Personal and accomplished

I’ve been trying to do posts focused more on general-interest topics rather than more personal ones lately as I’ve been trying to broaden the appeal of this blog, but today is going to be something of a throwback as things have been crazy at work and it doesn’t seem to be lightening up. So I just want to get something posted, and the general-interest posts take a bit more research. This is a great opportunity though, because there’s a lot that’s been going on, and now I have an excuse to share it. I’ve been doing a lot of reading, of course; I’ve finished a bunch of books, History of Japanese Mathematics among them (yay!). I’ve got a few others I finished lined up to do book reviews of in the near future — Computer Science Distilled, Master Your Metabolism, and Parisian Charm School — so be on the lookout for those. And I’m now reading a bunch of great books; Berlin, Rick Steves’ London 2018, and Rich People Problems, along with a stack of technical books. I’ve also added quite a few books to my bookshelf in a few shopping sprees, but those you’ll have to wait to hear about as time goes on :).

Outside of reading, I’ve made quite a bit of progress too. There was a big milestone with weight loss this past week; I first hit the scale on September 8, and six months later I have lost over twenty pounds. There’s still a bit to go — my goal is to lose just under thirty pounds — and most of that progress was made in the first three months. It’s been a bit of a struggle since Thanksgiving, but I’ve finally started making nice progress again in the past few weeks. So my goal weight is definitely in sight.

For my writing goals, I hit a bit of a snag on 750 words — I finally reached the coveted 100-day mark and earned the Phoenix badge, only to break my streak literally a day later. So that was pretty disappointing. But it’s ok, I guess. My real goals for writing are around this blog, so I just need to remember to keep that in focus.

I’ve been having a lot of fun with my little dachshund, too. His birthday is right around now, he’s turning three! So there’s been a bunch of celebrating around that; new toys, new treats, a long hike out on the coast yesterday and a long walk around the town here today. He even got a new leash (because his old one broke on the hike).

Here’s to life!

Kotopoulo Souvlas at Nemea in downtown San Jose before an Earthquakes game