Intended audience

This post is mostly intended for future me, but it’s possible you’ll find it cathartic to review the same categories in your own life.

Summary

๐ŸŽข 2023 was a fun, rollercoaster of a year.

  • โš–๏ธ I lost 14 pounds, and I had eye issues.
  • ๐ŸŽ‰ We threw a 1 year anniversary party, and then my wife dealt with an ulcer.
  • ๐Ÿ“š I switched to NA beer, completed a bunch of house projects, and read a lot of books.
  • ๐Ÿฅท We got our roof replaced, and had a random act of vandalism on our property.
  • ๐Ÿ˜ฎโ€๐Ÿ’จ I struggled with burnout and had a hard time articulating what was wrong.
  • ๐Ÿช I had fun baking and felt the struggle of doing so at a high altitude.

Let’s break it down by category.

Books Read

I tracked my 2023 reading goal on Literal.club. My goal was 30 books, and so far I’ve read 36.

๐Ÿ“– Notable non-fiction:

  • An Elegant Puzzle
  • Work Clean
  • Outlive

๐Ÿง™โ€โ™‚๏ธ Notable fiction:

  • Red Rising
  • Recursion
  • Project Hail Mary

I think fiction can heal the mind. Note to future self: when you’re struggling and aren’t sure why, go back and re-read a book you love.

Books

Games Played

It’s hard for me to get started playing a game. I grew up where there was always something I should be doing instead (usually chores or homework). But I love games, and I put in more of an effort this year.

โญ๏ธ Some of my favorites are:

๐ŸŽค Some notable mentions include:

๐Ÿ”‚ Some games I keep coming back to after all these years:

2023 games played: IGN’s Playlist

Games

Weight loss

I got a new weight baseline, from ~180lbs to ~165lbs! That steep drop around July-August happened healthier than it looks, because that was when I switched to NA beer, started walking the dog more consistently, and overall started being more deliberate about my health choices.

Scale/app used: FITINDEX

Weight Loss

Blogs posted

I consume a lot from the world, and it’s nice when I feel like I can give back. Blogging can do that, and it also helps clarify my thoughts, especially if I’m teaching something to someone else.

I wrote 7 blog posts in the year 2023 (8 including this), and I hope to increase the rate and consistency in the new year.

Blog Analytics

I used Buffer to help schedule posts across LinkedIn, Twitter (X), and Mastodon. I experimented a bit with the time of the post, and did some self promotion on Reddit.

Movies

We watched a fair amount of new and old movies. These were some of my favorites:

TV Series

Binge-worthy and re-watchable, these were the ones that kept me wanting more:

Put the phone down and enjoy what you’re watching.

Much like fictional books, re-watching a series you love can do wonders when you’re struggling. It doesn’t always have to be an endless pursuit of new.

Tried some baking

…and I struggled. But it was fun! Too often I’m working only on virtual things, tweaking 0s and 1s. The real world is calling and wants you to make something there!

Baking

Office redesign

Continuing with making things in the real world, we designed and built a new accent wall for the office and made sure to include as much Star Wars as possible! Now that the walls are done, I’m hoping we can finally get to these old floors.

Office Accent Wall

Home issues

“My home is my castle.”

It’s really frustrating when you have contractor around, and every one of them tells you how bad the last person did. I still need to strike a balance between DIY and hiring someone when there isn’t time. These were some things I wish I didn’t need to deal with:

  • โ„๏ธ Hail damage to the roof - This became our first insurance claim. The whole roof was covered and it was an overall easy process, but it was still stressful wondering about damage we couldn’t see.
  • โ›”๏ธ Vandalism on lights - Someone (assuming teenagers that recently did damage to a local school), came onto our property in early May and tore down some cheap solar lights we had on the side of the house.
  • ๐Ÿชต Wood rot

Takeaway: Spend some time every year finding and caulking any gaps around your house.

Personal struggles

You’re not getting any younger.

