Daily fix

Photo by Peter Lewicki on Unsplash

This is the last post of my "blogging every day" experiment. I started over on Tumblr on Nov 1, 2018 with the goal of doing this for 120 days. The Seth Godin post that inspired me ended with "Give it a try for three or four months and see what happens…" Turns out 3 months was the right length of time for me. 

I expect to keep publicly posting blog posts regularly. My goal is to improve my writing and explore the same topics I've dabbled in over the past few months - personal growth, professional development, programming, photography, deliberate practice and more.

If you're looking for a daily fix of some of the best the internet has to offer, I recommend:

- Seth Godin's blog

- Kottke.org

- Raptitude.com
- Zen Habits

A couple of news sites I recently discovered: - Hvper: the internet on one page, and AllSides.com.

I won't be joining you in regularly perusing these sites, since for the month of February I'll be doing a digital detox - the first step in becoming a digital minimalist. I'll be focused on building my deep work muscles, hence my plan for more meaty blog posts. I'll also be focused on Analog Social Media.

Thanks for joining me on the journey so far, I really appreciate you taking the time to participate in my tiny little corner of the internet.

💜

Personal Finance

Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash

Personal finance is a bit of a hobby of mine...if it's possible for money management to be a hobby. I love learning about new ways to manage financial resources more efficiently. I'm also very keen to understand how more people can learn about personal finance in a way that's not intimidating. 

Over the years, I've written a number of pieces that explore personal finance from various angles: philosophical, practical, career-related.

My biggest influence around all of this, is the internet personality - Mr. Money Mustache (MMM). With the tag-line "Financial Freedom through Badassity" you can't really go wrong - it's playful, aspirational, and honest about what it takes to eventually be free of the need for a typical 9-5. 

Some people are driven by a desire to be comfortable and see material things as a pathway to contentment. Others expect to make small sacrifices today and have the positive consequences compound over the course of their lives. I am all about the second option (as is MMM), and I'm learning to be less judgmental about the first. We all have our own paths. 

That said, all of us can do wonders for our long term independence by doing our absolute best to:
1. Max out tax-deferred retirement accounts i.e. 401k, IRA, etc.
    a. Purchase the most efficient investments we can e.g. Vanguard low fee index funds. 
2. Save as much of our salaries as possible for emergencies;

Blog post ideas

Photo by Peter Lewicki on Unsplash

I found a small treasure last week! A note with blogpost ideas from a few years ago. As I read through the list I realized I'd love to write about pretty much all the topics and they're still timely, some even more so now. 

My initial thoughts around this find:

This is a particular treasure because I've been struggling with my "blogging every day" experiment. I do have a handful of blog topic ideas, but none of them were particularly appealing. This is why they're still just ideas despite my need to find content for 5 days every week. So look out for more daily updates.

But...as I think more about it, I realize I'd much rather write one well-thought-out blog post every week or so about these topics, instead of dashing off a few harried sentences. 

So that'll be the plan. 

I committed to keeping up the daily blog through January, so I'll be doing that and then I'll move to a less frequent schedule. There'll still be photos and learning to code updates, but hopefully I'll also have at least one meaty piece per week. They might not be super long, but they will be focused on improving my ability to write more elegantly.

Learning to Code Weekly Update 01/28/2019

Photo by Fabian Grohs on Unsplash

The calculator project has been quite a challenge. I've seen the better part of the last two weeks plugging away at it; trying to break it down into modular working pieces. I've been reveling in the learning process, and not just trying to hack something together as quickly as possible.

Friday evening, I discovered the JavaScript eval function - a game changer for the way I was approaching this project. I've spent the rest of the weekend tackling test cases and styling. I still have a little left to do, but we're in pretty good shape. 

Early 1/29/2019 update: Calculator project is all done! 🎆
Up next, I'll be building a Pomodoro Clock.

M Street Bridge

Underside of the M St. Bridge, NOMA DC, 1/24/2019

Container Art

NOMA DC, 01/24/2019

Sanity at work

Photo by Drew Beamer on Unsplash

I mentioned yesterday, that I'm a pretty talkative person. However, lately, I've been finding that even when I have the opportunity to spout off at the mouth about the absolute ridiculousness our team is experiencing at work, I sometimes find the calmness of mind to bite my tongue or to not send that email/Slack message. 

