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Indomitable Spirit

I recently restarted WSL to get my Linux and Windows clocks in sync. I'm actively working my way back from several setbacks, including a move, my cat escaping, and changes at my job. To help me on my journey, I'm using NeoVim, updating my journaling system, rolling with the punches and navigating my next step.

Rebuilding Life After Setbacks: Using NeoVim and Journaling to Move Forward

By Michael Levin

Friday, April 28, 2023

I had to restart WSL with the –shutdown command under Powershell to get my Linux clock back in sync with my Windows clock. The normal trick of:

sudo hwclock -s

…didn’t work. I remember this was a big deal in the past with the clock going out of sync anytime a laptop running WSL went into sleep mode, but I haven’t noticed it in a long time until today, one of my first days on the Windows 11 machine with WSL2 (vs. Windows 10).

I’ve had a number of little setbacks in life recently, each of which I’m working my way back from. I feel a little bit unstoppable, mixing in a little Ron Stoppable and Rocky Balboa. Life can throw a lot at you, and you tap whatever resources you have to get back up and keep going.

I lost the lease in the Poconos and decided to come back to the city where my kid was. This cuts down the weekend commute considerably, right at a time where my kid is becoming more of a teenager.

My cat escaped from the house during the Poconos move, long story there, but after recovering the cat from what appeared to be a neighbor who took it inside and didn’t inform me, I finally got settled into the new place, and within a few months fleas were everywhere. I went into a huge cleaning frenzy, and finally git rid of them, but then I lost my job because the entire department I worked for was eliminated. Luckily I was able to switch to another group within the company, but on day-1 I threw out my back trying to bring a standing-desk that I ordered up to my apartment.

My back is recovered now, but due to the AI-frenzy in the industry, I retooled my workflow around NeoVim which supports AI-assisted coding (vim doesn’t), and with that it was clear I had to update my journaling system to allow my title and date fields and such to be real data-fields (using YAML) rather than just markdown headlines. And I did that work.

The Mac that was sent to me by the office has a 100% dead battery and whenever unplugged, it goes through a full reboot instead of just waking up, so I don’t really use that computer. Instead, I’m using my old Windows laptops, which are pretty good, but the one that’s in best shape that I’ve been using had it’s keyboard suddenly start to go flaky, so I had to switch machines. When I switched Windows laptops, I went from Windows 10 to Windows 11, and so there’s now that.

Anyway, my life is in something of a dynamic state. There’s even other little things going on, but that’s not for the public journal here so much as the private journal, which I’m trying to use more.

I turn on Copilot in my public journal here to help me write when I’m writing for you or for work, but it’s off by default (journal.txt vs journal.md) when I’m writing about even more personal things.

All my life, I’ve used writing as a method of self-therapy. You tease out your true thoughts every day, and you get to know yourself better. You talk about things going on in your life and the challenges you’re facing, and normally you can think things through far better than not talking about them at all.

That’s where I am right now, because in addition to doing the right things for my health and well-being, I’m also trying to do the right things for my career and my child.

I did a few quick rounds of updates to my journaling system, and I’m going to try to get back into some big-time career improvements. I have to make my time with MOZ more productive, and I have to make my time with my kid.

The quality-level on both fronts needs to go up.

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