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+Document: WM-093                                                 P. Webb
+Category: Life                                                2026-05-30
+
+                        Sabbatical Retrospective
+
+Abstract
+
+   What I imagine life would be like with F.U. money and no worries
+
+Body
+
+   A few weeks ago I was presented with an opportunity for paid leave,
+   for a month. I’ve never taken off work for more than two weeks, ever
+   (aside from being unemployed). When employers boast "unlimited PTO,"
+   I assume they’re lying and will work you to the bone which will
+   require you to take time off because your doctor looks upon you in
+   horror at how you’ve destroyed yourself for a check and demands so.
+   No, I save vacation days for when I get irritable with my job (or
+   they kindly yet firmly suggest so) and I cap said break at two weeks.
+   No more, sometimes less.
+
+   Here is my checklist of tasks I thought I’d accomplish with this
+   month off work:
+
+   - read
+   - write
+   - get out of the house
+   - music creation/production
+   - Dap[1] testing
+   - learn 3D
+   - paint room
+   - organize garage, for good
+
+   I’ve done almost none of this LMAO! Would two months make a
+   difference? I doubt it. What I _have_ done is:
+
+   - landscaping[2]
+   - play Fortnite[3]
+   - music production[4]
+   - Disc testing[5]
+   - finalize paint colors[6]
+   - take lots of pictures[7]
+   - enjoy life[8]
+   - gain perspective[9]
+
+   Additionally, this month included my son’s birthday, Mother’s Day, my
+   wife’s graduation, and a time was had.
+
+
+
+   ## Landscaping
+
+   Lakeisha was annoyed with the way the front of our house looked with
+   sturdy weeds growing amongst sad-looking rocks that came with the
+   place. We decided to look at options at Home Depot. I severely
+   underestimated the number of bags we needed (we bought six, I think
+   we need at least six more). I learned that Mexican beach rocks look
+   REALLY good. The varied shades of blue are pretty.
+
+   📸[Mexican beach rocks][IMG1]
+
+
+
+   ## Play Fortnite
+
+   My launch day excitement for Arc Raiders waned after I completed the
+   grind towards the in-game expedition. That’s when you collect
+   materials for your character across five stages to prepare for the
+   next journey…that brings you right back to where you started, but
+   you get a neat icon next to your name in the lobby! Anyhoo, Fortnite
+   is less stakes with zany weapons and movement items, which provides a
+   more Looney Tunes flare for excitement (whereas Arc Raiders feels
+   like playing a semi-serious film).
+
+
+
+   ## Music production
+
+   I’ve been sitting on an unreleased album for nearly 15 years because
+   of all manner of bullshit excuses; perfectionism, insecurity about
+   mixing/mastering skills, and the unwillingness to pay someone to do
+   it for me. I’ve missed the deadline I set for myself to release it
+   this month (in time for Subvert’s launch[11], which coincided with my
+   son’s birthday trip). Last week I found a tutorial for vocal effects
+   and learned that the particular Ableton built-in plugin used
+   (Spectral Resonator) requires the most expensive version of Ableton
+   (Suite)…and I own the Standard version. ~~I’ll budget for the~~
+   ~~upgrade soon.~~ I have Suite now so the album should be out before
+   the summer is over.
+
+   In the meantime, there’s a method of mixing that requires the use of
+   pink noise where you solo the noise with one of the tracks in your
+   song and change the volume of said track until you can barely hear it
+   above the noise. Repeat with the rest of the tracks and when you mute
+   the noise track, your song _should_ sound good. After I get my vocals
+   how I want them, I’ll apply the YouLean Loudness Meter and someone’s
+   Ableton mastering chain (it’s in a background tab somewhere) and I’ll
+   finally be done with it! And, **finally** free my mind from this
+   musical albatross.
+
+
+
+   ## Disc testing
+
+   I took this time off to work on _side_ side projects and one is a
+   fork of the Gel[12] database. I’m not keen on experiencing the pain
+   of building atop a dead database[13] again; I wanted to try my hand
+   at building a successor that works for my purposes and…it works?
+
+   Even though I’m working on a couple for-profit projects, I found
+   myself finding equal (if not more) enjoyment from working on Disc. A
+   full write-up will come once I officially launch this thing but
+   here's a few screenshots.
+
+   [📸[Disc CLI in the Terminal][IMG2]](https://cdn.webb.page/blog/2026/wm-093-b.PNG)
+
+   [📸[Disc UI, showcasing schema][IMG3]](https://cdn.webb.page/blog/2026/wm-093-c.JPG)
+
+   [📸[Disc UI, showcasing CRUD][IMG4]](https://cdn.webb.page/blog/2026/wm-093-d.JPG)
+
+   As a designer/developer, it’s gratifying to build to spec something
+   I’ve always wanted AND to have the developer experience not assume I
+   write SQL like I speak English (fluently). IDK WTF I’m looking at
+   with SQL half the time.
+
+   If you understand TypeScript, you can figure out how to run Disc, no
+   ORM needed; automatic code generation from your schema should be a
+   given. C’mon, it’s 2026.
