Lately life has felt more balanced.

Work is still intense, but I am protecting my energy better and trying to keep a more sustainable pace. Vancouver summer helps a lot, so I am spending more time outside whenever I can.

Here is what I’ve been up to lately:

Hobbies

Photography is still my favorite hobby right now.

On weekends, my wife and I are trying to do more small outdoor trips, even when we do not have a big plan. We went back to places like Minnekhada and Buntzen Lake, and I am trying to keep this simple rhythm consistent.

Travel

The two most recent trips were Hawaii and Alaska.

Hawaii was our Easter long weekend escape, and I really loved seeing the volcanic landscape for the first time. I wrote about it in Hawaii Big Island: Volcanoes, Beaches, and a 3-Day Escape.

In June, we did a longer Alaska trip focused on wildlife and nature. It was one of my favorite trips so far, especially for photography and marine wildlife. I shared the full notes in Alaska in June: Wildlife, Ice, and Long Summer Days.

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

I am keeping this simple right now: better sleep, better consistency, less over-optimization.

When work gets too heavy, I usually try to fix the basics first instead of adding more tools and routines.

Health

I am back to a regular gym rhythm after a short break.

Running is still paused for now. I might bring it back later, but I am not forcing it.

Reading

Still slower than I would like.

I started a few books but did not make a lot of progress. Most of the slowdown is just energy management after intense work periods.

Right now I am reading Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law. I picked it because I wanted light non-fiction where I could still learn something without feeling like I was doing heavy study.

After a full day of work, reading can be hard, so choosing an easier read has been helping me keep the habit going.

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

The microservice rewrite is now in a much better place, and seeing it run reliably in production has been very rewarding.

This was one of those projects that looked straightforward from far away, but had many details and tradeoffs once we got deep into it.

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 is all for now. I will keep this page updated as things change.

Cheers,
JV

(This is a now page, and if you have your own website, you should make one, too.)