Henrique Beier

Month in review: October 2023

Inspired by Melanie Richards’ Learning Logs, I’m starting this series to document things that happened to me each month. The reason I’m not calling it “learning logs” is that I feel I’m not very productive in the self-improvement area most of the time, so calling it a “month in review” seems lighter on me. I’ll try my best to remember what I did each month and to keep this going. No promises, though.

October started with me and my wife making the down payment for our new apartment. We are still waiting on the bank to finish their part of the paperwork, but if it all goes well we should have a new home around the end of November.

Five people stading on a wooden deck with foliage in the background
The Fabio Haag Type team, from left to right: Eduilson Coan, Sofia Mohr, Ana Laydner, me and Fabio Haag.

Around the middle of the month there was a Fabio Haag Type team meetup. It was not as formal as I make it sound. We are a remote team, so it is nice to see one another face to face once in a while. We had lunches, beers and worked a little bit as well. It was very fun :)

On smaller news, it’s been a while that my PS4 wouldn’t boot and I finally took it to a repair shop for an evaluation. As I only used it to play Rocket League (which has become kinda toxic) or when we had guests, I didn’t have interested in getting it fixed. Instead, I proposed an exchange of the bricked PS4 for a pair of Joy‑Cons and they accepted. A small win!

And towards the end of the month I restarted this blog and that’s something worth celebrating.

Reading #

I’ve been trying to ditch YouTube before bedtime and read a book instead. The problem is, depending on the book I’m reading, I get sleepy very quickly and it takes me ages to finish anything. As I have lunch by myself during the week, I figured I should take my Kindle with me and use that time to read as well. It has been very effective.

This month I finished reading the Truman Capote’s classic In Cold Blood. Capote’s retelling of the Holcomb murders is so detailed that I am sure at least half of the things he narrates did not really happen. But it was a nice read, regardless.

I also read the more recent memoir How to Murder Your Life by Cat Marnell. The autobiography of a high-functioning drug addict working on the fashion publishing industry, this one was a rollercoaster. The author herself recognizes there’s something about the downfall of rich privileged people that makes it hard for us to look away. Surprisingly a page turner.

Watching #

We’ve watched the first season of El Encargado (The One in Charge) and have finally finished all seasons of Taskmaster!

I also finished the first season of The Bear. My favorite episode so far is episode 7, “Review”. It was nice to watch a show that does not immediatly makes the main characters fall in love for each other. Let’s hope it keeps it like that in the second season.

Listening #

The most recent songs I’ve added to my Deezer favorite tracks:

I grew tired of many of the podcasts I usually listen to, so I am giving them a break. On the other hand, I’m binge listening to If Books Could Kill and I’m loving it. They have a similar vibe to Underunderstood, which I like. And I’m also enjoying the latest episodes of Search Engine (the theme song is incredibly catchy).

Writing it all out, it looks like October was more eventful than my usual month. Let’s see what November will bring!