just went on the internet and went on YouTube and just looked up coding.\nWhere do you start?\nWhat is it?\nHow does it work?\nAnd just started to play with it some myself just to figure out what it was even about, what it was, what the possibilities were with a career and had a lot of fun that summer making just some little tiny web projects.\nReally nothing where I was thinking for myself because I had no actual experience coding and didn\u0026rsquo;t understand any of the basic fundamentals, but found some tutorials on YouTube where I could just follow along precisely with what they\u0026rsquo;re doing.\nAnd it was probably really only HTML and CSS, so not even programming, but just displaying a simple web page.\nBut I had a lot of fun with that, just figuring out how to place the elements on the screen and style them and make it all work together.\nI was like, man, this is really cool.\nSo I just went for it and switched my major.\nI switched to, Kent State had something called digital sciences, which I appreciate.\nIt was very similar to computer science, but you drop some of the high level calculus and more like theoretical or more science-y, I guess, computer classes and trade them out for more cross-functional classes based on a focus area.\nSo I was digital sciences with a focus on software development.\nSo the types of cross-functional courses I got to take, one was in requirements gathering.\nHow do you do that and get requirements for a software project, for example?\nI got to take a class on design, an overall thesis class on just building a web project together, which was really cool.\nWe built a XR mobile app.\nSo Kent State, if you don\u0026rsquo;t know, had a really bad shooting back in the day.\nThey have all sorts of memorabilia, or I should say artifacts from that day, and they have it just archived back in a room.\nIf you go request it, you can go see them, but gas masks, bullet casings, and various things from that day.\nSo we got to go back into that room and see those.\nWe scanned them with a phone to make three different digital artifacts, and then through this app, we\u0026rsquo;re able to display these 3D artifacts.\nWe had these pedestals we set up in a room.\nWe put QR codes on the pedestals, and then folks would come into the room, grab an iPad, and could point at the pedestal with the iPad where it was empty, kind of as an artistic representation of the lives that were lost or the emptiness of that day.\nBut you could still point your iPad at it and see this sort of ghostly 3D artifact rendering of different objects from that day, which is really cool.\nYou could turn them around, and you could zoom in on them and take a look at them.\nSo that was neat, and it was opened up to the public so people could come in and see it and see things that they might not otherwise be able to get access to.\nBut anyway, so that was a cool project.\nIt was just things like that that I got to do with that digital sciences major, which I really appreciated, and I feel like prepared me probably better than a just plain computer science degree would do for the career I went into.\nSo that\u0026rsquo;s what I switched over to in college.\nI got a, well, I went for an internship at a place called Taza.\nI don\u0026rsquo;t remember how I found them.\nThey were a little place in Hudson, Ohio.\nSo different businesses would work with them for some website or different software product they would need, and this place would work with them and help them build it out.\nBut I remember, I mean, I went to the interview for that internship, and they were, typically for interviews for software engineering positions, they would have an interview that would be very technical, where they\u0026rsquo;re asking you programming questions or almost like riddles to solve to make sure that you really understand technically what you\u0026rsquo;re doing.\nSo they had some of those, and I\u0026rsquo;m sure they, knowing that it was an intern position, kept them simple, and thinking back on them, they were very easy.\nThings I could do with my eyes closed, no problem today.\nLike very simple sort or fizzbuzz type problems.\nBut that was after, I think I did that interview after maybe one semester of college, or one semester of that major in digital sciences, and really no programming experience beyond that.\nSo even these simple questions, I just, I bombed that interview.\nIt was so bad.\nI remember walking out of that and just feeling so despondent and dejected, like so embarrassed that I had even shown up.\nSo that was rough, and I don\u0026rsquo;t know why, but even still, I thought you know what, maybe there\u0026rsquo;s some chance that I can get this thing.\nBecause I think I did okay just talking to the guy and letting him know what I\u0026rsquo;m interested in, what I\u0026rsquo;m doing and listening to what they\u0026rsquo;re doing and asking questions.\nBut it took them a long time to get back to me.\nI followed up with them maybe twice a week or every week for multiple, multiple weeks, until eventually they got back to me and said, hey, do you want the job?\nAnd I said, oh my gosh, yeah, of course.\nAnd at some point I asked them, I was like, why me?\nWhy did you give me that job?\nBecause I feel like I did not do very good on the coding interview.\nAnd they said, you know what, you were the only person that followed up consistently.\nWe had other people who did better on the technical interview, but they just didn\u0026rsquo;t follow up, and we didn\u0026rsquo;t see the same interest with them that you had.\nSo hearing that, that was another one of those things, like the Python programming book that really stuck with me.\nAnd I feel like I\u0026rsquo;ve carried with me throughout my career and my life too, just that value of persistence and interest and energy.\nI think having those things, almost everything else will work out if you can have those things, and people will really pay attention to that.\nSo that was sort of a pivotal moment for me.\nBut the internship itself, when I got into it, it was, I really liked the people and the place.\nThey had some interesting work, but honestly, I feel bad because I probably just was not ready to be working somewhere at that point.\nThey were very generous with allowing me to use a lot of the paid internship time to take different training classes on top of my college work to figure out specific to the work they\u0026rsquo;re doing, to learn how to do it and build some of my own prototypes before building actual things for clients to figure out how to build them.\nAnd I think I maybe did one or two little, not building a full product, but little pieces of a product for a client before I ended up leaving that internship.\nAnd I still feel bad.\nI left and got an internship at another place.\nI was there maybe eight months, and I could tell the look on their face when I said I was leaving.\nThey were like, are you serious?\nWe spent all this time investing in you, and now you\u0026rsquo;re just going to leave?\nBut something better came along, and that something better was I was at a career fair at Kent State, and I had actually just gone to see the Taza guys.\nThey had a booth there, and I was just going to walk there to go visit them and talk with them.\nBut I had some classes or something, and I got there towards the end of the career fair, and they had already packed up and left.\nSo I was like, oh, well, shoot.\nThat stinks.\nSo I was walking out of the building, and then there was a Progressive Insurance booth.\nAnd as I was walking by, one of them flagged me down and was like, hey, I don\u0026rsquo;t even remember what they said, but you want to hear about Progressive, whatever?\nAnd I was like, oh, yeah, sure, whatever.\nI got some time.\nSo I was talking to them.\nI told them about the internship I\u0026rsquo;m doing, the coursework I\u0026rsquo;m doing, what I\u0026rsquo;m interested in.\nAnd they were interested in having me back the next day.\nThey would be doing interviews at the rec center, I think, in Kent.\nI don\u0026rsquo;t know.\nMaybe it was somewhere else.\nIt was somewhere else.\nBut anyways, they invited me for an interview.\nI got on my resume.\nThey invited me for interviews the next day.\nAnd I thought, all right, cool.\nSo I went and did the interview there, which went really well.\nI think maybe I did another interview that went well.\nAnd then I got invited to their final round of interviews, which as a\u0026hellip;\nI think I was maybe a junior in college at this time, maybe a senior.\nIt was just mind-boggling to me.\nFor a Fortune 100 company, the expenses they went through for interns to\u0026hellip;\neven just at the interview stage, what ended up happening was all the candidates that had made it that far in the process, they brought us out to their headquarters.\nWe were all local in the area, all college kids local, I think.\nI don\u0026rsquo;t think there was anyone outside of an hour commute or whatever.\nBut they put us all up in a hotel.\nWe got nice hotel rooms.\nThey brought us onto their headquarters the next day.\nWe got to tour around and see headquarters.\nProgressive actually owns the largest privately held collection of art in the country.\nThe guy who founded it loved art and used it as an investment for the company.\nSo they\u0026rsquo;ve got all these amazing artworks just around the walls, all around the hallways of the headquarters building there.\nSo that was really cool and inspiring as a young college kid, just walking around.\nThey provided food.\nI was like, this is unreal.\nI cannot believe this is happening.\nAnd then they had a series of interviews throughout the day where you were interviewing with all sorts of different people and then left.\nSo I left that and then later eventually got a call back that I had gotten an internship there.\nSo the way the internship worked was it started as a summer internship, which again was, I could comprehend how they were affording to do all this, but they put us up in apartments this time, like temporary apartments for the summer.\nWe would live with some other interns and that was great.\nI had a lot of fun living with the guys I lived with there who were also interning at Progressive.\nI learned a ton.\nThe position was another software programmer position working on claims software for Progressive.\nSo it\u0026rsquo;s the software that claims reps use there.\nSo while not the most inspiring product to work on, the people and the culture of the company, the technology we got to work with, all that was amazing.\nSo I had a lot of fun and learned a ton there.\nEspecially that internship.\nProgressive was great too, like the place before, about providing training, giving me that time to really learn.\nAnd I think that is where my career really took off.\nBecause that internship got extended into a further internship, I think maybe it was a part-time job in my last semester of college, which again I really enjoyed.\nI really went all in on Progressive because in college I had that digital sciences major, but I also had a minor in Spanish.\nIn high school I had gone on a mission trip, a couple mission trips actually down to some Central American countries and just fell in love with the culture and the language.\nSo I was going for a Spanish minor and that last semester, man, I was just loaded because I was trying to graduate a semester early.\nSo I was really cramming things into my last semester.\nI had all my digital sciences stuff, which I had started on a year late because I started as a psych major.\nI had this Spanish minor that I had a few classes I had to take, and then I had that part-time job too.\nAnd I was just like, you know what, I cannot do this.\nSo I ended up dropping the Spanish minor with only two classes left to go, which still hurts a little bit, but the decision, and I still stick by it, was just I don\u0026rsquo;t think I really need or needed that piece of paper.\nAll the lessons about the culture and all the language practice, I learned either way, and I don\u0026rsquo;t know what I would have done with the actual minor anyways.\nSo that was my decision at the time.\nI dropped the minor.\nI still speak Spanish a little bit.\nI have fun.\nWe get these bilingual books for our daughter, so I have a lot of fun getting to kind of speak Spanish to her and hopefully teach her some of that.\nBut anyways, I\u0026rsquo;ll get off that detour and go back to the main road here.\nProgressive was great.\nI had that part-time job, which then went to like their associate programmer, which was the lowest level, and then worked up to their mid-level programmer and was moving up really quick.\nI was learning a lot.\nI was taking on a lot of responsibility, doing a lot of extra things above what was required of my level, and I think that was seen.\nBut also just working in a large company like that, there\u0026rsquo;s a lot of processes and bureaucracy involved with moving up and rotating through promotions.\nSo I had been talking with my manager for a while and was on track to get to their senior programmer level, but I don\u0026rsquo;t know.\nIt felt like it was taking a long time.\nThey were like, oh, we got to give this other person this thing first.\nWe\u0026rsquo;ve got you on the list.\nYou\u0026rsquo;re going to get to that senior programmer position.\nI have your name on the list, but we\u0026rsquo;ve just got to wait until it\u0026rsquo;s the right time.\nI was frustrated with that, even though I loved the company.\nIt just felt like I was progressing very quickly and there just wasn\u0026rsquo;t really room for me to grow or places for me to go with that.\nSo I started looking for other jobs, and honestly, I wasn\u0026rsquo;t looking very seriously.\nI had no intention of leaving Progressive, but I was feeling a little frustrated and I just thought, you know what?\nLet me interview at some other companies for these more senior positions just to see how it goes and learn what the interview process is like, get some practice with it again, because I hadn\u0026rsquo;t interviewed for a couple of years at that point.\nSo kind of my criteria was I would look for jobs that I would not think I would actually get an offer for, but if I did, I would consider taking it, because I didn\u0026rsquo;t want to just apply places where I knew if I got the offer, I would tell the place no and screw a bunch of companies by doing that.\nSo I didn\u0026rsquo;t want to do that.\nSo I thought, you know what?\nI\u0026rsquo;ll just shoot for the stars, go for places where I don\u0026rsquo;t think I\u0026rsquo;d get the job, but get some practice interviewing there and get some feedback about what I\u0026rsquo;m missing or what I could do better.\nSo I applied a few places.\nI think I got an offer at one that I turned down, and then I saw this NASA job come up.\nAnd this one, I mean, I really, really did not think I was qualified.\nAnd I only applied because the name on it was NASA.\nI was like, man, how cool would it be to go and work at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration?\nBut the job, it was very much a diagonal career move, because it was a step up in seniority for sure from what I was doing at the time.\nAnd also a horizontal move, meaning it was very different work from what I was doing.\nSo my role at Progressive, I very much was a programmer day-to-day, writing code and building software applications directly, whereas this NASA job was more managing the work rather than doing the work.\nSo it was a lot of oversight into the technical infrastructure of the team, helping the dev team with their processes and how they\u0026rsquo;re writing code.\nAt that point, it was less product management, but doing a little bit of product management, too, of working with stakeholders, gathering requirements, instead of just building the thing, figuring out what was needed to be built and how we would build it, instead of just taking orders and building whatever little piece I was told to do.\nSo that was scary, but interesting to me.\nSo I went ahead and applied.\nI genuinely did not think at all that I would get the offer, but went through an initial interview where they had some questions beforehand, I think, about like, hey, have you got these different projects with competing priorities?\nHow would you, you know, and stakeholders wanting you to do different things, how would you handle it?\nOr you\u0026rsquo;ve got this new application with these requirements, what kind of technology would you build it in?\nHow would you architect it?\nSo I had a lot of fun with those, and I liked that they were take-home questions, because I got to really, really research, and I mean, I spent a lot of time building out like a whole system diagram for this hypothetical system that they asked me about.\nAnd I think they liked the time that I spent on that.\nAfter the fact, after I got the job, they said, yeah, I don\u0026rsquo;t think anyone else spent that much time on it.\nYours were for sure the most detailed answers, which I think just goes back to that persistence and energy lesson that I had learned earlier in life.\nAnd then I got called back for another interview, and even though I felt like the interviews and everything were going well, I was just like, man, I don\u0026rsquo;t know.\nAll these people I\u0026rsquo;m talking to with this job are a lot older than me, the people who would be my peers, you know, a lot of people are 15, 20 years older than me, and just I thought for sure I was going to get passed up just due to inexperience, which I wouldn\u0026rsquo;t have faulted them for at all.\nBut I got a call one day that I had gotten the job and was just like floored and shocked by it and really couldn\u0026rsquo;t believe it.\nSo I remember getting on boarded my manager at the time, Irene.\nI remember having a conversation with her before I really started where she was like, and you know, you are younger than a lot of people that work here.\nAnd I said, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I know.\nI figured, I\u0026rsquo;m aware.\nAnd she said, just do you feel like you\u0026rsquo;ll handle that okay if there are some folks who, there might be just a few folks who are not happy with that or, I don\u0026rsquo;t know, just letting me know that there might be some challenges specifically related to that.\nAnd I said, you know what, no problem.\nI\u0026rsquo;m game for it.\nI\u0026rsquo;ll figure that out.\nBut I do have to say that first year, maybe year and a half was a more difficult part of my career because not necessarily with anyone I worked with directly or other civil servants on my team, but I did feel some of that of like, who is this kid coming in here and trying to tell us how to work, help us work better, telling us what to do, which I wasn\u0026rsquo;t necessarily doing that.\nBut I was coming in and trying to change some things and make things better.\nSo I think very much there was this perception of, who is this kid?\nWho let him in here?\nAnd I actually got a really good, clear view of that.\nI went through this, I applied to this NASA leadership program, which was amazing, which was kind of a select group they picked from.\nI think a little over 300 people across the agency applied and they picked 60.\nBut I made it in and that was so cool because we got to travel to all these different centers and learn about the mission and hear from different NASA leadership.\nBut the part of it I want to share is they did these different feedback assessments or surveys.\nAnd one of the surveys that, well, I don\u0026rsquo;t know if it was a survey, but one of the things they had us do was called, I think it was a 360 feedback assessment where you were asking everyone around you to give you feedback.\nAnd I think at the time that I applied to this leadership program, I\u0026rsquo;d only been with the agency like a month or two.\nSo by the time I was sending out the feedback assessment, I hadn\u0026rsquo;t even been there a year yet.\nSo I hadn\u0026rsquo;t been there that long.\nI was still pretty fresh.\nI\u0026rsquo;m getting feedback from people around me.\nAnd I couldn\u0026rsquo;t see who specifically, but I had it split up where I could see, here\u0026rsquo;s feedback from civil servants, here\u0026rsquo;s feedback from contractors.\nAnd from the contract side, I got some feedback that was pretty, pretty rough.\nI think some people might not have realized that the feedback goes directly to me.\nI think they might have thought that it goes to my supervisor because it was more worded towards a supervisor of just like, I don\u0026rsquo;t know why we hired this guy.\nBecause he is, he doesn\u0026rsquo;t seem like he has a lot of, and it wasn\u0026rsquo;t based on the work I was doing, but it was more feedback of like, like he just doesn\u0026rsquo;t have a lot of experience and I have not worked with him enough to know to see if it\u0026rsquo;s going to work out.\nAnd I don\u0026rsquo;t think it\u0026rsquo;s going to, and I think we should have hired someone else.\nSo especially as someone who had that concern coming into the job, that, that was a day when I got that feedback of just, that was rough to hear and to receive that.\nAnd yeah, that whole first year it was, it was a big transition.\nIt felt like I had taken on a lot all in one bite.\nAnd despite it being difficult, I am proud of myself for having worked through that.\nBecause I think now I\u0026rsquo;m in a really good place where I\u0026rsquo;ve, I\u0026rsquo;ve built trust with my team and worked well with them and really enjoy, enjoy the work and enjoy the people too.\nEspecially the more, the more product side.\nI\u0026rsquo;m glad I made that jump.\nI do miss some of the programming and writing code and I scratched that itch by doing some side projects that I work on.\nBut, but yeah, I miss, I miss writing code a little bit, but I really enjoy having that bigger picture and getting to make decisions myself.\nBecause I think what it was before, while it\u0026rsquo;s really rewarding to work on a little piece of code and then be done and see it work, it was more like, Hey, here\u0026rsquo;s what you\u0026rsquo;re going to build now, go build it.\nAnd I like being on the other side and being able to implement my team, like even with my team, not just being like, Hey, here\u0026rsquo;s what you\u0026rsquo;re going to go build, go build it.\nI mean, sometimes that\u0026rsquo;s the case if it\u0026rsquo;s just a really small, simple thing, but really bringing in my team, like bringing in the design side and the developer side and us coming to, you know, to figure out together the best way to build something that has been really rewarding to, to maybe make that work even better than, than ways I had seen before.\nUm, but I love that big picture product strategy work.\nI\u0026rsquo;ve, I\u0026rsquo;ve gotten to do some zero to one work, um, like for the NASA cause analysis tool that we built that was, did not exist and was a new product we were building.\nSo that was a lot of fun to stand up from the ground up and talk with mishap investigators all across the agency, um, and various other people in roles that do root cause analysis to understand like, Hey, what, you know, what do you guys really need?\nHow do you work?\nWhat does it look like right now?\nI got to see all these different crazy convoluted processes people do right now and, and figure out what they need and turn that into a product they can really use.\nAnd, uh, we launched that back in March of last year and it\u0026rsquo;s, uh, it\u0026rsquo;s been great.\nWe, we rolled it out iteratively.\nSo we rolled out a really small version of it and they\u0026rsquo;re slowly building on, uh, over time.\nBut even in the, the limited set of functionality we\u0026rsquo;ve released with people, uh, are using it and finding it useful and enjoying it.\nUm, so that\u0026rsquo;s a, that\u0026rsquo;s a look at how I got where I am.\nI just, uh, arrived at work for the day and parked in my parking spot.\nUm, so who knows, this might be the last car post I ever do, but, um, I enjoyed it as a way to just stay busy during the commute.\nUsually I\u0026rsquo;m listening to a podcast or audio book.\nI\u0026rsquo;ve been in a history kick recently.\nI just, just finished 1776 by David McCullough and then just started John Adams, which is also by David McCullough.\nBut that one has felt a little drier, which is why I think I wanted to do this car post today.\nI was like, you know what?\nI need to just, I need to switch it up and do something different.\nUm, but yeah, I think at the top of the article, I\u0026rsquo;m going to try to put up a clip of the audio so you can listen to it if you want.\nUm, and the, the clip of the audio might end up being different to the text.\nI think what I\u0026rsquo;m going to try to do is just, I\u0026rsquo;m using a Google recorder, the recorder app just on my phone to record this and it makes a transcript live.\nSo I think I\u0026rsquo;ll just post the audio clip, but I\u0026rsquo;ll take the transcript and I think I\u0026rsquo;m just going to dump the whole thing into AI and be like, Hey, fix all the grammatical errors and maybe, um, add in titles or like separate some of this.\nSo it\u0026rsquo;s not just one long blurb of me talking.\nUm, so the audio won\u0026rsquo;t, probably won\u0026rsquo;t perfectly match the text, but I\u0026rsquo;m curious to try that out and kind of see how it goes.\nIf it feels like it\u0026rsquo;s modifying my words too much, I\u0026rsquo;ll just post the raw thing up there cause I don\u0026rsquo;t, I don\u0026rsquo;t want it to be too different from what I\u0026rsquo;ve been talking about, but I don\u0026rsquo;t know.\nAnyways, I\u0026rsquo;m rambling at this point.\nIt\u0026rsquo;s been a good talking into my phone for this car ride.\nAnd, uh, if you listen this far or read this far, thank you because this has been a long time of just talking.\nUh, so yeah.\n", "dateiso": "2025-03-06 21:15:21 -0400", "date": "9:15 p.m. on Mar 6, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/transcripts/2025/03/06/1944.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2Ftranscripts%2F2025%2F03%2F06%2F1944.html" }, { "id": 110, "type": "post", "title": "How I Got Into This Line of Work", "text": "The post below is based on the transcript of this audio recording. The original transcript had many grammatical errors, so I uploaded it into claude.ai and it seems to have done a pretty good job cleaning it up.Introduction Trying something new here. I\u0026rsquo;m gonna call it a commute post. It\u0026rsquo;s 6:18 a.m. on Wednesday, March 5th. I\u0026rsquo;m driving into work for the morning. I\u0026rsquo;ve got probably like 42 minutes until I get into work, so I figured, instead of just listening to music or a podcast or a book, I would try talking to my phone and do a blog post just talking out loud, which is something I\u0026rsquo;ve never tried before. With coming into the office more and having a longer commute, I\u0026rsquo;ve found it harder and harder to have time to just sit down and write, so I wanted to try something different, shake things up, and see how this format works.\nIn thinking about it, I was trying to figure out what type of topics would work to just talk about in a car because I feel like typically, when I\u0026rsquo;m writing, I have some idea or concept, or maybe even just a concept of a title in my mind, and through writing about it, I\u0026rsquo;m thinking about new angles or counterpoints. Through the writing, I figure out what I\u0026rsquo;m actually writing about. I typically never start with a completely coherent vision, so I wasn\u0026rsquo;t sure how it would work just talking through that. I had some fears of just sounding dumb, to be quite frank, of working through those things in real time.\nAfter thinking about it, I thought a topic that might work would be just telling stories from my life, things that I\u0026rsquo;ve told a couple times to different people that might be interesting to just have up on the blog and have a record of for myself. As time goes on, I get further and further from each of these stories, and some of the details slip away a little bit more, so I want to memorialize them on the blog. I also want to be able to share them out with family or friends, or whoever.\nFor this first one, I figured I would start with something easy, and something that comes up through work a lot - just talking about how I got into the line of work that I\u0026rsquo;m in now. I now work at NASA as a product manager. I own a few of the products at the NASA Safety Center. That includes the NASA Mishap Information System and the NASA Cause Analysis Tool. These are all applications for safety personnel at NASA to use, mostly for data entry and storage for mishaps that happen at NASA. These could be anything from something as small as someone trips and falls, where we need a record of that injury even if it\u0026rsquo;s just a skinned knee, all the way up to millions of dollars of property damage if we lose a satellite or something along those lines.\nI came from a computer science and software background in college and was a software engineer right out of college. But how about I start back at the beginning and talk about where things started, at least in my mind, and then progress through the windy road in my career to where I ended up.\nI wish I could hear more about other people in their career journeys, because I feel like every single person that I\u0026rsquo;ve talked to - when I asked them about where they are now and how they got there - almost nobody had just a clear vision and followed it to a T and knew exactly where they would be. It seems like everybody has this very windy, very interesting path where they\u0026rsquo;re sort of going along slowly and finding their way. And that\u0026rsquo;s how it happened for me, too.\nThe First Spark I think a good place to start would be sometime between when I was 7 or 16 years old. I would say I was probably around 11 when my dad bought me a Python programming book for kids. Which sounds like the perfect start to the story for someone in my line of work. But while I\u0026rsquo;m picking this as the beginning, it seemed, and I think really was, pretty inconsequential at the time because he bought me this book when I was 11, and I really just didn\u0026rsquo;t care for it at all. It felt like more school to me, and I just wanted to go outside and play.\nI think I looked at it maybe three times. We might have attempted together to do the different coding exercises in the book - they had little games to show you how to code but also make it fun. I think maybe we did one of those, and then I thought, \u0026ldquo;Man, screw this, I\u0026rsquo;m gonna go outside and play.\u0026rdquo; So that was all that really was at that point in my life. But it\u0026rsquo;s still something that I remember and think back on as maybe something that opened up my eyes and my mind to the possibility that coding is something that I could do.\nFirst Jobs and High School Fast forward to high school. It was time finally to get a job, and I had two places I was going to apply to. One was a little restaurant right down the road from my parents' place where I had applied to be a dishwasher. The other was Chipotle, where they just had some jobs that opened up. I don\u0026rsquo;t remember exactly how it went, but I believe before I even had an offer at Chipotle, I called the restaurant right away and said, \u0026ldquo;Hey, you know what? I\u0026rsquo;m not interested anymore. I\u0026rsquo;m going to go work at Chipotle.\u0026rdquo; I basically broke up with them right then and there.\nI went and told my mom about it, and she was not happy because I had nothing solidified at that point. She said, \u0026ldquo;You call them back right now and tell them that you\u0026rsquo;re still interested in the job.\u0026rdquo; So I very sheepishly got back on the phone, called that restaurant back, and asked if I could still be considered to work there. I don\u0026rsquo;t remember if I had an offer at the time - I think I might have.\nThe way it ended up working out was that I did get a job at Chipotle Mexican Grill. I worked there through a lot of high school. I think it was my junior and senior year, and I think I came back maybe on one winter break in college as well.\nIt was an interesting place to work. Anyone who\u0026rsquo;s been in food service will know it\u0026rsquo;s hot and fast-paced. And I am not really a fast-paced person. As you can probably imagine, someone who takes time to sit slowly and write on a blog - I\u0026rsquo;m more in my head and like to really think through things and understand them. There\u0026rsquo;s some of that working at Chipotle, but a lot of it was just \u0026ldquo;get these burritos out and get them out fast.\u0026rdquo; So it was an interesting time of my life. I enjoyed the people, and I definitely enjoyed sampling the food, but I could tell that wasn\u0026rsquo;t anything I wanted to do long term.\nCollege Decisions Shortly before college, there\u0026rsquo;s that period where you know college is ahead of you and you\u0026rsquo;re trying to figure out what you want to be for the rest of your life. Who am I? Where am I going? Wrestling with all these big questions and trying to figure out what my major should be.\nI had already been thinking about something along the lines of psychology, and I think what probably got me there was being raised in the church and very much thinking about and constantly hearing messages about serving and helping other people. That was something that I felt called to, and I felt was really important and interesting. I didn\u0026rsquo;t quite want to go into the church to be a pastor. It seemed weird to me to mix my income with my place of worship - it just wasn\u0026rsquo;t something for me.\nSomething that further confirmed that idea of going into psychology was that our church actually did these surveys where it would give you recommendations about what your job would be. I took this survey and the three recommendations were: youth pastor, bartender, and psychologist. I already had decided I didn\u0026rsquo;t want to do the youth pastor. The bartender - I thought, \u0026ldquo;Oh, that\u0026rsquo;s interesting, but I don\u0026rsquo;t know if that\u0026rsquo;s for me.\u0026rdquo; And that kind of just confirmed further that maybe I should go and get a psychology degree.\nPsychology to Programming So I went to college for psychology for my first year. In the spring semester of that year, I got a job working as an undergraduate research assistant in a psychology lab. I went to Kent State University, and Manfred van Dolman had the Van Dolman lab. The general focus was romantic relationships, but I got to work on a bunch of interesting studies.\nI wasn\u0026rsquo;t super involved - it was more so helping with data collection or running different sessions with participants. Some of the things I did: they would have couples go into a room by themselves and just answer questions together. Some of it was about splitting housework - how would they do that? Sometimes these were people who already lived together, sometimes it wasn\u0026rsquo;t. They\u0026rsquo;d also dream about their future. One of my jobs was to just watch these recordings and transcribe them. This was before easy transcription services or AI, so I was just in there listening to all these conversations between my peers trying to figure out relationships.\nAnother study was an eye movement study, where I would bring participants into a room. We had a computer set up with a face harness in front of it so they would set their chin on there, kind of like if you go to the eye doctor. Right underneath or below the monitor, there was a camera that was positioned at their eyes. I would get that all configured with their eyes so I could figure out where they\u0026rsquo;re looking on the screen, and then I would leave and just play some images up on the screen and see what they looked at. I think it was images either of males and females just alone or together as couples, and the study was trying to look at where you\u0026rsquo;re looking - are you looking at the person\u0026rsquo;s face, their body, something else?\nI didn\u0026rsquo;t stay around at the lab long enough to find the results of that study, but that was another interesting one to be a part of. But part of working in that lab, one of the things I got to do that definitely led me to where I am now was data coding. All this data they would get at the end, I would have it in a big Excel sheet and aggregate it, and they had some program where they would analyze this data. The grad students had always done it pretty much manually, or they would have one of their undergrad research assistants do it manually, but I found that through this program, it had a little section where you could write scripts to automate some of the manual work that we were doing.\nSo I got to work figuring out how to do that and implemented it for the lab, which sped up the data analysis process for the whole lab, and for me too. I didn\u0026rsquo;t have to sit there doing all this mindless work going through each data element and analyzing and coding and tagging each thing. That was maybe the first thing that really piqued my interest - like, \u0026ldquo;Oh, this is really rewarding to be able to just write something on the computer, make the computer do things for me.\u0026rdquo; It was just a small task that I could accomplish, and in the end, I can see that it worked, and now it\u0026rsquo;s done. I found that really rewarding.\nI was doing that and enjoying it, but also while I was working in the lab, I was observing these grad students who were doing their research and just observing that I don\u0026rsquo;t think this was the future for me. They were spending a lot of time in the lab. They seemed stressed. They were all working on their papers - I helped them some with their papers and references at the bottom and the slog of all of that and the research - and I just thought, \u0026ldquo;Man, I don\u0026rsquo;t know if this is for me, and if I can do this, and if this is what I want.\u0026rdquo; Especially the way I was thinking of going, becoming an actual psychologist, it was almost guaranteed that I would need to go to some sort of graduate school, and just my undergraduate degree wouldn\u0026rsquo;t get me very far.\nChanging Direction So thinking about what would come with having to go to grad school, as I neared the end of the semester and got into summer, I was like, \u0026ldquo;Man, I really need to figure something else out because this is just not going to work for me.\u0026rdquo; I was thinking, \u0026ldquo;Well, if not psychology, what the heck do I do?\u0026rdquo; because that was the plan that I went to college with, and I had nothing else in mind.\nBut then I thought back to the data coding in the lab that I enjoyed doing, which was basically just writing little scripts in Excel, and then I thought back to that Python book that my dad had got me when I was a kid, and how even though I paid no attention to it really at the time, it was memorable enough that it stuck with me even now. So I was like, \u0026ldquo;I don\u0026rsquo;t know. Maybe there\u0026rsquo;s something here to explore.\u0026rdquo;\nI think I went and looked for the Python book and never found it. I don\u0026rsquo;t know if we donated the book or not. I don\u0026rsquo;t know what ever happened to it. It\u0026rsquo;s like a ghost. I really - maybe it didn\u0026rsquo;t even happen, and I made the whole thing up. I\u0026rsquo;ll have to double check with my dad. I\u0026rsquo;m pretty sure it\u0026rsquo;s real, but I\u0026rsquo;ve never found the book. But it was memorable.\nSo that summer what I started to do was go on the internet and YouTube and just looked up like \u0026ldquo;coding - where do you start? What is it? How does it work?