June 5, 2022 6:23 PM
A Mundane Sunday
I've been wanting to blog more. I don't want to make that some sort of goal to reach, like "blog every so often" but I really just want to record more of the things that I've been doing--things that make me happy. Life has actually been pretty good lately. I usually get really really anxious as the summer is approaching, but it's pretty chill this year. Maybe that's because everyone in my family keeps getting COVID and we need to cancel plans. Maybe it's just a lot easier for me to make plans. I don't know.
I always like to come back to this blog post, Life is a Picture, But You Live in a Pixel. I'm trying to get away from thinking so much about wanting to retire, and more just trying to make each day a good one.
I went to the dentist earlier this week, and they told me that I had been doing a good job keeping my teeth clean. It was a much more pleasant experience than my very first visit at this dentist office seven years ago. (Yes, I still get excited for the free lip balm)
I also went to the Arts festival on Friday, and while I didn't get any free dental care products, I did get to speak to one of the artists who takes very nice photographs of Pittsburgh. I even have one of his prints hanging on my wall!
Yesterday I watched Everything, Everywhere, All at Once for the second time in theaters. I think this is the first time I've ever watched a movie twice in theaters. But it's a good movie! And even though I'm not a movie person, I think watching a movie can be a good way to spend time with others.
May 4, 2022 11:34 PM
what I want
Last week, I went on a company sponsored vacation to San Diego. I honestly wasn't excited about it at all. Maybe a little anxious. I don't like travelling, and I just wanted to get it over with. We had "fun activities" that we signed up for, but they didn't really appeal to me. I didn't have to attend, but it just seemed like the socially acceptable thing to do.
When I got to the airport and walked over to the terminal, I saw several of my co-workers standing in a circle. They were getting on an earlier flight. I also passed by another co-worker to waved over to me, and I sat with him for a little bit as we waited for our boarding times. As the day went on, I saw more and more co-workers. When I finally arrived at the hotel in San Diego, I saw people that I hadn't seen in person in over two years. And a wave of energy just hit me. I rushed up to my hotel room, dropped off my stuff, quickly changed into shorts, and in less than ten minutes I was back downstairs in the hotel lobby, chatting it up with my co-workers.
Those three days in San Diego were absolutely exhausting, and I barely got any sleep. The food was decent, but nothing amazing. The activities were fine enough. But the people. The people made it absolutely worth it.
What I love about my job isn't the fact that I solve challenging problems and write code. It's the incredibly smart, interesting, and friendly people that I get to interact with. And I've known this for years, but the pandemic had largely taken that away. I'm glad I was reminded of it during this trip.
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In the old iteration(s) of this blog, around 2015-2018, I would always talk about my goals. I wanted to save money, to learn more, to be a more productive person. My life was centered around the things I wanted to accomplish. Lately, I've had a few conversations that have made me think about what I want in my life. Right now, I don't think I want to accomplish anything. I just want to do things that will make me happy.
- I want to let go of work
- I want to cook more
- I want to eat good food
- I want to go on long walks and explore
- I want to play lots and lots of dance games
But most importantly, I want to spend time with others. I could do all those things, but if I couldn't share my experiences with friends and family then it wouldn't make me happy at all.
Life is still kind of a mess right now, with lots of ups and downs. But I'm slowly getting out more, and reaching out to people more. It's way more effort than it used to be just to see people, but I'm going to try as hard as I can to make it happen.
March 20, 2022 1:51 PM
First day of spring
There are two things that make me proud to be part of something. One of them is success. The other is the times you spend with people, having truly quirky moments. The moments that make me forget that stupid things like American Idol exist.
- me, 12 years ago
I was a senior in high school and I was in the indoor drumline. We had a competition that morning, and we were really happy with our performance.
It was also the first day of spring, so a few of us celebrated by going to Rita's. That was fun, so we decided to go to another Rita's. And another. And another. We finished our round of Rita's at the local mall. Since it was spring, the Easter bunny was around and we all took a picture together.
My next door neighbor was also in the drumline, so we drove to his house, but we weren't ready for the day to end yet. We all stood in a circle in the driveway and asked ourselves, "What should we do now?" Standing there, it felt like we contemplated forever.
One of my friends really wanted to go bike riding, but there were 7 of us. Where were we going to get enough bikes? We ended up driving all around town to some of our houses and our friends' houses to pick up bikes from different places until we had one for each of us to use.
Right when we started riding, we had to cross the street to get to the park, and I nearly got hit by a car. But I was fine. We got to the park and we rode around and I was incredibly slow and lagging behind everyone. Once we got tired of riding, we all went swimming in the creek. I've never really been a huge fan of bike riding or swimming, and I'm not really good at either, but man, it was so much fun.
Somehow, only 5 hours had elapsed throughout our adventures that day. It truly felt like the best day ever.
February 10, 2022 8:33 PM
A day for my dad
Today, I
- Took my dad to an appointment with a new doctor.
- Called my dad's former employer to ask about a tax form we haven't received.
- Called two companies to inform them of my dad's doctor's appointment today.
- Researched different tax software to see what would be cheapest and easiest for my dad's tax situation.
- Drove to a Verizon store so my dad could switch to a smartphone.
- Listened to my dad talk about the different exercises he's been trying.
- Went on a walk with my dad.
February 10, 2022 9:26 AM
My mobile app code is on github
Yesterday I took a day of PTO and spent a couple of hours on my mobile app. This is what came out of it:
- It now prevents me from trying to upload an image that will overwrite an existing one.
- It also copies the url of the newly uploaded image to clipboard, which I only included for the purpose of showing this progress video.
- My changes are on github! Hopefully I did it right and saved all the right files and didn't accidentally include any sensitive data.
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