Month of Jan 2026
Basement Done, Comedy Shows, and South Korean Wedding
//Yay the basement is finished! Soft launch party
Theme of the Month - Basement Done, Comedy Shows, and South Korean Wedding
The questions/thoughts that led me to the posts for Jan 2026 were:
What do you think makes your house feel luxurious (without spending a lot of money)?
What are some funny WiFi names?
How was Whistler in 2014?
What are some predictions about AI in 2026?
How was using pods.com for your move in 2020?
How do you grow a virtual community?
The start of the year is so refreshing. I had fully cleaned whiteboards, unpinned Keep Notes, listened to all my downloaded podcasts, closed all my unread browser tabs, read all my slack messages, read all the discord/telegram crap, and processed all my returns.
First week of work and it’s all filled again. Thus is life.
Every January, I put together some high level big plans for the rest of the year. This year, being my 40th birthday, I have a big one to consider with corresponding action plans:
In Progress: 40 under 40
I don’t just want to experience more things; I want to do more epic/triumph things and crush it on a whole ‘nother level.
One thing I’m going to try and add to my list is a personal “This is 40: Proof of Selfie” project. Since it’s unlikely I’ll see people on my birthday, I wanted to visit my close friends around the world for a proof of selfie. The start of the travel/visit list was:
Who do I message regularly and make effort to keep in touch?
Who do we send post cards to?
Who was at our wedding?
Who do I need to thank for being a good mentor and friend?
Who did I wish a happy holidays to?
Off of this list, I think I’ll probably have upcoming trips to:
New York - Table Tennis, Cooper Union, High School besties, Work Alumni (Credit Suisse, R3, Consensys)
Pennsylvania - Friends
Maryland - Brother
Florida (Tampa, Naples, Miami) - Family and friends
Cleveland - Friends
California (SF, LA) - Friends
Nashville - James & Paulina
Hong Kong - Family and cousins
Some Maybes with some friends: Hawaii, Seattle, London, Osaka, Hamburg, Tel Aviv
If you know me and want to be included, feel free to reach out. I think it will be a worthwhile project and might replace that cross country road trip in my 40 under 40.
The blogposts I published this month were:
Man, I love my bidet. It’s expensive, but I poop every day, so I might as well invest in a good pooping experience.
I saw a funny WiFi name, so I decided to think of other funny/punny ones that gave me a chuckle. I think you can tell what I’m watching by what names I came up with.
![[Travel Advice] Whistler](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ZUkw!,w_140,h_140,c_fill,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc05873c6-3d2b-4589-9ac6-9a8b7de3acc7_640x640.jpeg)
Whistler was fun for both TEDActive and just a visit road trip from Vancouver. I can’t wait to bring Evie there.
2026 will probably be a nothing burger, but its been a few months since I’ve written about AI so I felt the need to write one.
We moved to Denver in 2020 and luckily had an easy move using pods.com. This is not a sponsorship for them, but it was convenient.
This was an older post on considering how to grow a product’s community. I revisited this because it’s obviously top of mind for pushing product OKRs forward.
Some ideas for Feb 2026?
[Travel Advice] South Korea - Of course there’s going to be a post on this. Wedding times! Food tours!
30 Adulting Skills to Learn - These are just the random things I have learned to be a functioning adult.
30 Beginner Poker Advice - I’ve been playing poker for a while in the neighborhood and realized I haven’t written about it yet.
30 Basement Reno Lessons Learned - This was a multi-year project so I’m glad we finally finished it. There were some big things we learned and little upgrade purchases that made the overall feel less generic and more badass.
30 Future Decade Goals - We split the next 30 years into goals per decade as mapped out by Evie’s age. This was a great activity in long term planning for her ages 6-16, 16-26, and 26-36.
Lists of 30 App - I want to build something different to house my lists of 30. I have plenty to fill a book, so why not fill an app? Why not fill a Clembot that can live in this app and help others with this writing journey? It’s all vibes.
Life in Lists of 30 Audiobooks - Started recording this for fun now that the basement is completed. Might as well add videos. Work hard and play hard.
Thank you for reading and I hope everyone stays safe! See y’all in the new year!
Please suggest a list of 30 and I’ll write it! I’ve written 350+ lists of 30 and only publish ones that I think other people would enjoy. It’s my fun brainstorming routine.
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