Now
May 4, 2025
I am paying attention to this because I haven't touched it in weeks. I have thought about it a few times but I've been focused more on keeping up with bare minimum stuff. Also, Zenny wants to be on my lap 24/7 so it's hard to type on a laptop under those conditions.
Listening to: Cat TV, Zenny's shows
What I've been doing with websites:
- It was the end of a month recently so I've been doing my rounds of summary posts and such. I did weekly summaries for a month in a half at the end of 2024 and they are full of rich detail and reflection, but these monthly posts are barely reviews. I'm proud to keep up with them pretty consistently, especially since I truly don't plan to return to having a "single profile" on social media where I share my whole life, ever again... but I'm not sure monthly is the right pace. I'll keep going with it to meet my goals and see what I learn!
- Thinking and doing a lot of reflection on why I make sites and how I can improve them as forms of expression in my life.
What's going on creatively:
- I have found some monthly routines and practices to keep in my life to keep me creative, but I'd like to figure out the momentum to do something creative every day. I've been trying a 100 days of writing challenge secretly in my private Obsidian folders but I somehow skipped 3 whole weeks without even noticing. (I'm back on it and more vulnerable than ever, I think that's good.)
- Adjacent to creativity, I've been thinking a lot about my STUFF. I have so many supplies and papers and things for forms of creativity that heavily overshadowed my life in the past. Sometimes I think about how I could get back into it (and true, I probably could, and might), but I don't think that warrants keeping literally all the supplies forever, as a "just in case" scenario. Maybe I take it down to 1 box per craft so if I get back into embroidery, I have all the supplies I need to get started, but can decide then whether I want to invest and get more. If I get back into papercutting then I have an assortment of papers and blades and supplies, but I don't need to keep shelves full of it in case I need to furiously create papercut art despite my progressive hand tremor. I found out about an art supply reuse store that is somewhat local and I might spend some time this spring sharing what I've got...
What's going on at work:
- I've been diving more into the idea of using AI in my documentation workflows, though I don't completely buy in yet. It's not a replacement for me because without my knowledge, the documentation I've written, the information I've synthesized and explained, the expertise I've brought in: the AI tool wouldn't know as much as it does, and it couldn't be as helpful as it is. (It's not super helpful yet, though.) The GPT could never replace me and what I do but it can take some of the load off of searching for information, understanding what it says, and rewording it for a different audience. It still requires heavy review and updating after that. It's not a final product, just a draft, and I think it's weird that people expect AI to deliver the most proficient and best output without reviewing it. I don't totally buy in yet because I am not saving a lot of time; I'm a quick writer and ideas come easy to me. What takes the most time is creating infographic-like images, which ChatGPT cannot help with, it is so bad don't even waste the resources trying that. Look for already-made images for inspiration if you need that.
- I'm helping with a training site project where I get to contribute my expertise and do some work but someone else is leading it (baby's first project). It's been a long time since I've been able to mentor someone and help provide context for why certain decisions are made and I'm happy to say that I'm doing pretty well offering suggestions without dominating the conversation, providing encouragement, and supporting something I've done 100 times (assess needs, content inventory, build a site, iterate). I love that my coworker is approaching it as a learning opportunity and has been very vocal to our group chat about getting our input on her ideas. I love when people are eager to grow and learn and it's incredibly wonderful to be in a position where I can help them.
April 10, 2025
I've been doing lots of digital organization since I got my NAS, which is what I focused on after work today. I updated the Cemetery List page and finally got some photos up there, but I know I have lots more to add!
Listening to: Nothing, just the buzz of my computer's fan
What I've been doing with websites:
- I added some pages for book reviews here which felt nice, but I've been otherwise not tuned into my PKM the last few weeks. I don't expect myself to touch it every day but I am antsy to learn EVERYTHING so I can fill in stuff about my 'notes' and start generating more 'trees'! So far the workflow and progress has been going well, I think I set it up perfectly to catch my methods of developing a full thought. First I need a fragment - a thought or outline, then I need to read a lot about it and write what I learned, then I can expand on it further into branches of new thought. It's frankly delightful to see that processing out on paper (digitally) like this and I'm so glad I started this project!
