longform – Radicoon Register

Welcome to 2018! It’s hard to believe half of January is gone already. Today I’m enjoying the day alone (MLK Jr. Day off) and taking advantage of the focus and freedom before the barren wasteland of no-holiday-Spring kicks into gear. After some cleaning, gaming, organizing, and bike riding, I figured today would be a swell day to write about the status of my 2017 goals and some thoughts on what I’d like to accomplish in 2018.

2017 Goals in Review

Budget Update: Budgeting and general money-stuffs went pretty well in 2017. I started direct-depositing most of my non-essential earnings into savings (check) and ended up saving quite a bit more than I did the year prior (double-check). In general, auto-hiding that money even though it was only a quick transfer away helped me focus on the amount I was budgeting for spending. Saving is awesome, and I’d highly recommend prioritizing it more if you can manage it.

Vacations: Planning vacations for the year ahead was killer and it completely worked for us. Those plans gave us something to look forward to no matter the time of year, and they all turned out much, much better having been planned in advance. We were able to chart out more mid-trip destinations, score better deals on lodging, and budget time off much more effectively. Traveling constantly, even if the destinations were just a couple hours away, also really made the year feel jam-packed with adventure and fulfilling exploration. I thought the constant travel might feel overwhelming (we even tried to plan to only go out every other weekend) but it ended up being so motivating that I wanted to go out most weekends. It helped tremendously to have a checklist of destinations (more on that below). Some years will be less predictable than others, but planning in advance paid off more than I was expecting.

I’m sitting outside of a Starbucks. It feels incredible for a September evening. I never sit outside in Florida. You’d think I have some increased sensitivity to humidity or something, but I think those receptors are dead from overuse.

We were informed today that half of my current team would be reassigned outside of IT within a month. Maybe. Maybe longer. Decisions were made in committee, no one was consulted. It’s been decided, don’t worry about it, it’s out of our hands, I dunno. I’ve stopped asking why, what problem that’s solving, what the strategy is. I’ll just put my nose back in my study and pretend there’s some rationale for why I’m being paid.

At least it’s paying for the coffee…just not this one. It was free. Well whatever, it paid for the other coffees that made this one free. I’m nothing if not a bundle of technicalities.