Daniel J Isom

If it feels like I just wrote a post about changing jobs, this isn't a Groundhog Day situation because I did in October  of 2022. I'm changing jobs for the second time in less than a year, and while that kind of frowned upon in the professional world, it's an incredible opportunity for me. I've spent the past 10 months with the  Emergency Medical Services and Preparedness Section  as a Management Analyst III doing fiscal work and special projects in Smyrna. My tenure with that office will end just two days shy of 11 months. Staying there at least a year would have been optimal, well not leaving at all would have been the best case scenario, but I couldn't pass up applying for my new position. There were a lot of factors that went into the decision to even apply and even more that had to be considered before accepting if it got offered to me. My time in my current section has been an absolute whirlwind and as I like to put it "a crash course in fiscal and grant

I'm a sucker for food themed media, whether it be TV shows, movies, books, etc. So when the first season of The Bear was released last year, I knew it was going to be a must watch for me. We had almost finished the final season of Shameless , when I saw an article that the lead in The Bear would be played by Jeremy Allen White, the same actor who plays Lip Gallagher. Having enjoyed his portrayal as the oldest son in the most dysfunctional family on television, I definitely wanted to give his new show a chance. The show follows a young fine-dining chef's return home to run his local family sandwich shop. It felt like the show was written for me. This post isn't a review of the show, because if it was I would write paragraph after paragraph absolutely gushing over how much I love it. The filming is beautiful, scoring brings back waves of nostalgia from excellent music selections, and the writing deserves all of the critical praise that it has received. On top of

Today marks the end of the first week of me wearing the exact same outfit to work each day. I've toyed with this idea for over 6 years (see my post from May 2017 entitled  What's in a wardrobe? ), but never quite took the plunge until now. I have reduced the size of my wardrobe during that time, but a lot of that had to do with me needing new clothes after losing a bunch of weight. Even then, I kept pieces that were too big for me because I didn't want to spend the money to completely replace everything. I decided that once I got to where I was truly happy with my weight and how my body looked, I would finally pull the trigger. That day still hasn't come, but that's a different issue that I'm continuing to work through. For the past few years, my main work outfit has been a casual button down shirt, jeans, and sneakers. Since I don't interact with the public, this has been a perfectly acceptable way to dress under the State's more relaxed dress policy. A

It's been over three years since I did a major update to the layout of the site. Despite not posting very much this year, I felt like freshening things up. Maybe it will spur some inspiration to write more in the second half of the year. Like the previous update , I've kept some things similar. However, the most dramatic change is the selection of a new font for the first time in over 5 years. Also, while I think the tiled look on the main page for each post looked good, I missed the preview text so that has returned. Another slight but very noticeable change is abandoning the soft greys that were used in the background and for some of the text. I'm really embracing minimalistic aesthetics more and more in my life right now and wanted that to come across with a theme of just three colors: black, white, and red. Backgrounds are white, non-link text is black, and link text is red. It just looks much cleaner across all devices. I also removed the blurred post image that would

I make a point to say "Hello", "Good Morning", or at least "Morning", as I walk down the hall at work to get more water or grab something from the copier. Inevitably that leads to the question "How are you?". One that I'm sure we're all tired of answering or even asking for that matter. "Oh, I'm fabulous," I answer with a smile in a somewhat sarcastic tone. That normally gets a bit of a laugh as we go our separate ways. It's the throwaway interactions like this that I've grown so tired of.  If you know me, I can be a bit of a talker...okay, I'll talk all day until you stop me. I'll even tell my whole life story with weeks of meeting you. Since I'm quite open about all aspects of my life, I'll eventually get to the bad parts if I think you're down to listen. But that's the thing, I have a very good sense of who I can share things with, so almost nobody knows how I truly am from day to day. I do

The beach, a quiet nook of a bookstore, snuggled up in bed, fishing on the water; the list of peoples' happy places is infinite. It doesn't necessarily have to be a specific place or activity, it could even be a memory or an imaginary space one makes up. You can even have multiple happy places, anything that helps you recharge or reconnect with yourself. Finding and spending time in your happy place lowers stress levels and boosts our sense of well-being. Sometimes it can do the complete opposite, if things don't go as expected, but in general it's something you should search out if you don't already know what works for you. I've always known that the kitchen is where I'm at my happiest. I'm in there everyday preparing food at least once a day, but that doesn't mean I'm in my happy place daily. Sometimes it's really stressful because I'm normally making two, three, or even five different plates of food and timing them all can be difficult

Another year has arrived which means it's time to set some more goals. After a fairly successful year across the six smaller goals that made up the two main goals, I flip flopped on how exactly I wanted to handle this year. Having two main goals that were somewhat opposed created some issues so I need to avoid that this year. Focusing on one year long goal feels like a better idea, which will offer the greatest chance for success. There is a Chinese proverb that goes “If you chase two rabbits, both will escape." It couldn't be more true in my experiences. While I've had a lot of success in some goals, I cannot have the same amount across all of them. As I thought about what things were most important for me to improve on, I realized that I didn't need to make them goals for the year to make sure I did them. A prime example are the three board gaming challenges I did in September, October, and December. I wanted more board gaming in my life so I found a way to make