\u0026rdquo; and just started to play with it some myself just to figure out what it was about, what the possibilities were with the career. I had a lot of fun that summer making just some little tiny web projects, really nothing too fancy because I had no actual experience coding and didn\u0026rsquo;t understand any of the basic fundamentals. I would just follow along precisely with what they were doing. It was probably really only HTML and CSS, so I\u0026rsquo;m not even programming, but just displaying a simple web page. But I had a lot of fun with that, just figuring out how to place the elements on the screen, style them, and make it all work together. I was like, \u0026ldquo;Man, this is really cool.\u0026rdquo;\nDigital Sciences and First Internship So I just went for it and switched my major. Kent State had something called digital sciences, which I appreciate. It was very similar to computer science, but you drop some of the high level calculus and more theoretical or sciency computer classes and trade them out for more cross-functional classes based on a focus area. So I was digital sciences with a focus on software development. The types of cross-functional courses I got to take: one was in requirements gathering - how do you do that and get requirements for a software project? I got to take a class on design, and a class on just building a web project together, which was really cool.\nWe built an XR mobile app. Kent State, if you don\u0026rsquo;t know, had a really bad shooting back in the day, and they have all sorts of memorabilia or artifacts from that day archived back in a room. If you go request it, you can go see them - gas masks, bullet casings, and various things from that day. We got to go back into that room and see those, and we scanned them with a phone to make 3D digital artifacts. Through this app, we were able to display these 3D artifacts. We had these pedestals we set up in a room, we put QR codes on the pedestals, and then folks would come into the room, grab an iPad, and could point at the pedestal with the iPad. The pedestal was empty, kind of as an artistic representation of the lives that were lost, or the emptiness of that day, but you could still point your iPad at it and see this sort of ghostly 3D artifact rendering of different objects from that day, which was really cool. You could turn them around, and you could zoom in on them and take a look at them. It was opened up to the public so people could come in and see it, which they might not otherwise be able to get access to.\nThat was a cool project, and it was just things like that that I got to do with that digital sciences major, which I really appreciated, and I feel like prepared me probably better than a plain computer science degree would for the career I went into.\nIn college, I went for an internship at a place called Taazaa. I don\u0026rsquo;t remember how I found them. They were a little custom software shop in Hudson, Ohio, where different businesses would work with them for some website or different software product they would need, and this place would work with them and help them build it out.\nI remember going to the interview for that internship, and typically for interviews for software engineering positions or technical positions, the interview will be very technical where they\u0026rsquo;re asking you programming questions or almost like riddles to solve to make sure that you really understand technically what you\u0026rsquo;re doing. They had some of those, and I\u0026rsquo;m sure they, knowing that it was an intern position, kept them simple. Thinking back on them, they were very easy things I could do with my eyes closed now - very simple sort or FizzBuzz type problems.\nBut that was after I think I did that interview after maybe one semester of college or one semester of that major in digital sciences, and really, no programming experience beyond that. So, even these simple questions, I just bombed that interview. It was so bad. I remember walking out of that and just feeling so despondent and dejected, so embarrassed that I had even shown up.\nThat was rough, but I don\u0026rsquo;t know why, even still, I thought, \u0026ldquo;You know what? Maybe there\u0026rsquo;s some chance that I can get this thing\u0026rdquo; because I think I did okay just talking to the guy and letting him know what I\u0026rsquo;m interested in, what I\u0026rsquo;m doing, and listening to what they\u0026rsquo;re doing and asking questions. It took him a long time to get back to me. I followed up with him, maybe twice a week or every week, for multiple weeks, until eventually they got back to me and said, \u0026ldquo;Hey, do you want the job?\u0026rdquo; And I said, \u0026ldquo;Oh my gosh, yeah, of course.\u0026rdquo;\nAt some point, I asked him, \u0026ldquo;Why me? Why did you give me that job because I feel like I did not do very good on the coding interview,\u0026rdquo; and they said, \u0026ldquo;You know what? You were the only person that followed up consistently. We had other people who did better on the technical interview, but they just didn\u0026rsquo;t follow up, and we didn\u0026rsquo;t see the same interest with them that you had.\u0026rdquo;\nHearing that was another one of those things like the Python programming book that really stuck with me throughout my career and my life - just that value of persistence and interest and energy. I think having those things - almost everything else will work out if you have those things, and people will really pay attention to that.\nSo, that was sort of a pivotal moment for me, but the internship itself when I got into it - I really liked the people and the place, they had some interesting work, but honestly I feel bad because I probably just was not ready to be working somewhere at that point. They were very generous with allowing me to use a lot of the paid internship time in training classes on top of my college work, to figure out specific skills related to the work they were doing, to learn how to do it and build some of my own prototypes before building actual things for clients.\nI think I maybe did like one or two little pieces of a product for a client before I ended up leaving that internship, and I still feel bad. I left and got an internship at another place. I was there maybe eight months, and I could tell the look on their face when I said I was leaving. They were like, \u0026ldquo;Are you serious? We spent all this time investing in you. Now, you\u0026rsquo;re just gonna leave?\u0026rdquo;\nProgressive Insurance But something better came along. I was at a career fair at Kent State, and I had actually just gone to see the Taazaa guys. They had a booth there, and I was just gonna walk there to go visit them and talk with them. But I had some classes or something, and I got there towards the end of the career fair, and they had already packed up and left. So I was like, \u0026ldquo;Oh well, shoot, that stinks.\u0026rdquo;\nSo I was walking out of the building, and then there was a Progressive Insurance booth. As I was walking by, one of them flagged me down and was like, \u0026ldquo;Hey, want to hear about Progressive?\u0026rdquo; And I was like, \u0026ldquo;Oh yeah, sure, whatever, I got some time.\u0026rdquo;\nSo I was talking to them. I told them about the internship I\u0026rsquo;m doing, the coursework I\u0026rsquo;m doing, what I\u0026rsquo;m interested in, and they were interested in having me back the next day. They would be doing interviews somewhere, and they invited me for an interview. I got in my resume, they invited me for interviews the next day, and I thought, \u0026ldquo;All right, cool.\u0026rdquo;\nSo I went and did the interview there, which went really well. I think maybe I did another interview that went well, and then I got invited to their final round of interviews, which - as a junior in college at this time, maybe a senior - it was just mind-boggling to me for a Fortune 100 company, the expenses they went through for interns even just at the interview stage.\nWhat ended up happening was all the candidates that had made it that far in the process, they brought us out to their headquarters. We were all local in the area, all college kids local. I don\u0026rsquo;t think there was anyone outside of our commute, but they put us all up in a hotel. We got nice hotel rooms. They brought us onto their headquarters the next day. We got to tour around and see headquarters.\nProgressive actually owns the largest privately held collection of art in the country. The guy who founded it loved art and used it as an investment for the company, so they\u0026rsquo;ve got all these amazing artworks just around the walls all around the hallways of the headquarters building, so that was really cool and inspiring as a young college kid just walking around. They provided food. I was like, \u0026ldquo;This is unreal. I cannot believe this is happening.\u0026rdquo; And then they had a series of interviews throughout the day where you were interviewing with all sorts of different people. Then we left, and eventually I got a call back that I had gotten an internship there.\nThe way the internship worked was it started as a summer internship. They put us up in apartments - temporary apartments for the summer. We would live with some other interns, and that was great. I had a lot of fun living with the guys I lived with there who were also interning at Progressive.\nI learned a ton. The position was another software programmer position, working on claims software for Progressive - the software that claims reps use there. So, while not the most inspiring product to work on, the people and the culture of the company and the technology we got to work with - all that was amazing, so I had a lot of fun and learned a ton there. Progressive was great too, like the place before, about providing training, giving me that time to really learn.\nI think that is where my career really took off because that internship got extended into a further internship, or I think maybe it was a part-time job in my last semester of college. I really enjoyed it, and I really went all in on Progressive.\nIn college, I had that digital sciences major, but I also had a minor in Spanish. In high school, I had gone on a mission trip, a couple of mission trips actually, down to some Central American countries, and just fell in love with the culture and the language, so I was going for a Spanish minor. That last semester, man, it was loaded because I was trying to graduate a semester early. So I was really cramming things into my last semester. I had all my digital sciences stuff, which I had started on a year late because I started as a psych major. I had this Spanish minor that I had a few classes I had to take, and then I had that part-time job too.\nI was just like, \u0026ldquo;You know what? I cannot do this.\u0026rdquo; So I ended up dropping the Spanish minor with only two classes left to go. It still hurts a little bit, but the decision, and I still stick by it, was just - I don\u0026rsquo;t think I really need or needed that piece of paper. All the lessons about the culture and all the language practice - I learned those either way, and I don\u0026rsquo;t know what I would have done with the actual minor anyways. So that was my decision at the time. I dropped the minor. I still speak Spanish a little bit. We get these bilingual books for our daughter, so I have a lot of fun getting to kind of speak Spanish to her and hopefully teach her some of that.\nProgressive was great. I had that part-time job, which then went to their associate programmer, which was the lowest level, and then worked up to their mid-level programmer and was moving up really quick. I was learning a lot. I was taking on a lot of responsibility, doing a lot of extra things above my level. And I think that was seen, but also just working in a large company like that, there\u0026rsquo;s a lot of processes and bureaucracy involved with moving up and rotating through promotions.\nI had been talking with my manager for a while and was on track to get to their senior programmer level, but it just felt like it was taking a long time. They\u0026rsquo;re like, \u0026ldquo;Oh, we gotta give this other person this thing first, and we\u0026rsquo;ve got you on the list. You\u0026rsquo;re gonna get to that senior programmer position. I have your name on the list, but we just gotta wait till it\u0026rsquo;s the right time.\u0026rdquo;\nI was frustrated with that, even though I loved the company. It just felt like I was progressing very quickly, and there just wasn\u0026rsquo;t really room for me to grow or places for me to go. So I started looking for other jobs, and honestly, I wasn\u0026rsquo;t looking very seriously. I had no intention of leaving Progressive, but I was feeling a little frustrated, and I just thought, \u0026ldquo;You know what? Let me interview at some other companies for these more senior positions, just to see how it goes and learn what the interview process is like, get some practice with it again\u0026rdquo; because I hadn\u0026rsquo;t interviewed for a couple years at that point.\nMy criteria was, I would look for jobs that I would not think I would actually get an offer for. But if I did, I would consider taking it because I didn\u0026rsquo;t want to just apply places where I knew if I got the offer, I\u0026rsquo;d tell the place no, and screw a bunch of companies by doing that. So I thought, \u0026ldquo;You know what? I\u0026rsquo;ll just shoot for the stars. Go for places where I don\u0026rsquo;t think that I\u0026rsquo;d get the job, but get some practice interviewing there, and get some feedback about what I\u0026rsquo;m missing, or what I could do better.\u0026rdquo;\nNASA I applied to a few places. I think I got an offer at one that I turned down, and then I saw this NASA job come up, and this one I really, really did not think I was qualified for. I only applied because of the name on it was NASA. So I was like, \u0026ldquo;Man, how cool would it be to go and work at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration?\u0026rdquo;\nThe job was very much a diagonal career move because it was a step up in seniority for sure from what I was doing at the time, and also a horizontal move, meaning it was very different work from what I was doing. My role at Progressive, I very much was a programmer day-to-day, writing code, building software applications directly, whereas this NASA job was more managing the work rather than doing the work. So it was a lot of oversight into the technical infrastructure of the team, helping the dev team with their processes, and how they\u0026rsquo;re writing code. At that point, it was less product management, but doing a little bit of product management too - working with stakeholders, gathering requirements, and instead of just building the thing, figuring out what needed to be built and how we would build it instead of just taking orders and building whatever little piece I was told to do.\nThat was scary but interesting to me. So I went ahead and applied, and I genuinely did not think at all that I would get the offer. But I went through an initial interview, where they had some questions beforehand, I think about, \u0026ldquo;Hey, you\u0026rsquo;ve got these different projects with competing priorities. How would you handle it?\u0026rdquo; or \u0026ldquo;You\u0026rsquo;ve got this new application with these requirements. What kind of technology would you build it in? How would you architect it?\u0026rdquo;\nI liked that they would take home questions because I got to really research. I mean, I spent a lot of time building out a system diagram for this hypothetical system that they asked me about. I think they liked the time that I spent on it. After the fact, after I got the job, they said, \u0026ldquo;Yeah, I don\u0026rsquo;t think anyone else spent that much time on it. Yours were for sure the most detailed answers,\u0026rdquo; which I think just goes back to that persistence and energy that I had learned earlier in life.\nI got called back for another interview, and even though I felt like the interviews and everything were going well, I was just like, \u0026ldquo;Man, I don\u0026rsquo;t know. All these people I\u0026rsquo;m talking to with this job are a lot older than me. The people who would be my peers, a lot of people are 15, 20 years older than me,\u0026rdquo; and I just thought for sure I was gonna get passed up, just due to inexperience, which I wouldn\u0026rsquo;t have faulted them for at all.\nBut I got a call one day that I had gotten the job and was just floored and shocked by it, and really couldn\u0026rsquo;t believe it. I remember getting onboarded. My manager at the time, Irene, I remember having a conversation with her before I really started, where she was like, \u0026ldquo;You know, you are younger than a lot of people that work here.\u0026rdquo; And I said, \u0026ldquo;Oh yeah, yeah, I know, I figured, I\u0026rsquo;m aware.\u0026rdquo; And she said, \u0026ldquo;Just feel like you\u0026rsquo;ll handle that okay? If there\u0026rsquo;s some folks who\u0026hellip; there might be just a few folks who are not happy with that,\u0026rdquo; just letting me know that there might be some challenges specifically related to that. And I said, \u0026ldquo;You know what? No problem. I\u0026rsquo;m game for it. I\u0026rsquo;ll figure that out.\u0026rdquo;\nBut I do have to say that first year, maybe a year and a half, was a more difficult part of my career, because not necessarily with anyone I worked with directly or other civil servants on my team, but I did feel some of that of, like, \u0026ldquo;Who is this kid coming in here and trying to tell us how to work, help us work better, telling us what to do,\u0026rdquo; which I wasn\u0026rsquo;t necessarily doing. But I was coming in and trying to change some things and make things better. So I think very much there was this perception of \u0026ldquo;Who is this kid? Who let him in here?\u0026rdquo;\nGrowing at NASA I actually got a really good clear view of that. I went through this NASA leadership program, which was amazing. It was kind of a select group they picked from. I think a little over 300 people across the agency applied, and they picked 60. I made it in, and that was so cool because we got to travel to all these different centers and learn about the mission and hear from different NASA leadership.\nThe part of it I want to share is they did these different feedback assessments or surveys. One was called a 360 feedback assessment, where you were asking everyone around you to give you feedback. At the time that I applied to this leadership program, I\u0026rsquo;d only been with the agency like a month or two. So by the time I was sending out the feedback assessment, I hadn\u0026rsquo;t even been there a year yet. I was still pretty fresh, getting feedback from people around me, and I couldn\u0026rsquo;t see who specifically, but I had it split up where I could see feedback from civil servants versus feedback from contractors.\nFrom the contract side, I got some feedback that was pretty rough. I think some people might not have realized that the feedback goes directly to me. I think they might have thought that it goes to my supervisor because it was more worded towards a supervisor, like, \u0026ldquo;I don\u0026rsquo;t know why we hired this guy because he doesn\u0026rsquo;t seem like he has a lot of experience, and I have not worked with him enough to know to see if it\u0026rsquo;s gonna work out, and I don\u0026rsquo;t think it\u0026rsquo;s going to. And I think we should have hired someone else.\u0026rdquo;\nEspecially as someone who had that concern coming into the job, that was a day when I got that feedback where I just thought, \u0026ldquo;Oh, that was rough to hear and to receive.\u0026rdquo; That whole first year, it was a big transition. It felt like I had taken on a lot all in one bite. Despite it being difficult, I am proud of myself for having worked through that because I think now I\u0026rsquo;m in a really good place where I\u0026rsquo;ve built trust with my team and work well with them and really enjoy the work and enjoy the people too.\nWhere I Am Now Especially the more product side - I\u0026rsquo;m glad I made that jump. I do miss some of the programming and writing code, and I scratch that itch by doing some side projects that I work on. I miss writing code a little bit, but I really enjoy having that bigger picture, getting to make decisions myself. I think what it was before, while it\u0026rsquo;s really rewarding to work on a little piece of code and then be done and see it work, it was more like, \u0026ldquo;Hey, here\u0026rsquo;s what you\u0026rsquo;re gonna build. Now, go build it.\u0026rdquo;\nI like being on the other side and being able to implement with my team - not just being like, \u0026ldquo;Hey, here\u0026rsquo;s what you\u0026rsquo;re gonna go build, go build it.\u0026rdquo; I mean, sometimes that\u0026rsquo;s the case if it\u0026rsquo;s just a really small, simple thing, but really bringing in my team - bringing in the design side and the developer side and us figuring out together the best way to build something. That has been really rewarding, to maybe make that work even better than ways I had seen before.\nI love that big picture product strategy work. I\u0026rsquo;ve gotten to do some zero-to-one work, like for the NASA Cause Analysis Tool that we built - that did not exist and was a new product we were building. That was a lot of fun to stand up from the ground up and talk with mishap investigators all across the agency and various other people and roles that do root cause analysis to understand, \u0026ldquo;Hey, what do you guys really need? How do you work? What does it look like right now?\u0026rdquo; I got to see all these different, crazy convoluted processes people do right now, and figure out what they need and turn that into a product they can really use.\nWe launched that back in March of last year, and we rolled it out iteratively. We rolled out a really small version of it and slowly built on it over time. But even with the limited set of functionality we\u0026rsquo;ve released, people are using it and finding it useful and enjoying it.\nWrapping Up So that\u0026rsquo;s a look at how I got where I am. I just arrived at work for the day and parked in my parking spot. So who knows, this might be the last car post I ever do, but I enjoyed it as a way to just stay busy during the commute. Usually, I\u0026rsquo;m listening to a podcast or audiobook. I\u0026rsquo;ve been on a history kick recently. I just finished \u0026ldquo;1776\u0026rdquo; by David McCullough and then just started \u0026ldquo;John Adams,\u0026rdquo; which is also by David McCullough, but that one has felt a little drier, which is why I think I wanted to do this car post today. I was like, \u0026ldquo;You know what? I need to switch it up and do something different.\u0026rdquo;\nI think at the top of the article, I\u0026rsquo;m going to try to put up a clip of the audio so you can listen to it if you want. The clip of the audio might end up being different to the text. I think what I\u0026rsquo;m going to try to do is just use Google Recorder, the recorder app just on my phone to record this, and it makes a transcript live. I think I\u0026rsquo;ll just post the audio clip, but I\u0026rsquo;ll take the transcript, and I think I\u0026rsquo;m just going to dump the whole thing into AI and be like, \u0026ldquo;Hey, fix all the grammatical errors and maybe separate some of this, so it\u0026rsquo;s not just one long blurb of me talking.\u0026rdquo;\nSo the audio won\u0026rsquo;t probably won\u0026rsquo;t perfectly match the text, but I\u0026rsquo;m curious to try that out and kind of see how it goes. If it feels like it\u0026rsquo;s modifying my words too much, I\u0026rsquo;ll just post the raw thing up there because I don\u0026rsquo;t want it to be too different from what I\u0026rsquo;ve been talking about.\nAnyways, I\u0026rsquo;m rambling at this point. It\u0026rsquo;s been good talking into my phone for this car ride, and if you read this far, thank you, because this has been a long time of just talking.\n", "dateiso": "2025-03-06 20:15:04 -0500", "date": "8:15 p.m. on Mar 6, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/03/06/how-i-got-into-this.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F03%2F06%2Fhow-i-got-into-this.html" }, { "id": 111, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "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\u0026rsquo;t gotten a pour over there yet, but hope to soon. Troubadour Coffee Roasters ", "dateiso": "2025-03-05 14:50:46 -0500", "date": "2:50 p.m. on Mar 5, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/03/05/trying-beans-from-a-new.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F03%2F05%2Ftrying-beans-from-a-new.html" }, { "id": 112, "type": "post", "title": "My Current Work Routine", "text": "A colleague asked me yesterday what routines and practices I\u0026rsquo;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.\nI\u0026rsquo;ve had all of three days to figure out this new routine, so it\u0026rsquo;s ill-defined in its current iteration. I\u0026rsquo;m sure it will get crisper over time, but here\u0026rsquo;s what I have been doing the past few days.\nBefore work Prep everything the night before work. Meal, clothes, protein shake, etc. If I have to do it in the morning, it will be 10x worse. Try to engage with a devotional each morning. For me, the value is reading something short but consequential, that helps me to see life is bigger than my work. And I like to engage with it by journaling about it, so that I\u0026rsquo;m actually spending time with it and allowing it to reframe my mind. Starting work I use all of my willpower to not open my email first thing. I look at my calendar and my todo list. I make new todos if I will need to prep for any of today\u0026rsquo;s meeting. I group my to-dos into either \u0026ldquo;in-progress\u0026rdquo; (should only be 1, maybe 2), \u0026ldquo;next up\u0026rdquo;, or \u0026ldquo;backlog\u0026rdquo;. When I do this, I try to be realistic about what I can actually accomplish today. Preferably, everything in \u0026ldquo;Next Up\u0026rdquo; can easily be done in a day, because it feels better to pull in more stuff from the backlog, rather than carrying over a bunch of todos to tomorrow. During work I have a single text file called \u0026ldquo;Daily Log.md\u0026rdquo; on my computer that I open up every day as my scratch pad. Each day gets an entry, and then anything can go in there. I usually just log what I am doing as I do it. Sometimes I will log something I learned, sometimes I take meeting notes in there. When I am not sure where something should go, I put it in this text file so I can triage it to where it belongs later. I have another text file called \u0026ldquo;Simmering.md\u0026rdquo;. I use this as a record of all the things that aren\u0026rsquo;t necessarily to-dos (they may be too big, or too undefined, or something else), but that I want to keep track of. A lot of these are \u0026ldquo;side quests\u0026rdquo; that I am working on, or want to work on at some point. Examples are: \u0026ldquo;improve user guide process\u0026rdquo;, \u0026ldquo;april travel request\u0026rdquo;, \u0026ldquo;coordinate collaboration with GRC SMA\u0026rdquo;. Ending work I want to get better at this one. Right now I just check over my to-do list about 30 minutes before I end my day, to make sure I haven\u0026rsquo;t forgotten something critical that was due today. I\u0026rsquo;ll glance at tomorrow\u0026rsquo;s meetings so I know what\u0026rsquo;s coming. I will triage anything from my \u0026ldquo;Daily Log.md\u0026rdquo; that shouldn\u0026rsquo;t live there long-term. I look back over meetings from today, and decide if there are any last-minute notes/thoughts I need to capture or share, before they are lost to the ether of my ever-forgetful mind. After work I do my best to leave work at work and be fully present for my family. I use my commute home to decompress, which usually means listening to something not work related. I\u0026rsquo;ll also start to transition to thinking about what needs done at home, or whether I need to do something restful and life-giving this evening. ", "dateiso": "2025-03-05 08:24:48 -0500", "date": "8:24 p.m. on Mar 5, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/03/05/my-current-work-routine.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F03%2F05%2Fmy-current-work-routine.html" }, { "id": 113, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I shared this picture of the joke board with our contractor team today (who are still remote for now) and the responses were:\n \u0026ldquo;are the \u0026lsquo;jokes\u0026rsquo; written on paper towel?\u0026rdquo; \u0026ldquo;We are resigned to using parchment like our ancestors\u0026rdquo; \u0026ldquo;you shouldn\u0026rsquo;t write jokes on the dead sea scrolls\u0026rdquo; ", "dateiso": "2025-03-04 08:59:09 -0500", "date": "8:59 p.m. on Mar 4, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/03/04/i-shared-this-picture-of.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F03%2F04%2Fi-shared-this-picture-of.html" }, { "id": 114, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "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.\n", "dateiso": "2025-03-01 21:48:45 -0500", "date": "9:48 p.m. on Mar 1, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/03/01/my-wife-picked-up-a.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F03%2F01%2Fmy-wife-picked-up-a.html" }, { "id": 115, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "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.\n", "dateiso": "2025-02-28 21:27:06 -0500", "date": "9:27 p.m. on Feb 28, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/02/28/i-packed-up-my-home.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F02%2F28%2Fi-packed-up-my-home.html" }, { "id": 116, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Today held happy water-themed beginnings. It was my daughter\u0026rsquo;s first time peeing in a full-sized toilet and her first day of swim lessons.\n", "dateiso": "2025-02-26 21:57:39 -0500", "date": "9:57 p.m. on Feb 26, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/02/26/today-held-happy-waterthemed-beginnings.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F02%2F26%2Ftoday-held-happy-waterthemed-beginnings.html" }, { "id": 117, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "No need to read between the lines on the latest email to feds about \u0026ldquo;What did you do last week?\u0026rdquo; 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.\n ", "dateiso": "2025-02-24 06:12:20 -0500", "date": "6:12 p.m. on Feb 24, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/02/24/no-need-to-read-between.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F02%2F24%2Fno-need-to-read-between.html" }, { "id": 118, "type": "post", "title": "Targeted by Trump and Musk - On Being a Federal Employee", "text": "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.\n 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.\n But the speed and scale of change that I\u0026rsquo;ve seen in the past month has far exceeded what I thought possible. That we have a president biased for action is indisputable. It\u0026rsquo;s a stark contrast from the previous presidency. What\u0026rsquo;s yet to be seen is the lasting effect this flurry of actions will have on our government, and therefore, our nation.\nDisruptive Emails Nine days after writing that post, two disruptive emails found their way into my inbox on the same day.\nReturn to In-Person Work The less interesting of the two was an email from NASA HR with the subject \u0026ldquo;Instructions for returning to in-person work\u0026rdquo;. I knew this would come, but never expected it this quickly. All NASA employees, with few exceptions, will be back onsite full-time starting February 28. That includes me. In the past weeks I\u0026rsquo;ve been involved in more than a few discussions about how we are going to make it work to come back onsite.\nMy organization, the NASA Safety Center, went all-in on the shift to hybrid work post-Covid. We sold about half of our office space. Almost everybody gave up their seat assignments, and the floor plan was reconfigured to optimize for \u0026ldquo;hoteling\u0026rdquo;. This allowed people to reserve a cubicle or pick from unoccupied desks in an open seating area. It worked great when we only needed to come in once a week. But now we are scrambling to reverse course.\nWe have just enough space to accommodate our 30+ civil servants. The team is scrambling to figure out who gets which seats, and coordinating everyone bringing in our NASA-provided IT equipment that we have been using at home for the past few years. On top of that, we don\u0026rsquo;t have space for the contractor staff we work with closely on a day-to-day basis. We sold that space years ago and the team has grown since then. Contractors are not mandated to return to office under the executive order, so for now we are figuring out how to get all the civil servants back, and then we will figure out what to do with our contractors. We all have worked very effectively from home the past few years, so I believe (and hope) we will offer the contractors more leniency than we have received.\nThe intent behind the return to office is to get federal workers to quit (Elon and Vivek said this publicly in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal last year), so I don\u0026rsquo;t think that is the correct approach to take with our contractors unless we also want to them to quit. And we do not want that.\nBeyond the professional complexities of bringing everyone back to the office, I am saddened about needing to make this change for my family. I will miss the ten hours a week I will lose with my family due to my commute. I\u0026rsquo;ll certainly miss eating lunch with my wife and daughter, going on post-lunch walks, and being able to put my daughter down for her naps. I still feel incredibly fortunate for the job I have and a commute to the office doesn\u0026rsquo;t change that, but this marks a stark change in routine and lifestyle, for myself and my family.\nNot being one to wallow, I have been trying to focus on the silver linings. I\u0026rsquo;ll get to connect with my coworkers more. I can become a voracious audiobook listener on my drives. My desk can be the home of a \u0026ldquo;joke of the week\u0026rdquo; board that becomes a small part of rebuilding office morale. Focusing on these potential positives has made it a little easier to accept that I\u0026rsquo;ll be back in the office full-time soon.\nThis change came fast and heavy. While I\u0026rsquo;m going to make the best of it, this is going to be a tough transition for my team and me. Yet despite the turmoil this has caused, the return to office email has taken up far less space in my conscience than the other email that graced my inbox on January 29.\nFork in the Road (Deferred Resignation) This other email came from a curious new sender that just said \u0026ldquo;HR\u0026rdquo; and had the subject \u0026ldquo;Fork in the Road\u0026rdquo;. It was marked as [EXTERNAL], which is an immediate red flag, and had no branding. If one was to craft the perfect spam email, this is the template they would follow.\nBut this was real.\nThis email came from hr@opm.gov. An email address that did not exist a week prior.\nIn the days leading up to this email, we had received two other emails from this address stating that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) was testing a new government-wide email system. These messages were sent to all 2+ million federal employees.\nBut on February 29, we all got to see why this new email system had been set up. The Fork in the Road email introduced a program called Deferred Resignation. If you opted in to the program, you would agree to resign effective September 30, 2025. In return, you could work from home until your resignation date, and your agency may put you on administrative leave, effectively allowing you to receive your paycheck without working.\nHow would one enroll in this program, you ask? Respond to the email with the word RESIGN. That\u0026rsquo;s it. Yes, seriously. No, I\u0026rsquo;m not kidding.\nIf you want to see for yourself, you can read the email here. I saved my own copy in case OPM ever takes it down from their website, which they\u0026rsquo;ve done with a couple of things over the past few weeks.\nNow you might be wondering, \u0026ldquo;Jake, did you take this!? Eight months of pay!? You could take a long vacation and find a new job!\u0026rdquo;\nNo. I did not take this offer. I don\u0026rsquo;t trust it.\nThere are a few reasons why I don\u0026rsquo;t trust it. For starters, this email curiously has the same title as an email that Musk sent to Twitter employees when he took over there. What happened to Twitter employees who accepted the severance offer? They were not paid what they were promised. If that\u0026rsquo;s not enough, it\u0026rsquo;s also not clear that OPM/Trump/Musk have the authority to make this offer. The federal government is only funded through March 14. Congress needs to pass a new budget by then, and it\u0026rsquo;s possible that they will not include appropriations for the people who took deferred resignation. And in addition to the budget, current federal law limits agencies to giving no more than 10 days of admin leave.\nAll of these are, in my opinion, good reasons to be skeptical of the offer.\nBut there\u0026rsquo;s more.\nA few days later, OPM sent a template Deferred Resignation agreement to agencies that had additional language about how the program would work. The language in the agreement is concerning. Here\u0026rsquo;s a copy of the template agreement.\nI\u0026rsquo;ll point out a few of the most concerning clauses, emphasis mine.\n Employee shall not be expected to work during the deferred resignation period except in rare circumstances as determined by [AGENCY].\n I\u0026rsquo;m not sure what constitutes rare circumstances. We\u0026rsquo;ve already seen some cases of employees still being required to work, such as IRS employees through tax return season. Another section reads:\n By signing this agreement, the parties acknowledge that they have entered the agreement knowingly, voluntarily, and free from improper influence, coercion, or duress. Employee understands that, except as provided in paragraph 14 applicable to Employees 40 years of age or older, this agreement cannot be rescinded, except in the sole discretion of the [AGENCY HEAD], which shall not be subject to review at the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) or any other forum, and waives all rights to challenge the resignation before the MSPB or any other forum.\n First, I wouldn\u0026rsquo;t say this offer is \u0026ldquo;free from improper influence, coercion, or duress\u0026rdquo;. The original fork email states that they intend to eliminate positions, and they cannot promise anyone who does not take this offer that they will still have a job. Further, this template agreement came out two days before the deadline to resign. A 48 hour timeframe might cause some duress for a big life decision like this.\nBut the second part I emphasized is much more concerning. In plain English, the Agency Head can undo this agreement whenever they want, and the employee gives up their right to do anything about it. In summary, this agreement binds the employee to its terms, but it does not bind the agency to its terms.\nBut wait! There\u0026rsquo;s even more waiving of rights in here:\n Employee forever waives, and will not pursue through any judicial, administrative, or other process, any action against [AGENCY] that is based on, arising from, or related to Employee’s employment at [AGENCY] or the deferred resignation offer, including any and all claims that were or could have been brought concerning said matters. This waiver includes all claims Employee may have under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. Employee unconditionally releases [AGENCY] and its present and former employees, officers, agents, representatives, and all persons acting by, through, or in concert with any of those individuals, either in their official or individual capacities, from any and all liability based on, arising from, or relating to the matters that Employee may have against them, including any and all claims that were or could have been brought. Consistent with applicable law, Employee similarly waives any claim that could be brought on Employee’s behalf by another entity, including Employee’s labor union.