  • ๐Ÿ‘๏ธ Eye issues
  • ๐Ÿ‘Œ Carpal tunnel issues
  • ๐Ÿคข Acid reflux

๐Ÿ‘๏ธ If you feel keeping your eyes focused 8+ hours a day on something close (phone/laptop/book) is a problem, find ways to combat the eye strain.

  • Use gel-based eye lubricants, consistently throughout the day. Night-time on the packaging doesn’t mean you should only use it then.
  • Switch from physical books to audio books. Get a library card and use Libby.
  • If you’re in a dry climate, keep the humidifier going non-stop

๐Ÿ‘Œ If you are having issues with carpal tunnel syndrome:

๐Ÿคข For acid reflux:

  • There’s a quick test you can do at the doctor’s to see if a specific bacteria is causing it.
  • If not, correct your diet. Notice which foods are causing it. (e.g. alcohol, caffeinated / carbonated beverages, tomato-based sauces)

Party for 1st wedding anniversary

Emily and I didn’t get a chance to have a reception when we got married back in 2022, so we decided to throw a party on our 1st anniversary. It was great to have everyone in town!

Some takeaways:

  • ๐Ÿฐ Make sure the catered meal doesn’t include cake if you want people to try the cake you had custom made and delivered
  • ๐Ÿ“ธ A photographer for the night isn’t necessary! Just set up a shared Google photo album and make a QR code that points to it. Print off the QR code with instructions, and place them on the tables. Let everyone upload their pictures throughout the night.
  • ๐Ÿ“ You don’t have to be traditional.
  • ๐Ÿ—ฃ๏ธ You do have to communicate what you actually want out of this thing.

Emily and Erik

Work

  • ๐Ÿค– Coded a Synthetic monitoring app using Playwright and Python that:
    • Can simulate user logins via Okta and make sure apps like Splunk, Cortex xSOAR, and OpenCTI work from the perspective of the user
    • Can report SLIs to Splunk, and SLOs can be reported on and tracked
    • Is hosted on Kubernetes
    • Is fully deployable via CI/CD pipelines when code is merged
  • ๐Ÿ” Created and deployed Hashicorp Vault on EKS, that:
    • Accepts over 500k requests a month for secrets from automation and users
    • Is fully deployed with Terraform in a CI/CD pipeline when code is merged
  • ๐Ÿ“Š Scaled our metrics gathering platform to over 1 million requests per month, which:
    • Feed datapoints to customer dashboards
    • Feed threat hunts with adhoc scans of customer environments
  • ๐Ÿšš Built a CI/CD pipeline for Splunk apps that:
    • Is templatized, allowing us to add a few variables to existing repositories and have those apps deployed to targetted instances
    • Integrates with AWX (ansible) via API to abstract away the release manifest from the automation that runs
  • ๐Ÿšจ Developed a threat intelligence app that pulls indicators from our centralized threat intel platform (OpenCTI), which:
    • Feeds customer environments with up to date threat intel from the community as well as our threat experts
  • ๐ŸŽฐ Went to Vegas for our yearly, company kick-off

๐Ÿ๏ธ Consider the following for next year: Being on call during a rough rotation can speed up the burnout. Look to schedule time off a week or two directly after a shift.

Open Source

I contributed less than I’d like (just 1 submission?), but most of what I contribute day to day is to my organization. I’d have to dedicate more time on weekends to get more in to the community, but I think I would burn out too quickly that way. I was happy for what I could add and I hope I can do more in 2024.

I learned that even if it’s a simple documentation change, when it’s code used by millions it can take a lot of back and forth during code review in order to get merged in.

Here’s what Github measured, which are mostly personal repositories:

Github contributions

Podcasts to recommend

I consume, let’s say, a fair amount of podcasts. I have podcasts on when I’m doing the dishes, walking the dog, and even when falling asleep. I go back an re-listen to favorite episodes when I can and jot down notes on things that could help my personal or work life. I follow recommendation threads leading to reading a new book or subscribing to yet another podcast.

