If you read my other “random ramblings”, you know they are the thoughts as they come and I type them. Might be boring, might be interesting, but they are my current thoughts.  I have a lot actually….

It’s the last month of 2022, how has the year been for you?  It’s been a good year for me production-wise, but this week, I lost a very close friend to Type 1 Diabetes.  My friend, Kevin is the one on the home page of this blog, standing next to me at Chicago Marathon.  Our families have vacationed together.  I don’t have a lot of close friends.  I have a lot of acquaintances that I’m not close to.   But far few close friends.  So this is pretty devastating. 

I also lost my grandmother back in October this year. She was 94.  It hasn’t been a great year in this way, with the loss of special people.  We never know when our time is up.  Mine could be tomorrow.  It’s a good thing that none of us know when we will die, usually.  Can you imagine how much anxiety you would have as that dreadful day would draw near?

In December, I like to listen to “Long December” by the Counting Crows.  I listen to it often in December but not in the other months of the year.  Isn’t that kind of weird?  Oh, I will probably write an end of year summary for 2022.  I have some goals for next year – reading (or listening) to more books and maybe reviewing some of them.   I think my running injuries are behind me finally.  I will talk about that in another blog. 

I have been listening to podcasts, as usual.  Some of the ones I listen to are Tim Ferriss, This Week In Startups, Guy Kawasaki, and Joe Rogan.   Recently I have been listening to a lot of Lex Fridman podcasts.  He is a good interviewer and an interesting person.  Maybe a bit monotone in talking, but so am I. 

About this time last year, I had a good friend become very sick from Covid, to the point of hospitalization.  He was fighting it for a quite a while, but he did pull though thankfully.   Another friend named Kevin.  We were roommates in college, and I am glad he’s still with us. 

My house is illuminated only by Christmas lights right now, and it is 12:34AM.  It’s peaceful.  I am starting to feel tired.  This month has been nice because I will have a lot of days at home, away from my job.  It’s a refreshing break.  Among the projects I have that are not related to coding or startups is finishing my basement.   I just work on it occasionally but this month I am really trying to push it forward. 

I am reading the Walter Isaacson book on Benjamin Franklin currently.  Not too far in, but it’s interesting so far.  I also read the Steve Jobs book. Walter does a great job of telling the story of someone’s life.  I have a list of 30-40 books recommended to me or ones I wanted to read. I doubt I will get though all of them next year, but I will try as many as possible. 

I don’t like to talk about my personal life too much here, but I share what I am comfortable with.  Music is playing right now.  It is Led Zeppelin “Going to California.”  Not too long ago, “Long December” was on.  So I thought Brazil could win the entire World Cup, but they got knocked out.  It will be Argentina and France in final game.  Since I am from Baltimore but also grew up near Philadelphia, I am a fan of teams from both cities, but I lean more towards Baltimore teams.

Well, the music is off, and I am getting tired. I aim for bed by 1AM and up by 7:30AM if it’s a day off from work.  I have many things to do tomorrow but nothing is pressing. That means I need to stay focused on whatever I work on.  My main thought now is just about sleep, so I am ending this random thoughts blog.  Hope it wasn’t too boring!

-EJW