I've been having a bit of a writer's block lately! At this rate, I won't make my New Year's resolution of one written piece per week. It's no different for my reading - I suppose I'm having a bit of a reader's block too. A few days, ago, I picked up a book and read one chapter - my first this year.
For almost 5 years, I used the Samsung Galaxy A10e, one of the first-generation phones from the Galaxy A line. It worked great, and lasted for much longer than I expected, and I have practically no complaints about that phone. Unfortunately, the years started to catch up to it. The touchscreen started to lose its sensitivity, the occasional text or call wouldn't go through, and it generally started to slow down, among other minor issues. However, the final push that caused me to begin my search for a new phone was the fact that the A10e was still running on Android version 9. Which, at the time of writing this, has been out of support for about 2 and a half years. That means that my phone has been more prone to bugs, glitches, viruses, and spyware. So, I did what any true American does after about a year of owning a phone - I got a new one!
There was a blood drive at work yesterday! I'd never donated blood before and wanted to do it at least once.
I walked/ran well over 10 miles today - which is not the most distance I've done in one day by a long shot - but today was certainly a leg day, and I'll feel it tomorrow. Today was filled with what I could say are 3 mini-adventures through Marin and San Francisco, which is more than I bargained for! I also took several pictures today.
I got to attend yet another conference for work! This time I went to SCALE - the Southern California Annual Linux Expo - in Pasadena. I was able to justify the travel since there were plenty of talks on the observability stack we use at work. It was a great conference and a pretty fun time as well. My old roommate from college was the one who recommended it to me as he was planning to attend several of the Kubernetes talks.
In the morning, I met up with a friend to go for a hike at Tomales Point. It was almost a 10-mile hike and I took a ton of pictures. Our plan was to do the hike in the morning and then meet up with a group at the roller rink in Rohnert Park in the afternoon. I wasn't planning to take it too seriously since I figured I'd be sore after the hike, and I've never skated before. This was the best time for me to go though, since I knew that some others in the group also have never skated. So at least I wouldn't only embarass myself!
After returning from Europe, or any other continent, for that matter, the following few days are always goofy because of the extreme jet lag. For example, the time zone in France is GMT+1 and California is GMT-8, making a total time change of 9 hours. Ever since returning from the trip to France, I've tried to follow a new sleep schedule. The word tried is highly emphasized, because I am by no means strictly following this.
I was lucky to be able to visit the ASHRAE Winter conference in Chicago. ASHRAE is the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air Conditioning Engineers. I went with my coworker and mentor, Norm, and met many people and learned a lot there. There was actually 2 parts to this conference - the main ASHRAE talks and technical committee meetings, and the AHR Expo, where many vendors come to show off their products.
A Family Holday Vacation to France, December 2023
My family and I visit our relatives in France every couple years. We had been planning to travel to France for some time, but to put it nicely, we are very bad at planning. I knew that if we were to go, I would at least need to help to plan our flight itinerary. After some frustration and finesse, I was able to find some good flights which my dad graciously booked for us all.