Monthly #2

Two from two on the monthly review post!

February was a month of connecting, celebrating, and planning for the future.

💪 The workouts continue. I was super regular with my workouts through February, as I look to make the Taiwan team for the 2024 Touch World Cup. Lunar New Year saw a slight break in proceedings, but on the whole I hit my targets for gym sessions at least. I'd like to have run a bit more, because I sure do need more miles (and strength) in my legs before the tournament.

🐢 Slowing down For a long time I've been a 2x guy. Not a 2x developer, but rather a 2x speed podcast listener. But in February I dialed things back a notch, and am now listening to podcasts at 1.5x. It's made a huge difference in how much information I'm able to absorb from each show I consume. Definitely a positive lifestyle change.

👨‍💻 Family time Lunar New Year rolls around in late January or early February each year. It's a time when we head to central Taiwan to spend a few days with my partners extended family in her father's hometown. It's normally a period of a lot of sitting around, a lot of eating, even more snacking, and some fun and games when it comes time to hand out red envelopes (these contain cash gifts given between the generations).

This year we only spent a couple of days with the family before returning up to Taipei for some proper quiet time. It's amazing how much noise pollution there is in a city like Taipei, and that becomes super obvious when the city empties out a Lunar New Year as people head to their own hometowns.

👨‍💻 Thoughts on alternative website carbon calculations. Through the month I also did a bit more thinking about alternate ways to estimate the energy used by websites across the data center, network & user device segments. This culminated in two posts which really helped me crystalise my own thinking. I hope they're also helpful to others.

• Why are you estimating digital carbon emissions?
• Thinking about a way to estimate website energy use

These are things I set out to do more or less of in 2024. I'm not big on habit tracking, so this "tracking" report is all just vibes.

• Going to the gym regularly: Yep ⭐
• Doing 20k+ bike rides each week: Nope ❎. Trying to get in more runs is taking a priority now.
• Writing monthly reviews: Yep ⭐, you're reading it now.
• Taking the cat outside the apartment: Nope ❎. She's more interested in snuggling up indoors.
• Capturing thoughts in a notebook: Nope ❎

• Sugary snacks: Nope ❎. Self-control is hard.
• Using my phone in bed: Nope ❎. Ditto.

• Taking regular breaks/vacations with Kay: Nope ❎. We've booked a trip to the Nordics for July-August which is very exciting though.
• Getting nerd-sniped by work stuff: A bit less so this month, but I've got ideas 😏
• Following other folks on RSS: Nope ❎. Still gotta clean up my current feed.
• Building a financial safety-net: Nope ❎. Not this month, few life things came up.