Archive for the 'Monthly Recaps' Category

November 1st, 2017

Recap: October 2017

October is one of my favorite months – part of it is because the weather gets cooler and the other part are events like our anniversary and Halloween. This past month can pretty much be divided into 5 major things!

Work User Conference

My company had our annual user conference early in October. Instead of hiring lots of event staff, they encourage employees to volunteer, and it’s a great way to meet the people who use our products. The past several years, I’ve helped out with photography, and I did it again this year along with two hired photographers.

Though not all of the photos have been posted yet, I’ve already recognized some of my photos being used in articles and social media. Some of my past photos were also used in slide decks for the conference. It always feels good to see my photos out there!

Anniversary

October 9th was our 6th wedding anniversary! Unfortunately, it fell right on my work’s user conference, so we couldn’t really celebrate that day. We went to a couple of our favorite restaurants before and after the conference days, so that sort of counted. I might still make a reservation to a nice restaurant to “officially” celebrate though. Better late than never, right? (Fun fact: October 29th is our dating anniversary, and it’s been 12 years since we’ve been together!)

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September 30th, 2017

Recap: September 2017

September was a pretty eventful month for me – most of which I expected, but there were also surprises. First, I took a day trip to San Japan, an Anime convention in San Antonio! It’s fairly close to Austin, so I just drive there and back in one day. I almost didn’t make it because there was a gas shortage caused by people freaking out and buying a ton of gas after hearing rumors that there was a gas shortage from Hurricane Harvey. (There wasn’t one originally.) Yeah, it’s as dumb as it sounds.

Fortunately, I was able to make it and meet up with the cosplayers I was photographing. Here’s a preview from each shoot! (Partial sets are uploaded to Facebook and Flickr.)

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September 1st, 2017

Recap: August 2017

Compared to July, August was a much better month. If I were to pick a theme, it’d probably be healthy mind and body. I wanted to focus on maintaining healthy habits, and as you can see from my previous entry, I also wanted to revive a neglected hobby that I used to love. Some things I feel good about:

  • I exercised almost every day in August, mainly short runs (35-45 min) or long walks (45-70 min). I only missed one day due to a long dinner!
  • I ate better. I changed my breakfast, cooked lunches for work, and got in the habit of picking healthier options when eating out.
  • I lost weight in a maintainable way, without feeling like I was starving or depriving myself of things I like.
  • I finished one Prismacolor drawing and four watercolor paintings. I have another painting in-progress!

Overall, I’ve just been feeling good. The exercise and diet changes make me feel better about my body, and working on art leaves me feeling relaxed and happy.

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