It has been a warmer winter than previous years, but I’m not complaining. I’ve been enjoying the milder weather and the extra time outside, especially when the sun decides to show up. Like every new year, things are busy. But I have been busier than normal with some private things and mostly with some new projects at work.
Here is what I’ve been up to lately:
Travel
My whole December was almost entirely dedicated to travel. Actually not traveling, but mostly visiting family. After a few years away, I finally made it back to Brazil and was able to spend some quality time with my parents, siblings, and extended family.
I also had the chance to see my grandmothers, aunts, uncles, and cousins, which was really nice. It was wonderful, though the downside was the constant eating (not ideal for my health goals, but absolutely worth it). My weight was a lot higher when I came back, but I’m slowly getting back to normal.
The travel part of the time off was when we spent New Year’s Eve in Rio de Janeiro, seeing the fireworks on Copacabana beach. It was a magical experience, and I’m so glad we got to do it. We also enjoyed the beach.
New Year’s Eve fireworks at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro
Self-Improvement
I’m making progress on my self-improvement goals. I’ve been working on my morning routine and trying to be more consistent with it. It’s not perfect, but I’m getting there. Over the past couple of years, I’ve reduced the number of podcasts I follow, focusing on quality over quantity now. I also posted my favorite podcasts for 2025.
Health
One month in Brazil without exercise resulted in almost 7kg of weight gain, but I’m back to my routine now and slowly losing it. As I discussed in my 2025 health review, my trajectory wasn’t great heading into the holidays, and the trip made it worse. But I’m working my way back and hoping to reach my goal weight by mid-year.
Reading
I’m mostly reading technical books lately to stay current with the technologies powering our microservice rewrite. I’ve been working through MongoDB and Kafka guides, which have been really helpful for what we’re building. I also posted my top 2 books from 2025.
Hobbies
Between the gym and reading, hobbies take a backseat, but I’m still editing and uploading Brazil photos to stock agencies (Adobe Stock, Shutterstock, and Alamy). The tagging and description process is surprisingly time-intensive, but reliving those moments as I curate each image makes it worthwhile.
Professional
We’re deep into a complete microservice rewrite, a challenging but rewarding project that’s keeping things intense at work. It’s demanding in both time and energy, but the learning opportunities are significant. I’m focused on the growth aspect and trying to make sure we build something sustainable.
In January, I wrote about JPA delete queries and optimistic locking and shared my Spring Boot 4 migration analysis.
That’s all for now. See you soon!
Cheers,
JV
(This is a now page, and if you have your own website, you should make one, too.)