That Sunday started out like any other. I woke up at around 4:30 AM, glanced at my phone and went on with my morning routine. This meant firing up Headspace for my daily mindfulness ritual then opening Day One for my daily brain dump. By 7 AM, I laced up to go for an easy 5 miler by Riverside Park. All done before Max woke up.
But it was no ordinary Sunday.
In a few hours, Rica and I would walk to Mt. Sinai. We were about to meet this guy for the first time.
Oscar Jose “Oz” Medina was born on December 3, at around 3:45 PM.
I’m not speaking on behalf of my wife Rica here, but things are definitely easier the second time around. Or maybe things aren’t as daunting at this point, having raised one in the city for the last three years.
4 is a great number. Manong (big brother) Max has a nice ring to it. I grew up with an older brother and it was great. I’m really excited for Max and Oscar to hang out, play and look after each other.
We still have a couple more years to enjoy the boys while they’re still at this age. But they do grow up so fast. I should stop counting for now.
Eats
I spent more on groceries than on dining out this year. My wallet is thrilled. I finally found my happiness and fulfillment in the kitchen. It’s where the magic happens.
There was a lot of culinary experimentation in 2017. It was a conscious effort to get out of my comfort zone (I’m looking at you Chicken Adobo) and try new things.
This year’s menu was quite diverse – featuring Cream Cheese, Dill and Pea dumplings, Persian Winter Stew Fesenjan, Roasted Whole Fish, Brazilian Pao de Queijo, Kibbeh, Palestinian Musakhan, Brown Butter Cornbread, Bo Ssam, Mentaiko Pasta, Ilili-inspired Brussel Sprouts and Instant Pot Baby Back Ribs. I even made longganisa from scratch!
I also made my peace with frying. Having an instant-read thermometer helps.
I went through a pretty fun Chinese cookery phase as well. Inspired by Fuchsia Dunlop’s “Every Grain of Rice”, I made Red-Braised Pork, Fish-fragrant Eggplant, Three-Cup Chicken (technically Taiwanese) and Stir-fried eggs with Tomato. They were so good we made them part of our regular rotation.
But when I do eat out, I make sure it’s cheap and tasty. I finally tried the breakfast sandwich from White Gold Butchers, the American Honey from &Pizza, revisited El Sabroso’s pernil with rice and beans in the garment district, and this obscure halal cart at the corner of 31st and Broadway (not Rafiqi’s). I’ve gotten so frugal that anything beyond $10.00 for lunch was deemed too expensive.
I also ticked off a couple of my items from my New York pizza list, like Sal and Carmines in the Upper West Side, Joe’s Pizza (I know) in the West Village and Sacco’s Pizza from Hell’s Kitchen. Of the three, Sacco’s was my favorite. Sacco’s crust is pretty special. Still, it’s a distant second (or even third) to my go-to Pepperoni Square from Prince St. Pizza.
We had a pretty great summer. Working in the Flatiron district meant access to a cluster of Mister Softee Trucks. This humble $2.50 chocolate-dipped vanilla soft serve cone is all I need on a sweltering summer day.
Music
Leave it to Spotify to take care of all the data wrangling. I now exclusively listen via this medium. I never considered signing up for Apple Music. I’ll always go with the streaming service that knows me best. Long live algorithms.
The graphic above pretty much sums up my year. Dagny rekindled my fascination with Scandinavian Pop music, and I ended up listening to a lot of Astrid S (got a ticket, missed the concert), Anna Of The North, Marlene and Vanbot.
Acts from down under also made their presence felt. Yumi Zouma, whom I’ve followed through the years, released a pretty great album. I also discovered GL, a Melbourne-based funk act that is amazingly consistent at churning out ear candy.
Then there’s PC Music. The collective/record label based in the UK had me confused but towards the end, I ended up joining the cult. Their music is kinda hard to describe. It’s like one person’s interpretation of what pop music from the future should be (based on something they read on the Internet).
I am not in a position to give authoritative cultural critique, but PC Music ringleader, A.G. Cook is quite the talent. His collaboration with another artist I admire, Charli XCX, produced Pop 2, probably one of the best albums of 2017 – released in the last week of December. What a great buzzer beater.
