May 2022 Check-In

Hi, it’s me, Andrew. The guy who runs this blog. The guy who has been pretty bad about updating this blog. Ugh. Since it’s the end of the month, I figured this would be a good time for a “monthly” check in. I haven’t done this since January…alright. Enough self-shame. Let’s get into it. 

Health

Last time I checked in, I referenced a particularly terrible experience at a doctor’s office. They rushed through the appointment, weren’t clear about diagnosis, and wanted me to email…yes email..the office address about medical information. Since then, I found a new doctor and she’s excellent. We’ve established that blood pressure readings are high generally because I get pretty nervous in doctors offices. We talked about ways to keep it healthy and I’ve been trying to follow those. She told me the primary thing I should work on is just cooking at home. Even if I’m not cooking the healthiest stuff, it’s still better than eating out. So I’ve been doing just that. We get Hello Fresh because I need things to be very simple when it comes to cooking but I think I’m getting better. I might just be adding onion to everything. 

Last time we talked, I referenced a number of tendon injuries and had started PT. Well almost 6 months later, I’m out of PT. A number of injuries comes with a number of possible solutions but we have finally made some progress. I’m still pretty far from doing the type of running I want to be doing but I sense that there are a couple of 5K races in my future in the second half of the year. 2023 might be the year of the half marathon. 

I’m still carrying too much weight. I know that. Since cooking more at home, and not seeing much change I recognize that my snacking habits are terrible. I’m working on trying to just fill those snacking moments with things like carrots. It would be great to cut it out all together but hey, one thing at a time. 

Lastly, in January I referenced how I simply could not get my sleep schedule dialed in. That mostly continued through the Spring but I’ve noticed in May it has started to become more consistent again. 

I’m not where I want to be in regard to the health topic but I’m better than I was a few months ago which is improvement and I’ll keep going. I think it’s important to recognize that not being where one wants to be is not failure but it’s “pre-reaching the goal”. 

Web Projects

There have been some updates to some web projects since January. The first is that XG-Destiny-Checklist.com was updated for the launch of the Witch Queen, Season of the Risen, and now Season of the Haunted. I added a section for lifetime stats, and a small section for weekly reset information. It’s an on-going project. It has issues and bugs but I think it’s a cool resource for my team. 

I attempted to make a stat tracker for my Halo stats. There is not an API for that outside of HaloDotAPI which is a great resource. I tried building this in Vue and had it working but something has happened and it’s not working anymore. I’m not too heartbroken about it. I’ll dig in and fix it at some point. I’d rather devote my time to the Destiny checklist app. 

Lastly, I’ve been kicking around a redesign of this site for a while. I have some ideas where I’d like to take it and have started some visual exploration but nothing to talk about quite yet. 

Movies (and TV shows)

In my opinion,movies are still working their way back from a pre-Covid era. It feels like we are only getting a “must see” movie in theaters once every couple of months. I don’t mind seeing “not blockbuster” films in theaters but there just hasn’t been much. We did see Top Gun Maverick and I thought that was an excellent film. Even if was sub par, I probably would’ve loved it so take that for what it’s worth. The only other movie we’ve seen in theaters this year was The Adam Project, which was pretty good. I’m looking forward to movies becoming a 2 or 3 times a month thing for us like it was pre-Covid. The behavior of people in movies pre-Covid wasn’t great and I have zero confidence it will be any better in a post-Covid world so that might prevent me from seeing more in theaters but we will cross that bridge when we come to it. This summer, I’m thinking I’ll see the Elvis bio-film, The Gray Man, and Bullet Train in theaters. That’ll take us into the fall when I’ll definitely see at least one horror movie in theaters. I know people say that can recreate the theater experience at home but horror movies are 100% better in theaters. 

As an aside, there were a few TV shows I liked recently. I really liked the Halo show on Paramount+. There are a lot of opinions on the show so I’ll keep mine short, just recreating the games into a tv show would’ve been plenty boring to me and I’m glad there is experimentation with an alternate timeline. We’ve also gotten into “The Offer”, also on Paramount+. The show is the dramatic story of the creation of The Godfather. I’d recommend it. 

A show that everyone liked that I had a hard time getting into was “Severance”. My primary critique of the show is it feels like every episode is the same which actually speaks well to the tone of the show. I sense you’re supposed to feel that way, but it’s just not speaking to me. That’s ok. Not everything is for everybody. 

Books 

So books have taken a bit of a turn. Last time we connected, I had mentioned I was pretty sure I was going to put down “Uncontrolled Spread” by Dr. Scott Gottlieb and I did. It’s not a bad book. I think I just got to a point where I simply couldn’t do more Covid-19 evaluation. I wouldn’t be shocked if I pick it back up at some point in the next year but for now, just not terribly interested. 

I also set down “Artemis” by Andy Weir. Fiction doesn’t normally hold my attention and I think that’s what happened here. This is another one I’d like to circle back to but I need to figure out why I have a harder time with fiction. 

I did start, and finish, After Steve by Tripp Mickle. This book does a deep dive on Tim Cook and Jony Ive and their connections to Apple after the death of Steve Jobs. The book takes a great look at iPhone production, iOS 7, Apple Music, the Apple Watch, and more. I think if you’re a fan of technology or perhaps just Apple as a brand, it’s a good pick. I would recommend it. 

I have recently started “The Secret Race” which is an inside look at the Tour de France. I’m sure much of the book will discuss the doping that went on at the peak of the sports popularity but I hope to read more about the race itself. 

Video Games 

I’ll keep this short. I’m playing Destiny 2. A lot of it. 🙂 

—

Since the January check-in I’ve written 3.5 blog posts. If we count this post, I’m on pace to average about 1 per month which is improvement over 2021 but I’m hoping to do even better in the second half of the year. 

See you starside. 🙂