- In the meantime I've been working a lot on cryptkickers, though none of the fruits of my labors are ripe enough to upload to the site. I've been crafting a web of pages all connected in various ways but presenting different aspects of my lifetime love of music!
What's going on creatively:
- Last night I participated in my friend Adrienne's virtual drink and draw event where I made a very nice doodle, and then I colored it. There is not much else happening. I've been swamped at work and out of focus afterwards, focused more on websites than anything else!
What's going on at work:
- We wrapped up FY25Q3 this week and even though Q4 planning doesn't happen for another week and a half, we're in it! So I'm spending these last weeks before then figuring out the last details for the stuff that didn't quite make the deadline.
- We promised delivery of two LTI tools so I've been working on the user guides for those, one of them just won't close because there are so many questions around it and it just keeps going! Looking forward to closing that out tomorrow, hopefully.
- I have been working on our continuous delivery process documentation since Q2 and it's finally finalized and complete. I need to clean up the draft, write a summary, get the product owner and my manager to review it, and then I can close that one out next week!
- I've been exploring the tools that we have available to us (mostly Microsoft things) to see how I can introduce efficiencies into my process or use them to deliver better docs to our client. I wanted to explore more new things but haven't been able to cut out the time to learn a new tool.
March 22, 2025
Just poking around the garden and adding more things so I have a good base structure set before I start diving into adding a lot of stuff. It's taken almost 2 months to get here and I still have a long way to go! I love sharing a site in progress, though.
Listening to: Nothing, or actually my neighbors upstairs banging things around, as they do.
What I've been doing with websites:
- Since my last update I've mostly been working on this site. I did a lot of work adding a bunch of pages, refreshing templates to better outline what I want out of this, and updating existing pages to match!
What's going on creatively:
- I finally made my spring bingo card! I mean spring hasn't been on for very long but I did mean to make it last week.
- I built flower Legos today and set them up very nicely in my cozy area - Spring Lego
What's going on at work:
- This last week was a crunch week, lots to do and very little time to do it! A bunch of LTI documents came in at once while I still had a few to complete, but I got everything done quickly and it seems to have impressed the people involved so that's a win! I feel 10x more proud delivering on doc projects than I do on anything else in my current position.
- I've been slowly going through the document for our CMS to extract information relevant to our stakeholder team, update guidance related to a process that was just finalized at the beginning of March, and mark entries to create an index at the bottom of the guide. It's fun reading through a guide for multiple purposes but unfortunately slow going due to higher priority projects.
March 18, 2025
I'm in bed and I need to feed Zenny before I fall asleep so I'm going to fill this out and then take care of her before sleep.
Listening to: nothing/silence
What I've been doing with websites:
- I have been building on cryptkickers.org with more ideas, including starting a music blog and adding another old playlist! I still need to find a solution for playing music though.
- Keeping up with overall maintenance generally okay.
What's going on creatively:
- I have been drafting my winter zine but my printer needs to be reconnected so I hit that blocker until I have enough focus energy to deal with it.
- Mostly website stuff otherwise, though I did make a little thingy in Canva the other day for funsies.
What's going on at work:
- Swamped because I had to take two days off last week due to tooth pain (I'm all better now). Catching up with LTI documentation. For each tool, we make guides for course developers, faculty, students, and tech support info.Without meetings it takes about a day and a half to make them all.
- Lots of meetings 🥲
February 15, 2025
This is my first update to maxwrites since I figured out how to publish Obsidian to the web a few weeks ago. I haven't done much to it (I've mostly been going through the motions lately) but I did start consolidating the quotes I've gotten from various books read into topic pages which I will eventually expand upon. Lots to come!
Listening to: My NAS Plex library is scanning and trying its hardest to get all my media to me for my walk later today.
What I've been doing with websites:
- Described above for maxwrites. I'm still building this out but increasingly getting a better idea of how I want my digital garden to flow and present information. I need to add some kind of feedback mechanism so people can correct me, if they want to. It's scary to potentially be so publicly wrong about things but I think it's good for the learning process to share progress.
- Since I got the NAS yesterday, I started moving media from a different (ancient) external drive and I found a whole folder full of old website designs! I spent some time this morning looking at them and dang I made some unique and nice-looking sites. I am looking forward to recycling some of them for present-day sites.
