Balancing Side Projects

The work-life balancing act isn't easy for me. It gets even harder when "life" involves a bunch of side work and projects not related at all to my "work". I'm constantly battling with the need to "work", my want to relax and have fun with friends, and my obsession with all my side projects.

Now, this isn't a post meant to give anyone advice. On the contrary, if anything I'm actually seeking advice on how any of you deal with this dilemma. Right now things are a hot mess, and I don't think I'm reaching my full potential in any aspect right now.

How so? Well, I end up yearning to work on my side projects the entire time I am at work, though when I get home to actually work on my side projects I get distracted into social interactions (or binge watching Arrested Development on Netflix). Hence progress isn't being made on my hobbies, nor am I really impassioned about my "work", and the whole time I'm trying to relax and socialize I feel guilty about the first two points.

Overall I feel a global lack of energy. I have the best of intentions, but I'm just so tired all the time. I know that with exercise and a better diet I could significantly boost my daily energy level, yet I'm not actively pursuing these lifestyle changes. It's like the lack of energy is resisting the very thing that would supply us with all the energy in the world.

But alas, I am definitely not the only person in the world, let alone America, that is battling with the need and failure to exercise regularly. I just need to get over this hump that I'm perpetually stuck behind so I can finally make good on many of the goals I have in place.

I guess now is a good a time as any to start.

To be continued...

GUADEC 2018 - A Totally New Experience (Part 1)

GUADEC 2018 has come and gone, and with this being my first FOSS event I have a number of thoughts about what I was expecting and what I'm coming away feeling. This is part 1 of a multiple episode recount of my GUADEC 2018 experience. Before GUADEC How exactly did I get here? The lead up to GUADEC was fast-paced enough to give someone whiplash. Up until a few short weeks prior to GUADEC's commencement I was just a simple GNOME user. A month or so before GUADEC, the timing being totally coincidental, I tweeted Nuritzi, a person whose name I had just learned after seeing the GitLab + GNOME announcement video, asking her if she would be willing to speak on her perspectives in tech at my University. Being the President of the GNOME Foundation board of directors, I wasn't really expecting an answer to be honest. However, not only did she answer my tweet, she and I had a short phone call later the next day, and the next thing I knew I was on the GNOME Engagement Telegram t...

West Coast Hackfest 2019

Again, I'm late with this post, but with work, travel, and GUADEC my life has been a bit of a whirlwind of late. But here it is, my thoughts on West Coast Hackfest and the work that myself and the Engagement Team did during that time. Firstly, I'd like to thank the GNOME Foundation and the Travel Committee for approving my travel to this event. This was my first official hackfest as part of the GNOME Foundation, so it was a pretty big deal for me to attend. The event was hosted at a local communal work space, and we were able to get both halves of their conference room for the full 3 days of the event. This venue was extremely nice and pleasant to work in, and many of the people who work in the building stopped in to let us know that they were fans of what we were doing and knew all about GNOME and the Foundation. Productivity wise, I think the atmosphere and professionalism of the venue lent itself to us all getting work done efficiently. During the first day, t...

2018 Libre Application Summit

This is a bit late to be written, by I'd like to take a minute to talk about this year's Libre Application Summit, that took place this past September in Denver, CO. I was part of the planning and organizing team for LAS, though to be fully transparent my work leading up to the actual event was fairly minimal due to my Ph.D. qualifying exams happening right around the same time. For that I feel a bit neglectful, but the rest of the team did an awesome job putting everything together. This event was Caroline's first real experience with the GNOME/FOSS community, and she did a tremendous amount of work for this event. She handled all the promotional materials, website graphics, and she even stayed up late the night before leaving to Denver cutting out custom printed name-tags for each person attending. To be quite honest, I was worried about the experience she would have at LAS. While I've been in and around FOSS for a long time, long enough to understand the quirks o...

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