It's been awhile since my last entry. I was hoping to write something for this series more frequently, but things got really busy and so here we are. A number of notable things happened in between that I wanted to write about.
Starting off with... I have a new rule for this series of blog posts; all journal entries should be written impromptu or on the spot. This means not copying previously written down notes or entries from my digital or bullet journal.
This is how I originally started writing journal entries in the past by the way. I would login to write.as at night and write a journal entry based on what was in my head at that time.
More of a brain dump, versus a routine that involved going over previous journal entries, then compiling them into one big journal entry/blog post.
Over time, as I got more into bullet journaling, this practice of writing a journal entry on the spot went away. It was replaced by writing a journal entry based on entries I've written down on my bullet journal or daily logs in Obsidian.
At first it was great. I had so much material, so many thoughts and ideas to write about. But as time went by, I noticed that blogging this way became more like a job for me. I lost that excitement that you get with writing something on the spot and then immediately sharing it online. Not to mention, it was a chore having to go through and filter previous daily log entries to find something I can copy or write about.
I'm not saying this method of writing is bad. It's just that for me, it was no longer working. It was no longer keeping the spark for blogging alive that is. And so that's why I'm going back to more impromptu writing with this series.
Most people do some kind of “year in review” posts. I thought I'd start something a little different. Here's a list of the best experiences I came across in 2025. I hope other people pick this up and do their own “Best of 2025” posts as well.
Brought my kids to watch this movie, but ended up thoroughly enjoying this myself. It's a great retelling of the story of Jesus, based off a story or book that Charles Dickens wrote for his kids. The twist in this movie is that, it is portrayed in such a way where a kid walks alongside Jesus, witnessing His miracles, facing His trials, and understanding His ultimate sacrifice.
This game has somewhat ruined the traditional turn based JRPG genre for me. It revolutionizes the genre so much, modernized it, that I have a hard time going back to the traditional JRPG experience. I've actually tried to play the older Final Fantasy games and found them to be boring. It's totally unfair of me to judge old games this way, but this just shows how much Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has changed my expectations of games going forward.
This started out as a Remark.as response to this post from Ernest Ortiz. Once it became long enough, I decided to make it a proper blog post instead.
So, here's my response to his question about my “writer's carry”:
Interesting, I've never heard it called a “writer's carry”, but it does make sense.
I used to write down my thoughts and ideas on my bullet journal. That habit slowly faded away once I started using Obsidian on my phone. Since my bullet journal is too big to carry around with me all the time, I still primarily write down thoughts and ideas on my phone first. But lately, I've been trying to get back to more analog writing, and have been writing to my bullet journal more.
I currently have a navy blue Bullet Journal, the official one that is a collab with Leuchtterm1917. As for my pen, when I'm at the office, I write with a Uni Jetstream pen. And when I'm at home, I use my Zebra Sarasa pen. Everywhere else where I can't easily write into my bullet journal, I use Obsidian on my phone.
This one's a good one! With good headphones, it really sounds like there's a downpour outside. Good for focusing at work too, which is what I'm using it for right now.
Still working on the endpoint I mentioned in yesterday's journal entry. The song for the day is a gem from Sixx: A.M. I feel like this is such an underrated song.
Working on a new story at work. An endpoint that can process a batch of items. Problem is, this makes logging tricky. How do you log a message for the whole request if it runs into an error? What about if an individual item in the request runs into an error? Decisions, decisions. Been chatting with Copilot about this and it's providing some insightful answers.
Getting used to Jira; I come from an Azure DevOps background. In a lot of ways I think it is better than Azure DevOps, but... there's so much going on here. Azure DevOps, while it doesn't seem to have as much functionality than Jira, seems easier to use precisely because of that.
Jamming to “Today, Tomorrow” by JJ Project. I could listen to this all day.
Tried to go on my usual morning walk today, but it was too damn cold. Made it to my car, sat in it to try and warm myself up for a bit, then it was back to the office. No walking on the trails around the office today.
Outside temp was not even below 40F; it was 47F. But damn 10 mph wind gusts made it feel way colder. My vest was not enough to keep me warm. Should have brought a full jacket.
On the bright side, the Screamo mix that Spotify generated today is fire!
This morning I proactively made breakfast for my son: pancakes with butter and a little sprinkling of sugar. As soon as he got into the kitchen and saw it, he complained and said he wanted “mini pizza” instead. Of course. Of course, this happens the day that I proactively try to make breakfast for him. Tomorrow I'll ask him when he wakes up before making anything.
A consequence of this event is that, I now have to eat the pancakes for breakfast. I wasn't just gonna throw it away. So I ate it. It did taste good though.
The difference between eating pancakes versus eggs for breakfast, is that I'm hungry 2 hours earlier. I'm having to snack already before my morning meetings. I usually can last close to lunch time without snacking. But not today. It's because the pancakes just don't have enough protein and fat to keep me full for a longer period of time.
