New Year, Same Me
Make no promises during winter
I entered this January the same way I always do - bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, naive, and dumb-as-hell - thinking that I’d hit the ground running and start nailing my resolutions immediately.
But literally on the first day of the year, there was a tragedy in New Orleans. A week later, the LA wildfires began and haven’t let up since. The political shift in power is imminent.
On a personal (and much less tragic) level, we all went back to work and school. After not snowing all winter break, it of course snowed the day before school started up again. This is all relative and minuscule compared to what’s going on in the world, but it illustrates the point of my post today:
Why the hell do we start the New Year in January?
Help LA
I often feel useless when it comes to helping people going through what the folks in the LA area are going through lately, but the least I can do is share this post on how to help right now. This is about as comprehensive a guide as you can find.
Winter is not the time for resolutions
This is reflected in many cultures around the world, from Chinese Lunar New Year happening late-January to early-February to Rosh Hashanah in September or October. Even in astrology, the zodiac starts with Aries season (which kicks off on March 20th). This coincides with the spring equinox, when the sun aligns directly above the equator and day and night are of equal length.
Sure seems easier to bust out some resolutions when it isn’t dark at 4pm. Beyond that, the seasons have long served as symbolic reflections of the time of year we are in. Winter almost always symbolizes death and an end to things. Spring symbolizes rebirth and renewal.
Also, New Year’s Day happens a literal week after Christmas. Sure, it can be a nice coda to the holiday season, but it’s also when most people are the most burnt out. I spent the purgatory week (the week between Christmas and New Year’s) getting over sickness and surviving my kids being home all the time. And while I do tend to be self-reflective as the year turns, everything around me isn’t conducive to hitting the ground running.
So I’m going to observe a different kind of calendar for myself, much like how I consider Monday to be the start of a week instead of Sunday. The first quarter of my year is going to start in March, when Spring begins. January and February are for reflection and getting myself setup to achieve my goals.
What I’m Reading
There are countless heart-wrenching stories coming out of the LA area, but I found myself floored by this one in particular:
This post from
contained a quote from a NYT story that is pretty bleak but also spot on.
Meta has made a number of terrible announcements in the last two weeks and I’m grateful I was laid off 2 years ago.
FreeOurFeeds is a great idea and I really hope it can go somewhere. It’s so hard to get people to move platforms though…
Odds & Ends
I’ve started a new role at Adobe since right before the year began. I took a lateral step into being an individual contributor instead of a manager and there’s definitely some differences. I love being a manager but I think this is the right step for me at this point in my career and in the long run. I’m re-energized and feel like I have my footing again for the first time in a long time.
I’ve been on a Jimmy Eat World kick lately. The run of Clarity, Bleed American, and Futures is one of the best 3 album runs ever. I need to dive back into their more recent albums.
On that note, “Polaris” is one of my favorite songs ever.
For some reason (nostalgia), I’ve put The Simpsons on every night while I’m working. I’m really enjoying going through the series. For the first time I’ve noticed the dip in quality around season 9 like everyone has always talked about. As a kid I watched the syndicated episodes on UPN so I never really saw the show in chronological order, which makes the dip in quality more apparent.
All that being said, the show does get better again as the seasons go on and increases in quality specifically around the time The Simpsons Movie comes out.
I didn’t get a chance to share the gifts my wife got me for Christmas, but among them was a drum set, a spider-man lego set, and a digital display for our family to stay organized. She just gets me.
That’s all for now. Stay tuned for my Favorites of 2024 post coming (hopefully) this week!