My favorite thing about a good podcast is how personal they get. I like the little bits of context added in and how it applies to the podcasters specific situation. It’s less generalized as a book typically needs to be, and really helps me apply certain advice in specific situations.

Here are my recomendations:

Podcast Stats

Apps to recommend

These are apps I started using heavily and recommend you make a part of your life.

New tech

Out with the old and in with the new.

  • ๐ŸŽง Upgraded my 10 year old Audio Technica headphones.
  • ๐Ÿ‘‚ Retired my old earbuds for some new Raycon daily drivers. I go back and forth on if they’re actually better than the old Raycons.
    • Love that it’s easier to switch between multiple devices without it constantly going back to the old device
    • Like that when I open the case it begins to sync, instead of when the earbud is taken out
    • Hate the touch feature (instead of the older physical button)
    • Dislike when it’s set up with two devices (phone/laptop), walking far enough away from one (laptop) triggers audio for disconnecting (while usually listening to a book or podcast). Annoying!
  • ๐ŸŽน Meta Quest 3 - PianoVision + Paradiddle Drums app for mixed reality learning of piano and drums. Also Steam link to play VR games from your Steam library.
  • ๐ŸงนRobot vacuum/mop (Roborock)
  • โ˜•๏ธ Mug warmer - Always-hot coffee (that doesn’t need a travel mug) is a game changer.

Find the areas of your life that present challenges, and reduce the friction of those activities with tech.

Processes that helped

  • โœ… Use a todo-list that interacts with your calendar. When I use Todoist or Google Calendar, everything I add is sync’d between the two. Each item can be checked off or rescheduled easily. When this is used in conjunction with a shared calendar, your partner can add items that bubble up as reminders for you.

Todoist synced with Google Calendar

  • ๐Ÿ—‘๏ธCult of Done - Things should get to “done”, quicker. If you give up on a todo item, it’s done. If you aren’t enjoying a book, mark it done. The quicker you can get to done, the less you have in working memory that can lead to decision fatigue.
  • โœ‰๏ธ Inbox Zero
  • ๐Ÿ‘จโ€๐Ÿณ Mise en place
  • ๐Ÿ“ˆ Zettelkasten within Obsidian
    • capture reference notes (content)
    • build literature notes (summarize in your own words)
    • convert to permanent notes (concepts independent from original content)
    • never start from scratch since you’re building off other links
  • โฉ Playback speed increase - I usually listen at 1.5x to 1.8x speed
  • ๐Ÿ‘จโ€๐Ÿ’ป Vim mode everywhere: specifically Google Chrome with Vimium and VSCode’s Vim extension
  • ๐Ÿคง Despite what your HVAC tech tells you, using the super cheap filters that are “easy on your system and keep it running great” isn’t great for sinuses. If you can afford it, go for the MERV 13 filters if you experience year round allergies.
  • ๐Ÿšถ Complete the stress response cycle. Especially if you’re working from home, when you complete your work day it’s beneficial to go for a walk or exercise.

2024 Outlook

2023 was all about more. I wanted to read more than I ever have. I wanted to play all the games I kept putting off. 2024 is all about systematically experiencing things in a deeper way.

  • ๐Ÿธ Be more deliberate in what I do: “Eat the frog” first
  • ๐Ÿ•ณ๏ธ Deep learning and enjoyment instead of a large quantity of surface-level things
  • ๐ŸŽฒ More small business activities with my wife and friends (game/trivia nights, etc.)
  • โœ๏ธ Give back more: blog posts, open source, etc.
  • โ™ป๏ธ Consume less: reduce physical and mental waste
  • ๏ผ„ Pay off at least half of the remaining balance on my wife’s student loans
  • ๐Ÿ‘พ Games I’d like to get to in 2024
  • ๐Ÿง Do a similar recap at the end of it