241 - a letter to 32 ⏳
Hey there, Vince!
It's 2024 calling - happy birthday to you, mr. 32. The zodiac says Roosters 🐓 do well this year so I hope by the time you get this, you're absolutely thriving (whatever that means for us). And if not, I at least hope you're tracking on the more positive side of life.
I think it's the first time I've done something like this so explicitly - wondering about what the future will hold in a more letter-like format; putting hopes and fears into such black and white permanence, and then, well, publishing it to the world. I've never tried doing this before, but in the spirit of change and experimentation, I'm just seeing whether writing this stuff out would help. It kind of helped with the predictions of 30, but I think pulling into something like this might be nicer.
✈️ First thing I wanna know is how your trips have been in the past year! You hopefully will have gone to see Steph in the UK and perhaps jump around some of the other European countries as well while there. I know it's not an easy thing to solo travel (and would be your first time!) but in trying to be agentic, it's probably an important step that I hope you've taken. Oh - and did you transit through South East Asia at all? Maybe you were able to jump to Singapore and get some crab and hainanese chicken as well. Tell me about all of your new food adventures :)
🚄 I figure that you're going to get really into trains while you're in Europe, and want to take the long ones, the old ones, the night ones - they're just so cool. There'll be so much nature and mountains and sights to see...and I mean, trains are going to be the main thing that moves you between great restaurants, right? But still, I hope you went out to see some national parks, find some nature, touch some grass. It's those things you never want to do until you're there, and then you love it.
🆕 Oh and on that note, what were all the new things you tried? We should be trying new things everywhere we go; you were so wrapped in your routine and work that in these last few weeks of being 30 you were stuck in some rut of not doing enough things; wracking your brain in the Real Life Recommendations since you just never went out. I'm most excited for the stories, y'know? Hoping you're bringing a whole swag of them back from your travels and from the last year.
🐈⬛ Is Gandalf still with you? Maybe he's been picked up, but at the moment of writing this letter he's sleeping in your lap in one of his pretzel-shaped configurations, trying to bite you every so often but making up for it with major purrs. He's such a handsome boi <3
🏡 For home, here are some of the major projects I hope you've progressed:
- new couch
- new blinds - specifically cafe curtains on the kitchen window
- sorted out the spare room / bedroom
- make the office not look like shit
- more 3d printing (potentially upgrade printer)
- hang more art on those damn blank walls - need to get them framed and sorted out already!
💬 We've just turned 31, and I think for the past 5 or so years you've said 'this is the year, this is the one, this is where I'll change and this is where everything's going to be different'. And yet it kind of...stays the same. A step forward, a step back, just going slowly, and comfortably. It's not necessarily a bad thing; like your haircut that you asked just for small change rather than continuously being disappointed by the big changes, perhaps it's small changes that compound over a really long time that you're impatient for. Or perhaps this is what everyone starts feeling at this age.
💑 Like celebrancy! If everything has gone to plan, you should be registered by now (or at least near registered). Have you done your first gig yet? Are you having fun with it? It's a big of a slog on this end of the study, but hopefully you're marrying people left and right with your new-found powers! And that you've been able to find the time around work to actually get this done too :) Shouldn't be too hard, right?
💖 Have you fallen in love? Or more importantly, are you surrounded by people who love you? It's such an important thing for you, so if it's been a while, hope this is a good reminder; don't lose touch with people, and don't let things fall by the wayside from inaction - reach out if you haven't for a while, and go say hi. It takes 3 seconds, and you get so much from it; you know you do.
✍️ What's your newest hobby? Are we still boardgame/video game/movie/cooking/3d printing/writing? If you've come back, it means the newsletter's still going, and that's probably the biggest thing I hope stays constant through my life. It's been so long now - nearing the 5 year mark - so why not just keep it going? I mean, maybe you've even grown it so large for it to finally start PAYING for this service :D
I'm not sure what else to say - it's already long and self-indulgent, but deal with it, - I only ever promised this to be Potentially Interesting ^^
Happy birthday Vince - see ya next time.
✔️Real Life Recommendations
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Furiosa - no, it's not better than Mad Max: Fury Road, but it's a great companion piece to it. Building out some great lore of the world, some fantastic action scenes, some wonderful characters (Chris Hemsworth shines!) and some shallow as fuck storytelling that you don't really care about (so don't worry about it). Extremely fun watch to turn your brain off to - highly HIGHLY recommended.
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Taskmaster AU Season 2 - if you ain't watching it yet I highly recommend you do so. It's a fun season with some comedy HEAVYWEIGHTS like Wil Anderson and Josh Thomas - it's jarring to have followed them all the way from Good News Week and the Gruen Transfer, to now being on Taskmaster and seeing them being referred to as old and paling in comparison to people like Jenny Tian who are bright and bushy tailed. Regardless, I think that the tasks have been really imaginative this season - so go take a look!
🚌 Adventures on the Information Super-Highway
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Some mistakes I made as a new manager - a nice breakdown of some of the pitfalls of getting into management. There are some things that are easier to relate to than others, but it's good to get a well thought-out experience and review of what did and didn't work.
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Who Will Amplify This? And Why? - maybe this is some Marketing 101 but it was useful to me! I make so little content and care so little about this marketing thing, but if I have to be more 'out there' in just...life, I guess - then I probably need to get better at this on a personal level as well.
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On the Slow Productivity of John Wick - no, not the character, the actor; focusing undivided attention on the mastering of an art that ultimately created way more value than just the shallowness of productivity as an office worker. Maybe there are different ways to be 'productive', eh?