Fireplaces are nice, and talking about goals a bit

· Wholesomedonut's blog

... even if they're mostly computer related.

Sometimes it's the simple things #

The world feels different going into fall and winter. I'm not sure whether it's just getting older or the fact that I'm actually less of a workaholic than I was in years past; but I'm noticing my Circadian rhythm is saying "Donut. It's time for sleeps" at about 1930 hours local, as opposed to 2230 or later, which is when I actually, obstinately, go to bed.

So first off, perhaps I should actually listen to my body and change that. This post might be the prelude to me sleeping. Who knows. It's been on my mind lately that I keep burning the candle at both ends: it's almost as if burning myself out is the goal, not an unfortunate side effect, of my work ethic. That's somewhat troublesome. So one of my top goals overall is to slow the heck down. I'm getting there.

But to alleviate it when it happens anyway,

These are a few of my favorite things in the fall #

There's nothing like having all 3 of those together, with a warm drink, while sitting on a decent couch. Having enough time to sit and exist is a reward all its own. I think that's a useful lesson to learn in an age where constantly being entertained is the norm.

Slowing down has its benefits #

I have a drive within myself to work constantly. I've had to curb that over the years because I've crashed and burned. It is not fun. I have appreciated slowing down because moments like that, sitting with loved ones, (both human and feline) without a thing on your mind... are what all of that work is for. I need to remember that. Nothing Time, as I like to call it, is a currency and commodity worth trading for.

Life goes really fast. That's why I've got 5 different calendar categories in Outlook (and/or Apple calendar), and most of my weekdays (and even some of my weekends) have big colorful blobs over most of the hour lines. Life gets busy. I've learned through regretfully missed opportunities, that if you don't call dibs on time to do certain things, you'll find you never do have time to do the best things.

So I make it a point to schedule work, schedule fun, schedule not-fun-but-important-things. I'll preach till the end of days that calling dibs on time to get stuff done on a regular basis, in spite of anything else, is one of the best things you can do. It helps you make sure you've got some decent Nothing Time left for you and your loved ones without impacting your chronological bottom line.

Goals for the upcoming months #

And before you can call dibs to ensure you've got Nothing Time in the near future, you've gotta know what you want to do. So I've been doing tons of deliberating on what kinda hobby stuff I wanna get done in the next few quarters overall.

In no particular order:

homelab upgrade and rebuild #

This one is ongoing and a bit of a slow burn. It'll reach consistency and optimal configuration approximately 20 minutes before Jesus steps on the Mount of Olives as the world is ending. That being said, I've got the parts ready to rebuild my hypervisor tower; just gotta do that. I chose to do this instead of that tonight, actually.

learn more about hardware, electronics stuff and small, embedded computing #

I've kinda done a bit of this with learning some Forth, but getting ahold of a uConsole in order to finagle with all of this in a mobile and digestable way would be helpful. I'm also hopelessly infatuated with the darn thing. Everyone's got their hook to bite, I guess.

get radio certified, finally #

If I had a nickel for every time I've gone through, studied ham radio, used my own (for listening only, cuz that's legal without a license), and otherwise gotten all nerdy with that topic.. I'd have like 4 nickels. Which isn't a lot but it's weird it's happened 4 times. I've yet to actually go and get certified. The last time I had an exam scheduled was 2020 and we're all aware of how impossible any kind of in-person scheduling was back then. So perhaps sometime in the spring I will get that figured out.

start some [REDACTED] and make some [REDACTED] #

I have some ideas in the coming weeks and months where I might try doing some real simple paid services for people. I've been brainstorming some topics, systems, and services that I might be able to leverage to contribute something meaningful, without going whole hog on becoming some kinda Backyard MSP.

Summary #

Well, that about sums it up.

Relaxing evening, a solid set of plans for the next 6-ish months, and the hope that I can actually do half of it on time. 😅

Here's for hoping.