Status Report: Begin To Begin
This is the first in a regular series of status reports on how I am progressing toward my goals of building a business and a better lifestyle.
It's now been two weeks since I was laid off, and although I was planning for the inevitability it still has presented challenges I wasn't expecting. Despite that, I am happy with the progress was able to make.
What went well?
In the last two weeks, I was able to get both this website and my wife's crochet website started. roundaboutbuddies.com I spent a little bit more time focusing on Roundabout Buddies than this site, as we wanted to have the site ready for the market at the end of the month.
I also had several post-job personal tasks related to benefits and finances that I focused on.
Here are some of the things I accomplished:
- Stoodup this personal website
- Stoodup roundaboutbuddies.com
- Created a new budget with YNAB
- Ordered new glasses while I still have vision insurance
What did I struggle with?
Since a number of my coworkers and friends were laid off at the same time they have been helping each other look for new employment. I also posted on Linkedin about my layoff and received many messages about potential employment. I haven't had a very long stint without a job and I feel weird leaning into self-employment due to how nebulous it is. It's been a bit of a struggle dealing with what other people think I should do and my self-doubt. I don't want to waste my time and resources without good reason, but I don't think I would be happy with myself if I didn't put a solid effort into starting something for myself.
My computer has also been crashing on me pretty frequently. I have tried to do some software fixes, but the issue is still there. I don't have a dedicated work laptop anymore and don't particularly want to spend the money on upgrades, but as most of the parts in my computer are from 2015 they will need updates soon.
Things I used and discovered
- YNAB - Since I am planning on taking some time away from paid employment, it is time for my family to get more serious about budgeting. YNAB has been a good experience so far, and it's nice to be able to share it with my wife.
- Affinity Software Suite - I started using Affinity Designer and Affinity photo years ago on the Mac as an alternative to Adobe software. Affinity makes great software. Since I find myself without a Mac I decided to pick up the newly released 2nd version of the software suite that is currently discounted. I'm not sure when I'll get around to using Affinity publisher, but it looks cool!
- TailwindUI - I purchased tailwindUI. Tailwindcss has revolutionized UI development for me. I initially didn't like the look of it, but after using it, I fully agree with a testimonial on their website.
- AWS - I used Amazon Web Services for all my web hosting. This is all static web hosting with S3 and Cloudfront. I'll have some tutorials on this in the future!
- Terraform - I used Terraform to deploy my AWS infrastructure. I have used CDK in the past as well. I am looking forward to doing some tutorials and comparisons of other infrastructure as code tools in the future as well.
- WSL2 - Windows Subsystem for Linux is a Linux virtual machine that runs on Windows. I'm not sure I would enjoy software development on Windows without it. It's a good alternative to a MacOS environment that I normally use, which is good since I find myself without an Apple computer.
How am I feeling?
I was laid off two weeks ago now, and have managed to not waste a ton of time getting started toward my goals.