Productivity
I logged a total of 1936 hours and 13 minutes on Rescuetime in 2017 with my 2-year old Macbook Pro. I spent a whopping 153 hours on Slack, despite it being lower by 2016’s 185 hours. Facebook came in second at 111 hours, only because I managed a lot of campaigns last year (which probably accounts for half of that, but still). My productivity pulse was more or less flat. I think I can easily improve this metric by significantly reducing social media time. I don’t even post!
I’m most proud of the 37 hours I spent on Sketch, a design tool that brought so much joy at work (compared to 10 hours in Photoshop CC). Aside from it being the design tool du jour, it gave me access to a universe of wonderful plugins for user interface design. If there’s one tool I would like to use more in 2018, this is definitely it. It’s a great time to be a design professional.
Google Sheets use went down a bit, only because it was replaced by dashboard work on Google Data Studio and 2017’s favorite spreadsheet, Airtable.
In this brave world of software, incumbents are being challenged by other platforms that truly provide alternatives – a different way of doing things. From Sketch to Airtable, we might soon find ourselves using a completely different software stack, reminiscent of the time Google Doc usage gradually took over Microsoft Office. In fact, I’m writing this entry in Dropbox Paper, the hip word processor used by product people. But old (occasionally heartbreaking) habits die hard and I still use Evernote as my other brain. With Google, Evernote, and Dropbox (let’s add Milanote in the mix), I might have to consolidate my note taking ecosystem soon – I just need a good framework to organize their coexistence.
I deleted more apps than I installed this year. Apps and games that sounded good on paper (way too many to mention) were promptly deleted if they didn’t pass the Kondo test. My mobile app usage revolves around the habitual use of Headspace, Day One, Gyroscope, Fitbit, Strava and the Reddit App. Okay fine, Instagram too.
Coding
After telling myself that I should take a refresher course on software development, I jumped the gun and signed up for a semi-serious online course. It was an online frontend development program spread over 12 weeks. It was so much fun. I knew it was going to be fun.
After not touching code for more than a decade (actually, almost TWO), I finally have enough working knowledge of git, modern HTML and CSS and how Javascript is just one extremely complicated “scene” by itself. I plan to dive deeper into Javascript this year.
I don’t see myself pivoting to a software career soon. I’m just work-jealous of all the talented developers I’ve had the pleasure to work with. Now I understand why great engineers care about proper documentation, adhering to a style guide, breaking things down into components and optimizing for happiness.
So yes, I’d love to be dangerous enough to understand what the hell is going on. Also, having an active Github account, a text editor and terminal in my macOS dock look cool.
Putting it All Together
My professional development story has been quite interesting. I did a little bit of design, a little bit of code, a lot of production and product work. I’ve never been this happy with the craft in years. I’m so glad I live in an age where process, tools, and culture can yield work you can be extremely proud of.
Did I mention that I got scrum certified for fun?
101 Half Marathons
I went beyond my mileage goal of 1200 miles, ending the year with a total of 1349 miles (2171 kilometers) spread over 251 runs.
I wasn’t really training for anything, I just felt like running a lot. I increased the frequency of my runs from 3 to 5 times a week, increasing my weekly mileage from 15 miles to a steady 25. If there was one activity that kept me sane, this was certainly it. It also helps that I live in a building with a decent treadmill and I live right next to the park.
I eventually signed up for a major race at one point, flying to Toronto for the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Half Marathon. Prior to that, I did a couple of NYRR runs in the city. The consistency paid off, allowing me to set a personal half-marathon record of 1:48.
I could go on and on about how I found my running groove again. It has become second nature to me and I’ve never felt this way before. I now keep three pairs of shoes on rotation, my closet is full of tech wear and I even replaced my ancient GPS watch. I’m just thankful that I get to do this comfortably, without any injuries and with lots of joy. Nothing beats an early morning run.
It was also my first time to volunteer in the New York City Marathon. I signed up as a mile captain and did pretty much everything. I stacked water, swept cups on the street and cleaned up my station like a champ. I didn’t realize how intense the whole experience could be!
The thought of doing this all over again in 2018 makes me nervous. Best I can do is lace up and run. And surprise, I’m running the Chicago Marathon in October 2018.