\n Wow. That clause is not typical in the other forms related to separating from the government. I wonder why they wanted to add that in for the Deferred Resignation? Perhaps they anticipate a decent amount of people taking legal action related to this program?\nHopefully you can understand why I chose not to take the Deferred Resignation.\nAnother funny twist in this story is that the day of the deadline, February 6, I got an urgent email from leadership that the deadline was midnight and there would be NO EXTENSIONS. Then an hour and a half later, I got an email that the deadline had been extended, because a judge put a temporary restraining order on the program until they could have a full hearing on it.\nUltimately, the case was thrown out because it had been brought by the federal labor unions, and the judge ruled that the unions did not have standing since they are not harmed by the offer.\nDespite all the concerning points I highlighted above, NASA had about 800+ people on the list for deferred resignation. But here\u0026rsquo;s the thing: when OPM compiled and sent the list to NASA, they accidentally included more than just the actual respondents. The count got inflated by supervisors who were cc\u0026rsquo;d on emails, out-of-office replies to the \u0026ldquo;Fork in the Road\u0026rdquo; message, and others who had no plans to resign.\nIt\u0026rsquo;s worth noting that many who have taken the offer were already planning to retire or very near retirement. From what I\u0026rsquo;m hearing, that seems to be the vast majority.\nFurther Shrinking the Workforce Beyond the Return to Office and the Deferred Resignation Program, there have been a few other attempts to downsize the federal workforce including eliminating DEI positions, firing probationary employees, and beginning preparations for a reduction in force (RIF).\nEliminating DEI In compliance with the executive order \u0026ldquo;Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing\u0026rdquo;, NASA eliminated all functions and people whose primary focus was DEI. I think only a couple of people fit this description at NASA, but there\u0026rsquo;s been a further effort to remove all language related to DEI from all employee performance plans.\nEliminating Gender In addition to eliminating those positions and modifying performance plans, there were other changes mandated in a separate but related order titled \u0026ldquo;DEFENDING WOMEN FROM GENDER IDEOLOGY EXTREMISM AND RESTORING BIOLOGICAL TRUTH TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT\u0026rdquo;, such as replacing the word \u0026ldquo;gender\u0026rdquo; with \u0026ldquo;sex\u0026rdquo; in government forms and communications. I was tasked with making sure this change was made in one of our software applications that tracks mishaps. When someone is injured, we would collect their \u0026ldquo;gender\u0026rdquo; in the application, but had to change the name of that question to \u0026ldquo;sex\u0026rdquo;.\nIt was a trivial change to make. But it was strange to see everybody so nervous about getting it done by the deadline, all the way up to my boss\u0026rsquo;s boss\u0026rsquo;s boss. Even seemingly minor orders create intense pressure, with tight deadlines, unclear consequences for noncompliance, and widespread fear of job loss.\nFiring Probationary Employees When someone gets hired into the federal workforce, they start in a \u0026ldquo;probationary\u0026rdquo; period for the first year or two, depending on the position and agency. This is intended as a trial period, where the agency has more freedom to separate the employee within the probationary period if their performance does not meet the requirements of their position.\nWhat we\u0026rsquo;re seeing now is an unprecedented use of the probationary period. Probationary employees are being fired en masse at multiple federal agencies. This is almost certainly illegal, because the intent is that probationary employees can be separated without severance or appeal for performance reasons. It will be interesting to see how this plays out in court, because many of those fired were given a generic reasoning of their termination being \u0026ldquo;for performance reasons\u0026rdquo; despite having stellar performance reviews and/or awards.\nLuckily, NASA has been spared from these probationary firings for now. It was a dramatic week though, with rumors that firings would happen Tuesday, then rumors that it was paused by the White House, then rumors that it would happen Friday, then nothing except a statement from NASA that any probationary firings would be for performance reasons.\nReduction in Force One of the more recent executive orders is titled \u0026ldquo;Implementing The President’s “Department of Government Efficiency” Workforce Optimization\u0026rdquo;. This executive order calls for a reduction in force across the federal government. Some of the language in the order has caused a lot of concern, such as:\n Agency Heads shall promptly undertake preparations to initiate large-scale reductions in force (RIFs), consistent with applicable law, and to separate from Federal service temporary employees and reemployed annuitants working in areas that will likely be subject to the RIFs.\n I was hired in as a temporary employee, but luckily was converted to permanent last year. But I work with a few temporary employees who fear for their jobs based on the way this is worded. If this is carried out as-worded, it would impact a large chunk of NASA\u0026rsquo;s workforce. Here\u0026rsquo;s another concerning section:\n All offices that perform functions not mandated by statute or other law shall be prioritized in the RIFs, including all agency diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives; all agency initiatives, components, or operations that my Administration suspends or closes; and all components and employees performing functions not mandated by statute or other law who are not typically designated as essential during a lapse in appropriations as provided in the Agency Contingency Plans on the Office of Management and Budget website.\n I don\u0026rsquo;t understand how all employees not designated as essential during a lapse in appropriations should be prioritized in RIFs. At NASA, that\u0026rsquo;s more than 90% of the workforce. When the government shuts down, it\u0026rsquo;s pretty much just security and facility/IT maintenance who still come in to make sure things don\u0026rsquo;t break or get stolen. I can\u0026rsquo;t imagine this actually being implemented as it is worded, but the wording is causing a lot of confusion and frustration at NASA.\nSo far, the reduction hasn\u0026rsquo;t actually begun, but agencies are planning for it. This will take time, but I have no idea what the breadth or scope of the reductions in force will be. I could lose my job from this, but there is no way to tell for sure right now. It helps that I was converted to a permanent position last year, but it doesn\u0026rsquo;t help that I only have 3 years of federal service and do not have a veteran status.\nThe Latest Elon Email Yesterday, Saturday, February 22, all federal employees received an email titled \u0026ldquo;What did you do last week?\u0026rdquo;.\nThe email reads:\n Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager.\nPlease do not send any classified information, links, or attachments.\nDeadline is this Monday at 11:59pmEST.\n Viewed in isolation, that\u0026rsquo;s weird, but not terrible. What makes it much more malicious is this tweet from Elon before this email was sent:*\nConsistent with President [@realDonaldTrump](https://micro.blog/realDonaldTrump)’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week.\nFailure to respond will be taken as a resignation.\n\u0026mdash; Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 22, 2025 \rI don\u0026rsquo;t see any way it would be legal for a non-response to be equivalent to an employee submitting their resignation. It\u0026rsquo;s hard to believe these are official government communications being sent to 2+ million federal workers.\nWhat\u0026rsquo;s further frustrating is that OPM doesn\u0026rsquo;t have the authority to ask for something like this.\nI plan not to respond unless I receive a direct order from NASA to respond.\nThe invisible subtext behind this email is offensive. It seems to say \u0026ldquo;We don\u0026rsquo;t believe you accomplished much of anything last week. Justify yourself to us, or resign.\u0026rdquo; At the very least, this administration is clearly flexing its muscles and attempting to force federal workers to comply with its untraditional demands.\nWhile I hesitate to make such a strong analogy, I can\u0026rsquo;t help but be reminded of the stories of German policemen in \u0026ldquo;Ordinary Men\u0026rdquo;. They ended up committing atrocities they could never imagine, but were led to that place slowly by continually complying to small, seemingly innocuous orders. I can\u0026rsquo;t help but wonder if these little orders are meant to condition me into a similar place of compliance and submission. The thought of that repulses me, but it is in the back of my mind with each new directive that comes out.\nWhat\u0026rsquo;s Next? Nobody knows for certain what comes next, but it seems pretty clear that it won\u0026rsquo;t be anything good, at least from the perspective of a federal employee. We know we have the reduction in force to look forward to. I\u0026rsquo;m certain we\u0026rsquo;ll get some more Elon-inspired emails sent to the whole government. NASA has a DOGE rep installed at headquarters now, but I\u0026rsquo;m not sure exactly what they\u0026rsquo;ll be doing. The word is that they\u0026rsquo;re looking for contracts to cut. And the \u0026ldquo;Fork in the Road\u0026rdquo; email hinted that the performance ratings process will become more rigorous.\nOn March 14 government funding expires. I am not sure whether to expect a government shutdown or congress to pass a budget. If they do pass a budget, I suspect there will be new legislation included that will adversely affect federal employees. Recent proposed legislation has suggested cuts to federal employee benefits.\nBeyond that, who knows. In the meantime, I will be getting my work done and doing my best to ignore all the noise this is causing. I hope to be a calming presence for my coworkers in the midst of all the chaos and fear. As a Christian, this is a good opportunity for me to \u0026ldquo;love my neighbors\u0026rdquo;, especially as so much animosity is being directed at them.\nI also plan to keep this post updated at the bottom with any new things that happen, mostly as a reference for myself so I can look back someday and remember how wild things were as a fed back in 2025.\nUpdates Feb 24, 2025: Trump and Musk mock federal workers with memes. ", "dateiso": "2025-02-23 14:26:51 -0500", "date": "2:26 p.m. on Feb 23, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/02/23/targeted-by-trump-and-musk.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F02%2F23%2Ftargeted-by-trump-and-musk.html" }, { "id": 119, "type": "post", "title": "Weeknotes Vol. 3", "text": "My week summarized into 3 highlights, 2 discoveries, and 1 anticipation.\n3 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.\nThe Basement - We finally got the last quote on our basement, and it was our best yet. It\u0026rsquo;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.\nThe Barn - We met up with my parents and grandparents for lunch at a local place serving up \u0026ldquo;country cooking\u0026rdquo;. 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.\n2 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\u0026rsquo;t made it through all four parts yet, but I\u0026rsquo;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\u0026rsquo;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.\nFor 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\u0026rsquo;s about betting on prices moving up or down. This paragraph blew my mind\u0026hellip;\n 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.\n 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\u0026rsquo;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.\n", "dateiso": "2025-01-20 06:55:28 -0500", "date": "6:55 p.m. on Jan 20, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/01/20/weeknotes-vol.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F01%2F20%2Fweeknotes-vol.html" }, { "id": 120, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "New site feature! I added a sidebar for recent microblogs. This will only appear on desktop, not mobile devices.\n", "dateiso": "2025-01-12 19:01:12 -0500", "date": "7:01 p.m. on Jan 12, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/01/12/new-site-feature-i-added.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F01%2F12%2Fnew-site-feature-i-added.html" }, { "id": 121, "type": "post", "title": "Weeknotes Vol. 2", "text": "My week summarized into 3 highlights, 2 discoveries, and 1 anticipation.\n3 Highlights Eating in\nMy 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\u0026rsquo;ve switched over to the Paprika app so I can get recipes from more sources (I\u0026rsquo;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.\nHelping Hands\nI didn\u0026rsquo;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\u0026rsquo;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.\nGreen Owl\nThis 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\u0026rsquo;ve been noticing my Spanish comprehension slowly slipping away year by year. I\u0026rsquo;ve been having a lot of fun this week dusting off the cobwebs and experiencing \u0026ldquo;Aha!\u0026rdquo; moments as the intricacies of the Spanish language slowly come back to me. Also, I\u0026rsquo;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 \u0026ldquo;gamification\u0026rdquo;, but it\u0026rsquo;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\u0026rsquo;s for a good purpose?\n2 Discoveries AI App-Building Platforms\nI\u0026rsquo;ve known about these AI coding platforms for a while, but just started playing with them this week and I can\u0026rsquo;t believe how good they are! The main one I\u0026rsquo;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\u0026rsquo;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, \u0026ldquo;I have SUCH GOOD app ideas! I would be a millionaire if only I knew how to build them!\u0026rdquo;. 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\nWesley Huff\nWesley 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.\n1 Anticipation Fitness Challenge\nI 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\u0026rsquo;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\u0026rsquo;ve already lost 5 pounds in the last week, if my scale can be trusted! I\u0026rsquo;ll have my first test on Tuesday.\n", "dateiso": "2025-01-12 13:11:08 -0500", "date": "1:11 p.m. on Jan 12, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/01/12/weeknotes-vol.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F01%2F12%2Fweeknotes-vol.html" }, { "id": 122, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I updated the link styles on my blog:\n removed underlines from links for readability added a box-shadow animation when hovering links for enjoyability ", "dateiso": "2025-01-09 08:05:08 -0500", "date": "8:05 p.m. on Jan 9, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/01/09/i-updated-the-link-styles.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F01%2F09%2Fi-updated-the-link-styles.html" }, { "id": 123, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I pushed changes to Fed Meetup this morning! Users can now save their searches and export results to a CSV file. My coworker is using it to plan group travel for his new team at NASA. It\u0026rsquo;s nice to see it still getting some use, and it may be getting more use in the near future!\n", "dateiso": "2025-01-08 16:01:55 -0500", "date": "4:01 p.m. on Jan 8, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/01/08/i-pushed-changes-to-fed.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F01%2F08%2Fi-pushed-changes-to-fed.html" }, { "id": 124, "type": "post", "title": "Weeknotes Vol. 1", "text": "I\u0026rsquo;m on the couch, coffee in hand, excited to try a new format.\nI 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\u0026rsquo;m more concerned with actually doing the thing, so I\u0026rsquo;m starting without the format. Jump first, find a parachute later, right?\nBear with me while I sort things out for the first 5, 10, or 50 of these.\nThe holiday marathon has come to an end, and it feels like I\u0026rsquo;m settling in for winter now that snow has fallen and stayed for more than 24 hours.\nBasement 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.\nI 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.\n1Zpresso 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.\nIt 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.\nI\u0026rsquo;m excited to feel more connected with my coffee. I\u0026rsquo;m looking forward to the morning ritual of grinding my own beans fresh, and then making a pour over in my Chemex. I\u0026rsquo;m also dreaming of sharing this experience with people who haven\u0026rsquo;t had high quality coffee before. Coffee can be such a wonderfully communal experience.\nAnyways, that\u0026rsquo;s probably just all the feel-good stuff I told myself to justify the purchase. It worked.\nWork 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.\nI 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\u0026rsquo;s been one of those quiet-but-busy type of weeks.\nHealth I\u0026rsquo;ve been back on intermittent fasting, which has been going well so far. I\u0026rsquo;m trying to only eat between 12-8, but shorter is better. I\u0026rsquo;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.\nI\u0026rsquo;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\u0026rsquo;t do any talking. That was perfect for us.\nIn addition to our evening workouts we do together, I\u0026rsquo;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\u0026rsquo;ve been using the resistance bands I got for Christmas.\nI\u0026rsquo;m not sure that I would have ever bought resistance bands for myself, but I\u0026rsquo;m really excited for them now that I have them. They\u0026rsquo;re easy to use, and I can do all sorts of different things with them. I\u0026rsquo;m keeping them in my office near my standing desk so that I can get some exercise while I\u0026rsquo;m in meetings for work.\nDevotional 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.\nThis is the first thing I do in the morning (well\u0026hellip; after I get my coffee) and it has felt right to prioritize the first part of my morning to look up to God.\nAnalog I can feel myself moving into an analog renaissance (again). What I mean by that is I\u0026rsquo;m using a lot less digital tools and a lot more physical tools in my day to day.\nI 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\u0026rsquo;t pull out my phone as much. And I\u0026rsquo;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\u0026rsquo;m having fun taking notes more visually, drawing ideas/concepts that really resonate with me.\nWeeknotes Vol. 1 Postmortem It felt nice to reflect on my week, but this is definitely not the final format.\nI want to keep these weeknotes shorter and punchier. I\u0026rsquo;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.\nBut I did it. I\u0026rsquo;ll take my win, and I\u0026rsquo;ll see you next week.\n", "dateiso": "2025-01-05 07:43:31 -0500", "date": "7:43 p.m. on Jan 5, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/01/05/weeknotes-vol.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F01%2F05%2Fweeknotes-vol.html" }, { "id": 125, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "My latest attempt to be less distracted by my phone is printing articles on a piece of paper that I can fold up and carry in my wallet. Going to try to read these instead of using my phone and falling down the rabbit hole.\n", "dateiso": "2025-01-03 20:09:34 -0500", "date": "8:09 p.m. on Jan 3, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/01/03/my-latest-attempt-to-be.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F01%2F03%2Fmy-latest-attempt-to-be.html" }, { "id": 126, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I just looked through all my old blog post ideas and drafts. There are some fun ideas I forgot about in there. There is one titled \u0026ldquo;Demustyfication\u0026rdquo; that has been a draft for a long time. I just can\u0026rsquo;t seem to get it where I want it, but it keeps tugging at me. I wrote about it back in April.\n", "dateiso": "2025-01-01 22:29:41 -0500", "date": "10:29 p.m. on Jan 1, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/01/01/i-just-looked-through-all.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F01%2F01%2Fi-just-looked-through-all.html" }, { "id": 127, "type": "post", "title": "2024 Blog in Review", "text": "My first full year of blogging is in the books! Or should I say, in the internet archive? Check out this neat sitemap graph of my blog generated by the internet archive.\nI can\u0026rsquo;t believe I\u0026rsquo;ve been doing this for over a year!\nOne thing that has become clear is I write more like a geyser than a waterfall. I spend most of my time dormant, and then have a sudden flurry of activity before going quiet again. In the new year I would like to move a little more toward the waterfall model: steady, consistent, and reliable. But, I also would like to have more grace for my geyser-like tendencies. The geyser is beautiful in its own way.\nArticles This year I wrote 34 articles. Well, 35 if you include this one.\nMy unspoken goal before the year was one article a week, but I\u0026rsquo;m happy with where I landed. I liked not feeling pressured and being able to write when inspiration struck. That said, I\u0026rsquo;ve been toying with the idea of committing to writing something on a weekly cadence. I\u0026rsquo;ve thought about starting a separate newsletter, but that\u0026rsquo;s more than I want to take on right now. Instead, I\u0026rsquo;m thinking about doing a weekly review post on this blog instead. That will force me to reflect on my life more regularly, and will keep my 8 email subscribers up-to-date with my weekly happenings.\nHere are some stats on those 34 articles:\n Most popular: My Obsidian Daily Note Template - this is consistently my most-viewed article. It was my first article of the year, and is a technical deep dive into how I set up my daily notes in my note-taking app. I still get an email roughly monthly from someone asking me further questions about how I set things up in Obsidian. Actually, as I was writing this, someone reached out from the article and asked me if I have implemented \u0026ldquo;heat map habit tracking\u0026rdquo; in Obsidian (I have not). This article had 243 views in the last 90 days. For reference, the next most viewed article over that span had 17 views. Most words: My Obsidian Daily Note Template - ~3500 words. The runner-up is my recent post on Aqua Notes at ~1800 words. Least words: This Started With A Title - 23 words Personal Favorite: Street Corner - Although my technical explainer posts seem to get more views, I love writing personal reflections. This one felt really raw. I remember experiencing the moment I describe in the article, and then feeling later that day like I just had to write about it. Average time spent writing each article: No idea. I don\u0026rsquo;t track this. But it\u0026rsquo;s pretty short I think. Maybe an hour or two? I don\u0026rsquo;t usually spend multiple days with a lot of editing and researching and refining. I write it and send it. Microblogs I also posted 132 microblogs this year. A large chunk of those were in January, because I went through the book of Proverbs and did a post for each one trying to summarize the most salient points in my own words. This was my way of \u0026ldquo;starting my year with wisdom\u0026rdquo; and was also meant to get me into the habit of regularly posting to my blog, no matter how uncomfortable it felt at the time.\nTraffic I didn\u0026rsquo;t start tracking analytics until later in the year, but since September 432 people have visited my blog.\nAbout 62 of those users came back to my site at least once, and on average people spend 1 minute and 9 seconds on the blog.\nThe blog was a global sensation (hyperbole) with visitors from every continent other than Antarctica (shout out to the one visitor from Egypt representing all of Africa).\nPeople came to my blog from various corners of the interwebs. Direct traffic, LinkedIn, Google, Reddit, and my newsletter service were all big drivers.\nMost people visiting my blog were probably using Chrome on a Windows machine.\nSo, what is my takeaway from all of these analytics? Not much. It\u0026rsquo;s fun to look at during the end of the year, but there\u0026rsquo;s nothing actionable for me here. I\u0026rsquo;m not trying to supercharge my blog\u0026rsquo;s growth. I just want to write meaningful and helpful words.\nDesign I made various changes to the look and feel of my blog throughout the year. You can see all the changes I made since June 10, 2024 in my changelog. It looks very different from where it originally started, which I shared screenshots of in Tear it All Down.\nI\u0026rsquo;m following the KISS design principle: \u0026ldquo;Keep It Simple Stupid\u0026rdquo;.\nWhat will 2025 hold? Your guess is as good as mine. Will I become an author? Will I abandon my blog and run off with my pen and analog journal? Will artificial intelligence and quantum computing and brain chip implants converge to make the written word irrelevant as we all mind meld and communicate wordlessly and instantly? All possibilities.\nAs far as my blog goes, 2025 will be similar to 2024. I want to write more, and I\u0026rsquo;m sure I\u0026rsquo;ll make design tweaks to my blog here and there. But otherwise I\u0026rsquo;ll continue to write things that I think are meaningful and/or helpful.\nAs far as my life goes, it looks like change is a brewin'. I\u0026rsquo;m looking forward to the new year and all that it has to offer. Some things are scary, some are exciting, all will make for good writing material.\nI can\u0026rsquo;t wait to share my perspective in the new year with you. Thanks for sticking around through my self-indulgent \u0026ldquo;blog in review\u0026rdquo; post.\nI wish you a happy new year and hope your year is filled with love, given and received.\n", "dateiso": "2025-01-01 21:50:07 -0500", "date": "9:50 p.m. on Jan 1, 2025", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2025/01/01/blog-in-review.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2025%2F01%2F01%2Fblog-in-review.html" }, { "id": 128, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": " \u0026ldquo;Everything depends on everything and we don\u0026rsquo;t know anything!\u0026rdquo;\n- my wife, while we decide on basement finishes\n This perfectly describes software development.\n", "dateiso": "2024-12-31 17:08:59 -0500", "date": "5:08 p.m. on Dec 31, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/12/31/everything-depends-on-everything-and.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F12%2F31%2Feverything-depends-on-everything-and.html" }, { "id": 129, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "My dad gave me his old 45 pound dumbbells so I:\n got excited made a list of the exercises I could do with them tried all the exercises crossed about half the exercises off my list because I can\u0026rsquo;t do them 45 pounds is heavier than I remember\u0026hellip; Got some work to do. 💪\n", "dateiso": "2024-12-02 08:11:33 -0500", "date": "8:11 p.m. on Dec 2, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/12/02/my-dad-gave.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F12%2F02%2Fmy-dad-gave.html" }, { "id": 130, "type": "post", "title": "Capturing Shower Thoughts: How Aqua Notes Boosts Thinking", "text": "I learned it\u0026rsquo;s weird to talk to your coworkers about your showering habits.\nThe slightly uncomfortable laughs gave it away.\nBut it\u0026rsquo;s been on my mind because I\u0026rsquo;ve been doing something different in the shower lately. I think showers are more than just a way to get clean. They\u0026rsquo;re also a space to think. While most people have \u0026ldquo;shower thoughts\u0026rdquo;, I bet a majority can\u0026rsquo;t remember them.\nWhen I say that showers are a \u0026ldquo;space to think\u0026rdquo;, I don\u0026rsquo;t just mean they\u0026rsquo;re a place to have thoughts pop in and out. I mean they are a place to do real thinking. To me, real thinking involves:\n Loading up your short-term memory to work through a web of thought. Moving the important bits over to long-term memory for future use. Unfortunately, my brain is terrible at real thinking. It may be an inborn trait, or it may be a symptom of growing up a digital native. My brain feels like it\u0026rsquo;s wired for reacting: social media, texting, news cycles, etc. But I struggle to just\u0026hellip; think.\nExcept I have a little trick to help me do real thinking: writing things down. The paper is part memory-aid and part memory-replacement. Seeing the words in writing helps encode them in my brain, but it also provides a hard-copy of the thought in case my brain fails to hold onto it. Yet even more helpful is using the paper as my short-term memory. I can follow a long chain of thought and remember every step I took. When my thoughts are trapped in paper, they are outside of me, so it is easier to separate my thoughts from my self. I can observe them with more objectivity.\nSo showers are a space for thinking, but real thinking requires writing. Therefore, showers are a space for writing.\nBut how does one write in the shower?\nI use Aqua Notes.\nThis is not a paid post and there are no affiliate links. I just like Aqua Notes.\nAqua Notes has changed the way I shower Some days I go into my shower with an idea I really need to think through: a complex challenge at work, a parenting dilemma, a tough conversation I need to have, etc. But on other days, I sleepily clamber into the shower and wait to see what rises to the surface of my mind while the warm water hits my back.\nRegardless which kind of day I\u0026rsquo;m having, having a paper pad in the shower gives me a way to externalize my inner dialog.\nWhether I\u0026rsquo;m showering with the intention of thinking or not, I always end up doing some thinking. The shower seems to have a unique capacity for shining a light on the recesses of my mind. Then the paper can capture the fleeting ideas that usually lie dormant in these recesses.\nI have used Aqua notes to capture all sorts of shower thoughts, from random ideas, to poetry, to visuals. I want to tell you more about what Aqua Notes is, how I\u0026rsquo;ve used it, and other things I tried before Aqua Notes.\nWhat is Aqua Notes? Aqua Notes is a simple product. It is just a plasticky paper notepad, a pencil, and suction cups. It was founded by a guy that wanted to remember his shower thoughts, and all the component pieces are manufactured and assembled in the USA.\nThe Pad The paper in the pad is waterproof and has a very smooth texture. It is surprisingly easy to write on with pencil, even when wet!\nI have not seen this advertised or discussed anywhere, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that each piece of paper can be ripped off and stuck to the wall by itself. It just takes a little water, and I\u0026rsquo;ve never had a piece of paper fall off the wall from drying out. This lets me write on the reverse side of each paper and fill up my shower wall with notes like a mad scientist.\nBeing able to rip off pieces of paper also means that I can take my notes with me outside the shower if I need to.\nThe paper is a little difficult to rip cleanly (although it is perforated) so you have to be careful when pulling a page off the pad.\nThe Pencil The pencil is a standard graphite pencil that needs to be sharpened occasionally. Inscribed on one side is the saying \u0026ldquo;NO MORE GREAT IDEAS DOWN THE DRAIN!\u0026rdquo;. It has an eraser, which works okay on the plasticky paper. It\u0026rsquo;s not as easy to erase as standard paper, but not too difficult either.\nThe pencil has been great, and I love that it\u0026rsquo;s a no-nonsense tool I can always expect to work. Unlike some of the other things I\u0026rsquo;ve tried\u0026hellip;\nThe Suction Cups I don\u0026rsquo;t have much to say here other than that I have had no issues with these staying on the wall. That was something I was concerned about when I bought this, so I wanted to mention it for others wondering the same.\nNow that you know what Aqua Notes is, you might be thinking \u0026ldquo;but what would I actually write on there?\u0026rdquo; The answer is: all sorts of things!\nWhat I write in the shower Tasks I used to think of something I needed to do while showering, and then would forget it right after.\nNow I can write down any pesky to-dos that come up during my shower. After I shower, I\u0026rsquo;ll take a look at my notes and transfer any tasks into my phone or elsewhere.\nRandom thoughts Some random thoughts are worth capturing. This could be a spontaneous idea for a product, self-reflection about how I am living my life, or anything in between.\nIntentional thoughts Occasionally I\u0026rsquo;ll give my shower a goal. In these cases there\u0026rsquo;s a very specific thing I need to think through, so I will use my shower as a chunk of dedicated time to work through it. I write through each step of the process and work out my thoughts methodically.\nPodcast notes Sometimes I listen to a podcast while I\u0026rsquo;m in the shower, so I will write down any memorable quotes. I also write down my own notes about impactful ideas I want to remember.\nVisuals Many thoughts are better captured in a visual rather than words. I might be trying to work through a complex topic, or there might just be an image in my brain that I want to hold onto for later.\nI love that the empty pad gives my notes the flexibility to take whatever form they need.\nHaiku I enjoy writing haiku occasionally. I use it as a way to capture an idea in short, memorable prose.\nLove notes for my wife Short shower notes are a sweet, thoughtful surprise that I use to lift up my wife.\nAlternatives I\u0026rsquo;ve tried for capturing shower thoughts Before Aqua Notes, I had tried to perfect the art of capturing shower thoughts. My previous attempts had revolved around using technology, but they all fell short. I had assumed digital capture would be better because it would be quicker and easier to retrieve my notes. But I found all the digital options to be unreliable and have come to appreciate the way that the slowness of handwriting allows me to simmer in my thoughts.\nSmartwatch I thought for sure the smartwatch would be the answer. I could dictate my notes into my watch and then have them seamlessly uploaded to the cloud for safekeeping and retrieval later. But this didn\u0026rsquo;t play out in reality the same way that I dreamt it up.\nFor one, dictation into my watch (Galaxy Watch 5) sucked. It was bad outside the shower, but inside the shower with all the noise I could rarely get it to capture a single sentence correctly.\nI also ran into an issue with the apps I tried to use to capture notes. I tried Google Keep and the recording app that came on the watch. The recording app would just randomly shut off in the middle of me talking, which was irritating. And I think something similar happened with Google Keep, although I can\u0026rsquo;t quite remember.\nAnd don\u0026rsquo;t even get me started on interacting with the watch screen while it was wet.\nMaybe an Apple Watch could do better, but my Galaxy Watch was NOT a good shower notes companion.\nAlexa I also tried setting an Amazon Echo Dot right outside the shower so I could shout notes to it, but it did a poor job capturing what I said as well. It was also pretty annoying to try shouting outside the shower, or opening the door and poking my head out each time I had a thought.\nPhone When I got frustrated with my watch, I tried using my phone for a little while, but that was destined for failure because I was too scared to get it near the water. It was hard to interact with if my hands were wet, and voice commands didn\u0026rsquo;t work out too well for me.\nAfter going through all of these iterations of digital tools, I realized that sometimes the simplest tools are the most powerful.\nTakeaways Writing is great for thinking is great for showering. So writing is great for showering.\nI\u0026rsquo;ve been amazed at the insights I\u0026rsquo;ve captured while in the shower. It brings me joy to see an idea from a shower months ago that sparks new thought patterns in me today.\nAqua Notes is the best tool I\u0026rsquo;ve found for thinking and writing in the shower. It\u0026rsquo;s simple but effective. It can flex to accommodate two-word ideas, long chains of thoughts, visuals, and everything in between. Though flashier digital tools like smartwatches and automated home assistants seemed better, I\u0026rsquo;ve found pencil and paper to be the best tool for the job.\nLet\u0026rsquo;s say we spend 15 minutes in the shower daily. That\u0026rsquo;s roughly 91 hours in a year. Getting clean is a noble enough way to spend that time, but I\u0026rsquo;d encourage you to also intentionally think and write.\nPay attention to your thoughts and emotions. What comes up might be important. And the important things should be captured, not washed down the drain.\n", "dateiso": "2024-11-28 08:14:48 -0500", "date": "8:14 p.m. on Nov 28, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/11/28/capturing-shower-thoughts.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F11%2F28%2Fcapturing-shower-thoughts.html" }, { "id": 131, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Note to self: I want to write an article soon. It\u0026rsquo;s been a while.\n", "dateiso": "2024-11-24 21:14:11 -0500", "date": "9:14 p.m. on Nov 24, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/11/24/note-to-self.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F11%2F24%2Fnote-to-self.html" }, { "id": 132, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I just discovered and used screenshotr.app for my previous post. This is an awesome free tool for making screenshots look more interesting and professional!\n", "dateiso": "2024-11-06 08:16:20 -0500", "date": "8:16 p.m. on Nov 6, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/11/06/i-just-discovered.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F11%2F06%2Fi-just-discovered.html" }, { "id": 133, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I removed my bio from the header of my blog and improved the user experience on my subscribe page to make the call-to-action clearer. I like the minimal look. 👍🧹\nNew Look 👶 Old Look 👴 ", "dateiso": "2024-11-06 08:03:13 -0500", "date": "8:03 p.m. on Nov 6, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/11/06/i-removed-my.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F11%2F06%2Fi-removed-my.html" }, { "id": 134, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Had a beautiful walk after working from a coffee shop this afternoon.\n", "dateiso": "2024-10-25 15:08:37 -0500", "date": "3:08 p.m. on Oct 25, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/10/25/had-a-beautiful.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F10%2F25%2Fhad-a-beautiful.html" }, { "id": 135, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Coffee shop hack: bring your own stroopwafel ☕🧇\nOne of my wife\u0026rsquo;s many good ideas.\n", "dateiso": "2024-10-25 15:06:29 -0500", "date": "3:06 p.m. on Oct 25, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/10/25/coffee-shop-hack.