Status Update - 10.17.23

Just because I feel like blogging. I was listening to a talk (here) where the speaker was talking about personal blogs and how we should think about them. They said -- among many things -- that one shouldn't apologize for not blogging... a trend I see all over the place. People starting blogs, abandoning them for a while because life gets in the way or whatever, and their next post starts with "Sorry I haven't posted in a while..." I remember doing this all the way back in 2004/5/6, because I knew there were at least a few visitors to the blog daily or weekly.

The truth is, if I want this blog to be my space and not a space for other people, I need to stop with that. No one's reading, and if they are, I'm not writing for them. I want this space to be more than some digital area where I'm trying to build something. As much as I think there are good things that come out of big tech (without Google and Microsoft and all these other big companies, there are so many things we wouldn't have), I also think what they have provided come with a price. We now can't blog without a thought about an ~audience~, about building a ~brand~, about how we could ~monetize~ something like this.

That sucks. Because I'm just a human being that wants to live life, to learn cool things and remember the things I was thinking about. I want to blog regularly and enjoy it, without a thought about what it will mean to anyone else but me.

Anyway, as for a status update -- lots of things going on:

• We sold our house! We lived in the same place for nearly a decade. When we moved in, we had to borrow money for a down payment, and could barely afford monthly payments. Lyla was 2 and Paisley was 4 months old. Elaine and I had just gone through a little bit of hell in our relationship, and my stepdad was diagnosed with cancer that same month. We renovated the entire interior of the house over our time there, did lots of things in the backyard, but never could quite get our hands around landscaping. That house saw us grow and change and live. It was beautiful. We all miss it dearly already but it was also time to let it go.
• We are in the middle of a house purchase. The beginning of this was a bit of a debacle, but we seem to be back on track, and we're hoping to move in around November 9. There's a bit of a familiar feeling money-wise. We have a lot of equity we can push into the new house, but our monthly payment will definitely be a good bit more -- we're reaching but if my spreadsheet reads right, we should be good (sweating/smiling emoji).
• I'm still a data analyst working for a digital ad agency -- most of my work revolves around web and paid media analytics. It can be frustrating some days, but I've also learned SO much so far. I'm finding that I'm interested in the nuts and bolts of the job more and more. This is leading me to think about data engineering more often.
• I beat TOTK recently, though still also playing it on and off because there are lots of side quests and it's pretty relaxing.
• I recently reread The Three Body Problem and The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu. Currently in the middle of Death's End. I don't reread books that often but I do enjoy the experience -- especially when books are complex like this trilogy.
• Listening to a lot of GUTS by Olivia Rodrigo, which has grown on me.

There is a lot more to say, but that's what is on my mind this morning. It felt good to get a little bird's-eye perspective. Assuming I'm good about making this a priority, which I'd genuinely like to do, I'd like to dive a little deeper on some other thoughts and ideas I think are worth exploring.

Tagged: life,