I’ve made a lot of promises to update this blog, to do some more writing, and to get into the swing of things with doing more online. Obviously this hasn’t happened, but a lot of good things have come out of what has been probably the most stressful past six months of my life.
Work/Life Balance
For a period of time I had a pretty terrible work/life balance. It began with a number of projects coming up that required a bit of time outside of business hours to work, and continued with customers that just assumed I would continue to do so without asking.
On top of this, I had a period of time where I needed to temporarily take over as a tech lead for my department during an extended absence from the company. During this time I tried to take on both the same workload I had been doing before while also solving whatever problems were brought my way which clearly burned me out.
From November 2024 to February 2025, I had a really hard time both finding that balance and figuring out the best way to determine when that balance was starting to shift. I’m pretty fortune to both work for a company that does try its best to do right by its employees and having a manager that puts in the effort to make things work. We’ve had some good conversations, and I think I am on the path to a more manageable workload and easier path towards communicating when I am overwhelmed.
While there will definitely be some times where I need to work after hours, I am keeping track of those cases and generally can get that time back by leaving early on Friday or something.
Mental Health
My mental health took a pretty big dip during the time when my work/life balance was out of whack and I let it permeate to every part of my life. During this time, I also had to deal with the passing of two pets that weren’t directly mine, but were pets that I spent a lot of time with / helped take care of during certain parts of my life. The combination of those elements on top of my failure to keep up with my physical health and diet really took a toll on me.
With my work/life balance coming back to normal and a few other loose ends being taken care of, I have managed to get myself back on the Keto diet. I am a bit over a week back into it and feel a thousand times better as a result.
Right now I am focusing on improving two main things:
- Dieting
- Sleep Schedule
Both of these alone will help me get back on track both physically and mentally as I’ll start to move towards a healthier weight while getting enough sleep to get things done on a daily basis. I feel terrible sleep has been one of the greatest contributing factors both towards my general energy levels and mood. Being back on Keto and taking a sleep aid that seems a lot less powerful has actually had a positive impact on my sleep quality. Now I just need to find the right balance.
Mentally I am in a place where I am having fewer panic attacks or mood swings in general, and am finding it much easier to read things neutrally when dealing with any form of adversity or a difference of opinion. My anxiety has definitely decreased, and I am finding myself looking forward to things a lot more.
Physical Health
If I had to grade my physical health right now, I would probably give myself a D. However, I am taking all of the steps right now to try to move myself towards at least a B by eating the right things, working on portion control, and beginning to dip my toes back into regular exercise.
Beginning this weekend I am going to set up a schedule to do some basic body-weight exercises while also doing some Beat Saber for the cardio benefit. I’ll put together a new spreadsheet to track my exercise routine to try to estimate the impact on my health through calories likely burned by the activity.
My diet is going to be largely static during the work week to ensure I am eating precisely what I need to fuel myself while also encouraging weight loss. For example, I will focus on getting the right amount of protein while filling the rest of my calories out with healthy fats and vitamins / minerals necessary for long-term health. I’ll be taking a daily multi-vitamin, but also using Cronometer to keep track of my micronutrients so I can make adjustments as needed.
Social Media
Finally made the decision to completely remove my Twitter account and no longer engage with that platform. I’ll be blunt; Elon Musk is a danger not just to the future of the United States, but to all of humanity. As a result, I have no interest in even tangentially supporting or making use of the platform.
Social media has become an overly negative hellscape that has likely contributed to my negative view on the world. That’s not to say I am going to bury my head in the sand, but I will be very selective of where I get information from and when I am receiving that information to ensure I am both maximizing my time and balancing things out. It’s important to keep in touch with what’s going on, but it’s also important to reinforce oneself with things that allow them to continue to thrive. For me, that is diving a bit more into personal projects and spending time with friends and family.
My primary platform for social media will be Bluesky with a lot of my personal communications being through Discord. I’ll also use Pillowfort for some random thoughts / engaging with others where longer communication is generally important. It will probably be a place where I post snippets from the blog as well to allow conversation since I don’t really have active comments on my blog.
I’ve updated my Linktree to account for these changes and developments and removed other platforms I am no longer active on. I am not really active on Bandcamp right now, but am planning to continue to support independent musicians by either grabbing their stuff on there, or looking for another way to support them. While I believe Bandcamp hasn’t fundamentally changed things there, the new ownership does leave a lot to be desired. At some point, I wouldn’t be surprised if the platform starts to turn into a profit-driven machine like most other platforms rather than trying to support independent artists.
Tech Writing
I am thinking about going back to trying to publish a new in-depth article once per month here on the blog. I’ve already got some foundation for this as I have set up and have been using Obsidian for quite a while now. It’s my daily journaling tool and has also been a great place for me to store my own documentation. Since July 2024 I have been using it a lot and have ensured it’s on nearly all of the devices I use regularly.
One of the topics I really want to cover is the impact that figures like Elon Musk have had on the general tech landscape and the damage it has done to the future digital privacy and security. On top of that, I want to dive into initiatives that aim to restore one’s general confidence in the tech they use. Should also cover some topics relating to recent developments like Matt Mullenweg ruining the credibility of the WordPress platform as a whole and the current existential threat the platform faces as a result.
Truth be told, I will likely migrate this blog to another platform in the near future.