+
+
+
+   ## Finalize paint colors
+
+   Lakeisha and I have talked about painting our room for a year…it has
+   yet to be done. Ridiculous. We decided we didn’t like what we painted
+   the ceiling so we went and got more swatches and found one we like!
+   In conclusion, we will paint in the fall. It’s about to be summer and
+   we don’t have AC. It’s possible I’ll paint the room myself,
+   we’ll see.
+
+   📸[Painted swatches on the wall and ceiling][IMG5]
+
+   📸[Finalized swatch for white][IMG6]
+
+
+
+   ## Take lots of pictures
+
+   I’m an enthusiastic photographer. If I remember, I’ll leave the house
+   with my Moment telephoto lens[14] to get beautiful portrait shots
+   with sunny bokeh. Otherwise, I’ll use mood.camera[15] to capture what
+   I feel. I love this app; there’s nothing distracting you from taking
+   the damn picture until _after_ you do (when you check what the filter
+   looks like). There’s no previewing ahead of the shot. Snapping pics
+   with mood.camera feels like disposable cameras of old. You can see
+   every pic I took this month, here[10].
+
+
+
+   ## Enjoy life
+
+   Lakeisha was finishing up school and writing sewing pattern tutorials
+   for her job[16] while I had this time off, but we were able to go out
+   for lunch several times. That alone was nice because we don’t have to
+   deal with kids complaining about food choices, a welcome reprieve
+   from our usual experience. I didn’t get as much writing as I thought
+   I wanted to get done because of all my Disc testing. When I needed a
+   break from that, I played video games.
+
+   The way I’m wired, I’ll get a sudden burst of motivation and
+   inspiration to finish writing one of the books I’ve been working on
+   for…half my life? Good grief I’m slacking! Wabi-sabi.
+
+
+
+   ## Gain perspective
+
+   This month has been a great experience and it made me realize a
+   few things.
+
+   1) "We have the same 24 hours" sounds nice on paper but that phrase
+      is flawed. 24 hours exists as a _thing_ but this _thing_ we all
+      have access to is differently shaped. Pulling ourselves up by our
+      boot straps requires sacrificing time from a less-constrained area
+      of our lives — no easy feat when you have dependents or depend on
+      others, aren't neurotypical, &c.
+
+   2) I’ve been incredibly privileged to do this and now that I’ve
+      tasted what I’ve wanted out of life since I entered the workforce
+      more than half my life ago, I’m motivated to explore opportunities
+      that’ll get me there. As ambitious as I am, I sense I’m not doing
+      enough, I’ve gotta embrace the crazy. Delusion’s got me this far,
+      there’s more where that came from.
+
+   3) I have low to zero interest in "content creation." I created
+      Nickel[17] for the purpose of helping content creators better
+      monetize their communities and be an alternative to other
+      short-form video sites. Granted, the primary types of videos I've
+      uploaded have been gaming clips but I haven't uploaded anything in
+      about a month and a half, possibly two (I also learned I need a
+      few more servers for transcoding…makes me want to build a
+      ridiculous home server and open it to the internet, that's gotta
+      be more cost-effective than renting).
+
+
+
+   ## FIN
+
+   TL;DR: Month-long sabbatical went great, the point of relaxation is
+   to relax, and my relaxation involves recreational coding LOL! If you
+   want something done, you've gotta do it yourself. 🕸️
+
+References
+
+   [1] </WM-074>
+   [2] <#:~:text=## Landscaping>
+   [3] <#:~:text=## Play Fortnite>
+   [4] <#:~:text=## Music production>
+   [5] <#:~:text=## Disc testing>
+   [6] <#:~:text=## Finalize paint colors>
+   [7] <#:~:text=## Take lots of pictures>
+   [8] <#:~:text=## Enjoy life>
+   [9] <#:~:text=## Gain perspective>
+   [10] </WM-092>
+   [11] <https://www.subvert.fm>
+   [12] <https://www.geldata.com>
+   [13] <https://rethinkdb.com>
+   [14] <https://www.shopmoment.com/products/58mm-tele-lens?source=referral-68SlyIVHzDVybhw&discount=68SlyIVHzDVybhw>
+   [15] <https://www.mood.camera>
+   [16] <https://www.ellieandmac.com/products/suzie-square-neck-tie-back-top-and-dress-sewing-pattern?aff=820>
+   [17] <https://nickel.video>
+   [IMG1] <https://cdn.webb.page/blog/2026/wm-093-a.JPG>
+   [IMG2] <https://cdn.webb.page/blog/2026/wm-093-b.PNG>
+   [IMG3] <https://cdn.webb.page/blog/2026/wm-093-c.JPG>
+   [IMG4] <https://cdn.webb.page/blog/2026/wm-093-d.JPG>
+   [IMG5] <https://cdn.webb.page/blog/2026/wm-093-e.JPG>
+   [IMG6] <https://cdn.webb.page/blog/2026/wm-093-f.JPG>
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