January 2024

Hello World! Welcome to my new place on the internet. It's early Feb '24 and after months of procrastinating, today I bought the domain nordling.xyz and this is the address I'll use when sharing what's on my mind.

This is the first blog post I publish in a very long time... Apologize in advance if some of the things doesn't make sense right now. There are more content in the pipeline and now that my new website is live (yay) I have no excuse for not sharing stories from my life more regularly.

Let's start by looking at the previous month, January.

Targets for January 🎯

My new year didn't start the way I wanted as I was already behind on my writing projects for December. My sole target was to Publish my 2023 Review, by writing 24 minutes each day.

That project alone involved a lot of big tasks such as acquiring a new domain name, setting up a website, writing the post, mentally get through the stages of impostor syndrome, stop procrastinating and get back to writing, second guessing what I'm allowed to say, and then maybe save my work before I publish. I'm still not "done" with the several other posts I have started, hence I publish this instead.

What Actions Did I Take?

🐸 = Eat the Frog. Do Something you have been putting off, hoping it would disappear.

Week 1

• Created an account on the Blocket marketplace¹ and bookmarked several listings with concert and event tickets.
• Postponed my morning workout until 1 PM when Build Series 2² started. My intention is to adjust my workout schedule for these videos.
• 🐸 Responded to Reuben about his guitar amp at Raymont, that I've postponed since May.
• 🐸 Restarted 30 Days to Better Habits³. It became my Eat the Frog, and I'm glad I pushed through the discomfort and just got it done.
• 🐸 Walked in the snow to the local recycling station to do my part for future generations. Got rid of the plastic and cartons that had been waiting for a few weeks.
• Cleared the driveway of fresh snow in anticipation of mom coming home from work.
• 🐸 Ordered more Magnesium and Zinc supplements.
• Started a new programming project with a Homebrew Cask for Station. I'll probably never use this myself but the knowledge can be applied to other Casks⁴.
• Installed the iOS app Time Timer to aid with habit formation such as the 2-minute rule and #Write24in24.
• Researched software for RGB keyboards that's compatible with macOS⁵. You Windows users are better off here.
• Created a new playlist with music imported from Shazam via NG Spotify Importer.

Week 2

• Installed Pocket Casts in frustration as I wanted to try a different podcast app than Overcast.
• Followed along with the workouts of Build Series 2, week 2.
• Explored the possibilities of web scraping with the scripting language Python and Selenium.
• Ordered an external 27” 4K monitor Dell 2723QE.

Week 3

• Bought my first smart LED lights to add automation and colours to my bedroom ceiling lamp.

Week 4

• 🐸 Solved the build issues I introduced to my robot-simulator back in October.
• Continued with 30 Days to Better Habits.
• Bought SHOEI GT-Air II motorcycle helmet.
• Unpacked my DELL monitor.
• Browsed Blocket for another pair of dumbbells, a MacBook Pro M1, and concert tickets.

Week 5

• Prepared this post obviously and got ready for great things in February.

What Did I Consume?

This is a selection of what I Watched, Read, and Listened to this month.

Watched:

• LIFT.
• Murder Mystery 1 & 2.
• A Beautiful Life.
• The Commuter.
• A Piece of My Heart.
• Solsidan S02.
• Love is Blind: Sweden.
• A couple of episodes of True Detective S01 with mom.
• Sport
  • JVM ice hockey, playoff matches with Sweden.
  • Handball European Championship, Sweden got the Bronze medal.
• YouTube
  • Watch This BEFORE You Buy a Monitor!.
  • What’s the Point of Pointing in Japan, Anyway? | Atlas Obscura.

Read:

• Lots of comparison articles for high-resolution computer monitors.
• 97 Things Every Programmer Should Know: Collective Wisdom from the Experts.

Listened to:

• Happier with Gretchen Rubin. Got me inspired to try the Happiness Trifecta.
• Sticky Notes. The episodes on Brahm’s Violin Concerto, and Bela Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra.

My Spotify playlist for January 2024.

What Did I Learn?

• Read and archived the last conversations on Messenger, and realized that I can export all old ones that I save to the memoirs since there is a lot of fun stuff to read again.
• That Martin Frylink released a new song that I listened to repeatedly.
• How Retina displays and scaled resolutions work on macOS.
• The difference between 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz Wi-Fi and how to connect and configure smart home devices, such as the LED lights I bought.
• Huge recap of Atomic Habits, such as the Implementation Intention formula.

Who Did I Spend Time With?

• Cam and Nathan for our weekly MasterMind: Goal Setting/Accountability Group discussions.
• After work activity with the team I joined this month.
• Played Cashflow 101 at the Cashflow Club.
• Had geeky discussions with Pål and others at this month’s 46elks meetup.
• Joined my colleagues at HiQ for a consultant school workshop.
• I met up with Kariem, Spakur, and Tobbe at Berwaldhallen to experience my first-ever classical concert. We saw performances of Ludwig van Beethoven's Coriolan Overture, Johannes Brahms' Violin Concerto in D major, and Bela Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra, with Hilary Hahn as the soloist accompanied by the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Lawrence Renes.
• Went to the motorcycle fair with dad⁶.
• Met some new friends at the Gamestart Connect: Meetup#1.

How Did I Feel?

• I became sensitive and shed a tear when grandma was about to leave. Feels like we sense that she doesn't have much time left.
• Slightly under the weather, it was probably mostly fatigue, still managed to work out.
• A little unmotivated to leave the bed, maybe because it's cold?
• Been struggling to mainly fall back asleep after waking up in the middle of the night.
• Still a bit nervous to ask family and friends for favors.

Gold Stars 🌟

• W1. To Nick who created the NG Spotify Importer.
• W2. To Web Technologies. I love building and breaking things. 😈
• W3. To Price comparison sites such as PriceRunner. Man I love to bargain.
• W4. To Chris & Edi and their Power Hour workout that I did twice this week.

Demerits 😫

A quality or characteristic deserving of blame or censure; a fault.

• There's a lot to say. That I procrastinated and stayed up late, which led to being groggy and maybe stressed and frustrated.
• Still biting my nails from time to time, when I'm bored or something. Aware of it but continue.
• That I have a hard time asking for help. Stuck at work and wasting time trying to solve it myself.

Until you hear from me again.