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F10%2F25%2Fcoffee-shop-hack.html" }, { "id": 136, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I kinda like Comic Sans. Also, today I learned that if you google Comic Sans or Vincent Connare (the guy that created it) the results come back in Comic Sans.\nLove or hate the font, you gotta love internet easter eggs.\n", "dateiso": "2024-10-25 10:35:15 -0500", "date": "10:35 p.m. on Oct 25, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/10/25/i-kinda-like.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F10%2F25%2Fi-kinda-like.html" }, { "id": 137, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Dang, Google Photos over here making me cry 😭 It finds video snippets of my daughter, puts them in slow motion, and plays emotional piano music in the background 🥹\nI would love to hear from the product team crafting these experiences and what their goal is for Photos. Not a feature I would think of putting in a Photos app, but I\u0026rsquo;ve really enjoyed it! I love that it surfaces nostalgic memories for me!\n", "dateiso": "2024-10-11 08:51:37 -0500", "date": "8:51 p.m. on Oct 11, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/10/11/dang-google-photos.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F10%2F11%2Fdang-google-photos.html" }, { "id": 138, "type": "post", "title": "LinkedIn is cool sometimes", "text": "LinkedIn can be so cool sometimes. I connected with Mural\u0026rsquo;s VP of Product, Matt Crawford, and we got to talking about my experience.\nI told him I LOVE using Mural for user story maps, but I\u0026rsquo;m having trouble integrating with Jira because of how our instance is set up at NASA.\nLo and behold, the current problem I\u0026rsquo;m having integrating Mural with Jira Data Center is a priority for him right now and they\u0026rsquo;re running a pilot program. I\u0026rsquo;m going to get him connected with the right people at NASA to see if we can get in on their pilot to get things working.\nMutually beneficial for everyone. Product people helping product people.\nLove it.\n", "dateiso": "2024-10-10 16:23:53 -0500", "date": "4:23 p.m. on Oct 10, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/10/10/linkedin-is-cool.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F10%2F10%2Flinkedin-is-cool.html" }, { "id": 139, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Feeling extra tired this morning. Started reading scripture but kept falling asleep. Ended up just throwing punches in the air to keep myself awake while I read. I\u0026rsquo;m glad I was alone, I probably looked crazy\u0026hellip;\nBut it\u0026rsquo;s a nice new trick to keep myself awake while reading early in the morning. 🥊\n", "dateiso": "2024-10-10 05:30:48 -0500", "date": "5:30 p.m. on Oct 10, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/10/10/feeling-extra-tired.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F10%2F10%2Ffeeling-extra-tired.html" }, { "id": 140, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "🌊 man is deep water.\n💨 will is wind. fleeting and weak.\n🌕 what then be his moon?\n", "dateiso": "2024-10-09 07:40:17 -0500", "date": "7:40 p.m. on Oct 9, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/10/09/man-is-deep.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F10%2F09%2Fman-is-deep.html" }, { "id": 141, "type": "post", "title": "Now 2024-10-05", "text": "What I am up to now. Check my /now page for the latest update.\nDad Stuff My daughter is walking! She is almost 15 months old now, and it feels like overnight she transformed from baby to toddler. Crawling to walking took a couple of months, but I think she went from walking to running in an hour. We\u0026rsquo;re chasing her all over the place now. This is such a fun age.\nIn addition to walking/running, she\u0026rsquo;s getting pretty good at sign language and a few words. Her favorite words right now are dada, mama, baby, blueberries (besbes), bees, go (doe), bottle (baba), wheels on the bus (wuhbuh), book (buhbuh), dog (wohwoh, because our dog\u0026rsquo;s name is Lolo), bye bye, thank you and ball. She\u0026rsquo;s also gotten very good at shaking her head \u0026ldquo;no\u0026rdquo;, and is not afraid to use it. This girl has some sass. It can be challenging, but I am proud that we are encouraging her sense of self and being assertive about her needs even at this young age.\nI\u0026rsquo;m having a lot of fun spending time with my daughter and playing with her. She is sweet and pure in a way that starkly contrasts the messiness and hustle of the world. She loves giving kisses and hugs. I love watching her walk around kissing her stuffed animals, and then offering them up to me or my wife to kiss them too. I want to soak in every moment I can with her.\nAnd yet\u0026hellip; if I\u0026rsquo;m being completely honest, I find myself having a desire to check out sometimes. My wife and I are working to keep each other accountable to not turning to our phones when we\u0026rsquo;re tired. I know I will be so much happier if I stay present in the moment, but the siren call of distraction can be really strong. I can easily fall into binging articles or videos and justifying it as \u0026ldquo;learning\u0026rdquo;, but it\u0026rsquo;s just my way of turning off to the hard things in front of me.\nCreating I continue to blog infrequently but love it when I do it. It seems li ke my creative energy comes in waves, and it has been on the upswing recently. I went the whole month of July without posting any articles, but wrote a handful last month. Recently, I redesigned the homepage of my blog and am pretty happy with how it turned out. I like just seeing a listing of all the things I\u0026rsquo;ve written about, and I imagine that\u0026rsquo;s what others would be interested in too.\nA while ago I liked the idea of writing think piece articles where I do a bunch of research to from a novel opinion on a topic of interest, but that hasn\u0026rsquo;t materialized yet. I think maybe it\u0026rsquo;s just not my style? So far, my process is that I get super obsessed with an idea of something I want to write, and I need to get it out of my system within 24 hours. Then I publish it with little to no editing. I\u0026rsquo;m not sure that there\u0026rsquo;s a right or wrong way, but I\u0026rsquo;d still like to at least experiment with a more patient approach to writing.\nI\u0026rsquo;ve also been working on Fed Meetup more. I had to update it with the FY25 rates that got posted by GSA recently, and while I was in there I cleaned up the interface. There\u0026rsquo;s still a lot of room for improvement, but it\u0026rsquo;s getting better. The worst part about the app right now is the initial load time. It\u0026rsquo;s atrocious, but I\u0026rsquo;m still figuring out how to get things to render correctly and lazy load in SvelteKit. That\u0026rsquo;s the next thing I plan to tackle.\nI have ideas for all sorts of other things I\u0026rsquo;d like to create and put together an ideas page to keep track of them.\nWork My big focuses right now are the NASA Cause Analysis Tool (NCAT) and the NASA Mishap Information System (NMIS). NCAT was the first app that managed from idea all the way to release, and it was released earlier this year. It has been successful so far, and is getting good feedback from the mishap investigator community at NASA. These are the main people using the tool currently, it helps them brainstorm and organize data to determine findings and recommendations as part of their investigations.\nNMIS is one of the NASA Safety Center\u0026rsquo;s oldest applications and I recently to over as the product manager for it. It is the source of truth for all NASA mishap data. It is a big legacy app and has a very different feel from NCAT, which is our newest application. NMIS is going through major changes right now since the mishap policy at NASA is changing, and the software needs to change with the policy. It has been fun getting up to speed on NMIS quickly and thinking about how we will implement major changes that touch most parts of the application.\nFaith and Friends The church group my wife and I are a part of has become completely overrun with babies\u0026hellip; When we joined a couple of years ago, there were 0, and now we are well into double digits. We\u0026rsquo;ve all started going in on childcare together, and that has improved the dynamic of the group a lot. It\u0026rsquo;s a lot easier to have deep, meaningful conversation when there aren\u0026rsquo;t a bunch of kids toddling around and screaming.\nI feel like my attitude toward my faith has been apathetic for a while, and I\u0026rsquo;m not sure what to do about it. I believe in Christ as my savior, and I believe God is active in my life and with me, but that doesn\u0026rsquo;t impact my heart as much as it used to. This concerns me. I feel a dissonance between my mind and my heart. It makes me wonder if I have allowed myself to get too comfortable? Am I settling for a typical American middle class life, concerned more with status and self-satisfaction than with the grand question of why I am even here? How could I not be moved by my belief that the reason I am here is to honor God and share love with others? I am praying for God to reignite my passion and excitement, but I am still waiting. That is okay, it does not shake the foundation of my faith, but I do feel like I am in a dry valley.\nAnd despite all of these existential questions, I don\u0026rsquo;t want things to change. I really like my comfortable American life. I may be holding onto it too tightly. If I was asked to give it up, I would have a really hard time with that. It puts me in a weird place. I don\u0026rsquo;t really want change, but I am hoping and praying for it.\nLeisure I finished the Foundation Series by Isaac Aasimov, and now I am reading a couple different books: Ghost Soldiers, Thus Spake Zarathustra, and Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions.\nI\u0026rsquo;ve been disc golfing occasionally when I can and have been playing really well. I played my highest rated round ever couple of days ago.\nExercise I\u0026rsquo;ve been doing a couple sets a day of push-ups to failure, and that has been excellent for me. I\u0026rsquo;ve struggled with making time to go to the gym or even do a full workout at time, and this is so stupid easy that I\u0026rsquo;ve actually been able to keep up with it. I focus on going slow so that I use not just my arms but also my core.\nMy wife and I also recently got memberships to our local YMCA. We\u0026rsquo;ve gone a couple of times, but I\u0026rsquo;m not sure if we\u0026rsquo;ll stick with it. The place just has a weird feel. I don\u0026rsquo;t know if it\u0026rsquo;s too dark, or has a weird smell, but something is just off. I really want to do CrossFit or some sort of other group class like Jiu Jitsu, but those are so expensive that they\u0026rsquo;re tough to justify. They also feel like a little more of a time commitment, but I think that would be good for me. I think commitment is what I need.\nHome We\u0026rsquo;ve been rearranging the house quite a bit. It ended up in a weird setup, so I think we\u0026rsquo;re going to rearrange it all again soon. We\u0026rsquo;re trying to figure out how to have a nice adult space that is also kid-friendly.\nAlso, we had 5 different contractors come out recently to give us quotes for a back patio. We\u0026rsquo;re looking forward to making our backyard a nice space to entertain friends and let all the kids roam around.\n", "dateiso": "2024-10-05 14:16:50 -0500", "date": "2:16 p.m. on Oct 5, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/10/05/what-i-am.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F10%2F05%2Fwhat-i-am.html" }, { "id": 142, "type": "post", "title": "This Started With A Title", "text": "Let the writing inform the title, or let the title inform the writing?\nThis started with a title, but it wasn\u0026rsquo;t this one.\n", "dateiso": "2024-09-29 22:42:40 -0500", "date": "10:42 p.m. on Sep 29, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/09/29/this-started-with.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F09%2F29%2Fthis-started-with.html" }, { "id": 143, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I added an /ideas page to my blog, as mentioned recently in my post on indie hacking. I\u0026rsquo;ll update this page every now and then as I have new ideas or stumble on the ones scattered across my journals and note taking apps.\n", "dateiso": "2024-09-29 14:30:49 -0500", "date": "2:30 p.m. on Sep 29, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/09/29/i-added-an.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F09%2F29%2Fi-added-an.html" }, { "id": 144, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I love when I\u0026rsquo;m inspired by something I highlighted a long time ago in my Readwise Daily Review. This one feels especially relevant with my recent excitement around indie hacking.\n I wish I would have known that there was no need to wait. I went to college. I went to law school. I worked in law and banking, though not for terribly long. But not until I started PayPal did I fully realize that you don’t have to wait to start something. So if you’re planning to do something with your life, if you have a 10-year plan of how to get there, you should ask: Why can’t you do this in 6 months? Sometimes, you have to actually go through the complex, 10-year trajectory. But it’s at least worth asking whether that’s the story you’re telling yourself, or whether that’s the reality.\n Peter Thiel, quoted in Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss ", "dateiso": "2024-09-26 09:14:29 -0500", "date": "9:14 p.m. on Sep 26, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/09/26/i-love-when.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F09%2F26%2Fi-love-when.html" }, { "id": 145, "type": "post", "title": "Advice To A Demotivated Job Seeker", "text": "I received the following question in my LinkedIn DMs:\n What is some advice you can give me, I am having motivation issues. I have a decent job but it’s not my dream job, trying to join the aerospace industry. Also doing my masters to specialize in AI and eventually get a leadership role. Not seeing the clear path yet and it’s hard to stay motivated.\n Here was my response:\n There\u0026rsquo;s never a clear path! My path has been all over the place, and I never would have guessed I would be where I am now.\nI think the key is to do the best you can where you are and always be on the lookout for new opportunities. Reach higher than you think you can go and ignore the requirements in job postings, they\u0026rsquo;re just wish lists.\nI didn\u0026rsquo;t expect to get the job I have now. I was terribly underqualified on paper, and just wanted to apply to see what the interview process might be like for the kind of position I might apply for in a few years. And then I got the job!\nAlso, have fun along the way. If you\u0026rsquo;re early on in your career, look for fun ways that you can boost your visibility and increase your surface area for lucky opportunities. For me, that looks like posting on LinkedIn, starting a blog, working on web apps on the side, etc. Just find stuff you love related to where you want to go, and start now. Find little aerospace projects to work on, or AI projects, or local leadership opportunities.\nYou got this!\n I want to capture this in a post so I can share it with anyone else struggling with the same things. Demotivation like this is really common and I\u0026rsquo;ve dealt with it too.\nTo anyone else out there struggling with the same thing, you really do got this! Keep moving, keep having fun, and tell people about what you\u0026rsquo;re doing. The right opportunity will come along!\nI would be happy to chat over email about it!\n", "dateiso": "2024-09-25 12:13:05 -0500", "date": "12:13 p.m. on Sep 25, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/09/25/advice-to-a.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F09%2F25%2Fadvice-to-a.html" }, { "id": 146, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I updated my bio (the words at the top of every page) and my about page. See the changelog for more details, or just check them out!\n", "dateiso": "2024-09-25 12:06:23 -0500", "date": "12:06 p.m. on Sep 25, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/09/25/i-updated-my.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F09%2F25%2Fi-updated-my.html" }, { "id": 147, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I just found out that UDisc Community was released a couple weeks ago. I\u0026rsquo;ve been waiting for this feature for years!\nHere\u0026rsquo;s an invite link if you have the app but don\u0026rsquo;t have access to Community yet, and here\u0026rsquo;s my profile if you want to see how I\u0026rsquo;m playing!\n", "dateiso": "2024-09-25 04:27:55 -0500", "date": "4:27 p.m. on Sep 25, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/09/25/i-just-found.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F09%2F25%2Fi-just-found.html" }, { "id": 148, "type": "post", "title": "Mikenna and Josh's Wedding", "text": "It\u0026rsquo;s the beautiful easing into dawn as I write. I\u0026rsquo;m sitting in a rocking chair on the chapel deck, overlooking one of New York\u0026rsquo;s finger lakes. In the middle of the quiet and solitude, a speedboat just ripped across the lake as I finished that last sentence. It\u0026rsquo;s 6:50 a.m. I was up at 5:00, woken by my daughter crying. My back hurts and my neck aches from sleeping on the hard wooden bunk bed of the camp cabin we\u0026rsquo;re staying in.\nDespite the aches, pains, and upset baby, I am at peace. My soul is at ease in the morning light over the lake. Now that my wife and daughter have gone back to bed, the seagulls are my only companions.\nI had started reading Nietzsche but had to put it down. It\u0026rsquo;s just too\u0026hellip; depressing. Too depressing for the goodness of this moment. Which is ironic, because he was talking about the need for solitude and nature. But he was discussing that need as it relates to all the \u0026ldquo;blood-sucking poison-flies\u0026rdquo; that we encounter in our interactions with other people. Sure, the \u0026ldquo;blood-sucking poison-flies\u0026rdquo; are out there, but I don\u0026rsquo;t think they\u0026rsquo;re as pervasive as Nietzsche thinks. And even if they were, that\u0026rsquo;s not what I want on my mind right now.\nI\u0026rsquo;m excited for Mikenna and Josh getting married this afternoon. Though it can be stressful, I enjoy the excited energy of being around the wedding party in the days leading up to the wedding.\nI used to think weddings were silly. A flashy \u0026ldquo;look at me\u0026rdquo; beginning to a lifelong commitment. I still think they are overemphasized in our culture, but I see the value in them now. Bringing people together and having grand celebrations helps everyone process and incorporate big life changes. This is true also for funerals, grad parties, and other traditional celebration/events for big life changes.\nWhile a wedding is about the bride and groom, it is for everyone. As the attendees at a wedding, we get a shared experience of the start of the couple\u0026rsquo;s journey. We show our support for the couple, and we strengthen bonds with each other, further strengthening the couple\u0026rsquo;s support network. We are reminded of love. We are reminded that love is worth celebrating. We get to be part of a sacred covenant. Hopefully, we put aside our selfish aims for a day and allow the spotlight to be on the couple.\nMaybe most importantly, we pause. We recognize that there are things in life worth pausing for. And the greatest of these is love.\n", "dateiso": "2024-09-21 06:38:54 -0500", "date": "6:38 p.m. on Sep 21, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/09/21/mikenna-and-joshs.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F09%2F21%2Fmikenna-and-joshs.html" }, { "id": 149, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "A moment of silence for the people on low-carb diets\u0026hellip;\n", "dateiso": "2024-09-19 18:19:09 -0500", "date": "6:19 p.m. on Sep 19, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/09/19/a-moment-of.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F09%2F19%2Fa-moment-of.html" }, { "id": 150, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "So cool\u0026hellip; Saving this to try out on my blog later. Matt Webb has \u0026ldquo;collaborative cursors\u0026rdquo; on his blog, so you can see other visitors' cursors and chat with people who are currently on the same page. I love that he hangs out on his home page and says \u0026ldquo;hi\u0026rdquo; to people sometimes.\n", "dateiso": "2024-09-19 14:35:40 -0500", "date": "2:35 p.m. on Sep 19, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/09/19/so-cool-saving.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F09%2F19%2Fso-cool-saving.html" }, { "id": 151, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Is it better to be a cowardly lion or a brave chicken?\n", "dateiso": "2024-09-19 07:24:04 -0500", "date": "7:24 p.m. on Sep 19, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/09/19/is-it-better.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F09%2F19%2Fis-it-better.html" }, { "id": 152, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "My favorite doctor appointments are the ones where I wait forever, then the doctor comes in and says \u0026ldquo;After looking at your file, we can\u0026rsquo;t do anything until we run some tests. Schedule those and come back later\u0026rdquo;. /sigh\n", "dateiso": "2024-09-18 13:44:23 -0500", "date": "1:44 p.m. on Sep 18, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/09/18/my-favorite-doctor.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F09%2F18%2Fmy-favorite-doctor.html" }, { "id": 153, "type": "post", "title": "Indie Hacking", "text": "I have a tendency to be consumed by a niche interest or hobby every now and then. In the past it\u0026rsquo;s been disc golf, counter strike, yo-yoing, hot sauces, coffee, apologetics, and even card magic. Now I\u0026rsquo;m introducing the latest interest that my free-time has fallen victim to: indie hacking.\nWhat is Indie Hacking? Despite having \u0026ldquo;hacking\u0026rdquo; in the name, indie hacking is not nearly as nefarious as it seems. It does not involve late night attempts to crack the access code to a terminal while 80s synth wave music surges in the background.\nIndie hacking is building software products without a large team and without investments from venture capitalists. Many indie hackers set up their businesses as \u0026ldquo;lifestyle businesses\u0026rdquo;, which means that they optimize for time freedom instead of financial growth. So instead of hiring a bigger team to grow the business to infinity and beyond, an indie hacker might set up process automations to make their business run on autopilot so that they can have more time in their day.\nMy Introduction to Indie Hacking I started down this rabbit hole after listening to Lex Fridman\u0026rsquo;s podcast with guest Pieter Levels. Pieter is notorious in the indie hacker community, and has set up several lifestyle businesses for himself, such as nomads.com. After being inspired by his journey, I took a look at his blog and a couple of his posts gave me more to look into:\n https://levels.io/startups/ - how to take an idea from 0 to 100 https://levels.io/copywriting/ - dead simple advice for writing good copy https://levels.io/hoodmaps/ - a crazy long post documenting how Pieter built an app from the first line of code to being complete Looking at these posts then led me to Show Hacker News, Indie Hackers, and Product Hunt. Show Hacker News is a great place to see what other people are building and to see how the \u0026ldquo;hacker community\u0026rdquo; responds. Indie Hackers has all sorts of articles and resources with info on getting started. They also have a podcast I just stumbled on today! I had never heard of Product Hunt before, but it\u0026rsquo;s a place where each day new apps get launched and then voted on. The most popular apps rise to the top, so for the early-adopter community it is a way to see what hot new apps are available, and for makers it is a great way to get visibility and users for a new product.\nWhat Indie Hacking Means To Me I\u0026rsquo;ve been inspired by all the stories I\u0026rsquo;ve read and the products I\u0026rsquo;ve seen. My day job is fun and rewarding, but it has become removed from coding. I miss the tight feedback loop of having a small feature in my head to build and then bringing it to life. To reconcile that, I\u0026rsquo;m moonlighting as an indie hacker. I have no grand monetization scheme, no clearly laid out plan, and little free time as a new dad working a full-time job. But I\u0026rsquo;m building nonetheless. My latest creation is fedmeetup.com, and I just pushed some new updates to it over the last week.\nI\u0026rsquo;m still a bit embarrassed by how wonky the interface looks (need to work on my design skills) but I\u0026rsquo;m trying to embrace the indie hacker mantra of \u0026ldquo;ship early, ship often\u0026rdquo;. Fed Meetup solves a problem (Where should I host a federal in-person event to maximize savings of taxpayer dollars?) in its current form, so I\u0026rsquo;ve released it into the wild and will build it alongside those using it. I know of at least a couple of people at NASA who have started using it and I plan to broadcast it more widely through NASA. Once it has had success at NASA, I\u0026rsquo;ll start outreach to other agencies.\nOn top of Fed Meetup, I have other ideas that I\u0026rsquo;m itching to build:\n I want to make an app for prayer that combines the best elements of Duolingo and Readwise. I often tell people I will pray for them and then forget, so I want to build something that solves that. A place I can store the things I want to be praying for, that also reminds me to pray and maybe even has some gamification to encourage me to keep engaging with my prayers. I also want to make a quick capture app. What I really want to make is a widget for an android or iPhone, that makes it dead simple to capture quick notes and have a running log of these quick notes. I haven\u0026rsquo;t found a satisfying solution for this yet. I\u0026rsquo;ve also considered writing a weekly email newsletter that either has a paid subscription option or a donate option. It would have to be something that provides value\u0026hellip; I was thinking either \u0026ldquo;hacks\u0026rdquo; for the average office user to use their computer better, or a weekly interview with someone who works at NASA, highlighting the person and their work. This is just the beginning of my ideas, so I\u0026rsquo;m going to create an /ideas page on this blog to store all of them. I want to share these publicly partly for accountability and partly because I think they need to be built, so I welcome others to build them too! If you have any interesting ideas you think we could work on together, I would love to hear them.\nThe Piece I\u0026rsquo;m Missing The main way I differ from other indie hackers is that I don\u0026rsquo;t have an intense focus on monetization. I\u0026rsquo;m more of an indie hobbyist, who may one day metamorphose from hobbyist to hacker. Indie hackers are usually very focused on their Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) which is the key measure for a subscription based business. After reviewing my financial situation, my MRR between my blog and Fed Meetup is -$7. I pay $5/mo for blog hosting, and about $1/mo each for my domain names. And none of this is pulling in any money.\nFor now, I am content with that. I\u0026rsquo;m enjoying the craft of both writing and building software products. It brings me immense joy to write these blog posts and to build things like Fed Meetup. However, I do dream of a day when the side projects I\u0026rsquo;ve built over time could support my family financially. I am quite happy supporting my family through my W-2 job, but I am attracted to the romanticized freedom that having my own business(es) would afford. I know it won\u0026rsquo;t be all sunshine and rainbows, but I think it would fit my personality well.\nIn my mind, the key to all of this is experimentation. This is not a big announcement of a shift in focus or career for me. Rather, this is me sharing a potential future path that I plan to experiment with. I plan to start small with my hobbyist projects, giving some more thought to how I can monetize them. Actually, I\u0026rsquo;m quite excited about experimenting with monetization and value. Stories like the Zappos founder, Nick Swinmurn, fuel my imagination. He set up an online shoe store before having any inventory. While he was validating the company\u0026rsquo;s value proposition (would people buy shoes online without trying them on?), he would receive orders and then go out himself to local shoe stores to buy shoes and ship them out. Finding opportunities for this kind of \u0026ldquo;Wizard of Oz\u0026rdquo; testing to validate business viability is exciting and fun to me.\nSo why am I sharing all of this? Because you can expect to hear more from me about what I\u0026rsquo;m building. Building in public is about authentically sharing the journey from idea to product. I hope to do just that and I invite you to join me and follow along.\n", "dateiso": "2024-09-18 06:01:58 -0500", "date": "6:01 p.m. on Sep 18, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/09/18/indie-hacking.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F09%2F18%2Findie-hacking.html" }, { "id": 154, "type": "post", "title": "Using Tiny Theme Microhooks to make your homepage display a reverse chronological list of long-form articles, grouped by year", "text": "I\u0026rsquo;ve been feeling like my home page wasn\u0026rsquo;t what I really wanted people\u0026rsquo;s first experience with my blog to be. I want people to be able to get a high-level overview of what I write about and what my interests are. I admire other blogs that just have a list of long-form articles, so I decided to update my home page to work similarly.\nCheck out my new home page at weidok.al\nFor anyone else using the Micro.blog Tiny Theme that wants to do the same, here is how I did it:\nInstructions Warning: Keep in mind that this is one of the more power microhooks in the Tiny Theme, so it may override other microhooks you have already set up\n Make sure Tiny Theme is installed on the Plug-ins page create a custom theme (or edit your existing custom theme if you already have one) add the following page to your theme: layouts/partials/microhook-post-list.html in that page, add the code below: \u0026lt;div class=\u0026quot;home h-feed\u0026quot;\u0026gt;\r{{ $posts := where .Site.RegularPages \u0026quot;Type\u0026quot; \u0026quot;post\u0026quot; }}\r{{ $articles := where $posts \u0026quot;Title\u0026quot; \u0026quot;!=\u0026quot; \u0026quot;\u0026quot; }}\r{{ range $articles.GroupByDate \u0026quot;2006\u0026quot; }}\r\u0026lt;h2\u0026gt;{{ .Key }}\u0026lt;/h2\u0026gt;\r\u0026lt;ul class=\u0026quot;post-list\u0026quot;\u0026gt;\r{{ range .Pages }}\r\u0026lt;li class=\u0026quot;h-entry\u0026quot; style=\u0026quot;padding: 0.5em 0;\u0026quot;\u0026gt;\r\u0026lt;div style=\u0026quot;display: flex;\u0026quot;\u0026gt;\r\u0026lt;div class=\u0026quot;post-meta\u0026quot; style=\u0026quot;flex-shrink: 0; width: 60px; margin-right: 10px;\u0026quot;\u0026gt;\r\u0026lt;time class=\u0026quot;dt-published\u0026quot; datetime=\u0026quot;{{ .Date.Format \u0026quot;2006-01-02T15:04:05Z07:00\u0026quot; }}\u0026quot;\u0026gt;\r{{ .Date.Format \u0026quot;Jan 02\u0026quot; }}\r\u0026lt;/time\u0026gt;\r\u0026lt;/div\u0026gt;\r\u0026lt;div style=\u0026quot;flex-grow: 1; min-width: 0;\u0026quot;\u0026gt;\r\u0026lt;a href=\u0026quot;{{ .Permalink }}\u0026quot; style=\u0026quot;word-wrap: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word;\u0026quot;\u0026gt;{{ .Title }}\u0026lt;/a\u0026gt;\r\u0026lt;/div\u0026gt;\r\u0026lt;/div\u0026gt;\r\u0026lt;/li\u0026gt;\r{{ end }}\r\u0026lt;/ul\u0026gt;\r{{ end }}\r\u0026lt;/div\u0026gt;\r save the template And voila! Just like that, you\u0026rsquo;ve updated your homepage to show a list of reverse chronological posts, but only showing long-form articles grouped by the year.\n", "dateiso": "2024-09-17 11:31:34 -0500", "date": "11:31 p.m. on Sep 17, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/09/17/using-tiny-theme.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F09%2F17%2Fusing-tiny-theme.html" }, { "id": 155, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "This seemed like it really hit the nail on the head. An insightful look at how \u0026ldquo;therapy culture\u0026rdquo; is imitating religion, but falling short.\nOur New Religion Isn\u0026rsquo;t Enough by Freya India\n", "dateiso": "2024-09-15 20:25:26 -0500", "date": "8:25 p.m. on Sep 15, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/09/15/this-seemed-like.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F09%2F15%2Fthis-seemed-like.html" }, { "id": 156, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Currently eating Chick-fil-A on a picnic blanket in the parking lot of a Barnes \u0026amp; Noble. I love Saturdays.\n", "dateiso": "2024-09-14 11:06:03 -0500", "date": "11:06 p.m. on Sep 14, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/09/14/currently-eating-chickfila.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F09%2F14%2Fcurrently-eating-chickfila.html" }, { "id": 157, "type": "post", "title": "Street Corner", "text": "Today I found myself in the downtown area of an old, little rural Ohio town. Surrounded by brick buildings, with a large, antiquated concrete community bank on the opposite corner. I stopped in at a local Chinese takeout place with my family for lunch. We ordered our food, and were told the customary \u0026ldquo;10 minutes\u0026rdquo;. While waiting for them to prepare our food, I stepped out onto the corner with my daughter.\nIt was\u0026hellip; unremarkable. Another typical Ohio day in a quaint Ohio town.\nBut doing unremarkable things with a one year-old can suddenly make them remarkable.\nMy daughter stared in amazement at the cars going by, talking and waving to each one. She looked one way down the sidewalk and squealed, then turned around quickly and squealed in the other direction. She looked up and squinted as the sun shone on her face and the wind blew her bangs around.\nAnd then strangely, I began to see and hear what was around me. I suppose I am always doing this, but there was something special about being acutely aware of my seeing and my hearing.\nI suddenly saw the cars not as background movement, but as amazing marvels of engineering, each unique from the next. I saw the people in them. I saw how focused they were. I imagined their destination, their origin, their goals, their lives. Each so focused on their own. As I usually am.\nI saw the buildings around me. I imagined their history. The tenants that each had their moment in the space. The decades of daily visitors passing in and out.\nI saw the stop lights. Their simple design. Their rigid schedule. Easily understood.\nI smelled the scent of the Chinese restaurant wafting out the door behind me. I heard construction in the distance and cars whooshing by. I felt on my back the gritty texture of the concrete pillar that I leaned against.\nI felt what my daughter felt. Not with touch, but with my whole self. I stepped into her joy and her excitement. I looked into her eyes and giggled with her. I squealed at the sidewalk. I waved at the cars.\nI transformed from agent to observer. I had no goal in that moment. I simply observed. It was nice. I felt like a little fly on the wall of my tiny corner of the universe, watching time and space move around me.\nUsually I move through the world as if I am the universe. My thoughts blind me from what is around me. My thoughts seem to be all that exists. It\u0026rsquo;s a lot being the universe. It\u0026rsquo;s relaxing to not be the universe. To merely be part of it. Especially if you can be part of it with someone you love.\nSo grab someone you love and go stand on a street corner and look around.\n", "dateiso": "2024-09-13 14:21:28 -0500", "date": "2:21 p.m. on Sep 13, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/09/13/street-corner.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F09%2F13%2Fstreet-corner.html" }, { "id": 158, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I recently started a tradition of working from a different coffee shop each Friday. Today\u0026rsquo;s Pumpkin Pie Latte was a nice complement to deep work ☕\n", "dateiso": "2024-09-13 12:49:27 -0500", "date": "12:49 p.m. on Sep 13, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/09/13/i-recently-started.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F09%2F13%2Fi-recently-started.html" }, { "id": 159, "type": "post", "title": "My Meeting Philosophy", "text": "I recently had 35 meetings in a week. This is a lot, but not uncommon for employees of large enterprises. While it is easy to lament an organization\u0026rsquo;s \u0026ldquo;meeting culture\u0026rdquo;, there are also actions individual employees can take to reduce their meeting load. I recognized that attending all the meetings on my calendar was not possible (one time slot was quadruple-booked!) so I developed the following approach for responding to meetings.\nWhen a new meeting comes up I figure out what my role will be in the meeting and then decide whether I will attend based on my role.\nMeeting Roles 1. Facilitating I record my meetings when appropriate. I make sure someone is taking notes, if not me. I send a follow-up email with actions, key info, and notes.\n2. Contributing If I believe I can benefit the meeting purpose or myself, I will attend and contribute. I send a follow-up email with actions, key info, and notes if I don\u0026rsquo;t think the facilitator will.\n3. Listening Do not attend. Ask for notes and/or watch the recording.\nProcess for Reviewing Informational Meetings For informational (listening) meetings, I skip them whenever I can. If it is recorded, I can watch the recording on my own time at 1.5x or 2x speed and I can skip around as needed to parts that are relevant to me. If it will not be recorded, I can ask someone else who is attending to take notes for me. If it is not recorded and nobody can take notes, I practice gratitude for not needing to review another meeting and I consider the fact that I don\u0026rsquo;t need to know everything. 🙂\n Each week, for meetings I plan to skip but want to follow up on, I mark them as \u0026ldquo;free\u0026rdquo; in outlook and categorize them in my \u0026ldquo;Skip\u0026rdquo; category. If unsure whether I will attend, I will mark it as tentative but still put it in the \u0026ldquo;Skip\u0026rdquo; category. At the end of the week, I open the \u0026ldquo;meet\u0026rdquo; tab in Teams and filter by recorded meetings. I review recordings of meetings I missed in the last week. For meetings that were not recorded, I go into Outlook, open the calendar, and type \u0026ldquo;Skip\u0026rdquo; into the search bar. This brings up all the meetings I marked as \u0026ldquo;Skip\u0026rdquo;. If there are any meetings I want to follow up on, I reach out to the organizer or another attendee to ask for their notes. Following this process is helping me to reduce my meeting burden without missing relevant information. I recognize meetings can be important, but I am mindful to weigh their value against my priorities and my organization\u0026rsquo;s priorities.\n", "dateiso": "2024-09-05 15:05:23 -0500", "date": "3:05 p.m. on Sep 5, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/09/05/my-meeting-philosophy.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F09%2F05%2Fmy-meeting-philosophy.html" }, { "id": 160, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Quests \u0026gt; Goals\nThis got me thinking about how I frame my objectives.