The 2019 plan - Third-quarter review

At the start of the year I blogged about my plans for 2019. For those who don't want to go back to read that post, in summary they are:

  1. Continue to lose weight and get fit. I'd like to reach 80kg during the year if I can
  2. Begin a couch to 5k and give it my very best
  3. Focus my software work on finishing projects I have already started
  4. Where I join in other projects be a net benefit
  5. Give back to the @rustlang community because I've gained so much from them already
  6. Be better at tidying up
  7. Save up lots of money for renovations
  8. Go on a proper holiday

At the point that I posted that, I promised myself to do quarterly reviews and so here is the second of those. The first can be found here, and the second here.

1. Weight loss

So when I wrote in July, I was around 83kg. I am very sad to report that I did not manage to drop another 5kg, I'm usually around 81.5kg at the moment, though I do peak up above 84kg and down as far as 80.9kg. The past three months have been an exercise in incredible frustration because I'd appear to be making progress only to have it vanish in one day.

I've continued my running though, and cycling, and I've finally gone back to the gym and asked for a resistance routine to compliment this, so here's hoping.

Yet again, I continue give myself a solid "B" for this, though if I were generous, given everything else I might consider a "B+"

2. Fitness (was Couch to 5k)

When I wrot ein July, I was pleased to say that I was sub 28m on my parkrun. I'm now consistently sub 27:30, and have personal bests of 26:18 and 26:23 at two of my local parkruns.

I have started running with my colleagues once a week, and that run is a bit longer (5.8 to 7km depending on our mood) and while I've only been out with them a couple of times so far, I've enjoyed running in a small group. With the weather getting colder I've bought myself some longer sleeved tops and bottoms to hopefully allow me to run through the winter. My "Fitness age" is now in the mid 40s, rather than high 60s, so I'm also approaching a point where I'm as fit as I am old, which is nice.

So far, so good, I'm continuing with giving myself an "A+"

3. Finishing projects

This is a much more difficult point for me this year, sadly. I continued to do some work on on NetSurf this quarter. We had another amazing long-weekend where we worked on a whole bunch of NS stuff, and I've even managed to give up some of my other spare time to resolve bugs, though they tend to be quite hard and I'm quite slow. I'm very pleased with how I've done with that.

Lars and I continue to work on our testing project, now called Subplot. Though, frankly, Lars does almost all of the work on this.

I did accidentally start another project (remsync) after buying a reMarkable tablet. So that bumps my score down a half point.

So over-all, this one drops to "C-", from the "C" earlier in the year - still (barely) satisfactory but could do a lot better.

4. Be a net benefit

My efforts for Debian continue to be restricted, though I hope it continues to just about be a net benefit to the project. My efforts with the Lua community have not extended again, so pretty much the same.

I remain invested in Rust stuff, and have managed (just about) to avoid starting in on any other projects, so things are fairly much the same as before. I lead the Rust installer working group and we recently released a huge update to rustup which adds a bunch of desired stuff.

While the effects of my Rust work affect both this and the next section, I am very pleased with how I did and have upgraded myself to an "A-" for this.

5. Give back to the Rust community

I have worked very hard on my Rustup work, and I have also started to review documentation and help updates for the Rust compiler itself. I've become involved in the Sequoia project, at least peripherally, and have attended a developer retreat with them which was both relaxing and productive.

I feel like the effort I'm putting into Rust is being recognised in ways I did not expect nor hope for, but that's very positive and has meant I've engaged even more with the community and feel like I'm making a valuable contribution.

I still hang around on the #wg-rustup Discord channel and other channels on that server, helping where I can, and I've been trying to teach my colleagues about Rust so that they might also contribute to the community.

So initially an 'A', I dropped to an 'A-' last time, but I feel like I've put enough effort in to give myself 'A+' this time.

6. Be better at tidying up

I've managed to do a bit more tidying, but honestly this is still pretty bad. I managed to clean up some stuff, but then it slips back into mess. The habit forming is still not happening. At this point I think I really need to grab the bull by the horns and focus on this one, so it'll be better in the next report I promise.

I'm upgrading to an 'E' because I am making some difference, just not enough.

7. Save up money for renovations

We spent those savings on our renovations, but I do continue to manage to put some away. As you can see in the next section though, I've been spending money on myself too.

I think I get to keep an 'A' here, but only just.

8. Go on a proper holiday

I spent a week with the Sequoia-PGP team in Croatia which was amazing. I have a long weekend planned with them in Barcelona for Rustfest too. Some people would say that those aren't real holidays, but I relaxed, did stuff I enjoyed, tried new things, and even went on a Zip-line in Croatia, so I'm counting it as a win.

While I've not managed to take a holiday with Rob, he's been off to do things independently, so I'm upgrading us to a 'B' here.

Summary

Last quarter I had a B+, A+, C, B, A-, F, A, C+, which ignoring the F is a was better than earlier in the year, though still not great.

This quarter I have a B+, A+, C-, A-, A+, E, A, B. The F has gone which is nice, and I suppose I could therefore call that a fair A- average, or perhaps C+ if I count the E.

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