November 2023 in review

Introduction

This is the thirteenth post in my Month in review series.

November feels magical. It brings cold and snow. It’s time to get toasty and cozy inside. Everyone likes to talk about how Winter is like where they live or where they come from.

The theme of the month is: First Santa Fe first snow.

Month activities

November 23rd is Thanksgiving in the USA. On November 24th, we hosted a friends Thanksgiving potluck, Friendsgiving. At the same time, it was my birthday so we had chocolate cake. A friend got a free turkey and gave it to us. I watched instructions videos on YouTube, I roasted it, absolutely nailed it, and everybody enjoyed a fantastically moist and flavorful turkey with homemade gravy. I was proud of my part, but everybody else also showed up with amazing home-made dishes, and we all had a regal feast.

Work trip to NYC

I and a Grafana Labs delegation visited our customer in New York City for a 2-days QBR (Quarterly Business Review) meeting. It was really nice. The weather was fair. Offices were at the bleeding edge. We had fancy dinner paid by our salesman. I found our meeting extremely productive and collaborative.

Writing

I published a long blog post which I’m very happy about. I’ve been working on this on and off for the past 3 years. I’d love to show it to you.

It’s an essay on organizing business operational procedures documentation. So it’s a bit dry and academic, but I needed to get my ideas out of my system. For me, it’s a foundational document which I can refer to in future smaller and more practical blog posts. You don’t have to read the entire length, I just wanted to share my passion :)

Read it here: The internal and external structure of documentation.

Month favourites

• Snow reminds me of Montreal.
• I love my car! It’s small, manoeuvrable, economical, dependable, and comfortable.
• Paid short trip to NYC.
• Friendsgiving potluck.
  • Nailed it at roasting the turkey.
  • A-tier contributions from everyone.
  • Played card games and board games.
• Including more idle time, personal care, and hobby time in our weekly and weekendly schedules.

December goals

• Go to San Francisco.
  • Work trip for Debarati, for AGU.
• Participate in 3-day team meeting.
  • While in San Francisco, I’ll work 3 of 5 days remotely.
  • In my company, I’m part a team called Professional Services. It consists of:
    • 13 Solutions Architects (including myself),
    • 3 Engagement Managers,
    • 1 Education Architect,
    • 1 Manager and 1 Director.
  • On the agenda:
    • Project Management practices improvements.
    • Presentations, lightning talks by every team members.
    • Team building games.
    • Presentations by Engineering and Product teams.
  • I already work remotely so it doesn’t matter if I’m in San Francisco or Santa Fe.
  • I might join a coworker who is based in San Francisco for 1 of the 3 days.
• Go to India.
  • Meet my girlfriend’s parents in person.
  • Visit Debarati’s childhood and college neighbourhoods.
  • Eat the best food.
  • Visit temples.
  • Drink tea, relax, read, hang out, be on vacation.