Maybe I've simply given up hope, or it's a sign of how dysfunctional our stakeholders are, or maybe it's even a sign of increasing wisdom as a I attempt to age gracefully, or maybe it's all of the above - but I'm finding myself much more willing to be really clear-eyed about my circle of control.  Don't get me wrong, I'm still me, I'm still loquacious, and a bit of a jester - saying the things other people are afraid to say, but packaging them in wisecracks. I'm just finding that I'm able to be much more sanguine about nutty situations. Both internally and in the way I face them on a day to day basis. And I'm happy for myself, proud and looking forward to becoming even more gracious and sensible as time keeps marching on.

Book Recommendation: Never Split the Difference

Image from amazon.

I've been listening (and re-listening) to this book over the past few weeks, and I've really been getting a lot out it. Here's a worksheet that outlines the key points.
I highly recommend taking the time to read/listen to this book despite the great worksheet summary.

Here are a few key takeaways to tide you over until you get a chance to read the book itself or the worksheet:

1. When you're negotiating on price, always let the other person make the first offer. Avoid simply going back and forth with various figures, but when you do get close to your bottom-line price - don't use a round number. If you're going for $500, say $497.35. Why? It sounds like it's based on a well-thought about calculation.
2. Ask calibrated questions in a calm, inquisitive, friendly voice. These are questions like "What are you hoping to accomplish?" and "How am I supposed to do that?"
3. When they answer, pay extremely close attention, listen actively, and use silence to your benefit. Pay attention to tone, what they aren't saying, useful tidbits they might let slip as they answer your questions.

Effective negotiating, or "the art of letting the other person have your way" is an invaluable skill and applies to so many areas of life so I'm looking forward to incorporating these practices and the other outlined in the book into my daily interactions. As talkative, argumentative, impatient person by nature, it's going to be a hell of a challenge, but I welcome it.

Burnout

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

There's a great piece that folks have been talking about this week "How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation." 

I'm one of the generation-bridge people - MilleniX perhaps? Too young to really be Gen X, and too old to be a true Millennial.  In any case, I find myself resonating with quite a bit of what the author articulated. I'm grateful I have a spouse to split the mundane duties with that sometimes feel overwhelming, precisely because of how simple they are. And I realize that makes me a very fortunate person.

Maintaining this daily blog is likely to also suffer the fate of my general feeling of being overwhelmed. I'm going to try to make it to the end of January, but I expect the length and quality of my posts will suffer - c'est la vie.

The good news is that my commitment to coding every day is going strong. It's definitely a different skillset than writing. And one key aspect is that no one else sees the progress I make on any given day, unlike a daily blog. I used to maintain a private blog, maybe that's the trick? Maintain a writing practice with the goal of becoming a better writer and only publish pieces that are worth sharing? 

I'll keep chewing on it all and in the meantime, I'll probably pivot to sharing more recommendations of things I've watched, read, or listened to.

TV Recommendation: Sex Education

Asa Butterfield & Gillian Anderson Photo: Sam Taylor/Netflix

My wife and I binge watched Sex Education on Netflix earlier this month and highly recommend it.

It was thoughtful, and funny, and simply entertaining. There was only one heteronormative moment that we spotted...and we're pretty eagle-eyed about that kind of thing.

I've watched a ton of TV in my day and I definitely don't mind consuming hours of vapid fluff. It's just a delight when that fluff reflects some of the gorgeous, multi-faceted tapestry of real-life. As a non-straight, woman of color, I'm an expert at projecting my experience onto the inevitable white, straight, male protagonists that dominate most TV/film. 

That said, it's brilliant when I don't have to.


p.s. If you're looking for some thrilling vapid fluff, I highly recommend Killing Eve.

Lunar Eclipse - January 20, 2019

11:59pm ET: Fuji X20

As promised here's a photo of the lunar eclipse taken with my "real camera." It did a pretty good job, you can even see the shadow of the earth moving across the moon...so cool!

Learning to Code Weekly Update 01/20/2019

My Drum Machine!

Posting a day early this week, because I hope to post a photo of the Lunar Eclipse tomorrow. I actually have a real camera somewhere, so maybe I'll take that out and see what it can do.