\nDo Quests, Not Goals by David Cain\n", "dateiso": "2024-09-01 08:34:36 -0500", "date": "8:34 p.m. on Sep 1, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/09/01/quests-goals-this.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F09%2F01%2Fquests-goals-this.html" }, { "id": 161, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I replaced all the X-Large t-shirts in my closet with Large. I am surprised just how much better I\u0026rsquo;ve felt wearing clothes that fit right. I tried different options and ended up ordering 7 colors of the Next Level N6210. They\u0026rsquo;re cheap as dirt with an \u0026ldquo;athletic dad-bod\u0026rdquo; fit.\n", "dateiso": "2024-09-01 07:15:37 -0500", "date": "7:15 p.m. on Sep 1, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/09/01/i-replaced-all.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F09%2F01%2Fi-replaced-all.html" }, { "id": 162, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Moon, silent, alone.\n\u0026ldquo;Arise, abyss!\u0026rdquo; she commands.\nDark depths stir to life.\n", "dateiso": "2024-08-21 06:47:46 -0500", "date": "6:47 p.m. on Aug 21, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/08/21/moon-silent-alone.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F08%2F21%2Fmoon-silent-alone.html" }, { "id": 163, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I like when a bathroom has beautiful or insightful decor. I learned something new today about a train that debuted in 1936. Why did trains look so much cooler back then?\n", "dateiso": "2024-07-23 09:30:58 -0500", "date": "9:30 p.m. on Jul 23, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/07/23/i-like-when.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F07%2F23%2Fi-like-when.html" }, { "id": 164, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Our cucumbers are out of control. In one day we harvested six cucumbers, each bigger than my forearm. The situation is so dire that I\u0026rsquo;m having tajín-seasoned cukes with coffee for breakfast. 🥒☕\n", "dateiso": "2024-07-22 07:20:41 -0500", "date": "7:20 p.m. on Jul 22, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/07/22/our-cucumbers-are.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F07%2F22%2Four-cucumbers-are.html" }, { "id": 165, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Sharing a gelato flight is a great way to cap off the evening.\n", "dateiso": "2024-07-18 19:33:17 -0500", "date": "7:33 p.m. on Jul 18, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/07/18/sharing-a-gelato.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F07%2F18%2Fsharing-a-gelato.html" }, { "id": 166, "type": "post", "title": "26 Pieces Of Advice To My Past Self", "text": "I recently turned 26. I\u0026rsquo;m no sage, but I\u0026rsquo;ve picked up a couple of lessons in my time. Below are 26 things I would tell a younger me if I could.\n1 Read more material that endures. Posts and videos are ephemeral. They come and go. Seek out knowledge and stories that have survived years, decades, or centuries.\n2 Write as much as you can. Write anything. Document your days. You\u0026rsquo;ll love flipping through old journal entries, and seeing what you were doing. Trap your anxious and messy thoughts on paper, so they don\u0026rsquo;t consume your mind. When confronted with something hard, think through it in writing. It will slow you down, and allow you to evaluate your thoughts more clearly.\n3 You have an aversion to conflict. You can feel it in your bones. That\u0026rsquo;s okay. Stay in it, and realize there are many ways to work through conflict. Guide the conflict into a style that you do well with. Conflict can be important, so do not avoid it when it is necessary. Stay calm and explain yourself clearly, even if you need to tremble through it.\n4 You have a guilty conscience. This is good because it means you have a sense of morality but beware of people who will try to use that against you. If someone or something is making you feel guilty, pay close attention to the motives.\n5 Smile, make eye contact, and when you ask someone how they are, really ask them.\n6 The world is lonely without a community that shares your values. As soon as you realize you do not have this, find it. Or make it.\n7 You can become a good public speaker. Like conflict, you feel like you need to run from it, but the truth is you must do exactly the opposite. Seek out opportunities to speak in front of others. It will be uncomfortable, but the more you do it, the better you will get. And absolutely practice beforehand, winging it is a terrible idea.\n8 Stay open. Much of the good in your life will come from opportunities you didn\u0026rsquo;t foresee at all and had no control over. You might miss them if you keep too tight a grip on what you think you need.\n9 Related to the above, don\u0026rsquo;t forget how much you owe to God and luck. You think you know this, but you cannot comprehend its depth.\n10 Remember that every lie you tell will be accompanied by a confession, or worse, an exposure. Think of this anytime you consider lying, and do not do it. Lying is like smoking, it builds up tar in your soul.\n11 Remember that it\u0026rsquo;s temporary. In the midst of anxiety, it will feel all-consuming and never-ending. It isn\u0026rsquo;t so. It will end.\n12 Everybody is fascinating if you ask. So ask, then listen.\n13 Initiate connection in your marriage daily. It will not initiate itself.\n14 Step up and lead. Getting everyone\u0026rsquo;s opinion and deciding by majority may feel inclusive, but it is not leading. You will need to make tough, uncomfortable, and even unpopular calls. Make them and then bear them.\n15 You so desire to be better that you will have a tendency to believe all feedback you receive. Some feedback is neither valid nor helpful. Don\u0026rsquo;t get stirred up over it. Recognize it for what it is, and move on.\n16 Say what you want. Especially to your managers at work. People don\u0026rsquo;t know what you want if you don\u0026rsquo;t tell them. Most people will try to help you get what you want if they know what it is.\n17 Never disbelieve in what you are capable of. You will learn to love olives. And you will become a master diaper changer. If you can do those, you can do anything.\n18 Nourish your curiosity. You do a good job of exploring new things and not caring so much if others think they\u0026rsquo;re weird. In fact, relish in the confused gaze you get when you tell people about your new abstract hobby or interest. Keep doing that.\n19 You follow rules really well. Try breaking them more.\n20 Just because everyone is doing it, does not mean it\u0026rsquo;s good for you. You are allowed to completely cut yourself off from things that are not good for you.\n21 Don\u0026rsquo;t get too obsessed with being better or doing better. You\u0026rsquo;ll lose sight of now, which is bad because it\u0026rsquo;s always now. Be present. Accept what is.\n22 Start developing habits to maintain your health. Your high metabolism will not last forever, and avoiding the doctor will only cause more problems later. Get a primary care physician, see a dermatologist, and keep up with the dentist.\n23 Don\u0026rsquo;t be ashamed of your age. People use age as a proxy for competence and trustworthiness, so these assumptions will not be given to you easily. Be honest about who you are, and what you are, and lean into your strengths. Wherever you are, you are there for a reason, even if you feel out of place.\n24 Please take yourself less seriously. Not everything needs to be about \u0026ldquo;finding signal\u0026rdquo; or doing better. Have fun and be goofy. Don\u0026rsquo;t forget how to take it easy, this seems to get a little harder for you each year.\n25 Go to bed earlier and wake up earlier. It\u0026rsquo;s amazing how much better life feels this way.\n26 Be less selfish. Think of others more, and make a system to do so if it does not come naturally.\n", "dateiso": "2024-06-30 07:16:43 -0500", "date": "7:16 p.m. on Jun 30, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/06/30/pieces-of-advice.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F06%2F30%2Fpieces-of-advice.html" }, { "id": 167, "type": "post", "title": "A Recommendation for Trying AI", "text": "The following is a message I shared with my organization today.\n In light of NASA\u0026rsquo;s push to train up the workforce on AI, I wanted to share a tool that I\u0026rsquo;ve been using in my day-to-day. This is a simple tool that would be a good introduction for folks who haven\u0026rsquo;t been using AI much.\nPerplexity AI is a conversational AI assistant and search engine that provides citations for sources it is using. You can also specify whether you want it to only search through academic journals, Reddit, or other sources.\nI\u0026rsquo;ve been using this about as much as I\u0026rsquo;ve been searching for links with Google. I\u0026rsquo;ve been using it for research, learning new things, troubleshooting other tools I use at work, etc. The cited sources help me to see where the answer is coming from, to judge whether I should trust it or not. And it\u0026rsquo;s really easy to use. Just type in a question you want an answer to, and it will give you cited responses.\nA lot of the other big LLMs are good too, and each have there own strengths and weaknesses. Perplexity would be happy to tell you what they are!\nSome others I\u0026rsquo;ve tried are:\n ChatGPT, from Open AI: https://chatgpt.com/ Gemini, from Google: https://gemini.google.com/ Claude, from Anthropic: https://claude.ai/ ", "dateiso": "2024-06-20 12:57:56 -0500", "date": "12:57 p.m. on Jun 20, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/06/20/a-recommendation-for.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F06%2F20%2Fa-recommendation-for.html" }, { "id": 168, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "\u0026ldquo;Children need to be used under adult supervision\u0026rdquo;\nThis made me laugh.\n", "dateiso": "2024-06-17 20:28:02 -0500", "date": "8:28 p.m. on Jun 17, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/06/17/children-need-to.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F06%2F17%2Fchildren-need-to.html" }, { "id": 169, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "A while back I posted about Fed Meetup, the app I built that won an internal NASA challenge. Today I received my prize, a NASA@WORK sticker that flew on a SpaceX Dragon capsule that splashed down back in April! I have now committed myself to using this water bottle for life\u0026hellip; 😅\n", "dateiso": "2024-06-17 14:55:49 -0500", "date": "2:55 p.m. on Jun 17, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/06/17/a-while-back.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F06%2F17%2Fa-while-back.html" }, { "id": 170, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Do you ever say something and then the gravity of what you just said hits you hard? I was chatting with a coworker preparing for retirement and casually mentioned that I have 30+ years left. 30+ years! What!? That\u0026rsquo;s a lot of time to make meaningful and good things. That\u0026rsquo;s the goal.\n", "dateiso": "2024-06-17 13:29:26 -0500", "date": "1:29 p.m. on Jun 17, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/06/17/do-you-ever.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F06%2F17%2Fdo-you-ever.html" }, { "id": 171, "type": "post", "title": "How to Write a Kickass Article", "text": "I would like to note that as I write this, I am not following the advice contained within whatsoever.\nI want to write better articles. I want to use them to reason and think. I would like to do some research and link to sources, so that my articles have some ground to stand on and they provide real value.\nTo this end, I\u0026rsquo;ve been doing some research on writing a good article and I made the cheat sheet below for myself. I don\u0026rsquo;t plan to follow this dogmatically, but it will help me remember what to focus on in different stages of my writing. The following is primarily a reframing of the essay app\u0026rsquo;s writing guide, because its advice resonated with me the most of what I found online.\nHow to Write a Kickass Article Read to get ideas. Books Articles Give yourself plenty of time to write. Make an outline to start. Shoot for 10ish bullets. Any bigger and it is hard to see the flow of the argument. Write a bad draft - remember producing and editing are different activities. Produce, produce, produce. Write more than you think you need, then chop it down. Edit it. Rewrite every sentence. Reorder until it makes sense. Reread the whole thing. Refine, refine, refine. Create a new outline - Try reconstructing your argument from memory. What you remember is the good stuff. The rest might be crap. Ponder that. Cut and paste from your old outline into the new one. Make sure you have hyperlinks in the text for citations. ", "dateiso": "2024-06-10 22:48:04 -0500", "date": "10:48 p.m. on Jun 10, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/06/10/how-to-write.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F06%2F10%2Fhow-to-write.html" }, { "id": 172, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Added a colophon page. I wrote it in a who, what, when, where, and how format, and I like how it turned out. I haven\u0026rsquo;t seen others doing it this way. I considered adding a \u0026ldquo;why\u0026rdquo; section but decided against it. I\u0026rsquo;m not sure if the colophon is the right spot for that, but if not, then where?\n", "dateiso": "2024-06-10 22:12:51 -0500", "date": "10:12 p.m. on Jun 10, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/06/10/added-a-colophon.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F06%2F10%2Fadded-a-colophon.html" }, { "id": 173, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Added a changelog to my blog. For now, it is very small and very meta. weidok.al/changelog\u0026hellip;\n", "dateiso": "2024-06-10 21:46:02 -0500", "date": "9:46 p.m. on Jun 10, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/06/10/added-a-changelog.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F06%2F10%2Fadded-a-changelog.html" }, { "id": 174, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I added a /chipotle page to my blog. I know this started as satire, but this might actually come in handy for me. weidok.al/chipotle/\n", "dateiso": "2024-06-10 21:40:41 -0500", "date": "9:40 p.m. on Jun 10, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/06/10/i-added-a.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F06%2F10%2Fi-added-a.html" }, { "id": 175, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "scritch scratch swoop and slash\nfurious scribbles relent\ntaut hush, reflection\n", "dateiso": "2024-05-30 09:51:29 -0500", "date": "9:51 p.m. on May 30, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/05/30/scritch-scratch-swoop.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F05%2F30%2Fscritch-scratch-swoop.html" }, { "id": 176, "type": "post", "title": "Experimentation Is Where the Fun Is At!", "text": "My new shipment from The Goulet Pen Company makes it feel like Christmas!\nI ordered their notebook sampler and got a random ink sample set for free.\nI\u0026rsquo;ve barely tested the notebooks so far, but I\u0026rsquo;m really liking the Goulet notebook with Tomoe River paper. It felt silky smooth and the lines of the ink were the most crisp I\u0026rsquo;ve seen. All the notebooks seem great though. I\u0026rsquo;m going to have fun trying them out!\nI\u0026rsquo;m a little bummed that the Goulet notebook came in the pocket size instead of the passport size, because I use a passport size traveler\u0026rsquo;s notebook as a pocket journal/wallet. In the future, I think I\u0026rsquo;ll be buying the Tomoe River refills instead of the standard Traveler\u0026rsquo;s Notebook (TN) refills. Although TN paper is from Midori and is quite nice too. I found that the TN paper was the most toothy of the notebooks in the sampler.\nThe notebooks all have \u0026ldquo;premium\u0026rdquo; paper ideal for fountain pens, and include:\n Apica CD-5 Clairefontaine Staplebound Goulet Notebook (68gsm Tomoe River Paper) Maruman Mnemosyne N192 B7 Notepad Traveler\u0026rsquo;s Notebook Refill 001 Passport size Rhodia No. 12 In my random ink sample set I received the eight inks on the left, including:\n Diamine Terracotta Sailor Ink Studio 143 Sailor Seiboku Pigmented Blue Black Sailor Ink Studio 150 Sailor Yurameku Amamoyoi Private Reserve Infinity Black Sailor Ink Studio 023 Diamine Onyx Black The other inks pictured on the right were from a sample set I picked up from Goulet a while back.\nI still haven\u0026rsquo;t gone in on a full-size bottle of ink. Back in college I had a Pilot Iroshizuku bottle, but I don\u0026rsquo;t remember what I did with it. I think I gave it to a friend. Now I\u0026rsquo;m having fun trying out samples! My journal is eclectic with different colors and shades all over the place, but I like that. It will be fun to look back and see what I was experimenting with at different times.\nMaybe someday I\u0026rsquo;ll settle on a nice journal/pen/ink combo I can rock forever, but I\u0026rsquo;m okay if that never happens. Experimentation is where the fun is at!\n", "dateiso": "2024-05-29 22:30:22 -0500", "date": "10:30 p.m. on May 29, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/05/29/my-new-shipment.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F05%2F29%2Fmy-new-shipment.html" }, { "id": 177, "type": "post", "title": "An Analog Blog Post", "text": "The following was transcribed from the pictured journal entry. I used Google Lens and a LOT of editing.\nIt has been easy to not make time to write recently. \u0026ldquo;Busyness\u0026rdquo; is the main culprit, but I\u0026rsquo;ve also been spending time with its less boisterous sibling, distraction. And so here I find myself, back at the roots of my writing practice. The journal. I\u0026rsquo;ve missed the empty page. The empty screen is nice too, in my writing software of choice, but I can\u0026rsquo;t help feeling the weight of the myriad windows/apps/messages vying for my attention. So I\u0026rsquo;ve returned to my empty page. It welcomes my attention and thought, but does not compete for them. It is an escape in plain sight.\nThe past couple weeks have been especially tricky with a sick daughter who doesn\u0026rsquo;t want to sleep, a busy and understaffed season at work, and all sorts of house projects begging to be completed. All these things are important to give my time to, but I miss having time alone to work through my thoughts. And there is something unique to working through thoughts with pen and paper. It would be interesting to see how a particular thought path might develop differently if done digitally instead of analog. Digital thoughts can be discarded and reshaped much more easily. Analog thoughts are methodical and more planned out. Each word, each sentence, gets much more thought. There is no turning back.\nIt\u0026rsquo;s so fun to see where thoughts lead me. I thought this would be an entry about busyness and distraction, but my mind seems more stuck on the difference between digital and analog mediums for thought exploration. Having a medium to capture your thoughts is useful, but how does the medium shape your thoughts? Is it better to be able to edit and rearrange your thoughts easily, or is it better, to follow a slow, linear progression? Or is it just different? If I had written this digitally, I might have edited the first paragraph to have a smoother segue, but I would have lost the original idea that led me to where I am now. Analog forces a full historical record. It takes a longer time to adjust course or backtrack, but you won\u0026rsquo;t lose where you started. How many beautiful, half-baked thoughts have been lost in the editing phase of digital writing? Yet on the other side of the coin, dead branches should be pruned so that the healthy ones can grow stronger.\nIt would be nice to have the benefits of both analog and digital. I need someone to build a small microwave-style device that scans a notebook in its entirety, and then some sort of local, air-gapped Al separates and tags the content appropriately, moving it to my note app of choice. A dreamer has to dream. The major downfall of analog is how hard it is to re-surface at a later time. There are indexing and categorization systems that help with this, but they don\u0026rsquo;t come close to what I can do digitally.\nThe experience of writing something new is so nice in analog though. Flip to an empty page, grab your writing utensil, and get going. I get the physical feedback of the pen, the sound of each stroke on the page, and my writing style is distinctly \u0026ldquo;mine\u0026rdquo;. I contrast that with my phone, where I feel obligated to read each notification before I get started writing. That is, if I even make it there without getting lost chasing a squirrel. It\u0026rsquo;s not as good with a laptop either. I have to pull it out, boot it up, find my app, and make my way to a blank space for writing. It\u0026rsquo;s not too much longer, but it feels so much further away than pen and paper.\nThis sounds a bit like digital-bashing, but I prefer it in many cases. I\u0026rsquo;ve just been spending too much time there recently, and not enough time with my pen and paper. Here\u0026rsquo;s to more time with my ad-free journal.\n", "dateiso": "2024-05-26 09:13:09 -0500", "date": "9:13 p.m. on May 26, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/05/26/an-analog-blog.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F05%2F26%2Fan-analog-blog.html" }, { "id": 178, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "There\u0026rsquo;s some nice footage of Sierra Space\u0026rsquo;s Dream Chaser at the Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky, Ohio at the 2:00 minute timestamp of this week\u0026rsquo;s TW@N video 😁 We have neat facilities out here in The Land! youtu.be/xQeA-KzTL\u0026hellip;\n", "dateiso": "2024-05-25 15:28:43 -0500", "date": "3:28 p.m. on May 25, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/05/25/theres-some-nice.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F05%2F25%2Ftheres-some-nice.html" }, { "id": 179, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I just used the Google Assistant to make a reservation this morning and it was pretty nice. It waited until the restaurant was open to call and then sent me a text confirming the reservation.\n", "dateiso": "2024-05-25 08:50:17 -0500", "date": "8:50 p.m. on May 25, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/05/25/i-just-used.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F05%2F25%2Fi-just-used.html" }, { "id": 180, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I replaced our mulch with gravel and started our first garden! We will have cucumbers and three varieties of bell pepper. 🪨🥒🫑\n", "dateiso": "2024-05-25 08:32:41 -0500", "date": "8:32 p.m. on May 25, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/05/25/i-replaced-our.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F05%2F25%2Fi-replaced-our.html" }, { "id": 181, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Ever wondered what the heck that fancy ChatGPT Large Language Model AI is actually doing? This animated 3D visualization is an awesome step-by-step guide! bbycroft.net/llm\n", "dateiso": "2024-05-22 10:31:24 -0500", "date": "10:31 p.m. on May 22, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/05/22/ever-wondered-what.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F05%2F22%2Fever-wondered-what.html" }, { "id": 182, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Felt good to be back on the grill yesterday!\n", "dateiso": "2024-05-16 09:15:02 -0500", "date": "9:15 p.m. on May 16, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/05/16/felt-good-to.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F05%2F16%2Ffelt-good-to.html" }, { "id": 183, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Can you tell which is the original\u0026hellip;? 😅\nI asked GPT-4o to describe an image of me, and then fed the generated text into Microsoft Designer to see how well it could generate a copy of me. Microsoft Designer turned the handsome-dial a little too high, but this is impressive!\nHere\u0026rsquo;s the description that was generated from the original:\n The image shows a young man with short, neatly trimmed hair and a light beard. He is smiling warmly, showing his teeth. He is wearing a gray zip-up sweater. The background is an outdoor setting with blurred trees and foliage, suggesting it might be a park or a natural area. The overall mood of the image is friendly and relaxed.\n ", "dateiso": "2024-05-15 12:24:49 -0500", "date": "12:24 p.m. on May 15, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/05/15/can-you-tell.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F05%2F15%2Fcan-you-tell.html" }, { "id": 184, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Is 1285 a good score on Google\u0026rsquo;s dino game? What are your high scores?\n", "dateiso": "2024-05-14 13:40:25 -0500", "date": "1:40 p.m. on May 14, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/05/14/is-a-good.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F05%2F14%2Fis-a-good.html" }, { "id": 185, "type": "post", "title": "Check the Categorization of Your Domain in Cloudflare Radar to Make Sure Federal Employees Can Visit Your Site", "text": "My blog is available on the NASA network now! For anyone else who wants their site to show up on a federal network, make sure you scan your domain at https://radar.cloudflare.com/. CISA uses Protective DNS, and Cloudflare is the provider behind that service. After scanning the URL, check the security tab to see if there are any security risks.\nIf there are, then you\u0026rsquo;ll need to request that your site be recategorized at this link: https://radar.cloudflare.com/domains/feedback\nMy site had originally been categorized as \u0026ldquo;DGA Domain\u0026rdquo;, which is a security risk, so I requested that categorization be removed. Cloudflare made the change within 24 hours, and now I can share my work-related blog posts with my coworkers!\n", "dateiso": "2024-05-14 06:51:18 -0500", "date": "6:51 p.m. on May 14, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/05/14/check-the-categorization.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F05%2F14%2Fcheck-the-categorization.html" }, { "id": 186, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I updated the font across my site to Inter instead of system-ui, which was the Tiny Theme default. I found out Tiny Theme has all sorts of pre-defined font groupings in main.css, so what I actually changed the font-family to was \u0026ndash;font-neo-grotesque, of which the primary font was Inter. I like it!\n", "dateiso": "2024-05-14 05:28:22 -0500", "date": "5:28 p.m. on May 14, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/05/14/i-updated-the.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F05%2F14%2Fi-updated-the.html" }, { "id": 187, "type": "post", "title": "Is this a blog or a node in a botnet?", "text": "I finally found out why my blog was blocked on the NASA network! Cloudflare had it categorized as a DGA Domain, so they thought it was an autogenerated domain that was part of an evil botnet 🤦‍♂️ I\u0026rsquo;ve submitted a request for Cloudflare to recategorize it under \u0026ldquo;Personal Blogs\u0026rdquo; so it doesn\u0026rsquo;t show up as a security threat any more. I guess my last name does look a little suspect and not quite like a real word someone would use for a domain\u0026hellip;\n", "dateiso": "2024-05-13 09:20:44 -0500", "date": "9:20 p.m. on May 13, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/05/13/is-this-a.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F05%2F13%2Fis-this-a.html" }, { "id": 188, "type": "post", "title": "Compound and Leverage", "text": "Compound and leverage are powerful forces to move us toward our desired outcomes.\nI\u0026rsquo;ve been thinking about these two forces and how they can be used not only to improve finances, but they also apply to other areas of life.\nWhen given consistent effort, some things will compound over time, like interest on money or the growth of a network. If we can identify these things, then we can give them small amounts of consistent effort to see amazing growth over the long term.\nOn the other hand, leverage can be used to amplify your efforts for outsized returns. In finances, leverage usually means taking on debt to acquire assets. When done right, the assets bring in more dollars than the debt takes out.\nCompound plays the long game and trusts that what you put in will build upon itself.\nLeverage amplifies your efforts to turn little resources into big value.\nConsider the following ways you can put these forces to work for you:\nCompound Business- Identify and complete 1 to 3 top tasks each day. You\u0026rsquo;ll be amazed at what you\u0026rsquo;ve done in a year. Relationships - Take some time each day to reach out to friends or family. Consistent bits of time devoted to your relationships go a long way. Network - Talk to new people and grow your network a little each week. The more it grows the easier it grows. Money - Put some of each paycheck toward compound investments. At least put it into a high-yield savings account! Health - Brush your teeth twice a day. Floss. Get enough sleep. Eat balanced, normal-sized portions. Exercise a couple times a week. You\u0026rsquo;ll be superhuman in a year. Leverage Business - Spend the time to automate routine tasks. Use templates. Create process automations. Delegate when appropriate. Relationships - Leverage other assets for growth in your relationships. Spend lavishly on a loved one to get them a meaningful gift. Use your time to write a heartfelt letter to a friend. Share your skills to help your family. Network - Use your network to bring others into your network. Leverage events like conferences to find like-minded people who are also interested in finding you! Money - Take on a loan to buy an asset that pays for the loan and then some. The loan lets you buy an asset larger than you could afford on your own, increasing your net worth as debt is paid off. Leveraging money is risky, so be smart and don\u0026rsquo;t over-leverage. Have some reserves to get you out of a pickle if needed. Health - Use your doctor! Leverage their years of medical knowledge to better understand your specific health situation. What other ways are you using compound and leverage? I\u0026rsquo;m very curious to know!\n", "dateiso": "2024-05-13 05:28:33 -0500", "date": "5:28 p.m. on May 13, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/05/13/compound-and-leverage.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F05%2F13%2Fcompound-and-leverage.html" }, { "id": 189, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I\u0026rsquo;m worried about my blog undergoing a LinkedInification. A lot of my recent posts have been good candidates to cross post on LinkedIn, but when I\u0026rsquo;m cross posting there I feel the tug to tweak my style for better \u0026ldquo;engagement\u0026rdquo;.\nI don\u0026rsquo;t want that to drive what I write or how I write, so I\u0026rsquo;m keeping an eye on it. I kinda like the idea of writing a full post on the blog, and then throwing a shorter summary version on LinkedIn, but that sounds like too much work. I\u0026rsquo;ll have to give it some more thought.\n", "dateiso": "2024-05-12 20:11:31 -0500", "date": "8:11 p.m. on May 12, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/05/12/im-worried-about.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F05%2F12%2Fim-worried-about.html" }, { "id": 190, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Happy Mother\u0026rsquo;s day to all the moms!\nWhether working or not, you matter. So thank you for all you do. ❤️\nI\u0026rsquo;ve been blessed with an amazing mom and now I\u0026rsquo;m married to an amazing mom, so I\u0026rsquo;ve experienced the profound impact a good mom can have. Don\u0026rsquo;t forget to thank a mom today!\n", "dateiso": "2024-05-12 13:19:05 -0500", "date": "1:19 p.m. on May 12, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/05/12/happy-mothers-day.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F05%2F12%2Fhappy-mothers-day.html" }, { "id": 191, "type": "post", "title": "NASA's First Agile Technical Interchange Meeting", "text": "Yesterday was NASA\u0026rsquo;s very first Agile Technical Interchange Meeting! NASA is becoming agile 🚀🏃‍♂️💨\nI learned how Agile is applied outside of my discipline, web software, to improve how we build hardware and integrated systems, particularly in the systems engineering discipline.\nHere are some ✨highlights✨ of NASA\u0026rsquo;s agile journey:\n💙 Agile = respect. Tears were shed during a cybersecurity team\u0026rsquo;s transition to SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework). Years of pent-up frustration and pain came out as the team realized how unseen they felt due to working in a very reactive manner, with requests coming in all over the place and no visibility into what they were accomplishing. Now their capacity is clearly understood by their customers and their leadership, and they are delivering more and happier than ever before.\n✈ Architecture affects agility. A team rearchitected their software to leverage microservices for coordinating drone traffic in lower-atmosphere urban air space. The architecture change has allowed them to be much more agile in how they deploy software.\n🌐 NASA does open-source!? I heard from the OpenMDAO team about how they are building open-source software from NASA, and how adapting an agile mindset has allowed them to respond and work with the open-source community.\n🔬 An agile mindset helps deliver valuable research. Much research happens at NASA, and adopting an agile mindset/approach is helping researchers think about how they deliver value with their research. This approach is not taught in doctorate programs, so it was fascinating to see the melding of these concepts and how important it is that NASA is thoughtful about what value our research products can deliver!\nWe have a ways to go, but we\u0026rsquo;re on our way! I\u0026rsquo;m looking forward to staying connected with this community and seeing what else can be done with an agile mindset at NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration!\nPhoto credit: Jackelynne Silva-Martinez, PhD\n", "dateiso": "2024-05-07 11:21:21 -0500", "date": "11:21 p.m. on May 7, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/05/07/nasas-first-agile.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F05%2F07%2Fnasas-first-agile.html" }, { "id": 192, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "The team at Snipd is coming up with some great AI use cases for podcasts. I enjoy interview/discussion style podcasts, so I\u0026rsquo;m usually more interested in the guest than the podcast host. This new guest feature is going to be awesome!\n Releasing: Podcast Guests ✨\nOn the latest version of the app, you can now:\n👱 View a guest\u0026rsquo;s name, bio \u0026amp; picture\n🎙️ Explore more episodes with the same guest\n👣 Follow your favorite guests\n🔍 Discover similar guests\n ", "dateiso": "2024-05-06 20:42:49 -0500", "date": "8:42 p.m. on May 6, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/05/06/the-team-at.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F05%2F06%2Fthe-team-at.html" }, { "id": 193, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Enjoying a local park before church\n", "dateiso": "2024-05-05 08:14:04 -0500", "date": "8:14 p.m. on May 5, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/05/05/enjoying-a-local.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F05%2F05%2Fenjoying-a-local.html" }, { "id": 194, "type": "post", "title": "Now 2024-05-05", "text": "Also available on my /now page\nDad Stuff My daughter is 10 months old! Time is flying. It seems like she has learned something new every couple of days. As I write, the newest developments are that her top front teeth are coming in, she\u0026rsquo;s loving waving and clapping, we\u0026rsquo;re trying out cloth diapers, and when we ask her to say \u0026ldquo;dada\u0026rdquo; or \u0026ldquo;mama\u0026rdquo; she consistently replies \u0026ldquo;dada\u0026rdquo; to either.\nI\u0026rsquo;m soaking up every moment with her, particularly laying on the floor and letting her crawl over and attack me while we giggle together. I got teary-eyed the other day as I held her while she slept and I thought about how someday I won\u0026rsquo;t be able to hold her anymore and these days will feel like a distant, warm memory. All the more reason to really be present, put the phone down, and take in each moment as completely as I can.\nCreating I\u0026rsquo;ve been feeling extra creative lately! I\u0026rsquo;ve been writing on the blog, I set up a digital garden at garden.weidok.al, which I am mostly using to share my sermon notes and Readwise notes, and I created an app called Fed Meetup! I would have thought that becoming a dad meant I would have way less time, but somehow it has opened me up to being more creative. Funny how things work out not at all how I expect!\nI\u0026rsquo;ve also been considering starting up a newsletter. I like the idea of having a commitment to write weekly within a single topic, and writing about something that is useful to others. The newsletter would be for average computer users/office workers, and would be about tips to use a computer just a little bit better. Things like hotkeys, workflows, apps, lesser-known parts of the OS, or anything that could help people be just a touch more efficient on a computer. If that sounds like something you would read and subscribe to, let me know!\nWork We launched the NASA Cause Analysis Tool! I\u0026rsquo;ve been the product manager for this app since it was approved to be funded back in April of last year, and it\u0026rsquo;s hard for me to believe that we already have working production software! Now that it\u0026rsquo;s released, we\u0026rsquo;re focused on releasing it, again and again. There\u0026rsquo;s a lot more functionality yet to be added, but I\u0026rsquo;m excited to have it available to users so we can get feedback as we build new increments. I\u0026rsquo;d like to write a post sharing more about this.\nIt\u0026rsquo;s performance review time of the year at NASA, so I just finished up my self-assessment and feedback for coworkers. I\u0026rsquo;m learning to love this time of year, as it forces me to reflect on the past year, which is something I would like myself to do anyways. I\u0026rsquo;m thinking about writing a blog post about my highlights from this year at NASA.\nThere are so many exciting things going on right now, some of them I briefly mentioned in my post about my day earlier this week. While it\u0026rsquo;s busy, I feel fortunate to be in this place at this time. I would have never thought I\u0026rsquo;d be doing all these cool things and working on projects that reach across the whole agency.\nFaith and Friends So many babies are being born! I\u0026rsquo;m not sure how many since my last update, but I think we\u0026rsquo;ve added around 5 new babies among our church group since then. It has been fun sharing the joy with everyone and helping out by participating in meal trains.\nI\u0026rsquo;ve been really enjoying taking sermon notes in Obsidian, and then publishing them to my digital garden to share with my friends since we usually talk about the sermon from the past week when we get together on Thursday evenings. I\u0026rsquo;d like to write a post about how I\u0026rsquo;m using Obsidian on my phone to take sermon notes. With markdown formatting, Obsidian is so much easier to to format on-the-fly than other note-taking apps I\u0026rsquo;ve tried in the past. And I like digital better than analog for sermon notes because it\u0026rsquo;s searchable, I can easily copy/paste snippets of scripture, and I can take pictures during the sermon if needed and add them into the notes.