Weeknotes 22:32

October 23, 2022

Week of October 16–22


Not as expected

The week did not go quite as planned. I had planned to take the last two days of the week off. I knew that I needed a break after bringing two projects to the finish line recently. With our unlimited PTO policy, I have been trying to plan more breaks in my life between projects to catch my breath and step away from the work.

But some unexpected things happened on Monday and I ended up taking off on Tuesday and Wednesday as well. I appreciate that my team leadership puts people first and allowed me the space to unplug from the work. I did not have much left in the tank. It was really good to be able to take some extended time off and give attention to my family.

Frustration with Magic Mouse

On Monday, I spent the morning setting up a WordPress install for a new project and built a custom Gutenberg block. But my mouse kept disconnecting and (sometimes) reconnecting to my Mac. After about an hour of getting by with this, I searched around my house for another mouse. I found an old Dell mouse with a USB cable. But that was frustrating to work with as well because I could not gesture between Spaces on my Mac.

When I shared my frustration with my wife, she asked me if I had changed the batteries. I dismissed this idea because I had just replaced the batteries on Friday. But later in the day, I decided to take her suggestion.

The new batteries had ribbing/striping on them that gave them some texture. When doing research about Magic Mice disconnecting, one of the articles talked about bad connections with the terminal. It made me wonder if the ribbing was causing a bad connection.

I found some older unused batteries that were smooth and replaced them in the mouse. And I did not have any more trouble the rest of the day.

The takeaway is that I should always listen to my wife and try her ideas even when I have cause to question. I would have saved myself a couple of hours of frustration and could have gotten more work done.

What I wrote

The added space in my life afforded me the chance to spend some time writing. I ended up writing four other blog posts besides my weeknote from the previous week.

I also did a lot of journaling this week. It was refreshing to spend some time reflecting and processing on different things in my life. I need to make more time and space for this type of reflection. This is one of my biggest takeaways from the week.

Articles I read

What I watched

Kevin Powell’s take on this year’s State of CSS survey.

  • Chiefs-Bills game (CBS)
  • Andor (Disney+)
  • The Great British Baking Show Collection 10 E5 (Netflix)
  • The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (Disney+)
  • Blue Bloods (CBS)
  • Bernie Mac (Peacock)
  • Somebody Feed Phil (Netflix) – I watched all the episodes from America (Nashville, Austin, and Philadelphia) from the latest season
  • Reacher (Prime) – I watched one episode of this new series and don’t think I am going to continue.

Books I am reading

What I listened to

  • Steven Curtis Chapman’s new album, Still. This is his first new pop album in almost ten years. Steven is one of my favorite artists and his songs have been important to my spiritual journey. His songs have challenged me, encouraged me, sustained me, and helped me to lift my ears toward God and the heavenly call to press on.
  • Shop Talk Show #537

What I played

  • FIFA23 (Manchester City)
  • MLB The Show 20 (Padres) – I started a new franchise with the 2020 Padres (traded for Juan Soto). I am not sure if I will play the whole season but just enjoying playing baseball again for now.

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