Charlie Custer

2021 was another eventful year (and another pandemic year), and a pretty good one although it didn’t start very well. The disappearance of the Longhash side job led me to look for alternatives, which (via Stephen’s recommendation) led me to a job at Cockroach Labs, the first job I’ve ever had that pays enough that I don’t feel the need to be constantly looking for side hustles. (My wife started working as a baker, which has also helped).

This year was also an important year for another reason, but it’s personal and not something I’m ready to share publicly yet, so a few sections of this post will remain behind a password for now.

It was also the year where, after some confusion and questioning, I realized I was bisexual. Thankfully, my wife has been very accepting of this, and I think it has actually improved our relationship.

2021 Books

I read 27 books in 2021. I’m not going to list them all here (the full list can be found in my GoodReads “read” shelf), but I will list some of the best ones below.

• 2312 (Kim Stanley Robinson) — An excellent and realistic-feeling look at a quasi-optimistic future for humanity. Plus, an interesting plot, and a world’s that’s as close to fully automated luxury gay space communism as we’re likely to get from any novel.
• Blind Lake (Robert Charles Wilson) — A compelling look at a near-future first contact (sort of) situation.
• Annihilation (Jeff VanderMeer) — I loved the movie, and the book is great too, and quite different.
• Too Like the Lightning (Ada Palmer) — Wonderful, imaginative, unique. A challenging but rewarding read (and the same has been true of the sequels so far).
• All the Birds in the Sky (Charlie Jane Anders) — I remember this being an easy read, but also an interesting and very imaginative story.

I also read quite a few other sci-fi books that hit the four-star mark (the books above are the ones I gave five stars to). Perhaps the only other notable thing is Stranger in a Strange Land, a “classic” which I read and found intolerable. It is sexist (this is a big problem with lots of older sci-fi) and although it has some interesting ideas, I ultimately found the blatant author-stand-in character too obnoxious to put up with.

2021 Goals Review

Link to the original post with the 2021 goals I set, for reference. Overall, this was probably my best year ever in terms of actually accomplishing the goals I set out to accomplish.

Improve my sleep hygiene.

A. While I didn’t quite do things exactly the way I planned, I do not use the phone in bed before going to sleep anymore.

Read at least 20 books.

A. I read 27, although I did skip chapters I wasn’t interested in in one of the nonfiction books.

Learn a new skill that adds value for my job at Dataquest.

B. I don’t work at Dataquest anymore, and I didn’t achieve this in the manner that I had planned it, but in part because of the Dataquest job and in part because of the move to Cockroach Labs, I did significantly increase my technical abilities last year, and was even able to build fun projects like this and build a couple of tools to help with work tasks, such as anchormaker.py.

Go a month without added sugar.

A. I did it, so not much more to say on this front. Wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be.

Grow my Youtube channel to 2k followers.

C. I think it’s at 1.6k currently, so not too far off, but this became less of a priority for me.

Check off everything on my MTB skills wishlist

D. I missed most of these, although I did accomplish a few of the most important ones (participating in an enduro race, remaining uninjured). One of them (the Flow Creek goal) also became impossible because they reworked sections of the trail, making it difficult to meaningfully compare times before/after.

Although it wasn’t one of my goals, I did crack the top 30 overall (28/475) on the Strava Segment “The Knight is Dark and Full of Terrors”, with a PR of 1:30, which is pretty respectable.

Cover 2,000 human-powered miles.

D. Per Strava, I covered 1,389.8 miles in 350 different activities over 272 hours. Granted, I’ve done some walks and even hikes without Strava tracking, but I doubt that would add more than 10 or 20 miles to the total, so I missed this goal significantly. (I do have an exercise bike, but it’s analog and broken enough that it cannot track miles, so although I did spend time on that this year, that’s not reflected in the total mileage count).

Stand during work meetings.

A. I have done this pretty consistently all year, with the exception of meetings that are 1.5 hours or longer and meetings that are scheduled at or after 5pm.

2022 Goals

Cover 2,000 human-powered miles.

Why: Same reasons as last year.

How: Ride more, ride longer. Maybe get an exercise bike that tracks miles.

Push my MTB limits in at least 3 ways I can clearly point to at the end of the year.

Why: I want to keep improving my MTB skills, but this gives me a little more flexibility in terms of what I feel like improving/working on.

How: I will continue riding and do what feels right. The how will vary but this could be things like doing bigger drops, trying to get a good finish in an enduro race, trying to beat my PR on a certain trail or trails, etc.

Improve my Python x SQL skills.

Why: I understand both pretty decently, but I want to be able to build Python apps that store data in a CockroachDB Serverless database.

How: Work through some of the CockroachDB educational materials and try to build the “Pinkbike bike finder” app I have in my head.

Read 20+ books again.

Why: It was fun to do last year. Accomplishing it again this year will mean adjusting my routine, as I’ve been reading much slower now that Chunyang and I don’t sleep at the same time.

How: Establish a new routine that includes reading downstairs, not just in bed. I think I’ll make that a mandatory part of Mon-Weds nights.

Establish some kind of strength training routine I can stick to.

Why: I’ve needed this for some time, but just haven’t found the right way to make it a routine, so it never sticks. One of the biggest problems is trying to fit that and regular riding or running in in a way that doesn’t necessitate 2+ showers per day.

How: I’m not sure. I’ll have to experiment with different routines and times. It’ll probably have to be something fairly short, doable inside, etc.

Go a month without added sugar again.

Why: Why not?

How: February.

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Finally, a couple of additional goals I’ll password protect for now as they’re related to the personal thing:

Join some kind of bi and/or LGBTQ+ community

Why: My therapist has said this is a good idea for finding support with combating my own internalized homophobia and biphobia.

How: I think I may start with the Cockroach Labs pride group.

Come out on social media for Bi Visibility Day in September

Why: It would probably be good for me, but mostly because I want there to be more examples out there of bisexual men, and particularly monogamous bisexual men. This reddit post has a decent explanation of why (not written by me).

How: Well, first I will need to come out to more people I actually care about. Then, on bi visibility day, post about it on Twitter, and maybe also on Insta/FB/LinkedIn depending on how brave I’m feeling. Nothing too long, more of a “I’m bi, we exist.” kind of thing.