Onto this week's coding update:

I got the Drum Machine I mentioned last week completed. Wippee!
I had to find help for the last most troublesome bits online, but all the brilliant engineers I know (and my very smart and very sensible wife) tell me that's how it's done, so that's that.

Now I'm tackling the Calculator project. I feel pretty comfortable with my basic React knowledge now, so it's all about applying my general problem solving skills. I've been making steady progress adding a little more functionality every day. While it's slower than I like I can almost feel my brain learning how to think more computationally every time I sit down to code.

Progress!!

Point and shoot

Chinatown, Washington DC 01/18/2019

Dry January Happy Hours

Photo by Sven on Unsplash

I've been participating in Dry January this year - no alcohol for the month. And I've been finding that happy hours and other social outings are actually more fun with no alcohol. 

Sure, I'm a talkative extrovert and enjoy most social gatherings, but I think there's a little more to it than that. Going out on a school night but staying away from alcohol means I'm well-hydrated and well-rested the next day. Two conditions that are highly underrated. It's also more enjoyable to be out and about because I can fully engage in vigorous conversations and I'm not at all worried about any alcohol-facilitated faux pas.

Cheers 🍻

Nothing new under the sun

Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash

I read an eye-opening article last week about Agile methodologies not being some (relatively) new, shiny concept. Rather, it's  a mode of working that has had a key role in a number of successful, complex projects over the past century.

One story that really struck me: while small autonomous teams delivered the Polaris submarine project a full 6 years ahead of the 9 year schedule, they didn't get the credit. Instead, the person who secured the Congressional funding dazzled people with charts that showed dependencies, critical paths etc. And that's what stuck with folks, and what they've emulated over the years with Gantt charts and project plans. 

It's a shame the real story isn't more widely known and the lessons learned shared more broadly.

Blog Evolution?

Photo by Peter Lewicki on Unsplash

A friend recently questioned my ability, really anyone's ability, to generate enough content to populate a blog every single day. This blogging-every-day experiment has been a struggle most weeks, so I definitely appreciate his concern. 

I've been thinking about calling it early - the experiment was supposed to go until Feb 28, 2019 - and focus this blog around my learning to code journey. The plan would be at least weekly posts, with bonus content that would include some photography, recommendations, and observations.

For now though, I'll keep chugging along. New interim goal - make it to the end of January

Government Shutdown

Photo by Ben Hershey on Unsplash

One quarter of the federal government has been shut down for a record-breaking 25 days and counting.

Here's a pretty good explanation of the causes and ramifications.

I'll likely write more about this in the coming weeks, but for now, I'm simply disgusted and disillusioned. 

No other advanced country has "government shutdowns." If they did, we would be flabbergasted at how callous those governments were towards their own public servants and citizens. Pulling on that thread a little, here's a piece about the 2013 shutdown that describes "American events using the tropes and tone normally employed by the American media to describe events in other countries". 

Learning to Code Weekly Update 01/14/2019

Photo by Fabian Grohs on Unsplash

I'm continuing to chip away at the Front End Libraries projects on freeCodeCamp. This week I've been working on building a Drum Machine.

It's been slow going and will likely take me another couple of weeks before I've completed this particular project. As I mentioned last week, all the re-reading of information and supplementary tutorials I'm completing are helping me to really understand the concepts.

WMATA Part II

DC Metro: looking down, noir filter

WMATA Part I

DC Metro: looking up

An email from the past

Photo by Franck V. on Unsplash

There's a great service that lets you send an email to your future self: FutureMe. 

How cool is that?

I've used this service a few times over the years and every time I get a new message, it's a delight. 

Why Buddhism Is True - Book Review

I've mention mediation on this blog before and recommended this book: Why Buddhism Is True. 

It's a great read because it explores the science behind why meditation works. It also examines Buddhism as a system for living a more content and satisfied life. 

The world is a pretty perplexing, stressful place these days. This book provides a scientifically proven way to increase emotional resilience amidst all of this, something pretty invaluable, I'd argue.

Here's the publisher's page which contains a nice lovely summary. 

Let me know if you've read it, and if so what you thought about it.

Developing hard and sought after skills

This is going to be key for thriving in the 21st Century. And what does this take? Nothing short of painful and demanding practice and hard work.

And not mindless practice, mind you. But deliberate practice. Practice that involves setting goals, and stretching oneself beyond one's current abilities.

