{"id":5016,"date":"2015-08-26T13:27:49","date_gmt":"2015-08-26T13:27:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/\/?p=5016"},"modified":"2015-08-26T22:03:44","modified_gmt":"2015-08-26T22:03:44","slug":"life-29","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2015\/08\/26\/life-29\/","title":{"rendered":"Life: 29"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm6.staticflickr.com\/5698\/20287279443_8f7409278f_z.jpg?resize=640%2C427&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In a year, I\u2019ll be 30. Saying that out loud a few weeks ago did freak me out a little bit. Thirty is young! Worst case, I\u2019m about 50% into my life span and best case, I\u2019m 30% there. Ages 0-19 took forever. I couldn\u2019t wait to grow up and the last 10 years actually went by slowly. It takes me a while to recount my favorite moments of my 20s. so much happened and I loved almost all of it. The past year specifically has been one of my favorites but I also let myself get just a little bit bored. A good overall summary of my last 12 months on Earth would be:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I traveled a lot and spent more money on travel than I responsibly should have<\/li>\n<li>I continued my beer hobby at the expense of my health and finances<\/li>\n<li>I worked very hard at my primary and secondary income. My primary work life is better than ever and my secondary is struggling quite a bit<\/li>\n<li>I further improved my ability to take care of my things, upgrade to more mature hobbies and toys<\/li>\n<li>I actually grew my social circle and at least solidified some of the friendships I have with people local to me mostly by the continued absence of social media usage (that began in late 2013)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Travel:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Traveling the world is an addiction that I never want to be freed of. Planning or lack thereof a trip to see a new place or a familiar favorite away from your home and comforts is exciting. There\u2019s the moment when you buy the transport ticket or map out your route online that things begin to feel real. I prefer traveling alone but have spent a lot of time with Heather going to places and we are very good travel buddies, even before we were dating. From March 2014 to May 2015, I visited Belgium 4 times and to France, Turkey, Sweden, Copenhagen, Munich and Netherlands once. I was in San Francisco a lot last year and that role has tapered off for the time being.<\/p>\n<p>Belgium has become my favorite place away from home. I could foresee living there one day if work every needed me to relocate. The people, food, scenery and culture are addictive. You\u2019re an hour from France, 2 hours from Amsterdam and a train ride away from London from Brussels. I committed to one Europe trip a year for the foreseeable future. I wasn\u2019t responsible by visiting my European friends so often last year and in 2016, I\u2019ll visit Belgium and Champagne one time and that\u2019ll be it for overseas travel. I am planning a 2-week long Road trip in January down to the Florida Keys, over to Austin via New Orleans and a few days on the Bourbon trail and home via Nashville, Columbus and Niagara Falls.The project manager in me is really enjoying the planning stages.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Work<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<p>Speaking of project management, work is going very well. I have a new manager, a new desk and an evolved role. September 7th marks my 5th anniversary at this company. It\u2019s the longest full-time job I\u2019ve ever held. Part time blogging still trumps it but I love this company, the people and what we create. Map-making is essential to everyone that is mobile. The freedom to move is one of our slogans and I help facilitate that along with a few thousand experts.The work we\u2019re doing is changing the world.<\/p>\n<p>Aside from the day to day work which can\u2019t be discussed openly, my skill set as a project manager has grown immensely. I never thought I\u2019d master Microsoft Excel but I have. Being organized at work has helped me in my personal life. Documentation, communication, organization and attention to detail. These are good traits to have and they are reinforced daily as I navigate the corporate hierarchy to get things done.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Beer<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s hard to talk about the last year without thinking back on my exploration of craft beer and the people I befriend through the hobby. There have been some realizations toward my inability to lose weight because I refused to reduce beer consumption or the resale of my car being lower because I drove so much for beer events and there\u2019s the financial loss when you tally up what you spent at one single brewer in 2014 and the total is around $6,500. That\u2019s one brewery. That\u2019s not the gas and travel expenses I incur by going to Europe, Chicago, San Francisco, the trading of beers and the UPS bills, the mental time spent every night on forums reading about beers. That\u2019s money spent at one brewery.<\/p>\n<p>It really is depressing.<\/p>\n<p>The last 3-4 years as a beer rater on RateBeer has been great but being able to put money down on a house by now if I wasn\u2019t in this hobby is a realization that I think on almost every day. I haven\u2019t spent money on alcohol in one full month. I aim to continue that with a few exceptions. I can purchase a keg of IPA for my Kegerator every 4-5 weeks ($150) and I can participate in shares of beer once per month (less gas usage) and I can take 2 trips per year for beer (Chicago, Belgium). There are other things I can do like exercise my buying rights in a few beer, cider, mead clubs I\u2019m a member of and buy the minimum of the allocated bottles I\u2019m owed (I can buy 6 of one beer but I choose to buy one instead) but the spending is way down.