I had been working more than I should, but in May I finally got back to a more natural and sustainable schedule. The weather in Vancouver has also been great, so I am trying to spend more time outdoors and look for some nice wildlife.
Here is what I’ve been up to lately:
Hobbies
This year I have been very slow with reading. On weekends I am trying to go out more. We did a few small hikes at Minnekhada Regional Park and Buntzen Lake. The season has just started.
Travel
The latest trip was to Hawaii. We took the Easter long weekend to visit the Big Island, and it was amazing. The volcanic landscape was new to us, and it was really nice to see it for the first time. I wrote more about that trip in Hawaii Big Island: Volcanoes, Beaches, and a 3-Day Escape.
We also took a day trip to Bowen Island, where we were able to spot a humpback whale.
I also wrote about one of my favorite food experiences from my last Brazil trip in Six Hours by the Fire for Costela Fogo de Chão in Brazil.
Self-Improvement
Nothing that I recall here.
Health
I went back to the gym after taking almost a month off. We moved to another apartment, and the gym in the building was not that great, so now I am going to a commercial gym.
I stopped running for now. No specific reason, I just kind of lost interest in it.
Reading
Very lazy here. I started a few books, but I have not progressed much lately, mostly because I was overworking and had no brain energy left for non-fiction.
Even with less reading, I published The Podcasts That Made Me Smarter, Healthier, and Happier in 2025, which captures some of what I have been learning in audio format.
Professional
We are almost done with the complete microservice rewrite. It was challenging and involved a lot of work, but it was a fun challenge. It is good to see it going live without issues and to see the improvements we made.
I also wrote a few posts related to things I was working on, including Improving MongoDB Observability with Spring Data and IntelliJ AI Chat Window Is Better Than the Copilot Plugin.
I published two reflections on AI and work dynamics: Is Agentic AI Like a Drug? and Why Async Agentic AI Does Not Mean Free Productivity.
And on a more personal note, I shared Four Years at FISPAN: A Coffee Table Book and Colleagues’ Messages.
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.)