What's going on creatively:
- Ahhh not much actually. I did manage to upload more zines to my Zine library for download/print at home. Aside from website things I haven't been engaged in other creative work.
What's going on at work:
- The university decided to take the 4-week condensed winter intersession pilot idea and expand it to a 4-week condensed session every semester. I've been chatting with my boss to help solution for that requirement since our original "repeatable process" was written for a once yearly offering that might not ever happen again. Although I won't lead it this time, I'll be involved in planning since I managed it the first time.
- We got pilot access to ChatGPT so we can use it for work stuff (including proprietary information, which was a huge limitation for free versions since almost all our stuff involves customizations and company-specifics). I've been working on a DocBot for the content support team, and I got it to a good point where I was able to copy/paste questions from team chat and generally get the right answers, despite not being well-formatted prompts. It's limited use so the team can't test it themselves at the moment, but I'm excited to see where it goes!
January 31, 2025
I got on my computer to type up my month in review but instead of doing that, I decided to figure out how to publish my Obsidian notes to a website so I can (eventually) move my portfolio into my garden. So here we are!
Listening to: Silence (nighttime sounds on a Friday)
What I've been doing with websites:
- I have been in a slump since inauguration day, so not much. I finally built a page for my minizines so people can download and print them at home.
- Otherwise just working on this site tonight! I'm excited I figured out the workflow to publish from Obsidian to my new host Netlify. Netlify is free for my purposes! Previously I was paying $150+/year for a site that was much harder to manage.
What's going on creatively:
- I finished a coloring zine (which you can download from the zine link above). I used to make coloring zines a lot so I recently made a goal to make another one, and then I achieved it! Hoorah!
- I've focused most of my creative energy in Obsidian but I am getting a good flow down and taking lots of notes.
What's going on at work:
- This week I developed my first "official" RACI matrix (I've done them before, but for personal uses and understanding my role in something, not for a whole process/team). It took a few hours to build and fill out which was fun (but not that fun). The fun part was analysis and trying to summarize the matrix into a digestible format so people know what they're getting into before they look at it. We meet to discuss this next Friday.
- We got access to ChatGPT for a trial to see how we might be able to integrate the tool into our workflows (and specifically: create bots to help with work). I'm immediately hooked! I started with a DocBot (Doctor Bottom) where I plugged in 4 of my team's major guides (50+ pages each), added some structure and rules, and then began quizzing it with a bunch of questions. So far my colleagues and I are impressed with the results so far, though it still needs some tweaking.
January 25, 2025
It's been a weird week.
Listening to: Zenny pacing around and meowing 20 mins ahead of lunch time.
What I've been doing with websites:
- I've kind of been spiraling recently so not a lot, but I am starting to get more focus on how I want to share online and where my presence is most valuable to me and the people who want to see my stuff.
What's going on creatively:
- I am trudging through trying to keep up with all of my different ideas. I attribute this directly to starting ADHD meds. I finally have the energy but I don't know which one to focus on so I'm doing everything at once instead.
- I am starting a newsletter, we'll see how that goes, as a last resort to keep connected with people before I delete social media. My focus is creativity, process, places, and experiments.
What's going on at work:
- This was release week so I spent basically all week focused on writing release notes and making sure everything gets deployed properly. My role is shifting a little where I will continue to manage the release communications but no longer take such a huge part of deployment and release management. Still, I get to have my hands in all the pots as I communicate about all the platforms, so that's pretty cool.
- Recently I learned to let go! Sometimes there are projects that I feel I should be on because of my role and expertise and interest. However, there are plenty of people at this company who are just as good or even better than me at content management and user workflows. I've been so used to being in every project due to my experience here that it's actually a little overwhelming not to be in a project! I have to count my blessings, it's fantastic that we have enough resources so I don't need to be included all the time.
January 13, 2025
I spent a lot of tonight trying to figure out how to set up GitHub pages and publish from obsidian. Well anyway, I got through setting up GitHub pages!