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Health<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<p>The other result of this new financial break is that, since March, I\u2019ve lost 20 pounds of body fat. I could lose about 50-70 more but I\u2019d be extremely skinny at that point. It\u2019s a journey worth continuing but I\u2019m not stressing about it every day. I weigh myself every few days and stay the course. Some rules I setup:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>No drinking beer during the week..maybe 1 glass of beer on one week night a week<\/li>\n<li>Whiskey (one dram) is fine every night if I\u2019d like as it has 60-80 calories<\/li>\n<li>Very light vegetarian breakfast<\/li>\n<li>Cut out almost all bread and dairy (except cheese. i love cheese)<\/li>\n<li>Salad every single day for lunch<\/li>\n<li>Salad or similar calorie dinner<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<div>The result is that I\u2019m only taking in 1500 calories a day or less some days. My body fought back at first but that kind of deficiency is working for me and pounds are now falling off. I literally saw no loss when I started as my body was in starvation mode. Now, I\u2019m dropping 3-4 pounds per week. I haven\u2019t changed much else but without beer, I feel much better.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><strong>Big-Boy Purchases<\/strong>:<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>My 29th year was also a time of maturity. I bought less stuff but nicer stuff. I bought a new car this year with no cosigner and a great interest rate. Being approved for a solo 35K USD car loan felt great. My last car had a co-signer. I also bought a suit but Heather helped me pick it out. I bought a Canon 5D Mark III camera as sort of how my photography hobby is ready to be taken to the next level. I also bought a nice cutting board, some decent knives, a well made camp chair and tent. Most of this stuff isn\u2019t fancy but it\u2019s certainly pricey and deserves a level of care that I need to maintain. My home server rack with NAS need maintenance and cleaning and also eat up quite a bit of power but these things are nice to have and really important to me because most of them are these culminations of hobbies that have turned into self-identities.<\/div>\n<p><strong>I\u2019m now a Chandler<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<p>Finally, this isn\u2019t something that was taken lightly. I spoke at great-length about my name change a month ago and I\u2019m re-iterating it here. Adam Chandler. It sounds great and more importantly, it\u2019s my dad\u2019s family name. If I ever started a family, I\u2019d be passing that name. Pretty big. I don\u2019t think there is much to say about this that hasn\u2019t already been said but I love the new name and I\u2019m happy to share this name with you all and that the domain name was available :)<\/p>\n<p><strong>Closing and Thoughts on 30:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This past year was such a whirlwind that I don\u2019t quite know how I\u2019m going to top it over the next 12 months. As usual, I spend my birthday alone. I like the time to reflect and since it\u2019s just like any other day, I read and write and sip on some wine and ultimately, take everything in while in a place of solitude. It\u2019s going to be a good year. Another year at TomTom, in New Hampshire, with my new car and taking on more photography gigs. Less travel but more learning. An intense focus in increasing my knowledge and maybe turning some hobbies into some extra money on the side. I\u2019ll keep losing weight until I\u2019m 50 pounds lighter and I hope that extends my life and I\u2019ll feel much happier about my impact on the world and saving a bit of money on clothing.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s all for now. Thank you as always for taking the time out of your day to read my rumblings. It means a lot to me. Of the thousands of readers, I may only know 2-3 of you but it\u2019s a great thing to have you visit once a month to see what I\u2019m doing. You have my gratitude.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a year, I\u2019ll be 30. Saying that out loud a few weeks ago did freak me out&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"2016-03-17T02:16:35Z","apple_news_api_id":"0432d336-3422-4238-95fc-a5a7a709ec84","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2016-03-17T02:16:35Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/ABDLTNjQiQjiV_KWnpwnshA","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_custom_appearance":"","csco_disable_excerpt_posts_layout":false,"csco_page_load_nextpost":"","csco_post_video_location":[],"csco_post_video_location_hash":"","csco_post_video_url":"","csco_post_video_bg_start_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_end_time":0,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-life","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"apple_news_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pb3IC4-1iU","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6243,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2016\/09\/26\/life-30\/","url_meta":{"origin":5016,"position":0},"title":"Life: 30","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"September 26, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Writing this title out makes everything feel much more real. I think it\u2019s appropriate that this post is a full month late from my birthday on August 26th. I really can\u2019t believe that it\u2019s been 4 weeks since my birthday but that\u2019s just a very real example of what