Journal -- March 12, 2023
Posted on
Sunday, March 12, 2023 – Been a few weeks since the last journal. Let’s catch up on things.
Work
No new work details to share. I am still looking for my next gig. I have done a few calls with prospective clients and hope something might turn up soon.
I did sign a small monthly retainer for a previous client. This is a first for me, and I’m curious how it will work out. It mostly covers emergency maintenance though it might expand to other things in the future.
Franklin
I’ve been making good progress on my side project Franklin. If you look at Sprint 5, you’ll see I’ve been cranking out tickets at a much higher velocity of late. Feels good. Feels like I’m pretty close to a test deployment.
Walks
Is it spring yet? Over the winter, I’ve been pretty lax with my morning walks. I still get out 1-2 times a week but have been using the indoor walking path of the local YMCA. It serves its purpose, but I was hoping the morning temperatures would be warm enough to do my local outdoor walking path without bundling up. It seems like this will take a few more weeks.
On the one plus side, I got some new sneakers, and wow, they are much nicer on my feet than my last pair. This a good reminder not to settle on crap shoes when your feet complain.
ElixirClub
I put some new energy into ElixirClub this past week by planning, delivering, and publishing an education event on Creating Your First Elixir/Phoenix CI Check with GitHub Actions. It went okay, though I would have welcomed some more attendees. Perhaps it will find an audience on YouTube.
Otherwise, I’m giving some of the few active members personal 1:1 time to help them progress on their side projects.
Phillies
Very much enjoying watching the occasional spring training games and listening to a few podcasts sharing the same pre-season excitement. I bought some tickets for a few April/May games but have yet to be able to acquire home opener tickets.
Video Games
Related to baseball season, I’m counting the days until I can play MLB: The Show 2023. Finally put in my preorder. It will be playable on March 24th.
Until then, I’m working on my end-game Stardew Valley achievements. I might even record a farm tour when I finish. I have not done anything particularly noteworthy with my farm, but should I ever come back to Stardew after this run, I’m sure I’ll start a fresh new farm, and it would be neat to capture what I built over the last 100+ hours.
I’ve also played 2 hours of the Octopath Traveler 2 demo, though I’m still determining if I’ll buy it. In that 2 hours, the story felt a little slow. After watching a review of the first game, I doubt the sequel will be much better. The gameplay seemed neat, but unfortunately, I only had one character during the demo, so the fights felt very monotonous.
TV / Movies
I finished my re-watch of Quantum Leap. After watching the first two seasons sequentially, I picked a few notable episodes, many during season 5, to finish up. Some episodes held up to my memories (I love the evil leaper ones), while others, like Lee Harvey Oswald episodes, less so.
Still working through Voyager; currently, in the middle of season 2. I also started filling the gaps with random movies, including JFK, The Shawshank Redemption, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Lost in Translation, and The Terminal. I go in phases where I’ll play movies in the background while I work, though only movies I’ve previously watched as I’m mostly looking for background noise rather than something to own my attention.
That’s it for now. Have a nice week!