Listening to: Animal Crossing soundtrack music
What I've been doing with websites:
- I'm building a digital garden in Obsidian and publishing my writing and portfolio that way. I'm really excited, I've been doing something similar to digital gardening for a while (but without the connections).
- Updating personal sites here and there with ideas. Nothing too big right now, going at a slow pace with ideas.
What's going on creatively:
- A friend of mine hosted a virtual art night and I sketched the outline for a coloring mini zine, which was one of my to do list items for a while. I'll have that up for download once I figure out all this publishing stuff!
- I restarted Zine Therapy and have been thinking about how I might dive into the creative part of it throughout the season (rather than waiting for the season to end). how can I reflect creatively and visually?
What's going on at work:
- We have quarterly planning this week so I'll be pretty focused on that.
- I had the opportunity to put together a few questions to ask the team about documentation, how they use it, how useful they find it, and so on. Looking forward to getting those survey results!
December 25, 2024
We had a low key Christmas because my nephew is in Peru with his mom and all of our life activities surround him.
Listening to: Christmas Evil (1980), which is appropriately very Christmasy, pretty evil, and extremely 1980.
What I've been doing with websites:
- I started putting my holiday horror and romance in the crypt kickers movie spreadsheet but obviously didn't finish it before Christmas. There are some New Year's ones so it'll get some use this year.
- Primarily focusing on the blog I guess, my mini project to do a weekly post is fairly successful although I'm already annoyed by it. However, I definitely do see myself keeping up with it monthly!
What's going on creatively:
- Outside of websites and Obsidian, not much. I have been reading a lot and therefore reflecting and writing a lot, but not doing much creatively.
Since it's Christmas I'm not going to talk about working in this one. Instead I'll talk about how the family went down to the National Harbor for my dad's birthday lunch and we ate at a Brazilian place (Fogo de Chão) that had the best coffee and the best buffet food I've ever eaten.
December 14, 2024
I just started using Obsidian for personal knowledge management so at the moment I'm transferring everything in my messy, awful system to here (or at least whatever I can copy/paste).
Listening to: Catching up with this week's news
What I've been doing with websites:
- I've been fairly consistently keeping a blog! Granted it's only been a few weeks, but I'm still proud of myself. I keep a document on my phone called "this week" where I note my reflections and thoughts throughout the week, and often those turn into blog posts full of interesting thoughts and ideas (or I think so, anyway). It feels nice to build a web space for myself and let all my thoughts spill out. It's something I've been missing for a while.
- I'm going to move maxwrites.com so it points here after I pay for the Obsidian publish account (later). I've been in progress copy/pasting things and reorganizing my writing.
What's going on creatively:
- In fall I fell into a journal trend to create a seasonal bingo card, then journal about each of the boxes as you complete them. I LOVED IT. I created another one for winter after successfully completing several BINGOs on my fall card. I love the aspect of laying out my favorite seasonal things with no pressure to do all of them. I love that I have a journal full of activities and memories.
- Most of my creative energy right now is going into websites! I've been slowly adding stuff to my Neocities site and expanding how I want to use it. Also, I finished Zine Therapy finally!
What's going on at work:
- We are in crunch time (you might refer to it as MAX CRUNCH time, if you wanted to). It's been extraordinarily busy and stressful! In November every year, right on Thanksgiving week, we have a classroom approval process for two different semesters to prepare for upcoming semesters. On top of that, the university I work with is piloting a condensed winter intersession (4 weeks instead of 8), so basically we are handling the course readiness work for 4 different types of class/term, and it all has to be done by the deadlines or else there's huge impact to faculty or students. On top of all that? Our learning management system is doing an automatic update that will impact students/faculty that we have to prepare communications for on a short timeline. How fun!
- I am working on wrapping up as much as I can before the year ends. I've been documenting several major processes (including managing the pilot semester I mentioned). It's interesting and fun to puzzle together these processes that the university has been doing for years, but never had documentation for. In my interviews I've found out that everyone has a different idea of what these processes are for, who does what (as long as it's not them), and almost no one is in alignment on terminology. Excited to be leading the documentation efforts for these so people will stop pointing fingers/blaming others when things go wrong. Everything will be properly scoped, all steps and considerations laid out, and moving forward theoretically these processes should have more positive impact!