Filipino-American
In June of this year, I became an American. I made the decision to apply for citizenship early in the year, which may or may not have been influenced by the Cheeto. I could’ve done this a few years ago but the timing felt right this time and I just wanted to make things official with the country I’ve called home the past seven years. Having started out my life in the United States as a reluctant migrant, I’m grateful for all the opportunities this country has given me, the culture that allowed me to flourish professionally and the people that truly make this country great.
I’m also thankful for the fact that I managed to eventually acquire dual-citizenship. Nothing was lost or compromised. This is representative of who I am. I am a Filipino-American.
Reads
My reading roster was a mixed bag this year. I let my newfound frugality get the best of me, and I often find myself reading “free” books from the Amazon Prime Reading catalog and good ol’ NYPL. To be fair, I did get to read a couple of gems from there. The worst feeling is paying for a book you didn’t like.
I set a repeat goal of reading 30 books in 2017, exceeded it by 2. The last book I read, Rolf Dobelli’s “The Art of the Good Life” suggests a much lower number focusing on quality and retention over a superficial book count. I somewhat agree, but reading to me is another form of meditation. It allows me to focus (sans the Internet) on one task. I don’t want to downplay the therapeutic role of reading in my life.
Let’s talk about the ones that I really, really liked. Atul Gawande’s “Being Mortal” was a great meditation on end of life care, the elephant in the room in your 30s. While this scenario doesn’t apply much to close-knit family structures like in the Philippines (and I hope this doesn’t change in the years to come), it’s a great way to condition your mind to start thinking about the inevitable. I don’t think I’m ready to confront my own mortality at this point. At times, I feel like I’ve just begun.
As an unabashed Scandophile, I’ve read good books and bad books this year on the subject. “The Little Book of Hygge” was probably not meant to be consumed on a Kindle and was probably written as a cute book. It was bad. But then again, I don’t think it took itself seriously enough. Another book in the same genre, “Lagom: The Swedish Art of Balanced Living” was better. Maybe because I actually read a hard copy. Anu Partanen’s book “The Nordic Theory of Everything” was quite engaging and I could identify with her narrative about moving to NYC (It’s just that I came from the most un-Scandinavian of countries). Still, it’s a great book on the so-called welfare-based (more like well-being) governance that has given its people the distinction of being the “happiest.”
I consider Alia Malek’s “The Home That Was Our Country” one of the best books I’ve read this year. It was a compelling read on the author’s family history and interspersed it with key moments in Syria’s colorful and oftentimes tragic history. I stumbled upon this book at work, where it was originally planned to be part of our book club. Reading this book made me further empathize with the people of Syria and how they, like people from the Philippines, rely on strong familial relationships to ensure the survival of their people.
Of course, there are some honorable mentions to contemporary “hits” like Yuval Noah Harari’s “Sapiens”, J.D. Vance’s “Hillbilly Elegy”, Angela Duckworth’s “Grit” for being the celebrated books they’re supposed to be.
Crypto
This wouldn’t be a 2017 summary without mentioning cryptocurrencies. It took me two years to make my first deposit since I first opened my Coinbase account (which surprisingly turned my dollar sign-up bonus into twelve bucks). I was off to a good (delayed) start.
I have to be honest, I tried really hard NOT to put more than I responsibly should. Nor am I spending a lot of time “playing” this wildly speculative market. I chose to be on the boring side of things. Dollar cost averaging is fun. I’ll probably stop once I hit the 1BTC milestone.
The underlying technology behind crypto though is interesting. But let’s face it, we’re still years away from an acceptable user experience. In the meantime, let’s stare at this cartoon cat living in the Ethereum blockchain.
The Age of Lagom
This took me a while to write. A lot happened in 2017. I wish I had a chance to travel more, considering that the only time I traveled was in Canada for my half marathon. That should change in 2018.
But I like where I am now. I have two wonderful boys, a great marriage/friendship/partnership with Rica, I eat well, running makes me happy and I enjoy what I do. Is there really anything I could ask for?
I’m entering an exciting age of contentment. Anything beyond this would more or less have a trivial impact on my overall well being. The middle is a wonderful place to be. The Swedish term Lagom describes it perfectly – it’s just the right amount. I find myself taking a walking break in the middle of the day not really compelled to do anything. It’s a glorious feeling.
From my family to yours, I wish you a great 2018. Let’s move forward, mildly.