\nLawn Care That time of year has rolled around again\u0026hellip; I\u0026rsquo;m focused on lawn care. I have a lot to learn here! When our house was built two years ago, they didn\u0026rsquo;t do a great job rockhounding the soil, so it\u0026rsquo;s tough and rocky and the grass comes up in patches. I tried re-seeding last year which helped a little, but not too much. I think I need to aerate.\nAnyways, most of our grass is sickly but we had a couple of patches that grew up really fast and thick. They grew way quicker than I expected, so by the time I cut them they were too tall and I killed them so now we have some yellow patches in the back.\nWe\u0026rsquo;re planning to redo our flower beds soon. Those were installed for us but with no weed barrier or defined edge, so that has gotten out of control. I\u0026rsquo;m going to re-edge it and put in some landscaping rock instead of mulch because I do not want to deal with mulch every year.\nLeisure In between everything above, I\u0026rsquo;m trying to make time for disc golf with friends every now and then so they don\u0026rsquo;t pass me up :) I\u0026rsquo;ve also been enjoying reading \u0026ldquo;Foundation and Empire\u0026rdquo; by Isaac Asimov.\nExercise Yeah\u0026hellip;. Not been doing great here. With all my creative passion recently, I\u0026rsquo;ve thrown exercise to the side. I\u0026rsquo;m looking to change that though. The doc says I have elevated cholesterol and triglycerides, so it\u0026rsquo;s time to take exercise seriously and back off the carbs. I\u0026rsquo;m sad about taking time away from all the things above that I love, but there\u0026rsquo;s plenty of \u0026ldquo;gray\u0026rdquo; time in my day where I\u0026rsquo;m just distracted that I could take from instead. And I know from the past that getting into a good exercise routine will just bring me more energy and vigor, so it will be additive rather than subtractive. My wife and I tried some YouTube yoga together yesterday, but then as we were about to enter child\u0026rsquo;s pose she noticed a small spider in front of her face and that abruptly ended our session!\n", "dateiso": "2024-05-05 05:47:34 -0500", "date": "5:47 p.m. on May 5, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/05/05/now.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F05%2F05%2Fnow.html" }, { "id": 195, "type": "post", "title": "Introducing Fed Meetup", "text": "Now that we are out of the pandemic, federal travel is back in full swing. Federal employees are flying cross-country to get together and meet on various topics to do their work more effectively. I see this, especially at my organization, NASA. Just this winter I flew out to Kennedy Space Center for the Office of Safety and Mission Assurance Face-to-Face with more than 50 other colleagues to talk about where the organization is going and to do workshops together. We do these twice a year.\nMultiply 2x per year times the number of employees traveling, and then multiply that by all the other sub-organizations at NASA doing similar events and that adds up to a LOT of annual travel costs. But NASA is just one piece of the federal puzzle and a rather small piece at that. In 2023 NASA\u0026rsquo;s $28.3 billion budget only accounted for 0.3% of the federal budget as shown in this graphic from usaspending.gov.\nThe Challenge of Planning Group Travel Planning travel for large organizations is hard. When you combine the number of different origins travelers will be coming from with the different destinations they could travel to, it becomes difficult to understand the combinations. How do you compare the costs of your destinations? Right now, this is done by gut feel.\nCloser destinations or ones that already have people living there are probably cheaper, right? Well, usually, yes, in simple situations. But not always, and this can get complex when you have different amounts of travelers living in various potential destinations. Or what if you have people all across the country? How do you triangulate and weigh the \u0026ldquo;closest\u0026rdquo; city between all travelers? Not to mention some farther cities have cheaper airfare costs than closer cities. AND to even further complicate it, you need to consider each city\u0026rsquo;s cost of living, which contributes to Meals \u0026amp; Incidentals Expenses.\nDo you have a headache too?\nIntroducing Fed Meetup I created Fed Meetup to help federal travel planners optimize their destinations for large in-person meetings. It uses publicly available city pair and per diem rate data to compare travel costs for in-person events across multiple destinations.\nHow Does It Work? First, enter how many days long the event will be and the month of travel. This is used to calculate per diem rates, which fluctuate in some locations based on the month.\nNext, input the various origins each traveler will be coming from, along with the number of travelers coming from the origin. Right now, you can specify an origin as either a NASA Center or an Airport. In the future, I plan to provide other predefined origins for agencies other than NASA. If you work at an agency and want your locations added to their own list, reach out to me and I\u0026rsquo;d be happy to work with you.\nOnce you have entered your origins, it\u0026rsquo;s time to select the destinations you would like to compare. There are two options for adding destinations:\n Add bulk destinations from a preset (currently the only option is All NASA Centers. I plan to add locations for other agencies in the future) Add individual destinations by airport or NASA Center. After you\u0026rsquo;ve followed the steps above, you\u0026rsquo;re ready to submit and let Fed Meetup work its magic! Fed Meetup will run its calculations and provide you with a ranked list of destinations from cheapest to most expensive. If a direct flight can not be found for an origin-destination pair, that destination is ranked lower in the results and marked with an asterisk to indicate the total cost does not include airfare for that origin-destination pair. For each result, you can see the total cost, airfare cost, and per diem cost.\nWhy Build This? Fed Meetup was born out of a NASA Spark campaign. The campaign was looking for existing tools that could be used to evaluate the best meeting locations for large meetings, specifically using federal city-pair and per diem rates. No such tool existed, so I decided to build my own. I was looking for a fun side project that was useful, so this was a great fit! All-in it took me about 15 hours to build this app. I\u0026rsquo;m proud that I was able to get it completed within the two-week timeframe I had before the Spark campaign closed, but there is a lot that I would like to improve.\nFuture Plans Remember how NASA was only 0.3% of the federal budget? My grand vision for Fed Meetup is to get it into the hands of as many federal agencies as I can. It\u0026rsquo;s free and open to anyone to use, so my hope is that agencies will find it useful and adopt it to make their travel spending more efficient. All Americans benefit when taxpayer dollars are used more prudently.\nTo make that grand vision possible, there are lots of little improvements I\u0026rsquo;d like to make. This is more of a grocery list than a roadmap, but you have to start somewhere, right?\n 🎨 Improve the design. Right now it is very wordy. Experience is not as good on mobile. Simplify the interface and make it more intuitive. 🏙 Allow users to select cities as origins and destinations. ✈Related to the above, for cities that have multiple airports (Washington D.C.) the tool would select the cheapest airport pair for that city. 🧮 Update the results to show more info about how the calculation was made. This would allow users to fact-check the results and trust them more. ❗ Improve form validation when there are input errors, so it is clear what needs to be changed. ℹ Add an \u0026ldquo;About\u0026rdquo; page that describes the tool and why it exists - link to this post??? 🏛 Add preset origins/destinations for other agencies (e.g., \u0026ldquo;All Department of Energy Locations\u0026rdquo;). 💡 If you are from another agency, please reach out and help me get the locations set up for your agency! 🍃 Consider carbon footprint in the calculation and results. I would need a data source for these calculations. I have not looked into this yet. 🚗 If traveling between close cities, calculate Privately Owned Vehicle mileage and compare it with airfare prices. Now What? Time to spread the word! I\u0026rsquo;ll be out evangelizing Fed Meetup to those who need to know about it. If you work in a federal agency, send it to the person in your area who organizes travel. Have them try it out.\nIf you use Fed Meetup, send me some feedback. My email inbox and LinkedIn DMs are open!\nSafe travels!\n", "dateiso": "2024-05-03 14:26:39 -0500", "date": "2:26 p.m. on May 3, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/05/03/introducing-fed-meetup.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F05%2F03%2Fintroducing-fed-meetup.html" }, { "id": 196, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I can\u0026rsquo;t tell you the number of people I\u0026rsquo;ve saved by muting them when they unintentionally had their mics open on a call with 100+ participants. I just muted someone who accidentally interrupted a large meeting talking about a fly that had gotten into their house 🤦‍♂️\nNot all heroes wear capes\u0026hellip;\n", "dateiso": "2024-05-01 10:01:05 -0500", "date": "10:01 p.m. on May 1, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/05/01/i-cant-tell.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F05%2F01%2Fi-cant-tell.html" }, { "id": 197, "type": "post", "title": "A Day In My Life At NASA", "text": "On days like today, I marvel as I reflect all the awesome things I get to do in my role here at the NASA Safety Center.\nToday I\u0026hellip;\n🐛 Hosted a \u0026ldquo;bug hunt\u0026rdquo; for the new app we launched last month, having the whole development team try to break the app to catch bugs before they become an issue.\n🌒 Spoke with someone from the Human Landing System program about their interest in using a fishbone (Ishikawa) diagram to identify what could cause the lunar lander to tip over during landing. This is a problem that has plagued recent commercial lunar landings, and we are looking to support these use cases in our new app.\n🥗 Ate a fantastic salad with my team at the café in the new Research Support Building at NASA Glenn Research Center\n🤹‍♀️ Consulted with a co-worker about how we could use Microsoft Delve to surface Reliability Engineers in the agency with unique skills that could be shared with others in that discipline.\n📊 Reviewed the Science Mission Directorate\u0026rsquo;s system for tracking risks to inform how our team will build an agency-level tool that surfaces elevated risks from the mission directorates.\n👬 Demoed our API for mishap data to a group building a Digital Twin of NASA facilities. Mishap data could be layered with information we have on aging infrastructure to build a compelling case for which areas of NASA\u0026rsquo;s infrastructure are in the most need of attention.\nAnd that all is just the tip of the iceberg! Looking forward to tomorrow!\n", "dateiso": "2024-04-30 21:22:51 -0500", "date": "9:22 p.m. on Apr 30, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/04/30/a-day-in.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F04%2F30%2Fa-day-in.html" }, { "id": 198, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Beautiful day out on the course today. Playing an informal tournament with friends where we\u0026rsquo;ll be playing 4 courses in one day! 😯 Time to get some steps in\u0026hellip;\n", "dateiso": "2024-04-28 09:45:56 -0500", "date": "9:45 p.m. on Apr 28, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/04/28/beautiful-day-out.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F04%2F28%2Fbeautiful-day-out.html" }, { "id": 199, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I listened to Shakey Graves this morning while washing a mountain of dishes. I like whatever genre this is. Folk? I feel like I stumbled on something new to me, which is always exciting and fun! Opens up a new little world to explore. I welcome any artist/album suggestions like this! 🎶\n", "dateiso": "2024-04-27 06:18:33 -0500", "date": "6:18 p.m. on Apr 27, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/04/27/i-listened-to.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F04%2F27%2Fi-listened-to.html" }, { "id": 200, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Every now and then LinkedIn asks me to contribute to these collaborative articles, which have AI-generated content that humans respond to. This one was funny and unsettling\u0026hellip; AI wants me to embrace AI if it disrupts my job\u0026hellip; 🤔\np.s. This is actually good advice. Just feels weird coming from AI.\n", "dateiso": "2024-04-24 15:45:04 -0500", "date": "3:45 p.m. on Apr 24, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/04/24/every-now-and.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F04%2F24%2Fevery-now-and.html" }, { "id": 201, "type": "post", "title": "A Brief Thought On A Recent Bout of Resistance", "text": "Gotta get back on the ol' blog! I\u0026rsquo;ve been working a bit on a draft of an article, but have been having some resistance to finishing it. Do I keep it long and playful like it is now, or cut the fluff and get right to the message?\nI\u0026rsquo;ve been pondering this question, and I think the right answer is to just get the dang thing out into the world. Have fun writing it. The style does not matter. Either way, it will be a hit with some people and a miss with others. And that doesn\u0026rsquo;t matter anyways. I want to write for me to work through things and hopefully that helps others along the way. But if not, fine!\nJust write Jake!\n", "dateiso": "2024-04-24 06:09:34 -0500", "date": "6:09 p.m. on Apr 24, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/04/24/a-brief-thought.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F04%2F24%2Fa-brief-thought.html" }, { "id": 202, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Finished reading The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande 📚\nAlso, I started a digital garden at garden.weidok.al! I\u0026rsquo;ll share more about that another time. For now, here are my review and highlights of this book from my garden: garden.weidok.al/readwise/books/the-checklist-manifesto/\n", "dateiso": "2024-04-15 21:13:15 -0500", "date": "9:13 p.m. on Apr 15, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/04/15/finished-reading-the.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F04%2F15%2Ffinished-reading-the.html" }, { "id": 203, "type": "post", "title": "Text Message Triage", "text": "Me: \u0026ldquo;Oh, I need to respond to that later.\u0026rdquo;\nText Message: cries softly as it floats into the void, never to be seen again\nText Message Chaos and Overwhelm Until recently, I\u0026rsquo;ve managed my text messages differently from email or work-related instant messaging.\nI never did anything with text messages other than collect hundreds upon hundreds of conversations that sat in a chronological heap waiting to welcome me each time I opened my messaging app. Conversations that needed a response would get intermixed with ones that did not need a response and would get buried as more messages were received in yet other conversations. I don\u0026rsquo;t receive a ton of text messages, but with no system at all to handle them, I felt overwhelmed when opening my messaging app and was ghosting a lot of people as a result.\nThis led to some cognitive dissonance where I felt like a wizard in the world of email, but I felt like a Neanderthal when it came to responding to friends and family over text.\nMy Text Message Triage System Now my process for handling texts is similar to my process for emails. Conceptually, I think of my messaging app like my email inbox, with each conversation being like an extremely long-running email thread.\nFor each message I receive, I work through the following questions:\n1. Can This Conversation Be Deleted? Bye-bye spam. I don\u0026rsquo;t delete many conversations because they don\u0026rsquo;t take up much storage anyway, but if it\u0026rsquo;s something I know I will never revisit then I burn it with fire and move on with my day.\n2. Is This Message Just for Reference? Archive it! If I don\u0026rsquo;t need to respond, then conversations go straight to my archive where they can still be searched and retrieved.\n3. Can I Respond In 2 Minutes? Just do it! Future-me has better things to do and doesn\u0026rsquo;t need the cognitive overhead of thinking about needing to respond. Knock this out now.\nAfter I\u0026rsquo;ve responded, I archive the conversation to get it out of my inbox. The only exception is if I am awaiting a quick response and I will want to follow up if I don\u0026rsquo;t receive one. Then it stays in the inbox.\n4. Do I Need to Respond, But Can\u0026rsquo;t Right Now? This one is a more context dependent.\nIf I can\u0026rsquo;t respond because I just don\u0026rsquo;t have time, then the message stays in the inbox. Unread or read, doesn\u0026rsquo;t matter. If it\u0026rsquo;s in the inbox, I need to get to it.\nIf I need to do something before I can respond, then that gets transferred to my to-do list, and I leave the message in the inbox.\nOther Notes on My System Some Group Chats Stay in The Inbox I would love to get to complete inbox-zero and archive EVERYTHING, but with Google Messages if I archive a group chat, it is clunky to start a new message to the chat. So, I leave three of my high-volume group chats in my inbox at all times.\nUse Swipe Actions Swipe right to delete a conversation, swipe left to archive it. This helps me move through messages quickly.\n", "dateiso": "2024-04-12 04:17:57 -0500", "date": "4:17 p.m. on Apr 12, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/04/12/text-message-triage.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F04%2F12%2Ftext-message-triage.html" }, { "id": 204, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "📷 Day 11: sky #mbapr\nWe watched the eclipse from Total Eclipse Fest in Cleveland. It was cool seeing all the NASA exhibits and being there for the official NASA broadcast!\n", "dateiso": "2024-04-11 16:33:09 -0500", "date": "4:33 p.m. on Apr 11, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/04/11/day-sky-mbapr.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F04%2F11%2Fday-sky-mbapr.html" }, { "id": 205, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "📷 Day 6: windy #mbapr\n12mph winds today. The tree branches out back are swaying calmly while the clouds float past leisurely.\n", "dateiso": "2024-04-06 15:17:22 -0500", "date": "3:17 p.m. on Apr 6, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/04/06/day-windy-mbapr.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F04%2F06%2Fday-windy-mbapr.html" }, { "id": 206, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "📷 Day 5: serene #mbapr\nWhat greater serenity is there than fri(ed rice)day?\n", "dateiso": "2024-04-05 16:52:58 -0500", "date": "4:52 p.m. on Apr 5, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/04/05/day-serene-mbapr.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F04%2F05%2Fday-serene-mbapr.html" }, { "id": 207, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "📷 Day 4: foliage #mbapr\nTaken at a local disc golf course last summer.\n", "dateiso": "2024-04-04 07:43:39 -0500", "date": "7:43 p.m. on Apr 4, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/04/04/day-foliage-mbapr.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F04%2F04%2Fday-foliage-mbapr.html" }, { "id": 208, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "📷 Day 3: card #mbapr\nAnother view of Day 1\u0026rsquo;s subject.\n", "dateiso": "2024-04-03 10:04:08 -0500", "date": "10:04 p.m. on Apr 3, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/04/03/day-card-mbapr.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F04%2F03%2Fday-card-mbapr.html" }, { "id": 209, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "📷 Day 2: flowers #mbapr\nA beautiful bouquet my wife put together. We got these flowers from our friend and her mom, they run a flower stand together at our local farmer\u0026rsquo;s market.\n", "dateiso": "2024-04-02 08:34:42 -0500", "date": "8:34 p.m. on Apr 2, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/04/02/day-flowers-mbapr.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F04%2F02%2Fday-flowers-mbapr.html" }, { "id": 210, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Looking forward to the Micro.blog April Photoblogging Challenge!\n📷 Day 1: toy #mbapr\nThese playing cards sit on display in the background of my video calls. I used to mess around with card magic, now they get pulled down for Euchre occasionally. They also make for a nice fidget toy during meetings!\n", "dateiso": "2024-04-01 08:08:56 -0500", "date": "8:08 p.m. on Apr 1, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/04/01/looking-forward-to.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F04%2F01%2Flooking-forward-to.html" }, { "id": 211, "type": "post", "title": "To Be Good, You Must Be Dangerous", "text": " \u0026ldquo;They see they can and must stand up, because they begin to understand how genuinely monstrous they will become, otherwise, feeding on their resentment, transforming it into the most destructive of wishes. To say it again: There is very little difference between the capacity for mayhem and destruction, integrated, and strength of character. This is one of the most difficult lessons of life.\u0026rdquo;\n- Jordan B. Peterson, 12 Rules for Life\n To be good, you must be dangerous.\nMuch of my life, I equated dangerous with bad. But I have come to realize that a chief aim of the good ought to be to increase their dangerousness. This is necessary when operating in and around evil.\nA capacity for evil is not inherently bad. Your capacity is morally neutral, but it is up to you to wield it appropriately. C.S. Lewis illustrates this well when answering the question of why there is evil at all:\n \u0026ldquo;‘Why did God make a creature of such rotten stuff that it went wrong?’ The better stuff a creature is made of—the cleverer and stronger and freer it is—then the better it will be if it goes right, but also the worse it will be if it goes wrong. A cow cannot be very good or very bad; a dog can be both better and worse; a child better and worse still; an ordinary man, still more so; a man of genius, still more so; a superhuman spirit best—or worst—of all.\u0026rdquo;\n- C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity\n Jesus makes this point too, when telling his disciples that they ought to be wise as serpents. This is potent imagery considering it was a serpent that caused the fall of man.\n \u0026ldquo;Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.\u0026rdquo;\nMatthew 10:16 ESV\n He implores them to wield the wisdom of the serpent with the innocence of the dove. Why not just tell them to be innocent as doves? Because to be good, you must be dangerous.\nThis then, is the aim of the good: to be cleverer and stronger and freer. To be dangerous.\n", "dateiso": "2024-03-29 12:56:30 -0500", "date": "12:56 p.m. on Mar 29, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/03/29/to-be-good.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F03%2F29%2Fto-be-good.html" }, { "id": 212, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Today I learned that nasa (pronounced naw-saw) in Hebrew means \u0026ldquo;to lift, bear up, carry, take\u0026rdquo;. Seems fitting with the mission of NASA! Hebrew Lexicon\n", "dateiso": "2024-03-26 05:14:58 -0500", "date": "5:14 p.m. on Mar 26, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/03/26/today-i-learned.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F03%2F26%2Ftoday-i-learned.html" }, { "id": 213, "type": "post", "title": "My User Story Template", "text": "Below is the template I created for writing user stories.\n# User Story As a... I want... So that... # Description Lorem... # Acceptance Criteria - bullet criteria GIVEN setup WHEN action THEN result I write a lot of user stories for my team, and they need to be clear, to the point, and verifiable. This template was born out of a need for consistency in how user stories were defined and written and aims to give a development team the bare minimum they need to deliver a hot, fresh slice of valuable software. Nothing here is ground-breaking, but it serves as a foundation for defining work when building software.\nUser Story Statement Section First, we start with the traditional user story statement.\nAs a\nI want\nSo that\nThis forces the author of the story to be clear about who wants what, and most importantly, why they want it.\nFor the As a clause, try to be clear about a specific type of person. If your description can conjure up a mental picture of a distinct archetypal user-type, you\u0026rsquo;re doing it right. Avoid writing simply As a user at all costs. We\u0026rsquo;ve all done it, and we should all be ashamed.\nIn your I want section, describe one want. If you are tempted to have more than one clause here, you might consider if an additional user story is warranted.\nWith the So that clause, focus intently on the unique value this will provide to your archetypal user-type. This is the hardest clause to write, but also the most important to do well. It\u0026rsquo;s value may be obscure to some, because it does not directly contribute to the \u0026ldquo;spec\u0026rdquo; of what needs built. But this is your chance to clearly define the impact of this work to be done. It breathes life into the code to be written, and gives your designer, developer, tester, etc. a clear reason for doing what they\u0026rsquo;re doing.\nDescription Section This is your chance to go into more detail about your user story. What should the user-facing phrasing be? What data are we working with?\nI often will take a first pass at this providing as much important context and detail as I can from the product perspective. Sometimes, a developer will go into description after I\u0026rsquo;ve written it and add a subsection for Technical Details to go more in depth on any technical nuances to the user story that should be considered during development and testing.\nAcceptance Criteria Section Acceptance criteria gives the team a clear basis to know when they are done with a user story. It is something we can point to and either say \u0026ldquo;Yes, we accomplished what we wanted to\u0026rdquo; or \u0026ldquo;No, this doesn\u0026rsquo;t do everything we needed\u0026rdquo;.\nI write acceptance criteria one of two ways, and sometimes I use both.\nBullet Syntax Acceptance criteria can be a simple bullet-list. This is more often the case for smaller user stories, or ones that are more technical. This can be a simple, useful tool to include any non-functional requirements that need to be met to accept the user story.\nGherkin Syntax When it makes sense, I write acceptance criteria in GIVEN, WHEN, THEN format. This lays out a very clear path for manually testing the user story, and this syntax can be used for behavior driven development. It becomes an executable spec that we can use directly in our automated tests.\nExample Here\u0026rsquo;s an example of a user story I\u0026rsquo;ve written recently:\n User Story As a case owner or admin\nI want to add users to my case\nSo that I can collaborate with others\nAnd determine appropriate access levels for CRUD operations\nDescription link to mockups\nThe scope of this ticket includes setting up roles in the application. See the roles matrix for the case-specific roles in the application.\nAdd a button in the top right to add case members (see mockups, only visible for case owners and admins).\nOwners and admins can add other members. The owner can add Admins, but Admins cannot add other Admins.\nAfter clicking the button, the user selects a person and a role, and then can save them as a member to the case. After saving, the new member should be displayed in the case members table.\nThe role options will be\u0026hellip;\n Case Roles Admin (CRUD, only visible to case owner) Contributor (CRU, D data they created. Can remove items from diagram) Report Editor (R, U report section) View Only (R) Note that \u0026ldquo;Owner\u0026rdquo; is not one of the role options, because the owner is whoever created the case and there will only ever be one owner per case.\nAcceptance Criteria GIVEN I am a (owner, case admin)\nWHEN I add a member as a contributor\nTHEN the member is displayed in the case members table with the contributor role\nGIVEN I am a (contributor, report editor, view only)\nTHEN I do not see the button to add a member\nGIVEN I am \u0026ldquo;case admin\u0026rdquo;\nWHEN I am selecting the role for a new member\nTHEN I can not select \u0026ldquo;case admin\u0026rdquo;\n While this template helps define the user story, it is important to remember that the user story is a placeholder for conversation. If you write this up and then immediately push it to your team to work on it, you\u0026rsquo;re missing the beauty of the user story. Bring your draft of the user story before the team and then have a conversation about it. Invite ideas and questions from others on the team. Define and come to a common understanding of the problem to be solved, or the value to be delivered. Then determine how you will bring forth that solution or value.\nIf you adopt this template or some variation of it, reach out to let me know!\n", "dateiso": "2024-03-18 05:29:07 -0500", "date": "5:29 p.m. on Mar 18, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/03/18/below-is-the.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F03%2F18%2Fbelow-is-the.html" }, { "id": 214, "type": "post", "title": "Who Am I?", "text": "I am the outlaw.\nI am the innocent.\nI am the sage.\nI am the jester.\nI am the everyman.\nI am the ruler.\nI am the caregiver.\nI am the explorer.\nI am the hero.\nI am the artist.\nI am the magician.\nI am the lover.\nI am the slave.\nI am the master.\nI am the giver of life.\nI am the wreaker of havoc.\nI am the one who decides.\nI am you.\n", "dateiso": "2024-03-18 04:19:19 -0500", "date": "4:19 p.m. on Mar 18, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/03/18/who-am-i.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F03%2F18%2Fwho-am-i.html" }, { "id": 215, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "It was a beautiful day for disc golf, and then 10 minutes later\u0026hellip; it wasn\u0026rsquo;t 😅\n", "dateiso": "2024-03-17 15:50:36 -0500", "date": "3:50 p.m. on Mar 17, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/03/17/it-was-a.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F03%2F17%2Fit-was-a.html" }, { "id": 216, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I love weekend days when I can stroll around town, ducking in and out of local shops with the family.\n", "dateiso": "2024-03-17 08:57:46 -0500", "date": "8:57 p.m. on Mar 17, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/03/17/i-love-weekend.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F03%2F17%2Fi-love-weekend.html" }, { "id": 217, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Just stumbled on https://aboutideasnow.com/ on Mastodon. This seems like a great resource for finding good personal sites to follow and people to connect with!\n", "dateiso": "2024-03-15 13:35:00 -0500", "date": "1:35 p.m. on Mar 15, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/03/15/just-stumbled-on.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F03%2F15%2Fjust-stumbled-on.html" }, { "id": 218, "type": "post", "title": "Blogroll", "text": "I added a blogroll to my site! I had been thinking about creating this for a while, and the new recommendations feature in Micro.blog gave me the push to finally do it. I added it to my navigation links, but\u0026hellip; it\u0026rsquo;s getting really crowded up there. I may have to do something about that, but I want people to be able to find my blogroll, and putting a link in any of my other pages didn\u0026rsquo;t seem quite right.\nFor now, it is just a list of sites, but I\u0026rsquo;d like to add little one-liner descriptions of why I like each site. I\u0026rsquo;ve had a lot of fun discovering blogs through the blogrolls of others, and I\u0026rsquo;m excited to start to share my own recommendations! My list will grow as I discover new blogs. Right now I\u0026rsquo;ve been finding a lot of interesting blogs by clicking around at https://blogroll.org/ and https://ooh.directory/. These are awesome resources to find independent folks sharing from their own space on the web.\nMy favorite way to discover sites though is through personal recommendations. The more organic, the better. Here\u0026rsquo;s my rank order of favorite ways:\n A personal 1:1 recommendation - \u0026ldquo;Jake! You gotta check out\u0026hellip;.\u0026rdquo; A link in a post I\u0026rsquo;m enjoying (falling down a rabbit hole) A blogroll on a personal site A blog listing site (like those linked above) If you have some blogs I need to check out or other ways of discovering blogs, I\u0026rsquo;d love to hear about them!\n", "dateiso": "2024-03-14 05:47:45 -0500", "date": "5:47 p.m. on Mar 14, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/03/14/blogroll.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F03%2F14%2Fblogroll.html" }, { "id": 219, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "It\u0026rsquo;s a tough job being the human garbage disposal that cleans up after family meals, but someone has to do it.\n", "dateiso": "2024-03-11 17:30:00 -0500", "date": "5:30 p.m. on Mar 11, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/03/11/its-a-tough.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F03%2F11%2Fits-a-tough.html" }, { "id": 220, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Filling out a local tax refund form this morning, dreaded but necessary 🙄. I only worked in the office 16% of the time last year. I actually spent more time not working at all, since I was able to use parental leave. I\u0026rsquo;m feeling thankful for NASA\u0026rsquo;s parental leave policy!\n", "dateiso": "2024-03-09 09:25:45 -0500", "date": "9:25 p.m. on Mar 9, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/03/09/filling-out-a.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F03%2F09%2Ffilling-out-a.html" }, { "id": 221, "type": "post", "title": "Remember To Live, An Interactive Haiku", "text": "days lived\nmore to go\nremember to live!\n Input your own numbers into the haiku above as a reminder to yourself to live!\nFor the first box, calculate your_age_in_years * 365\nFor the second box, calculate your_expected_max_age_in_years * 365 - first_box_value\n\ncalculator-1.com Originally I had hoped to make this much more dynamic so that you could input your current age and expected max age and I would handle all the calculating behind the scenes, but alas Javascript doth not jive with Markdown.\n", "dateiso": "2024-03-07 06:57:49 -0500", "date": "6:57 p.m. on Mar 7, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/03/07/remember-to-live.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F03%2F07%2Fremember-to-live.html" }, { "id": 222, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "My wife and I finally put pins in our world map! I\u0026rsquo;m grateful for the travel opportunities we\u0026rsquo;ve had, but there\u0026rsquo;s a lot more yet to be explored! 📍🗺️\n", "dateiso": "2024-03-06 21:43:47 -0500", "date": "9:43 p.m. on Mar 6, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/03/06/my-wife-and.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F03%2F06%2Fmy-wife-and.html" }, { "id": 223, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "vast expanse, stars born,\ngalaxies like sand, and us\npale blue perfection\n", "dateiso": "2024-03-06 08:39:54 -0500", "date": "8:39 p.m. on Mar 6, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/03/06/vast-expanse-stars.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F03%2F06%2Fvast-expanse-stars.html" }, { "id": 224, "type": "post", "title": "Haiku", "text": "I\u0026rsquo;m adding a new category on my site for haiku. Most of these will be quick micro-posts, but others may be longer. I have an idea for an interactive haiku but I\u0026rsquo;m not positive how that will work since my posts are published in Markdown. It should be a fun mini-project!\nTo my chagrin, I tend towards rule-following, so most of my haiku will follow the 5-7-5 format. I would like to experiment outside of those lines from time to time.\nHere are some haiku I\u0026rsquo;ve been workshopping in my pocket journal:\nwhatever you do\nmust matter so you enjoy\nwhatever you do\nI will be faithful\nall of my days are for you\nno one else will do\nflowers dance in wind\nclouds amble along slowly\npeople collect likes\nquite peculiar\nis the love of a small child\npure, strong, undeserved\noh you fool! live more!\nthink often of your deathbed\nit is near, not far\nlook how far I ran\nso far to be same old me\nright where I began\n", "dateiso": "2024-03-06 06:40:02 -0500", "date": "6:40 p.m. on Mar 6, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/03/06/haiku.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F03%2F06%2Fhaiku.html" }, { "id": 225, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Been feeling resistance to posting on here. So this is me doing something small (\u0026ldquo;literally anything\u0026rdquo;) to get moving again Do literally anything\n", "dateiso": "2024-03-05 21:12:05 -0500", "date": "9:12 p.m. on Mar 5, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/03/05/been-feeling-resistance.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F03%2F05%2Fbeen-feeling-resistance.html" }, { "id": 226, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Coffee and journals were made for each other. ☕ 🖋️\n", "dateiso": "2024-02-27 05:16:44 -0500", "date": "5:16 p.m. on Feb 27, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/02/27/coffee-and-journals.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F02%2F27%2Fcoffee-and-journals.html" }, { "id": 227, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Spotted this during date night. A good omen?\n", "dateiso": "2024-02-26 20:30:32 -0500", "date": "8:30 p.m. on Feb 26, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/02/26/spotted-this-during.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F02%2F26%2Fspotted-this-during.html" }, { "id": 228, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": " \u0026ldquo;What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence, a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it.\u0026rdquo;\n- Tim Ferriss, The 4-Hour Workweek\n This is a big reason that I\u0026rsquo;ve been off of social media. The main thing I miss is keeping up with life updates from friends and family. Someone should build an AI that watches my social feeds and sends me a summarized weekly email of my friends' and family\u0026rsquo;s updates.\n", "dateiso": "2024-02-26 09:12:26 -0500", "date": "9:12 p.m. on Feb 26, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/02/26/what-information-consumes.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F02%2F26%2Fwhat-information-consumes.html" }, { "id": 229, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I added a new option for subscribing to new posts on my Subscribe page. Now you can choose between subscribing only to long-form Articles or subscribing to all posts.\n", "dateiso": "2024-02-25 06:04:56 -0500", "date": "6:04 p.m. on Feb 25, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/02/25/i-added-a.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F02%2F25%2Fi-added-a.html" }, { "id": 230, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "This one gave me chills at the end. A wonderful piece by Henrik Karlsson. The third chair\n", "dateiso": "2024-02-24 12:39:17 -0500", "date": "12:39 p.m. on Feb 24, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/02/24/this-one-gave.