Welcome to Patrick's Pasture

May 27, 2020

As the old adage goes, When you get laid off in the midst of a global pandemic, start a blog!

Welcome to Patrick’s Pasture, a place where you and I are free to roam around different topics, grazing and nibbling on thoughts and ideas. I wanted to establish this framework online so that I will be able to quickly have a mode of transmitting creativity out into the world when it strikes. Over time, I have felt myself more wary of sharing or entertaining creative urges as I was often not happy with the quality of the final product, knowing there were countless others who could do it better. This site aims to break down the flaws in that way of thinking and serve as a limitless place where I can feel comfortable exploring and sharing in any direction.

Current state of the union:

  • Sheltering in place for 2 months now as COVID-19 continues to spread
  • Recently laid off from my job of 10+ months as a result of needing to restructure financial plan (COVID-19)
  • Getting borderline obsessed with biking

Plan of attack:

I am feeling very excited for this unstructured time as I search for a new job. I acknowledge being able avoid immediate panic in itself is a privilege that I do not plan to take for granted. I had a similar period of time during my ACL surgery recovery / job switch window but struggled to really form a cohesive plan that could make use of the opportunity. This time around, I plan to focus on habit formation around three main things every day:

  • Craft improvement
    • I want to be ready to crush any technical assessment on my job search - system design learnings / algorithm practice
    • Reflection on what elements of past teams / products were draws and what were detractors
    • Continue to work on side projects to stay sharp and hungry
  • Mental health
    • Meditate, stay closely connected to friends, family, and partner - self reflect
    • Empathize: make a continuous effort to support those around you, through acts and conversation
    • Kindness + forgiveness + humility
  • Passion
    • RIDE THE DANG BIKE EVERY DAY + eat healthier
    • Make music
    • Allow for experimentation, open mindedness, reading, LOVE

How this blog was made:

The whole of this blog is largely borrowed from other resources found online, and was cobbled together in a fever dream over the course of a couple hours last night. This static site is hosted on github pages with source in a public repo here with a custom domain from namecheap. The main skeleton comes from this tutorial with further inspiration from other great blogs including:

Scott Ringwelski’s, Daniel Wilson’s, Trevor Sultana’s and a gentleman named Grant Park’s that I had bookmarked from a facebook post a long time ago. Feel free to reach out with any implementation questions you might have as you too could get your version up and running in no time!