January '23

...too late for resolutions?

pjmanning

New email, same dood. Revue got shut down by Elon Musk trimming weight over at Twitter, so I happily moved over to Beehiiv. Bare with me while I work on styling this thing up...

Here's what's been going on...

  • Last month in NJ - surfing here is stupid

  • Work threw me a curveball

  • Side-projects are on pause for the moment ☠️ 🙏

CURRENTLY IN NJ

We got a couple good swells in NJ but honestly after living in Central America and Indonesia for nearly a decade - I have ZERO motivation to get suited up in a straight-jacket while freezing my nipples off for some thigh-high waves.

I still think cold weather surf spots are probably going to be my preference in the future (simply due to less crowds), but cold weather Nova Scotia/BC/Ireland/South Africa are much different than cold weather NJ.

It really does test how much you love surfing! 😆 Won't find 99% of people in Bali or Costa Rica surfing in NY/NJ winter!

Luckily I got some Mason Ho 2022 vibes coming up this week :)

Brought to you by SafetyWing…The best travel medical insurance to use as a digital nomad. I use SafetyWing specifically because…

  • I can start and cancel a plan at will

  • It covers sports (surfing in particular ;)

  • It’s $45.08/month for complete peace of mind

digital nomad insurance
safetywing, let's get you insured

WORK

Sooo my company dropped a bomb on me a couple weeks ago...

No they didn't fire me.

Worse...

They told me to learn Angular 🤪

I just started to feel like I'm peaking with VueJS + Tailwind (one of the main reasons I took the job) and one day without any notice I was told: here's your new boss and a tutorial for Angular - stop all work on the other project immediately 😳

Granted it's the biggest project at the company right now - I'm def not stoked to be off Vue projects for what seems to be at least 6-months 😥

PROJECTS

Welp - after working over the holidays and now 2 simultaneous work-related projects + my own side-project - I think I've hit the later stages of burnout...

I tried to pepper in my own projects - but I definitely pushed myself to the limits. I thought the extra effort was going to pay off at work - so I put in more of my own time, but unfortunately things didn't work out.

I ended up with a lot of stress, a strained family holiday, and giving away much of my time for free. I continued to juggle the 3 projects for a couple months and it all became too much.

Therefore, I've put my side-projects on hold for the time being. I wanted to prioritize my health (physical and mental) this year - and I was off to a great start but the overworking definitely cracked me.

CONTENT

Remote Work

Surf

Tech

Products

The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves.

-Alan Wilson Watts