Reading

Jen and I have continued reading the Tiffany Aching books in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, and just finished Wintersmith, the third book. I'm consistently amazed at how well each of the Discworld books stands on its own, while simultaneously benefitting from the rich tapestry of the other books. This one had callouts to previous books in the Tiffany Aching series, some references to events in other books dedicated to the witches, and even a mention at the end of young Sam Vime's favorite book, "Where's My Cow?" But the beauty is that you don't need to have read any of the other books; they're almost like easter eggs: delightful callouts to those who know the series, but otherwise just lovely details for the reader. I really cannot recommend the series enough!

I was also excited this month by the return of Saga. Saga is a SFF comic series published by Image Comics that I've been following since it started. The series is narrated by the daughter of two people from opposite sides of an interplanetary conflict, detailing her childhood; it's beautifully illustrated, and has some wonderful character arcs. Around three years ago, the author/artist team finished their first major arc, with an enormous, gut-wrenching cliff hanger... and went on hiatus. This past month, they came back, and it's been a delight.

Listening

Pretty much the same as last month, though less. I haven't been doing as much art this past month, and when I have, we've often had a TV program running in the background instead of music.

Watching

• Peacemaker. We watched the first episode, fully expecting we'd hate it (I'm not a huge John Cena fan, and the character was obnoxious in The Suicide Squad), and then... loved it? The characters were all incredibly flawed, there was humor, heartbreak, and wonderful confrontations with privilege and abuse that just worked. I was completely surprised by it.
• Somebody Somewhere. We've watched Bridget Everett specials before, but this series shows just what an excellent actor she is.
• Reacher. Jen has read a bunch of the novels. We'd been underwhelmed by the first movie, and never bothered to watch the second. The first season (I assume there will be more!) tracks a single book over eight episodes, and the pace is perfect. Lots of slow bits, where we get to know the characters and get invested.
• Britain's Best Home Cook. This is our GBBO replacement now! We're only bummed there's only two seasons!
• Free Guy. This was a fun, and surprisingly thoughtful, movie. Got way more existential than I expected, and it turned out that the action sequences in the trailer were a minority of the film!

PHP

I've been crazy busy at work the past month and more, and didn't code as much as I'd have liked...

Except I have done work on this very website! I decided it was time to own my own content, and have set things up both so that I can post my own artwork, as well as have artwork I post to Instagram be auto-uploaded here. You can check out my art page to see what I've been working on, going back to late 2019.

Work

This month, it feels a bit like I've "leveled up" at work. This was in no small part due to two things:

• Realizing that I was working against my schedule, instead of embracing it.
• Finding a really great Twitter thread on time management for Product professionals.

The first change I made was to end my work on Friday by going through my notes and lists from the week and finding what I hadn't finished. I then determine if unfinished items are important or not. If they are, I ask if they're important right now. From there, they either go in the bin, in my backlog, or back onto my list for next week. I also go through my backlog to see what tasks might be important to work on in the coming week. And finally, I look at my calendar for the next week, and into the following Monday, to see if there are things I need to prepare for, adding those to my todo list. Once that's compiled, I create a list of items I want to do for Monday, and block out focus time for one or more of those tasks.

Each day of the week, as the last thing I do in my work day, I either move unfinished tasks from the day to the list for the next day, or grab tasks from this week's todo list, and then, again block out focus time the next day. Generally, focus time ends up in the afternoon, as that's when I have blocks of uninterrupted time still.

These changes mean that:

• I'm prepared for meetings.
• I rarely have a block of unscheduled time during the day. I've found that I tend to actually get things done when I schedule them; if I don't, there's so many things on my list, I don't know what to do... and my executive disfunction or decision paralysis take over, and I focus on the wrong things or nothing at all. Scheduling the entire work day keeps me focused, and I rarely have days or weeks where I fail to complete what's on my list.
• I finish more things than I add to my list. (See previous point.)
• I feel less guilty about not responding to emails and messages during the day. People can tell by my calendar or my Slacks status that I'm "in a meeting" (as my focus time is technically a "meeting" on the calendar), and do not expect me to respond immediately. I get back to them between tasks.

Since a large part of my team is in Europe and Israel, my days are front-loaded with meetings; it's not uncommon to have meetings from 8 until 11 in the morning. My afternoons are then spent focusing on tasks, and getting things done.

Because I do my planning at the end of the day, I also have a natural transition time, and end up more relaxed, as I know I'm prepared for the next day.

Mental and Physical Health

One aspect of my mental health since the pandemic began is that I realized that I've not been sleeping well. I couldn't remember when I'd last felt rested after a night's sleep, and several days a week, I'd wake with headaches. I initially attributed the headaches to having too many drinks at night, but this wasn't realy true. One or two cocktails spread out over an evening doesn't lead to hangovers, particularly when I'm also keeping hydrated. So I then just attributed it to age.

At Jens' nudging, I spoke to my doctor, and he ordered a sleep study... and, you guessed it, sleep apnea.

I started on a CPAP a couple weeks ago, and the difference has been astonishing. I wake up feeling rested, I have more energy, I'm less irritated by the small things.

I wish I'd done it sooner.

Drawing

I've not been drawing quite as often, but I do get several drawings in a week. Most recently, I'm really proud of this larger tile; it took me five or six sessions to complete, and incorporates a ton of things I've learned in the past month or two.