It's uncomfortable.

And much much less enticing than a quick peek at email, or Twitter, or anything else really.

Speaking of social media distractions, I saw a delightful tweet a couple of weeks ago in response to a plea for how to get motivated to clean an apartment: "Start writing a book."
We will squirm our way out of difficult, mentally-taxing work at every opportunity.

It's human nature.

In other words, developing hard and sought after skills is itself a hard and sought after skill.
Personal development recursion for the win.

Learning to Code Weekly Update 01/07/2019

Photo by Fabian Grohs on Unsplash

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that my stretch goal was to complete all the freeCodeCamp Front End Library projects by Jan 6.

I didn't quite make it since I needed more time to sit with React and really understand how it works. 

The good news is that I've spent the past couple of weeks finding useful tutorials to augment the React challenges at freeCodeCamp. I've learned how to deploy websites using npm (node package manager) - a tool professional developers use in their day-to-day. I've also gotten a lot more comfortable using git command line tools. And this past weekend I completed the Random Quote Generator project.

Quick terminology breakdown if you're interested: git is a version control system that allows any number of people to collaborate on the same file at the same time. And the command line (or terminal) is a much more powerful way to interact with files on your computer. It can also seem a little esoteric and it is possible to literally delete every single file on your machine if you follow dodgy internet advice, so people tend to shy away from it. Basically, just don't enter any commands that contain with both sudo & rm, unless you know exactly what you're doing.

Attention to detail

Looks like every branch of every tree got covered with lights - impressive!

Winter is here

Chinatown DC, iPhone 6s - Noir filter, 12/31/2018

Shoutout

Photo by Simon Zhu on Unsplash

Just want to give a shoutout to Unsplash: the source of most of the photographs that accompany my blog posts.

They describe themselves as a source of:

Beautiful, free images gifted by the world’s most generous community of photographers. Better than any royalty free or stock photos.

I would agree on all counts. If you ever need a great photo I highly recommend them.

A healthy social life

Photo by Roman Kraft on Unsplash

Last week I opined about the need for us to engage in activities that helped fulfill the needs we have as social creatures.
I wasn't sure what good next steps were, but then one of my favorite writers and thinkers, Cal Newport, presented a list of options that all sound pretty good:

• Join a local political group that meets regularly to organize on issues relevant to your local community, or serve as a volunteer on the election campaign of a local politician you know and like.
• Join a social fitness group, like a running club, or local CrossFit box.
• Become a museum or theater member and attend openings.
• Go to at least one author talk per month at a local bookstore.
• Create a book club, or poker group, or gaming club.
• Join a committee at your church/temple/mosque.
• Establish a weekly brunch or happy hour with your close friends.

I'm going to chew on these options and see if there's one I can commit to making time for. There's a monthly dinner I attend, 8 months out of the year, so I'm off to a good start. There are also a number of MeetUp groups that I've been planning to check out for over a year, but I never make it. So, we'll see how I do in the coming months.

Any of these ideas pique your interest? Do you have regular social activities you participate in?

Lovely friends

Photo by Jeroen den Otter on Unsplash

I have yet to get my podcast off the ground. In fact, last week I laid out a bunch of reasons why I may want to delay launch for a month or two. 

And in the meantime, I've been getting the most lovely support from my friends, and I'm immensely grateful. 

One encouraged me to have a Patreon to help support the podcast. Another (who works in radio) offered to tweet about it to his thousands of Twitter followers. And another couple have commented that I have a voice and accent made for radio. (Very kind of them, to be sure.)

Most recently, one young friend mentioned that he had been thinking about launching a podcast as well, but got too busy. So he's done some research and was able to offer up the very useful tip that SoundCloud is the way to go when it comes to podcast hosting. So now I have one thing I can explore and experiment with. Decision fatigue, at least on this aspect, averted. 

All of this encouragement and support couldn't have happened if I hadn't started talking about this podcast like it's a real project I plan to undertake. 

Luck favors the well-prepared, right?

Addendum 01/04: Found this great Twitter thread about podcasting so leaving this link here for any of you (and future me) who might be interested.

To a prosperous and fascinating 2019

Photo by Nora Schlesinger on Unsplash

Cheers to you and yours!

And if you're in the mood for some meaty reading/thinking - here you go.