Picture of notebooks used in 2023

Relecting on 2023

Last year was an exciting year. There were many changes, challenges, opportunities, growth, and great friends. I had some intense feelings as well, and I moved to a smaller space. Forgive the randomness of this post; there will be a bunch of random collections of thoughts about the past year. I’m only in the infancy of this post, but it reminds me of the failed Best Man speech I gave at my middle brother’s wedding, where I tried to tie too many random thoughts together. Forgive me; this is more for me than for you. ...

January 1, 2024 · zacharyc

Writing About Cheer

This is going to be a short one, as I don’t have too much to say. I’m hopefully writing a small book about cheerleading. I’m a man of mini obsessions. One of my many is going to the book store and looking at possible books to read. Whether I read them or not, I’m always hunting for new books to add to my personal library. I believe that a personal library is important and a lot can be learned from looking at the books one keeps. So I go to bookstores to find tomes that will enhance my library. ...

December 31, 2023 · zacharyc

Kid Energy

One of the best things about being back on the East Coast is that I’m much closer to my brothers and their kids. I get to be the uncle I want to be. Well, at least I get to try to be the uncle I want to be. During this break, I’ve spent a bunch of time with my family for the holidays. The number of times I’ve been surrounded by four kids under ten this week is a new record. While most of my friends consider me a high-energy person, spending this time around the young one saps my energy like no other. I’m coming into the New Year Holiday tired. I don’t regret any minute I spend with the kids, but they are intense. I don’t even feel like I use too much energy with them, yet when they leave, I’m done. I want nothing more than to sit on the couch and nap. It’s an enormous effort to get up and do other personal goals. ...

December 30, 2023 · zacharyc

Trust in Code

As a software engineer, you tend not to trust code you don’t write yourself. Or even if you have written it yourself, there is a tendency to think we could write it better this time. Eventually, you run up against a project that is too complex to write from scratch. You will look for libraries and tools to help you solve the problem. Once a library has been located, the questions only grow. Is the library safe? What dependencies does this particular library have? How do I know I can trust it? ...

December 29, 2023 · zacharyc

Dog Fears

As a dog daddy, I have a lot of fears. I’m afraid of how I support her life. I’m worried that I won’t get her out enough. No matter how much I get her out, I’m always afraid it isn’t enough. When we go out, I’m worried that I give her too much freedom or not enough freedom. I’m embarrassed when she does something terrible and proud when she does something good. ...

December 27, 2023 · zacharyc