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F02%2F24%2Fthis-one-gave.html" }, { "id": 231, "type": "post", "title": "Tear It All Down", "text": "My website looked quite different at its beginning. I thought starting a blog would be a good opportunity to play around with new technology, so I decided to teach myself SvelteKit and build my site with it. It was very exciting: I would build in SvelteKit, write all my posts as standalone markdown files, and deploy on Vercel. As I started building and exploring what other people had done to get inspiration, I came across a concept called the IndieWeb. I felt aligned with the values of this web community, so I wanted to build my site to be part of it. Suddenly, my to-do list was expanding rapidly to include all sorts of IndieWeb specs and principles. Would markdown files be enough to do everything I wanted to do? Perhaps I would need to set up a database using something like Supabase\u0026hellip;\nThe more I added to my to-do list for the site, the more I began to dread working on it. This was supposed to be fun, what happened?\nI lost my Why. What I really wanted was to start writing. To have a place to share myself and to figure out how to do that. That was my Why. But I wasn\u0026rsquo;t clear on that. I thought this site would be a good place to write and be a fun coding project. Mixing those was a mistake for me. I became so consumed with perfecting the design and functionality that I had no time to think about writing.\nSo what to do? I had this thing that I built, that I actually quite liked, but it was taking me further from my Why rather than toward it.\nI decided to tear it all down.\nI threw everything away and started from a blank slate. How could I just write? How could I stay connected to my Why? A blogging platform, duh! Other people have already solved the problem of creating a website whose primary purpose is publishing writing. In fact, Manton over at Micro.blog solved that problem and built his solution on the IndieWeb principles I admire, so that was the clear choice for me. I took everything I had written and migrated it over to Micro.blog, abandoning my SvelteKit project.\nAfter the migration, everything felt better. I had space to write, space to bring forth my Why. I still couldn\u0026rsquo;t keep myself from customizing themes and plugins to make the site my own, but a little bit of play is okay as long as it leaves my Why undisturbed.\nWhy had this not been obvious in the beginning? Well for one, I didn\u0026rsquo;t even know about Micro.blog or the IndieWeb when I started out. But more importantly, my thinking had been clouded by an unclear Why and a fear of judgment, which I\u0026rsquo;ve come to realize are connected. My fear was something like, \u0026ldquo;This is supposed to be a web software guy and he didn\u0026rsquo;t build his own site from scratch? He must not really know his stuff.\u0026rdquo;\nThat\u0026rsquo;s a silly fear. Who cares? Have you seen all the intelligent people working in the web space that host their sites on a platform? They\u0026rsquo;re everywhere! And yet, I could not come to that realization until I was really clear on my Why.\nI share all of this to implore you to evaluate your Why. Do you have the right Why? Are you clear on it? Is what you\u0026rsquo;re doing moving you in the right direction? If not, it\u0026rsquo;s very possible that you can make minor course corrections to get you back on track. You should try that first. But if you\u0026rsquo;ve gotten far away from your Why, don\u0026rsquo;t be afraid to tear it all down. It\u0026rsquo;s okay to start at zero. The sunk cost has already sunk, so don\u0026rsquo;t drown yourself trying to save it.\nTearing it all down is not the fastest way to do a thing, but it may be the way to do the right thing.\n Here are some screenshots of what the site looked like before. I had a v1 for my homepage, which was ripped off from this YouTube video: Build \u0026amp; Deploy a Modern Web Portfolio w. SvelteKit \u0026amp; TailwindCSS (youtube.com). That felt fake and not like my own, so I started to simplify it into a v2 before deciding to tear it all down.\nv1 homepage v2 homepage Articles page Articles page - light mode Article page Connect page Tags/Categories Page ", "dateiso": "2024-02-24 07:45:44 -0500", "date": "7:45 p.m. on Feb 24, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/02/24/tear-it-all.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F02%2F24%2Ftear-it-all.html" }, { "id": 232, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I\u0026rsquo;ve had a Now page for a bit now, but just had my site added to nownownow.com. Pretty neat that Derek curates this all himself. He seems like a kind and down-to-earth guy over email, which tracks with what I picked up from his site.\n", "dateiso": "2024-02-23 21:57:13 -0500", "date": "9:57 p.m. on Feb 23, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/02/23/ive-had-a.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F02%2F23%2Five-had-a.html" }, { "id": 233, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I\u0026rsquo;m getting excited for this moon landing! Coverage has started: www.space.com/intuitive\u0026hellip;\n", "dateiso": "2024-02-22 17:11:58 -0500", "date": "5:11 p.m. on Feb 22, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/02/22/im-getting-excited.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F02%2F22%2Fim-getting-excited.html" }, { "id": 234, "type": "post", "title": "A Piece of My Self", "text": " A blog post is not just a piece of writing to me. It is a piece of my self, and these pieces track the process of my becoming. Sometimes I forget and I get lost, so these pieces and connections help to bring me back to who I am and who I aspired to be.\n- Winnie Lim, in P\u0026amp;B: Winnie Lim\n I appreciate this reframing of a blog post as a \u0026ldquo;piece of my self\u0026rdquo;. As I set out in the early stages of my blog, this captures quite well what I aspire for it to be. Each post is one tiny piece of me, a snapshot in time of one aspect of my self I thought worth sharing. Brought together as a whole, they tell a scattered story of my wanderings.\nSome posts will be technical, some funny, some vulnerable, and some excited, because these are all pieces of my self. I look forward to looking back on years-old posts, and reminiscing where I was on my path at a given time. I already enjoy doing this with personal journal entries, but I have a sense that there will be a unique quality to reflecting on the progression of my blog.\nI am also eager for serendipitous moments when someone encounters one of these pieces of my self, and is so compelled by it that they take time to discuss it with me. Positive or negative, if someone is engaging with one of these pieces of my self then it must have struck a chord, and I think that is a decent signal that I am approximating Truth, which is one of my ultimate aims of this blog. To be truth-seeking in my self and truth-seeking in my interests.\nI already felt this a bit with my recent post on My Obsidian Daily Note Template. I was astounded by how quickly people were adopting parts of it or all of it. As I published it I thought, \u0026ldquo;Is this too \u0026lsquo;in the weeds\u0026rsquo;? Did I waste my time going into all this detail?\u0026rdquo;. But there were people out there, quite a few, looking for someone to guide them through these particular weeds. It is a wonderful feeling to create a point of connection. Something you and another can both behold and say, \u0026ldquo;This resonates\u0026rdquo;.\nSo this, too, is one piece among others. If it resonates, I would love to hear from you.\n", "dateiso": "2024-02-22 06:07:17 -0500", "date": "6:07 p.m. on Feb 22, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/02/22/a-piece-of.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F02%2F22%2Fa-piece-of.html" }, { "id": 235, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Blog posts written by hand from prison, sent via snail mail, and scanned onto the web betweenthebars.org\n", "dateiso": "2024-02-21 21:39:21 -0500", "date": "9:39 p.m. on Feb 21, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/02/21/blog-posts-written.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F02%2F21%2Fblog-posts-written.html" }, { "id": 236, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Tajín Clásico is a new staple in our kitchen. I\u0026rsquo;m putting it on everything. 🍋🌶️\n", "dateiso": "2024-02-20 17:37:04 -0500", "date": "5:37 p.m. on Feb 20, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/02/20/tajn-clsico-is.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F02%2F20%2Ftajn-clsico-is.html" }, { "id": 237, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "My wife and I put together this little Atlantis so my little Saturn V has a buddy on the shelf now 🚀\n", "dateiso": "2024-02-18 21:28:34 -0500", "date": "9:28 p.m. on Feb 18, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/02/18/i-put-together.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F02%2F18%2Fi-put-together.html" }, { "id": 238, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I shared my article about my Obsidian Daily Note template on Reddit in the ObsidianMD community and got a really positive response. I was surprised how quickly people were already trying to incorporate changes into their workflow and had questions for me (I had never posted on Reddit before)! I even had one person (@amerpie) reach out individually to let me know the template had helped him, and came to find out he was a fellow resident of Micro.blog! The web is an awesome and positive place when you know where to look!\n", "dateiso": "2024-02-18 14:49:05 -0500", "date": "2:49 p.m. on Feb 18, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/02/18/i-shared-my.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F02%2F18%2Fi-shared-my.html" }, { "id": 239, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Just added a Uses page to my blog! I linked to it from my About page but didn\u0026rsquo;t put it in the main nav. I hope to keep this relatively up-to-date, I\u0026rsquo;ll check in on it when I update my Now page roughly quarterly.\n", "dateiso": "2024-02-18 14:36:46 -0500", "date": "2:36 p.m. on Feb 18, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/02/18/just-added-a.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F02%2F18%2Fjust-added-a.html" }, { "id": 240, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Little Saturn V on display in my office. Let me tell you these mini Legos were a PAIN to put together!\n", "dateiso": "2024-02-18 08:34:36 -0500", "date": "8:34 p.m. on Feb 18, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/02/18/little-saturn-v.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F02%2F18%2Flittle-saturn-v.html" }, { "id": 241, "type": "post", "title": "Now 2024-02-17", "text": "My 7mo daughter is starting to push herself around the house backward. I\u0026rsquo;m having fun chasing her around as she unknowingly slides herself under chairs.\nI am gearing up to launch the NASA Cause Analysis Tool in late March. The product is looking really good! I\u0026rsquo;ll be able to share more about it when it shows up on our public-facing Mishap Investigation page.\nI\u0026rsquo;ve been re-organizing and adding to this site as I learn more about all the options I have with Micro.blog. I\u0026rsquo;ve also been trying to write more. I\u0026rsquo;m still working on finding a good balance with that.\nThere\u0026rsquo;s a big wave of babies about to be born among my friends, so I\u0026rsquo;m looking forward to helping out and getting to meet all of my daughter\u0026rsquo;s new buddies!\nI\u0026rsquo;ve been trying out the recommended_routine - bodyweightfitness (reddit.com) for exercise. I got my equipment installed, now I just need to use it consistently. I am really liking the emphasis on stretching and flexibility. I feel great after these workouts.\n", "dateiso": "2024-02-17 07:14:33 -0500", "date": "7:14 p.m. on Feb 17, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/02/17/now.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F02%2F17%2Fnow.html" }, { "id": 242, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I was pleasantly surprised by the Wizard of Oz Museum. The interactive experience room was pretty neat! Although I have to say I liked the Van Gogh experience and James Webb images a lot more than the actual Wizard of Oz experience 🤫\n", "dateiso": "2024-02-16 06:09:22 -0500", "date": "6:09 p.m. on Feb 16, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/02/16/i-was-pleasantly.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F02%2F16%2Fi-was-pleasantly.html" }, { "id": 243, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Got a sneak peek behind the scenes at Blue Origin\u0026rsquo;s Orbital Launch System Manufacturing Facility where they are working on the New Glenn orbital rocket. Unfortunately, I couldn\u0026rsquo;t take pictures other than in the lobby, but there was a lot there! They had the first New Shepard rocket, which had 5 successful flights, on display. They also had a Blue Moon MK1 prototype on display. And lastly, they had a prototype for their New Shepard Crew Capsule.\n", "dateiso": "2024-02-16 05:58:23 -0500", "date": "5:58 p.m. on Feb 16, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/02/16/got-a-sneak.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F02%2F16%2Fgot-a-sneak.html" }, { "id": 244, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Spotted just inside the doors of the HQ building at Kennedy Space Center. The center\u0026rsquo;s namesake still inspires today.\n", "dateiso": "2024-02-16 05:41:03 -0500", "date": "5:41 p.m. on Feb 16, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/02/16/spotted-just-inside.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F02%2F16%2Fspotted-just-inside.html" }, { "id": 245, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "\u0026ldquo;Cloud Breaker\u0026rdquo;. A Falcon 9 1st Stage returning to land back at the Cape. Pretty amazing to get to see my first Falcon 9 launch for the PACE mission.\n", "dateiso": "2024-02-16 05:36:18 -0500", "date": "5:36 p.m. on Feb 16, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/02/16/cloud-breaker-a.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F02%2F16%2Fcloud-breaker-a.html" }, { "id": 246, "type": "post", "title": "My Obsidian Daily Note Template", "text": "I use my Obsidian daily note as my main digital jumping-off point for things like:\n habits daily log tasks journaling I\u0026rsquo;ve gathered ideas for setting this up from all over the internet over many months, and unfortunately, I don\u0026rsquo;t recall all the resources I used. Dann Berg\u0026rsquo;s post inspired my \u0026ldquo;Today\u0026rsquo;s Notes\u0026rdquo; section, and I first learned a lot about Obsidian from Nick Milo\u0026rsquo;s YouTube channel.\nBelow I outline what my template looks like, and how I set it up.\nTable of Contents Overview Plugins Daily Notes and Periodic Notes Templater Dataview Tasks QuickAdd Buttons Calendar The Template Frontmatter Habits Daily Quote Title Navigation Daily Log Tasks 5 Minute Journal Today\u0026rsquo;s Notes Final Thoughts Overview My template allows me to have the same daily note created for me each day. Here\u0026rsquo;s what it looks like:\nI\u0026rsquo;ll talk more about each individual section later in this post, but overall this daily note has helped me to become more organized and focused. Its primary purpose is managing tasks and rapidly logging notes throughout the day. Having one place to collect both tasks and quick notes has been helpful for me. A nice perk of doing it in Obsidian is that those quick notes can easily evolve into standalone markdown files if they need to, but the key is having a really low friction place to capture a thought or task.\nHaving my daily note link to other \u0026ldquo;periodic\u0026rdquo; notes (daily, weekly, monthly) feels very Obsidian-ish, but truth be told I don\u0026rsquo;t use the links too often. They are nice when I need them though, like quickly needing to get to something I logged yesterday.\nI used to use the 5 Minute Journal section more than I do now, but this has been replaced by analog journaling. I sort of miss having this stored digitally, and I\u0026rsquo;m sure I could hack together some awesome digital journal dashboard with Dataview, but that\u0026rsquo;s not really the point, is it? Journaling analog helps me to slow down and really reflect, which seems to make my individual sessions more meaningful. And that\u0026rsquo;s what I\u0026rsquo;m really looking for. All that being said, I do still like using the 5-Minute Journal occasionally when I\u0026rsquo;m feeling scattered and need a quick dose of mindfulness while at my computer.\nThe Today\u0026rsquo;s Notes section is another one I don\u0026rsquo;t use too often, but it\u0026rsquo;s fun to have. I\u0026rsquo;m not using it to navigate between notes I\u0026rsquo;m currently working on that day, because Obsidian has great navigation features I\u0026rsquo;m using instead (e.g., tabs, search). But I do like having it whenever I take a look at past daily notes. It\u0026rsquo;s fun to see a snapshot of what I worked on any given day, and the combination of the daily log, completed tasks, and Today\u0026rsquo;s Notes paints a nice picture of what I was doing and thinking.\nPlugins Daily Notes and Periodic Notes These plugins both can create a daily note from a specified template file. Periodic Notes allows the creation of some additional types of notes, like weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly.\nI prefer to keep my daily notes in their own folder, and each daily note\u0026rsquo;s title is formatted as YYYY-MM-DD.\nI keep my template file in \u0026ldquo;Bins/Templates/Daily Note\u0026rdquo;.\nHere\u0026rsquo;s my config for Daily Notes:\nHere\u0026rsquo;s my config for Periodic Notes (you\u0026rsquo;ll see I also use weekly and monthly notes, which I link to from my daily note):\nTemplater With Templater, if I create a file from a template, either manually or through Daily Notes or Periodic Notes, I can run some code from my template when the template is instantiated. This allows me to get things like the current date, daily quote, date ranges for tasks, and file title at the time when I use the template.\nYou can even use Templater to run your own JavaScript during note creation, but I am not using that in the current iteration of my daily notes template.\nHere is my current config for Templater:\nThe two important parts are:\n Specify a template folder (I use \u0026ldquo;Bins/Templates\u0026rdquo;) Trigger Templater on new file creation. You want this on so that Templater works with Daily Notes and Periodic Notes. I use Templater all over my daily note template, and anything between \u0026lt;% ... %\u0026gt; is Templater syntax.\nDataview Dataview is a powerful way to query data across all of your notes in your Obsidian vault. For my daily note, I use it to display any notes I created or modified that day.\nI don\u0026rsquo;t believe I did anything unique with the config for Dataview, much of the setup is for viewing preference.\nTasks Obsidian is the main place I track tasks digitally, and I use the Tasks plugin to do that. My full setup with Tasks warrants a separate post, but for my daily note I use it to capture tasks in my Daily Log and to display tasks that are:\n overdue due today coming soon (next 3 days) completed today I haven\u0026rsquo;t changed much from the default Tasks config. I just have it configured to add a \u0026ldquo;done date\u0026rdquo; each time I complete a task.\nQuickAdd QuickAdd allows running macros from anywhere in Obsidian. I have a macro setup that can be run from anywhere and allows me to quickly write up text that gets appended at the top of my Daily Log with the current timestamp.\nTo configure this I created a macro called \u0026ldquo;Capture to daily note\u0026rdquo; in QuickAdd:\nIn the settings for that macro, I tell it where to add the text, and how to create the Daily Note if it has not already been created:\nTo summarize, QuickAdd looks for today\u0026rsquo;s daily note, and then inserts my supplied text after the header I supplied, which is ## Daily Log, and gives it some special formatting that I specify near the bottom of the settings. More on this in the Daily Log Section.\nButtons Buttons allows you to place buttons in your notes that can run macros. I use a button in my daily note templated to run the QuickAdd macro I described above. This allows me to really quickly capture a short note to my daily log, even if I am viewing my Daily Note on reading mode (which is something I end up doing often from mobile).\nCalendar I use the calendar plugin to navigate between my daily and weekly notes, and to create them.\nThe Template You can get the full template from this Gist on Github. Below I\u0026rsquo;ll break down the template by section so you can take only the pieces and parts you need.\nFrontmatter Habits Template --- week: \u0026lt;% tp.date.now('ww',0, tp.file.title, 'YYYY-MM-DD') %\u0026gt; weight: startEating: endEating: tags: daily --- Plugins Used Templater Description For my habits section, I use the YAML frontmatter of the markdown file to track any daily habits. I use Templater to get the week number and save it as a property. I also use the Frontmatter to tag all daily notes with the #daily tag. After that, all additional front matter fields are used to track daily metrics, which could be things like weight, times, mood, etc.\nTo be honest, I don\u0026rsquo;t use this much anymore, but it was useful when I was doing intermittent fasting. I was eating within an 8 hour window each day, so I used this section to track when I started eating, when I stopped eating, and my weight. Then, with this data stored in each daily note, I used the Obsidian Charts plugin in my weekly and monthly notes to trend my progress over time. If you are interested in how this is setup, shoot me an email and let me know.\nExample of Obsidian Charts in one of my monthly notes:\nDaily Quote Template \u0026lt;% tp.web.daily_quote() %\u0026gt; Output Example Plugins Used Templater Description I like having a new quote at the top of each of my daily notes. Templater has a built-in function I use that returns the quote of the day when the template is instantiated.\nTitle Template # \u0026lt;% tp.date.now(\u0026quot;dddd, MMMM Do YYYY\u0026quot;, 0, tp.file.title, \u0026quot;YYYY-MM-DD\u0026quot;) %\u0026gt; Output Example Plugins Used Templater Description All my daily notes have a file title in the format YYYY-MM-DD, but I like having a more readable format that includes the weekday.\nI use the tp.date.now function to format the date from the title of the file. Here are what the 4 different parameters in the function do:\n Format - sets the format for the date Offset - I keep this at 0 because I want the current date. 1 would give me tomorrow, -1 would give me yesterday. Reference - the date to use. If not provided, the function uses today\u0026rsquo;s date when a note is created from it. I supply the file title here so that no matter when I make my daily note, the title in the note matches the file title. For example, I might create tomorrow\u0026rsquo;s daily note ahead of time to start taking notes for tomorrow, so I want the file title to be the date used, NOT today\u0026rsquo;s date during note creation. Reference format - the date format for #3 Navigation Template [[ \u0026lt;% tp.date.now(\u0026quot;YYYY-MM-DD\u0026quot;, -1, tp.file.title, \u0026quot;YYYY-MM-DD\u0026quot;) %\u0026gt; | ⬅️ Yesterday]] | [[\u0026lt;% tp.date.now(\u0026quot;YYYY-MM-DD\u0026quot;, 1, tp.file.title, \u0026quot;YYYY-MM-DD\u0026quot;) %\u0026gt; | ➡️ Tomorrow]] | [[\u0026lt;% tp.date.now(\u0026quot;YYYY-[w]WW\u0026quot;, 0, tp.file.title, \u0026quot;YYYY-MM-DD\u0026quot;) %\u0026gt; | 📖 Weekly]] | [[\u0026lt;% tp.date.now(\u0026quot;YYYY-MM\u0026quot;, 0, tp.file.title, \u0026quot;YYYY-MM-DD\u0026quot;) %\u0026gt; | 📅 Monthly]] Output Example Plugins Used Templater Description My navigation section consists of 4 links, each generated with Templater\u0026rsquo;s tp.date.now function to match the title of another \u0026ldquo;periodic\u0026rdquo; note in my vault.\nThe 4 links are:\nYesterday\n[[ \u0026lt;% tp.date.now(\u0026quot;YYYY-MM-DD\u0026quot;, -1, tp.file.title, \u0026quot;YYYY-MM-DD\u0026quot;) %\u0026gt; | ⬅️ Yesterday]] Use tp.file.title to get the date, offset -1 for yesterday Tomorrow\n[[\u0026lt;% tp.date.now(\u0026quot;YYYY-MM-DD\u0026quot;, 1, tp.file.title, \u0026quot;YYYY-MM-DD\u0026quot;) %\u0026gt; | ➡️ Tomorrow]] Use tp.file.title to get the date, offset +1 for tomorrow Weekly\n[[\u0026lt;% tp.date.now(\u0026quot;YYYY-[w]WW\u0026quot;, 0, tp.file.title, \u0026quot;YYYY-MM-DD\u0026quot;) %\u0026gt; | 📖 Weekly]] Use tp.file.title to get the date, format to my weekly note title format Monthly\n[[\u0026lt;% tp.date.now(\u0026quot;YYYY-MM\u0026quot;, 0, tp.file.title, \u0026quot;YYYY-MM-DD\u0026quot;) %\u0026gt; | 📅 Monthly]] Use tp.file.title to get the date, format to my monthly note title format Daily Log Template ```button name Add to Log type command action QuickAdd: Capture to daily note color default ``` ^button-rjgc ## Daily Log Output Example Empty state\nAdding a log with the button\nExample of added log\nPlugins Used QuickAdd Buttons Description I like having a Daily Log section to rapid log tasks, ideas, notes, etc. throughout the day. I added a button to help me do this for two reasons:\n I use Obsidian mobile, and often view notes in reading mode from my phone. Having the button allows me to quickly capture a log even from reading mode I like having a timestamp for my log entries. It forces a chronological log I can look back on. I described how I configured the QuickAdd macro above in the QuickAdd Plugin section. Once the QuickAdd macro is configured, I can add the Button to my template and use the command type to call my QuickAdd macro.\nI do often add things to my daily note without using the \u0026ldquo;Add to Log\u0026rdquo; button. This section is where I create and store my tasks 97% of the time. That way, my task location is the daily note, so I can easily see the date it was created and I get the associated context of everything else stored in my daily note.\nTasks Template ## [[Tasks Dashboard | Tasks]] \u0026gt; [!overdue]+ Due before \u0026lt;% tp.file.title %\u0026gt; \u0026gt; ```tasks \u0026gt; due before \u0026lt;% tp.date.now(\u0026quot;YYYY-MM-DD\u0026quot;, 0, tp.file.title, \u0026quot;YYYY-MM-DD\u0026quot;) %\u0026gt; \u0026gt; not done \u0026gt; hide due date \u0026gt; hide recurrence rule \u0026gt; group by function task.tags.map( (tag) =\u0026gt; tag.split('/')[1] ? tag.split('/').slice(0, 2).join('/') : '') \u0026gt; ``` \u0026gt; [!due-today]+ Due \u0026lt;% tp.file.title %\u0026gt; \u0026gt; ```tasks \u0026gt; due \u0026lt;% tp.date.now(\u0026quot;YYYY-MM-DD\u0026quot;, 0, tp.file.title, \u0026quot;YYYY-MM-DD\u0026quot;) %\u0026gt; \u0026gt; not done \u0026gt; hide due date \u0026gt; hide recurrence rule \u0026gt; group by function task.tags.map( (tag) =\u0026gt; tag.split('/')[1] ? tag.split('/').slice(0, 2).join('/') : '') \u0026gt; [!coming-soon]- Due soon after \u0026lt;% tp.file.title %\u0026gt; \u0026gt; ```tasks \u0026gt; due after \u0026lt;% tp.date.now(\u0026quot;YYYY-MM-DD\u0026quot;, 0, tp.file.title, \u0026quot;YYYY-MM-DD\u0026quot;) %\u0026gt; \u0026gt; due before \u0026lt;% tp.date.now(\u0026quot;YYYY-MM-DD\u0026quot;, 4, tp.file.title, \u0026quot;YYYY-MM-DD\u0026quot;) %\u0026gt; \u0026gt; not done \u0026gt; hide due date \u0026gt; hide recurrence rule \u0026gt; group by due \u0026gt; group by function task.tags.map( (tag) =\u0026gt; tag.split('/')[1] ? tag.split('/').slice(0, 2).join('/') : '') \u0026gt; ``` \u0026gt; [!success]- Completed \u0026lt;% tp.file.title %\u0026gt; \u0026gt; ```tasks \u0026gt; done \u0026lt;% tp.date.now(\u0026quot;YYYY-MM-DD\u0026quot;, 0, tp.file.title, \u0026quot;YYYY-MM-DD\u0026quot;) %\u0026gt; \u0026gt; short mode \u0026gt; ``` Output Example Plugins Used Templater Tasks Description Setting Up CSS Snippets for Callout Styles Before I get into the task queries for the template, I\u0026rsquo;ll mention that I use callouts to contain my task queries because I like the color-coded separation, and I like being able to collapse/expand my task lists. I have set up custom callout styles that I\u0026rsquo;ve tailored to my task system. The default styles would work fine too, but you can set up custom styles with CSS Snippets.\nI followed the docs here to get this set up.\nUnder \u0026ldquo;Appearance \u0026gt; CSS Snippets\u0026rdquo;, click the folder icon to open your snippets folder (.obsidian/snippets).\nIn this location, create a file called callouts.css that contains the following:\n.callout[data-callout=\u0026quot;overdue\u0026quot;] { --callout-color: 255, 215, 0; --callout-icon: alarm-clock; } .callout[data-callout=\u0026quot;due-today\u0026quot;] { --callout-color: 12, 248, 161; --callout-icon: check-square; } .callout[data-callout=\u0026quot;coming-soon\u0026quot;] { --callout-color: 37, 202, 227; --callout-icon: timer; } .callout[data-callout=\u0026quot;next-two-weeks\u0026quot;] { --callout-color: 42, 165, 227; --callout-icon: hourglass; } .callout[data-callout=\u0026quot;later\u0026quot;] { --callout-color: 127, 128, 222; --callout-icon: calendar; } .callout[data-callout=\u0026quot;no-date\u0026quot;] { --callout-color: 163, 80, 250; --callout-icon: calendar-off; } .callout[data-callout=\u0026quot;recurring\u0026quot;] { --callout-color: 216, 191, 216; --callout-icon: repeat; } .callout[data-callout=\u0026quot;personal\u0026quot;] { --callout-color: 240, 240, 240; --callout-icon: user; } .callout[data-callout=\u0026quot;work\u0026quot;] { --callout-color: 240, 240, 240; --callout-icon: briefcase; } Go back to \u0026ldquo;Appearance \u0026gt; CSS Snippets\u0026rdquo; and click the refresh icon to reload the snippets into Obsidian\u0026rsquo;s styles.\nNow you can use these callout type identifiers to style your callouts. These are the custom callout types I use to contain different types of tasks. I don\u0026rsquo;t use all of these in my daily note, some show up in other places like my Tasks Dashboard.\nGrouping Tasks For my daily note, I like my task queries to show tasks in a certain date range (e.g., overdue, due today, due in the next 3 days, completed today) and then within the query, I like to group my tasks by whether they are related to work, personal, or uncategorized. I use tags to assign my tasks to projects, so I look at the tag to determine which group a task should fall into.\nMy tag structure for organizing tasks has three sections: #{prefix}/{area}/{project}. An example tag would be: #p/personal/website. I prefix all project tags with p/ so that I can quickly pull them all up in the typeahead menu when I start typing a tag. The second part of the tag is the area that the project belongs to, which is either \u0026ldquo;work\u0026rdquo; or \u0026ldquo;personal\u0026rdquo; in my setup. This is what I like to group my tasks on.\nTo accomplish this, at the end of my tasks query I have:\ngroup by function task.tags.map( (tag) =\u0026gt; tag.split('/')[1] ? tag.split('/').slice(0, 2).join('/') : '') Here\u0026rsquo;s what this is doing for each task:\n it looks to see, \u0026ldquo;Does this task have a tag with an area section?\u0026rdquo; if it does, it cuts off the project from the end, and returns the area like: #{prefix}/{area} if it does not, it returns empty So then my tasks fall into one of 3 groups:\n Personal Work Uncategorized My \u0026ldquo;due soon\u0026rdquo; tasks query takes grouping even further, and groups tasks first by their due date and then sub-groups into the areas I defined above.\n5 Minute Journal Template ## 5 Minute Journal ### 🌞 **3 things I am grateful for...** 1. **What will I do to make today great?** - **Daily affirmations** ### 🌚 **What were the highlights from your day?** 1. **How could I have made today even better?** Output Example Plugins Used N/A Description This section is my quick daily dose of mindfulness when I need it. The first section 🌞 is for the morning, and the second section 🌚 is for the evening.\nToday\u0026rsquo;s Notes Template ## Today's Notes \u0026gt; [!example]- Created Today \u0026gt; ```dataview \u0026gt; table without id \u0026gt; file.link as Note, \u0026gt; file.folder as Folder, \u0026gt; file.ctime as \u0026quot;Created\u0026quot; \u0026gt; FROM \u0026quot;\u0026quot; \u0026gt; where file.ctime \u0026gt;= date(\u0026lt;%tp.file.title%\u0026gt;) AND file.ctime \u0026lt;= date(\u0026lt;%moment(tp.file.title,'YYYY-MM-DD').add(1, 'd').format(\u0026quot;YYYY-MM-DD\u0026quot;)%\u0026gt;) AND file.path != this.file.path \u0026gt; sort file.ctime desc \u0026gt; ``` \u0026gt; [!example]- Modified Today \u0026gt; ```dataview \u0026gt; table without id \u0026gt; file.link as Note, \u0026gt; file.folder as Folder, \u0026gt; file.mtime as \u0026quot;Last Modified\u0026quot; \u0026gt; FROM \u0026quot;\u0026quot; \u0026gt; where file.mtime \u0026gt;= date(\u0026lt;%tp.file.title%\u0026gt;) AND file.mtime \u0026lt;= date(\u0026lt;%moment(tp.file.title,'YYYY-MM-DD').add(1, 'd').format(\u0026quot;YYYY-MM-DD\u0026quot;)%\u0026gt;) AND file.path != this.file.path \u0026gt; sort file.mtime desc \u0026gt; ``` Output Example Plugins Used Dataview Templater Description My \u0026ldquo;Today\u0026rsquo;s Notes\u0026rdquo; section lists any notes I created or modified during the day that the current daily note represents. I like being able to trace this history where I can go back to a daily note and see what I was working on in Obsidian that day.\nThe logic for Created Today is show files that:\n were created on or after today at 12AM were created on or before tomorrow at 12AM except for this daily note The logic for Modified Today is show files that:\n were modified on or after today at 12AM were modified on or before tomorrow at 12AM except for this daily note Final Thoughts I hope this helps you with setting up your own Daily Note template! I took inspiration from many places to put this together, and I hope to give back to the Obsidian community by sharing how I use my Daily Note. It is where I spend at least 80% of my time in Obsidian.\n", "dateiso": "2024-02-15 06:53:49 -0500", "date": "6:53 p.m. on Feb 15, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/02/15/i-use-my.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F02%2F15%2Fi-use-my.html" }, { "id": 247, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "This view complements coffee nicely. 🌅☕\n", "dateiso": "2024-02-05 08:34:06 -0500", "date": "8:34 p.m. on Feb 5, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/02/05/this-view-complements.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F02%2F05%2Fthis-view-complements.html" }, { "id": 248, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Beautiful views from our place for the week.\n", "dateiso": "2024-02-05 08:32:03 -0500", "date": "8:32 p.m. on Feb 5, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/02/05/beautiful-views-from.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F02%2F05%2Fbeautiful-views-from.html" }, { "id": 249, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I had a blast touring the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex with family yesterday!\n", "dateiso": "2024-02-05 08:30:34 -0500", "date": "8:30 p.m. on Feb 5, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/02/05/i-had-a.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F02%2F05%2Fi-had-a.html" }, { "id": 250, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Proverbs 31/31 Advice to King Lemuel from his mother: Don\u0026rsquo;t spend your time pursuing women; this has brought down many kings. Kings should not get drunk so they do not tear down what they created while sober. Speak for those who do not have a voice. Judge justly and defend the rights of the poor. A wonderful spouse is rare. They can be trusted and have a good work ethic. Always they provide for their family and plan for their future. They are confident and strong. They help the poor and are not afraid of hard times for which they have prepared. From their mouth flows wisdom and kindness. They are praised by their children and their spouses. Charm and beauty are fleeting, but a spouse who reveres God is praiseworthy. They will get back more than they have put in.\n", "dateiso": "2024-01-31 05:44:54 -0500", "date": "5:44 p.m. on Jan 31, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/01/31/proverbs-advice-to.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F01%2F31%2Fproverbs-advice-to.html" }, { "id": 251, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Proverbs 30/31 God\u0026rsquo;s word is true; don\u0026rsquo;t add to it. Stay away from lying and fakeness. Don\u0026rsquo;t become rich and forget who God is. Don\u0026rsquo;t become poor and steal, disrespecting God. Some think themselves clean while covered in filth. Greed is never content; give, and it wants more. If you mock your father, mother, and all authority, there will be consequences. Being suddenly put in a situation for which one is deeply unqualified will lead to disaster. Even small things can be wise; ants, groundhogs, locusts, lizards. The beloved leader walks with the confidence of the lion. If you have been foolish or planning to do evil, restrain yourself. Pressing anger produces strife.\n", "dateiso": "2024-01-31 05:30:15 -0500", "date": "5:30 p.m. on Jan 31, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/01/31/proverbs-gods-word.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F01%2F31%2Fproverbs-gods-word.html" }, { "id": 252, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Proverbs 29/31 Those that are stiff and inflexible will be broken. With justice, a nation is built, but greed tears one down. The good understand the rights of the poor. A fool indulges every passion of their spirit, but one with wisdom quietly holds themself back. The proud will be brought low, and the humble will be raised in honor. Fear is a cage, but one who trusts God is free. We look to judges for justice, but it can only truly be given by God. Good and evil appear as an abomination to one another.\n", "dateiso": "2024-01-29 20:19:53 -0500", "date": "8:19 p.m. on Jan 29, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/01/29/proverbs-those-that.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F01%2F29%2Fproverbs-those-that.html" }, { "id": 253, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Proverbs 28/31 The evil live constantly in fear, but the good live confidently. It is better to be poor and honest than rich and crooked. Be generous to the poor. A rich one thinks themself wise, but is bested by a poor one with understanding. There is glory when good prevails, but people hide when evil rises. One that hides their sins will not prosper, but one that owns up to them and turns away will receive mercy. An unwise leader oppresses cruelly, but one who hates unjust gain will prolong their time. The faithful one abounds with blessings, but one who cheats for their own gain will be punished. Whoever puts their faith in their mind is a fool, but those that walk in wisdom will do well.\n", "dateiso": "2024-01-29 20:06:05 -0500", "date": "8:06 p.m. on Jan 29, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/01/29/proverbs-the-evil.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F01%2F29%2Fproverbs-the-evil.html" }, { "id": 254, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Proverbs 27/31 Don\u0026rsquo;t brag about your future, it is not guaranteed. Praise from one\u0026rsquo;s own mouth is not valid; let it come from another. Be cautious of anger and jealousy; it is difficult to stand against them. True love includes rebuke when needed. An enemy can feign love with kind words. Everything tastes good to one who is hungry. The goodness of a friend comes from their authentic advice. A close neighbor is better than a far brother. When and where you act is just as important as how. Friends sharpen each other like iron on iron. As gold is refined in the furnace, one is tested by their praise. Pay attention to what you have; your possessions do not watch themselves and will not last on their own.