my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Life&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Life","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/life\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":610,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2012\/09\/13\/homebrewing-my-first-sour\/","url_meta":{"origin":5016,"position":1},"title":"\u2605 Homebrewing: My First &#8220;Sour&#8217;","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"September 13, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I hate the term \"sour\" just as much as you do. Any fan of wild beer will tell you that classifying a beer as sour is flat-out wrong. Furthermore, if a beer tastes sour, the brewer obviously messed up. There's the whole acetic versus acidic argument that happens every day\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Homebrewing&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Homebrewing","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/beer\/homebrewing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Brewing the ","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm9.staticflickr.com\/8300\/7981700132_331abd2411_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm9.staticflickr.com\/8300\/7981700132_331abd2411_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm9.staticflickr.com\/8300\/7981700132_331abd2411_z.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1307,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2013\/02\/09\/homebrewing-the-brett-blueberry-saison-experiment\/","url_meta":{"origin":5016,"position":2},"title":"\u2605 Homebrewing: The Brett Blueberry Saison Experiment","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"February 9, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Today, I brewed another Saison. The \"experimental saison\" category in my home brewing continues. Honestly, I've yet to find a saison that compares to my favorites such as Hill Farmstead and Boulevard Brewing. I continue to call this category an experiment. #1 was terrible and #2 was half drinkable. #3\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Homebrewing&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Homebrewing","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/beer\/homebrewing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Blueberry Brett Saison Brewday","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm9.staticflickr.com\/8230\/8460169870_a568b2873c_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm9.staticflickr.com\/8230\/8460169870_a568b2873c_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm9.staticflickr.com\/8230\/8460169870_a568b2873c_z.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8412,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2020\/12\/08\/technology-brief-airpods-max\/","url_meta":{"origin":5016,"position":3},"title":"Technology Brief: AirPods Max","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"December 8, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Beautifully and incredibly thoughtful design. I love the Apple Watch cues and of course, the \u2018magic\u2019 of AirPods carries over to these in the W1 chip which, design aside, is the key to AirPods\u2019 success over the last few years. I\u2019m sure it sounds good enough. The price well I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4617,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2015\/04\/03\/life-changes-at-work-evolution-and-growth\/","url_meta":{"origin":5016,"position":4},"title":"Life: Changes at work, Evolution and Growth","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"April 3, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"A month ago, I teased that there would be some changes with my primary source of income and the technical work that took up a majority of my busy-time from 2010 to today. Since my primary diet these days consists of Ensure-like liquid meals, I have a spare 35 minutes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Life&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Life","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/life\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"March 26th, Spring on the Lake - New Hampshire","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7615\/16934411261_1732e035ab_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7615\/16934411261_1732e035ab_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7615\/16934411261_1732e035ab_z.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3753,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2012\/06\/04\/my-type-dynamics-indicator-tdi-results-and-how-they-are-spot-on\/","url_meta":{"origin":5016,"position":5},"title":"\u2605 My &#8220;Type Dynamics Indicator&#8221; (TDI) Results and How They are Spot On","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"June 4, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"While in Belgium, I attended a day-long workshop to understand my personality with the goal of improving my life and job experiences. Here are my results: A - 57 B - 42 C - 38 D - 45 Translated to: Introversion (Corridor) Sensing (Clear) Thinking (Very Clear) Judging (Clear) Corridor\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Ideas&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Ideas","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/ideas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"IMG 1716","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/adam-jackson.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/IMG_171611.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/adam-jackson.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/IMG_171611.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/adam-jackson.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/IMG_171611.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5016\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}