Weekly Update: Issue 10

2025 closed at an all time low, but 2026 started on a high. Ending the year, I tried to get a head start on my 2026 goals by reestablishing habits, starting with lifting on 12/31/25. I hit chest and realized how far I had fallen. I could only get one rep of 225. To make it worse, later that day at Osauer’s crib, we maxed out, and I failed 185. If you had told me the lowest point of 2025 would be its final moment, I wouldn’t have believed you. Would have been the low of the week any week but this one. But after the clock hit 12:00, we were so back.

Put Minnesota Dryes' skis and Sage’s boots to use, skiing Sycamore Park and looking for a hill to learn switch on. Senior center is the best overall hill, but too steep for my current switch level, which makes the OG hill the best option, though still not great.

Swinging with ski boots is the wave. The extra weight on your feet really gets you going fast. A new PR for highest I have ever swung was set.

Slept outside to test my sleeping bag. It hit a low of 17, and I was comfortable all night, which gave me the confidence to try a winter adventure.

BOOM: Winter adventure. Navy Doug, Scape, and I hopped in kayaks and yakked a few miles at night, then set up camp on a sick island. We yakked out the following day. The full moon made there no need for headlamps on the river.

We created the most goated fire of all time. It was warm amongst the cold. It was life giving. And despite all odds, I stood close to the fire and didn’t melt any clothes, skin, or gear.

The burrito method is only good above freezing temperatures. My bag and sleeping pad are goated. But when I rolled up in the tarp to keep frost off, it backfired. My breath froze the inside of the tarp and covered my sleeping bag in frost. It melted, and now my bag smells like my breath. I needed a mint.

The largest expense of 2026 might be stamps

Scrape wore jeans at the gym to hit back and saw nothing wrong with it………

Navy Doug's going away/birthday party was fun.

TRIGGER WARNING: Will be bringing up a j*b

Bro, WTF!?! This j*b thing is a complete scam! It steals all your time; I just want to be unemployed again.

Teams meetings are either very useful or a total waste of time.

I’m convinced my manager’s goal is to prevent me from ever entering flow state. He “touches base” every 10 seconds and changes what I should be doing. When we aren’t touching base, I have a meeting. Inefficiencies are ubiquitous, and they drive me nuts.

I have a new rival. It was trees in front of views, but now it’s compliance. In my experience, I know CBs in compliance that are cool, but they must be a minority. Compliance never backs off. Everything is so nitpicky, and it’s worse than traffic.

Bro traffic!?! Who tf invented that?! Worst thing ever (after compliance). An absolute waste of time.

There’s a few cool people in the office, but no one is ever here, and if they are, it’s for only a few hours.

Despite four years in college, three majors, four licensing exams, more licenses, disclosing everything, and learning all the material on my own, I still can’t do the job. I have to go through training, and that is proving to be less than fun. I just want to be homeless skiing Mt Hood or back in Morocco eating with my hands. Might start a fight club in a bar’s basement and not talk about it.

I spent the recent past joking about finance jargon, “circling back,” “touching base,” etc., just to find out it’s actually real and not a joke. You can’t say “I have no clue,” you say “let’s circle back.” I touch base a minimum of five times a day. Like bro, we need to find more words for this industry to use. I’ve been using "head winds" a lot.

I’m gonna stop being a baller soon. I have such a fixed schedule and don’t do anything outside of work. I used to play with friends in kayaks, camp, ski in the park, etc. AKA be a baller. Now I wake up at 5, hop in the word + go to the gym, then work 9-5, sit in traffic, get home at 5:45, then doom scroll, eat, play with kendama, then bed prep starting at 8 and lights out by 9. I hit the goal of a habit much faster than expected. New goal is finding a way to make each day different, so they don’t just blend together.

It’s a rude awakening going from college to cutting grass and backpacking to training, but the great news is that after training, I can go back to being a baller.

Very excited for post-training. It’s gonna be sick, but it’s a steep learning curve. Business is clearly a game, and as soon as I learn what I can and can’t get away with and the rules of how to do it, I see this being awesome. Till then, it’s suboptimal.

Very excited for post-training; training is full of headwinds.

Hope no one at work finds the newsletter