\n", "dateiso": "2024-01-27 14:49:58 -0500", "date": "2:49 p.m. on Jan 27, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/01/27/proverbs-dont-brag.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F01%2F27%2Fproverbs-dont-brag.html" }, { "id": 255, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Proverbs 26/31 Honor does not fit a fool. Don\u0026rsquo;t answer a fool in their style, but correct their mistakes. A proverb coming from a fool is useless. Fools return to their ways like dogs to their vomit. There is more hope for a fool than one who thinks themselves wise. Do not meddle in other people\u0026rsquo;s fights. Fire dies without wood, and strife dies without a gossiper. One who displays hate hides deceit in their heart; do not trust them when they aim kind words your way. Those who lay traps will fall into them.\n", "dateiso": "2024-01-27 14:33:00 -0500", "date": "2:33 p.m. on Jan 27, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/01/27/proverbs-honor-does.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F01%2F27%2Fproverbs-honor-does.html" }, { "id": 256, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Proverbs 25/31 God, knowing all, conceals. We, knowing little, seek truth. Don\u0026rsquo;t force yourself into high places, it is better to be invited from a lowly place than to be put down in a high place. Don\u0026rsquo;t share other\u0026rsquo;s secrets. Patient and persuasive words may change the course of nations. Take even good things in moderation. Don\u0026rsquo;t be overly joyful in the presence of those with a heavy heart. Provide for your enemy, this is a greater victory than battle. Like a clogged sprinkler is a good one who allows evil. One without self-control is like a house that has been broken into and left open.\n", "dateiso": "2024-01-27 14:16:56 -0500", "date": "2:16 p.m. on Jan 27, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/01/27/proverbs-god-knowing.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F01%2F27%2Fproverbs-god-knowing.html" }, { "id": 257, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Celebrating 4 years of marriage with my wonderful wife today ❤️\n", "dateiso": "2024-01-26 09:52:39 -0500", "date": "9:52 p.m. on Jan 26, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/01/26/celebrating-years-of.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F01%2F26%2Fcelebrating-years-of.html" }, { "id": 258, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Proverbs 24/31 With wisdom comes strength, wars are won with wise guidance. The mocker is an abomination. Your strength is small if it fails in times of adversity. Rescue those going astray. Wisdom is like a sweet honey to the soul. The righteous fall over and over but rise each time. Don\u0026rsquo;t be glad when your enemy falls. Don\u0026rsquo;t envy the evil, they have no future. Don\u0026rsquo;t appease evil, rebuke it.\n", "dateiso": "2024-01-24 21:41:03 -0500", "date": "9:41 p.m. on Jan 24, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/01/24/proverbs-with-wisdom.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F01%2F24%2Fproverbs-with-wisdom.html" }, { "id": 259, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Watching our local deer family across the pond.\n", "dateiso": "2024-01-24 16:58:34 -0500", "date": "4:58 p.m. on Jan 24, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/01/24/watching-our-local.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F01%2F24%2Fwatching-our-local.html" }, { "id": 260, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Meal planning at its finest 😂\n", "dateiso": "2024-01-24 16:31:16 -0500", "date": "4:31 p.m. on Jan 24, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/01/24/meal-planning-at.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F01%2F24%2Fmeal-planning-at.html" }, { "id": 261, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "The way to do more is to do less. I\u0026rsquo;ve found that seasons when I focus on less are inevitably the ones when I end up doing more.\n", "dateiso": "2024-01-24 14:08:14 -0500", "date": "2:08 p.m. on Jan 24, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/01/24/the-way-to.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F01%2F24%2Fthe-way-to.html" }, { "id": 262, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Proverbs 23/31 Don\u0026rsquo;t desire luxuries. Be cautious when a stingy person offers gifts to you. Don\u0026rsquo;t let your words be wasted on fools. Don\u0026rsquo;t take what isn\u0026rsquo;t yours. Don\u0026rsquo;t stop a child from being disciplined, it will not kill them. On the contrary, it will save them from death. Don\u0026rsquo;t envy sinners, go on in reverence and trust there is a future. Don\u0026rsquo;t befriend drunks or gluttons, they will come to ruin and take you with them. Buy truth and don\u0026rsquo;t sell it for anything. Stay away from a flirt, they increase the traitors among mankind. Don\u0026rsquo;t let yourself love drunkenness, it will lead to many sorrows and is a vicious cycle.\n", "dateiso": "2024-01-23 21:24:01 -0500", "date": "9:24 p.m. on Jan 23, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/01/23/proverbs-dont-desire.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F01%2F23%2Fproverbs-dont-desire.html" }, { "id": 263, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Proverbs 22/31 Good name \u0026gt; great riches. Train a child well and they will stay true into old age. The borrower serves the lender. Get rid of a mocker, and discord stops. Children tend towards folly, but discipline leads to knowledge. Whoever oppresses the poor will in the end come to poverty. Don\u0026rsquo;t befriend wrathful people. Don\u0026rsquo;t borrow more than you can afford to borrow. One skillful in their work stands before kings.\n", "dateiso": "2024-01-22 21:14:37 -0500", "date": "9:14 p.m. on Jan 22, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/01/22/proverbs-good-name.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F01%2F22%2Fproverbs-good-name.html" }, { "id": 264, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I had a good time demonstrating Outlook Rules to ~50 of my colleagues today.\nSome quick email automation ideas to focus your inbox:\n move newsletters to their own folder move automated notifications to their own folders move emails you\u0026rsquo;re CC\u0026rsquo;d on to a separate inbox ", "dateiso": "2024-01-22 17:16:32 -0500", "date": "5:16 p.m. on Jan 22, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/01/22/i-had-a.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F01%2F22%2Fi-had-a.html" }, { "id": 265, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Proverbs 21/31 Patient work leads to abundance, and hastiness leads to poverty. Gains from lying are fleeting and catch you in a snare. Justice is joy to the righteous and terror to the evil. One who loves pleasure and luxury will be poor. The wise preserve their treasures, but fools devour theirs. Pursue righteousness, and you will find it, along with life and honor. Control your speech to stay out of trouble. The wicked act boldly, but the upright openly consider their ways.\n", "dateiso": "2024-01-21 20:44:33 -0500", "date": "8:44 p.m. on Jan 21, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/01/21/proverbs-patient-work.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F01%2F21%2Fproverbs-patient-work.html" }, { "id": 266, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Proverbs 20/31 Do not be led astray by drunkenness. It is honorable to keep from quarreling. Many proclaim steadfast love, but it is difficult to find one truly faithful. Who can confidently say their heart is pure? Even a child is known by their acts, evil or good. Plans come to fruition when advice is sought. Do not take revenge on evil, leave it to God. Reflect before you give your word. The young prize their strength and beauty, the old prize their wisdom.\n", "dateiso": "2024-01-20 15:58:42 -0500", "date": "3:58 p.m. on Jan 20, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/01/20/proverbs-do-not.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F01%2F20%2Fproverbs-do-not.html" }, { "id": 267, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Proverbs 19/31 Desire without knowledge is bad. A generous person finds many friends. Glory for one who can forgive offenses against them. Idleness puts you to sleep and you grow hungry. Listen to advice. One who reveres God rests satisfied.\n", "dateiso": "2024-01-19 16:34:19 -0500", "date": "4:34 p.m. on Jan 19, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/01/19/proverbs-desire-without.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F01%2F19%2Fproverbs-desire-without.html" }, { "id": 268, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Proverbs 18/31 Fools take pleasure in expressing only their own opinions. Humility comes before honor. It is shameful to give an answer before one hears. Giving gifts will bring you into the presence of the great. The one who states their case first seems right, until examined by another. Words have the power of death and life. Better to have one friend who sticks close than many friends.\n", "dateiso": "2024-01-19 16:17:17 -0500", "date": "4:17 p.m. on Jan 19, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/01/19/proverbs-fools-take.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F01%2F19%2Fproverbs-fools-take.html" }, { "id": 269, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "It\u0026rsquo;s a good day to stay inside and sip some coffee.\n", "dateiso": "2024-01-19 13:35:32 -0500", "date": "1:35 p.m. on Jan 19, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/01/19/its-a-good.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F01%2F19%2Fits-a-good.html" }, { "id": 270, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I just finished installing the pull-up bar and rings. Now the hard part\u0026hellip; actually using them 😬\n", "dateiso": "2024-01-19 13:28:55 -0500", "date": "1:28 p.m. on Jan 19, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/01/19/i-just-finished.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F01%2F19%2Fi-just-finished.html" }, { "id": 271, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Proverbs 17/31 (Poor + peace) \u0026gt; (rich + strife). Judging the poor insults your creator. Be careful offering bribes, lest you come to depend on them. It is loving to forgive, you will lose friends if you rehash old wounds. A reprimand to the wise penetrates further than a beating to a fool. Friends love through highs and lows. Joy is good medicine, but a crushed spirit is crippling. Those with a calm spirit have understanding.\n", "dateiso": "2024-01-17 20:58:27 -0500", "date": "8:58 p.m. on Jan 17, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/01/17/proverbs-poor-peace.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F01%2F17%2Fproverbs-poor-peace.html" }, { "id": 272, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Kudos to our team for putting out a new public web page for the Apollo 13 mission, summarizing the mission, accident, and investigation.\nApollo 13\nLots of the work I touch is internal-only, so it\u0026rsquo;s nice when I have something I can share out with the public! Kudos to Michael Ciannilli, Michael Bishop, Jeremy Fleischer, and others that put this together!\nFor more lessons learned, take a look at our Apollo, Challenger, Columbia Lessons Learned Program page\n", "dateiso": "2024-01-17 11:45:25 -0500", "date": "11:45 p.m. on Jan 17, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/01/17/kudos-to-our.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F01%2F17%2Fkudos-to-our.html" }, { "id": 273, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Proverbs 16/31 Every person thinks themselves right, but God weighs the spirit. Commit your work to God and it will be established. Everything is for a purpose, even the wicked. One turns from evil through reverence to God. When a man follows the ways of God, he is at peace even with his enemies. People plan, God establishes. You will discover good things if you ponder the word. Gracious words are sweet to the soul. One\u0026rsquo;s appetite urges them on. A whisperer separates close friends. One who rules their own spirit is better than one who rules a city.\n", "dateiso": "2024-01-16 21:39:43 -0500", "date": "9:39 p.m. on Jan 16, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/01/16/proverbs-every-person.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F01%2F16%2Fproverbs-every-person.html" }, { "id": 274, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Proverbs 15/31 A gentle response cools anger, but a harsh response stirs it up. If God knows the depths of hell, how much more does he know the depths of your heart? The cheerful heart has a continuous feast. (Poor + God) \u0026gt; (Rich + Trouble). (Lettuce + Love) \u0026gt; (Filet Mignon + Hatred). The path is easy for the upright, but for the idle, it is like walking through thorns. Plans fail without counsel, but with many advisors, they succeed. The Lord destroys the house of the arrogant but protects the house of the humble. He who hates bribes will live. The heart of the righteous ponders, but the mouth of the wicked pours out. Reverence for God is instruction in wisdom. Humility comes before honor.\n", "dateiso": "2024-01-15 07:56:29 -0500", "date": "7:56 p.m. on Jan 15, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/01/15/proverbs-a-gentle.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F01%2F15%2Fproverbs-a-gentle.html" }, { "id": 275, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Proverbs 14/31 The upright reveres the Lord, the evil despises him. Things are easy without work, but there will be nothing to harvest. A cynic seeks wisdom in vain, but it comes easy for one of understanding. Run from fools. Fools mock those who seek forgiveness, but the upright find it. No one knows your heart like you. Life is both joy and grief, together. The wise are cautious, but fools are reckless. Blessed are those generous to the poor. A ruler is only as good as their people. Be slow to anger. Envy will rot your core.\n", "dateiso": "2024-01-14 22:13:16 -0500", "date": "10:13 p.m. on Jan 14, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/01/14/proverbs-the-upright.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F01%2F14%2Fproverbs-the-upright.html" }, { "id": 276, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Proverbs 13/31 The one who watches their words saves their life, but the one who speaks without thinking will be ruined. The poor one is not threatened by ransoms for their life. Insolent = strife, receptive = wisdom. Quick riches dwindle, gather little by little to increase. Prudent ones act with knowledge, but fools flaunt their folly. If disaster pursues you, consider living righteously. One who walks with the wise becomes wise, but a friend of fools hurts themselves. To discipline is to love. The righteous are satisfied, the wicked want.\n", "dateiso": "2024-01-13 10:59:21 -0500", "date": "10:59 p.m. on Jan 13, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/01/13/proverbs-the-one.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F01%2F13%2Fproverbs-the-one.html" }, { "id": 277, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Proverbs 12/31 Discipline = knowledge. The evil will not be established, but the roots of the good run deep. Better to be unassuming with assets than to be lavish without assets. The evil are ensnared by their words, the good free themselves with their words. A fool is right in his own eyes, but the wise listens to advice. The wise ignore insults, but a fool is clear about their rage. The words of the fool damage, the words of the wise heal. Truth is forever, lies are for a moment. The diligent rule and the idle are put to work.\n", "dateiso": "2024-01-12 08:10:34 -0500", "date": "8:10 p.m. on Jan 12, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/01/12/proverbs-discipline-knowledge.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F01%2F12%2Fproverbs-discipline-knowledge.html" }, { "id": 278, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Proverbs 11/31 Pride leads to disgrace, humility to wisdom. The good are diverted from trouble, the evil walk right into it. Two things bring gladness: good for the good, and bad for the bad. Remain silent, do not belittle others or share their secrets. A violent man may get riches, but not honor. Beauty without discretion is like a pearl in a pile of crap. One who gives grows richer, one who withholds giving suffers want. Do not put faith in your riches.\n", "dateiso": "2024-01-11 22:58:01 -0500", "date": "10:58 p.m. on Jan 11, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/01/11/proverbs-pride-leads.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F01%2F11%2Fproverbs-pride-leads.html" }, { "id": 279, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "\u0026ldquo;I\u0026rsquo;m becoming\u0026rdquo; is way more interesting than \u0026ldquo;I am\u0026rdquo;\n", "dateiso": "2024-01-11 12:16:28 -0500", "date": "12:16 p.m. on Jan 11, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/01/11/im-becoming-is.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F01%2F11%2Fim-becoming-is.html" }, { "id": 280, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "TIL there is a port on computers dedicated to getting a \u0026ldquo;Quote of the Day\u0026rdquo;. Port 17 is my new favorite.\n", "dateiso": "2024-01-11 11:26:52 -0500", "date": "11:26 p.m. on Jan 11, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/01/11/til-there-is.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F01%2F11%2Ftil-there-is.html" }, { "id": 281, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "I just heard something similar to this pertaining to relationships: If your house is getting cold, you don\u0026rsquo;t look for every small crack where air could escape, you blast the furnace. The same applies to a relationship growing cold. The multiplicative change vs. incremental change is significant.\n", "dateiso": "2024-01-10 08:47:27 -0500", "date": "8:47 p.m. on Jan 10, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/01/10/i-just-heard.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F01%2F10%2Fi-just-heard.html" }, { "id": 282, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Day 10 of summarizing Proverbs. Lots of good insight, and some taboo/uncomfy topics to write about. Avoiding adultery and lack of wisdom leading to death are common themes so far. Crazy that something written 2-3k years ago can have such relevance today. I guess wisdom is wisdom, for now and always.\n", "dateiso": "2024-01-10 07:19:37 -0500", "date": "7:19 p.m. on Jan 10, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/01/10/day-of-summarizing.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F01%2F10%2Fday-of-summarizing.html" }, { "id": 283, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Proverbs 10/31 Riches from evil do not profit, but righteousness is life. Inaction = poverty, diligence = rich. The legacy of the righteous is a lasting blessing, but an evil legacy will rot quickly. He who is crooked will be found out. Hatred stirs the pot, love smooths all offenses. Multitudes of words indicate wrongdoing, the prudent one restrains their lips. The righteous feed many while fools die for their lack of understanding. The wicked get what they dread, the righteous get what they desire. The way of the Lord is a fortress for the good, but destruction for the evil.\n", "dateiso": "2024-01-10 06:53:34 -0500", "date": "6:53 p.m. on Jan 10, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/01/10/proverbs-riches-from.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F01%2F10%2Fproverbs-riches-from.html" }, { "id": 284, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Proverbs 9/31 You\u0026rsquo;re inviting trouble if you correct a mocker. But if you give feedback to a wise person, they will love you and become wiser. The knowledge of God is insight. Folly is loud, seductive, and ignorant. She encourages thievery and secrecy.\n", "dateiso": "2024-01-10 06:38:13 -0500", "date": "6:38 p.m. on Jan 10, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/01/10/proverbs-youre-inviting.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F01%2F10%2Fproverbs-youre-inviting.html" }, { "id": 285, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Proverbs 8/31 Wisdom is righteous. It is not twisted or crooked. Wisdom is better than riches. Wisdom hates pride, arrogance, evil, and crooked speech. Wisdom has strength. Wisdom loves those who love her. God possessed wisdom at the beginning. Before the depths, mountains, and fields, there was wisdom. Whoever finds wisdom finds life.\n", "dateiso": "2024-01-08 20:32:00 -0500", "date": "8:32 p.m. on Jan 8, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/01/08/proverbs-wisdom-is.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F01%2F08%2Fproverbs-wisdom-is.html" }, { "id": 286, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Proverbs 7/31 Consider wisdom an intimate friend. Do not stray into the path of the forbidden lover. Do not be compelled by smooth talk and seductive speech. One who is persuaded is like an ox led to the slaughter. They do not know it will cost them their life, and yet it is so. The forbidden lover has claimed many victims, and their house is the way to death.\n", "dateiso": "2024-01-07 06:43:00 -0500", "date": "6:43 p.m. on Jan 7, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/01/07/proverbs-con-sider.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F01%2F07%2Fproverbs-con-sider.html" }, { "id": 287, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Proverbs 6/31 Do not stake your fate on the reliability of another person. Follow the example of the ant. Keep working. A little laziness and you will quickly become poor. Do not sow discord, you will be broken. Don\u0026rsquo;t be captured by the adulterer. Prostitutes and porn are cheap, but a spouse is worth a life. Don\u0026rsquo;t get too friendly with another\u0026rsquo;s spouse. Can you carry a fire and not be burned? Those that commit adultery destroy themselves and invite revenge.\n", "dateiso": "2024-01-06 21:35:00 -0500", "date": "9:35 p.m. on Jan 6, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/01/06/proverbs-do-not.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F01%2F06%2Fproverbs-do-not.html" }, { "id": 288, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Proverbs 5/31 A forbidden lover may seem sweet, but behind the veneer is bitter decay that leads to death. Drink from your own well. Your spouse is for you, and you for your spouse. Take joy in your spouse\u0026rsquo;s loveliness, and delight in their love. One who falls into the arms of the forbidden lover is suddenly and unexpectedly ensnared in an inescapable trap. They die for lack of discipline.\n", "dateiso": "2024-01-05 07:28:00 -0500", "date": "7:28 p.m. on Jan 5, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/01/05/proverbs-a-forbidden.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F01%2F05%2Fproverbs-a-forbidden.html" }, { "id": 289, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Proverbs 4/31 The first step in wisdom is seeking and loving wisdom. Guard wisdom like you would your life. Do not step onto the path of evil. When it presents itself, turn the other way and go on. Protect your heart, it manifests the substance of life. Stay far away devious talk. Keep your focus ahead of you. Think deeply about where you are going. Do not swerve from your path.\n", "dateiso": "2024-01-05 07:27:00 -0500", "date": "7:27 p.m. on Jan 5, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/01/05/proverbs-the-first.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F01%2F05%2Fproverbs-the-first.html" }, { "id": 290, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Proverbs 3/31 Embody enduring love and faithfulness, you will find favor with God and people. Trust God, don\u0026rsquo;t be arrogant in your self-perceived wisdom. Be generous. Give the best of what you have and you will never run out. Wisdom will yield better returns than gold, bitcoin, or NFTs. Wisdom and discretion will make you feel light and confident. When you have good to give, give it. Don\u0026rsquo;t look up to those who get what the want with violence and deviousness.\n", "dateiso": "2024-01-03 07:16:00 -0500", "date": "7:16 p.m. on Jan 3, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/01/03/proverbs-embody-enduring.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F01%2F03%2Fproverbs-embody-enduring.html" }, { "id": 291, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Proverbs 2/31 Seek wisdom with integrity, and you will find it. Be upright and just, you will be shielded from those that live in darkness. In this way you will not fall into the trap of sensuality and instant gratification. These lead to decay and death. Those who are upright will remain, those who are corrupt will not.\n", "dateiso": "2024-01-02 16:23:00 -0500", "date": "4:23 p.m. on Jan 2, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/01/02/proverbs-seek-wisdom.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F01%2F02%2Fproverbs-seek-wisdom.html" }, { "id": 292, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "Proverbs 1/31 These proverbs are for wisdom and instruction. Wisdom starts with humility, so prideful fools hate wisdom. When trolls and evil people invite you into their plans, don\u0026rsquo;t go with them. Those who destroy others to lift themselves up will only destroy themselves in the end. Be open to criticism, and you will be open to wisdom. Seek wisdom at all times, so you have it on-hand when you need it. The fool that seeks wisdom only during a disaster will not find it.\n", "dateiso": "2024-01-01 06:52:00 -0500", "date": "6:52 p.m. on Jan 1, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/01/01/proverbs-these-proverbs.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F01%2F01%2Fproverbs-these-proverbs.html" }, { "id": 293, "type": "post", "title": "", "text": "To start my year with wisdom, each day of January I\u0026rsquo;m going to read a Proverb and summarize it into a couple sentences in my own words.\n", "dateiso": "2024-01-01 05:55:00 -0500", "date": "5:55 p.m. on Jan 1, 2024", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2024/01/01/to-start-my.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2024%2F01%2F01%2Fto-start-my.html" }, { "id": 294, "type": "post", "title": "Reflections on Fatherhood", "text": "Below are some thoughts I typed up the morning before my wife was induced for our first child. I recall feeling especially reflective that morning, and I was trying to prepare myself for what was ahead (note: I was/am still unprepared, but I\u0026rsquo;ve managed to figure things out on the fly so far).\n2023-07-05 Thoughts on the Day of the Induction Soon I am going to be a dad and my wife is going to be a mom. It is strange how major change can be right in front of my face, and yet it is hard to believe that it is coming. But how will things change? How can I know what change will be like before it has made its way into my life and started to rearrange things I once cared for? Will I be sad at losing things? Certain freedoms? Or will my values and beliefs be changed?\nIt feels more like the latter, but I have no idea how that will play out. I think I will miss some freedoms from before having a baby, like getting sleep whenever I want, but on the whole, I think this will be a good change and I am really looking forward to it.\nHere is what I think will change:\n Less sleep, especially early on I will develop a larger capacity for love If I do it right, I will slow down and see the world through a child\u0026rsquo;s eyes once again Life will become less flexible in some ways - not able to disc golf as much, trickier to go into the office for work, etc. My wife and I will need to unite around a common goal in a way that we really haven\u0026rsquo;t had to before Less time to myself More laughter Really more of all emotions. I think life will become more vivid and intense, as long as I lean in More walks (I am really excited to use the fancy stroller we got 😂) Less of an aversion to grossness. Getting accustomed to changing dirty diapers and getting poo/pee on myself More wonder and awe More prioritizing family. It is easy to dive into work and get consumed with projects I am working on, but I think it will become easier/more important to be giving myself to my family Less self-centeredness Less screen time (This will not magically change on its own, but I will be focusing on this. I do NOT want to be the dad that has his face in his phone while his daughter is wanting to be seen by him.) My WHY will be strengthened. I will have more purpose and conviction behind my actions. The burden of responsibility on my shoulders will be increased Someday when my daughter describes her dad I hope she will say:\n He loved me We had so much fun together He was goofy and embarrassed me in school He was my example for following Jesus He showed me how a good man should treat me He could beat up all the other dads 😂 He was there when I needed a shoulder to cry on He got out of his comfort zone to try things I wanted to do He didn\u0026rsquo;t raise his voice at me unless he had to keep me safe He loved mom He encouraged my interests He taught me right from wrong Reflections Now that I my daughter is over 5 months old, I\u0026rsquo;m impressed with my past self that most of his predictions were pretty close. I\u0026rsquo;d like to reflect on some of what I got right/wrong.\n Will I be sad at losing things? Certain freedoms? Or will my values and beliefs be changed?\nIt feels more like the latter, but I have no idea how that will play out.\n I have found it to be true that my values have shifted some. It was not such a big and dramatic immediate change as I had expected, but I have not felt sad about losing any freedoms from before my daughter was born.\n I will develop a larger capacity for love\n I\u0026rsquo;m not sure if my capacity for love is larger or not, but close moments with her do hit differently. Baby giggles or moments when it is just the two of us looking into each other\u0026rsquo;s eyes make my heart so full.\n If I do it right, I will slow down and see the world through a child\u0026rsquo;s eyes once again\n I am still working on this, and I want to do this more. I think I will be forced into this soon, as she will begin crawling in the next couple of months, so I\u0026rsquo;m going to need to put my baby cap on to identify all the hazards we may still have on the floors.\n My wife and I will need to unite around a common goal in a way that we really haven\u0026rsquo;t had to before\n Yes. Having a baby has been very uniting, but also brings about a number of disagreements over strongly held opinions on parenting. So far, we have centered around \u0026ldquo;safety\u0026rdquo; as our tiebreaker to determine which opinion we should go with when we can\u0026rsquo;t come to agreement through talking about it. It is interesting that so many of our opinions are rooted in our own childhood experiences, so in a lot of our disagreements it is more important to empathize with each other about past experiences than to rationalize about the current situation. When we empathize, we both tend to feel much better about the approach we decide on. The core to all of this is a mutual understanding that we are on the same team, and we both want the best for our daughter, even when we are coming at it from different angles.\n Less time to myself\n Finding time for me has become much more challenging. The only alone time I\u0026rsquo;ve found has come early in the morning, before the girls are awake. Surprisingly though, changing diapers in the middle of the night has made it easier to get up early. It has been very refreshing for me to get up around 4:30 or 5:00, make a warm cup of coffee, and then either journal, read a book, or work on a personal project. I\u0026rsquo;d like to incorporate more exercise into my \u0026ldquo;me time\u0026rdquo;, but the time feels so short and I\u0026rsquo;m having way more fun doing stuff like writing this post. I know I will feel so much better if I just suck it up and do the exercise though, and I can find ways to be fast and still have time for the other things I enjoy.\n Really more of all emotions. I think life will become more vivid and intense, as long as I lean in\n When I can keep myself free from attention-grabbing distractions (looking at you, phone) and I can focus my whole being on time with my family, this is true. I have found that I am still just as prone toward distraction though, and while I get distracted with flashy colors and noises (YouTube), the color in front of my eyes slowly sucks the color out of life around me. I feel grayer and duller when I am giving into distractions. It is sad that this numbing has become the norm in our society, with so many of us getting off of work and going straight to TV, phone, video games, you name it. I think my disclaimer \u0026ldquo;as long as I lean in\u0026rdquo;, holds true here. I need to constantly check in with myself to be sure that I am leaning in.\n More walks (I am really excited to use the fancy stroller we got 😂)\n This has saved me from my lack of a workout routine. What I didn\u0026rsquo;t account for, though, was how much I\u0026rsquo;d be walking around the house carrying the baby. That is a workout in itself! I don\u0026rsquo;t think I\u0026rsquo;ve gained strength in my upper body, but my endurance is way higher now that I am carrying a baby all the time.\n More prioritizing family. It is easy to dive into work and get consumed with projects I am working on, but I think it will become easier/more important to be giving myself to my family\n This has not come automatically. I\u0026rsquo;ve tried to do this, but I have to really work for it. Work issues can seem so urgent, and personal projects can feel so much more fun than changing diapers. I must patiently remind myself of the value of being with my family when other things are constantly pulling at me. This value is realized on a scale of years, or even decades, when my family will be able to look back and see how much I loved them, even in the little moments. This perspective is hard to have when so many other things feel like they need my attention NOW and I could see results on them right away.\n The burden of responsibility on my shoulders will be increased\n This sounds so serious and heavy lol. Yes this is true, but I haven\u0026rsquo;t felt weighed down at all.\n Someday when my daughter describes her dad I hope she will say:\n I won\u0026rsquo;t be able to reflect on the real-life outcomes of this section for another 20+ years. But all of these hopes are still true. I was emotional as I wrote it originally, and I am emotional again thinking about this. It really all boils down to: I hope she feels loved by me, and I hope she reciprocates it. It feels scary to think that one or both of these could not be true in 20+ years. But I get emotional thinking about how joyful I will be if both are true.\nAll in all, being a dad has been awesome. I would do it again, but not anytime too soon. Right now I am perfectly content with just having one daughter and learning how to love her well.\n", "dateiso": "2023-12-23 12:09:00 -0500", "date": "12:09 p.m. on Dec 23, 2023", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2023/12/23/reflections-on-fatherhood.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2023%2F12%2F23%2Freflections-on-fatherhood.html" }, { "id": 295, "type": "post", "title": "Adding Space", "text": "I\u0026rsquo;ve never considered my handwriting to be great, but I\u0026rsquo;ve been doing a lot more writing by hand recently so I resolved to make an effort to write more legibly.\nThe first thing I tried was to add more space between each character and each word, and that alone made a huge difference! Actually, it\u0026rsquo;s enough of an improvement that I\u0026rsquo;m content with my handwriting for now and won\u0026rsquo;t be trying any more improvements for a while. Keeping some level of messiness feels necessary to maintain the soul of my style.\nFocusing on pushing my hand out to the right to separate each character has made my writing feel like it flows a lot better. I think before I was overly focused on cramming each word tightly together so I could maximize the space on each page. In fact, since making this change, part of me still feels guilty for taking up more space on the page with each word. Somehow it feels wasteful, and I\u0026rsquo;m surprised I could feel guilty about something so trivial. I try to remind myself that whitespace has value too. It brings separation, clarity. It lays the canvas from which each character or word is defined. Having too much ink smushed together muddles everything up. Each stroke is only as good as the accompanying whitespace that makes it a stroke at all.\nAs I think about whitespace in a literal sense and how it has improved my writing, it makes me wonder about whitespace in a figurative sense. Are there areas in my life where I am trying too hard to cram \u0026ldquo;stuff\u0026rdquo; together, and a little whitespace might bring separation and clarity? What does whitespace even mean, in that sense?\n", "dateiso": "2023-12-01 12:07:00 -0500", "date": "12:07 p.m. on Dec 1, 2023", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2023/12/01/adding-space.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2023%2F12%2F01%2Fadding-space.html" }, { "id": 296, "type": "post", "title": "Now 2023-11-26", "text": "Work 💼 Working at the NASA Safety Center, part of the Office of Safety and Mission Assurance. My big focus recently has been product strategy for a new root cause analysis software we are building from scratch. I\u0026rsquo;ve also been making our safety-related data more accessible for analysis, defining how we will leverage Microsoft Power Platform, and improving our dev team\u0026rsquo;s technical capabilities.\nFamily 👨‍👩‍👧 My daughter is 5 months old now. I\u0026rsquo;m taking every opportunity I get to play on the floor with her and laugh together. My wife and I are getting back into a regular date-night routine.\nFaith ⛪ Attending a weekly bible study at my church with my wife and our close friends. That group had no babies when we joined 2 years ago, and by next year there will be 14 babies/kids 😯\nProjects 💻 Working on this personal website. I\u0026rsquo;ve missed having coding as a regular part of my day, so I\u0026rsquo;m tinkering on this site to remedy that.\nJournaling 🖋 I\u0026rsquo;ve always journaled in some capacity, but I\u0026rsquo;ve really gotten back into it recently. I\u0026rsquo;m bullet journaling daily, partially to track personal to-dos, partially to log what is happening each day, but mostly to force myself to review what is happening each month and each day. The slowness of the practice helps me retain my schedule better in my brain. I\u0026rsquo;m also doing morning pages most mornings to declutter my mind at the start of each day. As part of this renewed interest in journaling, I\u0026rsquo;ve gotten back into fountain pens. Right now, I\u0026rsquo;m using a Lamy Safari with Diamine Red Dragon ink.\nReading 📚 See what I\u0026rsquo;m reading now at goodreads.com/jakeweido\u0026hellip;\nHealth 💪 Working on eating smaller portion sizes and wishing I worked out more 😂 I\u0026rsquo;ve been doing random sets of pushups every now and then, but I plan to start following the Recommended Routine from Reddit\u0026rsquo;s Bodyweight Fitness Community\n", "dateiso": "2023-11-26 12:11:00 -0500", "date": "12:11 p.m. on Nov 26, 2023", "permalink": "https://weidok.al/2023/11/26/now.html", "timelinelink": "https://micro.blog/conversation.js?format=jsonfeed\u0026url=https%3A%2F%2Fweidok.al%2F2023%2F11%2F26%2Fnow.html" } ]