most of us only change
when the pain of holding on to what we're attached to
is greater than the fear of the unknown
— Joseph Nguyen

Hello there again. I've started this journey of trying to write more consistently so many times now I've lost count, but I need something to mark this decision to try again and so v12 is what I've landed on.

What have I been up to over the last few years?

It's been a fairly chaotic time over the last few years. I moved across the country to the Los Angeles area and attempted to make the most of what was supposed to be a temporary move and became a rather wild adventure where I'd run two marathons, discover pickleball, and explore what my next steps would be.

As far as content goes, I tried my best to keep up with the cadence I once had with weekly streaming and the sessions I had for Obsidian Office Hours and Building with Ben, but the schedule got away from me and it results in a hiatus I never quite intended. That said, it's always been on the back of my mind.

I've since moved back to the Washington DC area and been settling back in. With that comes a sense of stability which I haven't had for some time which is giving me the space I need to explore some of the creative ventures that have been marinating in my head for a long time now.

What am I up to now?

Open Source (OSS)

For those that don't know, I joined the Angular Team a couple of years ago and have since been helping with their new documentation initiative. There was a major redesign and we're working hard to iterate on the docs to make them the best we can. I'm still a part of the Vue Core team and helping out on Vue docs and community efforts, but admittedly my time is more split than it used to be.

I'm still teaching and recently released a course on Frontend Masters: Intermediate Vue!

Pickleball

One of the downsides of having your job also be your hobby is that it's a lot easier to burnout because the line between fun and work is very much blurred. And though I was once a huge skeptic, I've fallen deep down the rabbit hole of pickleball. For the uninitiated and/or skeptic, all I'll say is that it's been incredibly fulfilling from a social aspect as well as a lot of fun for those who enjoy racquet sports because there's so many people to play with and there's a lot of diverse aspects of the game that make it really interesting.

If you're interested or want to learn more, you can follow my journey here: https://picklebenzen.com/.

What's coming next?

As I mentioned before, I've been itching to get back on the saddle and start streaming again. I'll need to figure out the schedule, but the plan is definitely to resume Obsidian Office Hours and Building with Ben in the near future.

I also hope to be way more active in terms of writing, so you should see more on the blog here with more notes and quick posting on things as I'm working on things. One of my big hangups has always been that I wanted what I published to be way more polished and thought through, but that's only resulted in numerous drafts that sat unfinished and unreleased. 😢

Alright. That wraps it up as far as this post goes. If you want the latest updates on what I'm up to, follow me on Bluesky!