This is a weekly ritual I’ll be trying out on my blog. It’s something I do internally at Automattic to recap my week, and share key happening across the division, and company with the team. I hadn’t considered doing it on my blog till seeing Dan Mall’s weekly notes, Jason Fried’s see something, hear something, saw something posts, and David Perrell’s Friday finds. I’ll be blending things a bit to find the right flavor for myself.

Work

• I was AFK from Monday-Wednesday. With two days of work, aimed to cram a lot into the two days.
• Had 1:1 with a few folks (Dave Martin, Ian Stewart, Jana Hernandez, Dan Roberts, Saygun Erkaraman, Ballio Chan, Ollie Rozdarz).
• Async chats with folks (Mike Bal, Monica Ohara, Arthur Hareng, Michael Cain)
• Connected with some folks at Upwork.
• Weekly working sessions, one for EU timezone, the other for AUS. Both overlap with US.
• A bunch of reading to catch up on happenings.
• Started discussing IRL (in real life) working session with Mary Hubbard (we’re both based in metro Atlanta).
• A bunch of catching up on discussions, planning, work, etc.

Personal

• Flew to New Jersey last week with my wife, and daughter for my younger brother’s high school graduation. COVID rules were in place, so only my parents were able to attend. We were able to watch via live stream.
• Grabbed dinner with a few coworkers while in New Jersey.
• Ordered a Garmin Venu SQ-Music Edition (Automattic perk—we’re hiring!)
• Ordered a new coffee marker (OXO Brew 8 Cup Coffee Maker). We’ve had our current coffee maker for over 5 years, it’s time.
• Flew back to ATL on Tuesday. Traveling with an infant (~9 months old) is tough work!
• Wrote Clarifying Design Systems, and shared it on LinkedIn.
• With my daughter crawling all over the place now installed gates at stairways.
• Mounted a TV in our bedroom, now need to hide the wires.
• Now that vacation is over, back on a low carb diet -_-. Starting workout routine (4x a week) this coming Monday.

Watched

I’ve been watching Inside the world’s toughest prisons. It’s fascinating how prison systems, the people within them, and the constructs within the prison reflect the culture the prison is built within. If you do watch this, a really interesting comparison is the prison in Greenland, compared to the prison in Paraguay.

Rick and Morty’s season 5 is out, and episode 1 is great. Brings the Rick and Morty energy.

Listened

Mostly streams of music off of soundcloud. Came across Diplo, and Dillon Francis b2b sets from last year. Gold.

The Bill Ellish – Everything I wanted, Born Dirty remix hits. Planning on dusting off the turntable, and mixing a set.

Started listening to No Rules Rules Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention by Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer via Audible.

Saw

Added more Japanese tattoo snaps/inspiration to my Pinterest board.