There are so many things that I have to share. I can't believe I am actually writing after so long. Better late than never, my life was extremely busy in the last one year and I was occupied with plenty of things both personal and work wise. The last blog I wrote was this one, where I shared that I am thinking of building a Headless Issue Tracker, that was in June last year. I have not been able to write a proper blog since then. Let me try now.
It is September 2024, only three months left this year but I thought of writing again and sharing some updates. Let me share it briefly.
I am happy, very happy and satisfied with life :)
Overall life is good. I am doing what I love doing. Work is great, family is doing good. I have started travelling as well. When you don't write or share for a long time people assume not so good things but that is not the case. All is good, in fact super great.
Sparxsys has grown
We are now 10 people and growing steadily. Business is good. In case you don't know we provided Jira Consultancy. Since last year I was focussed on my company. Major part of my time, energy and life went into the company. I am glad with the progress. I am not stopping now but at the same time don't want to rush. I believe in doing things gradually and build a solid foundation.
In the last one year I have hired people and I wanted to give them time. When building a company I think apart from number of projects and turnover business owners should also regularly think about how to build and maintain the culture. There are no short cuts, you have to spend regular time with people you work with.
If you need help with Jira then reach out to me.
I took a couple of long breaks from making YouTube videos
I have tried changing the way I make videos few times in the past but every time I fall back on my usual style of just sharing my screen and talking about something new that I learnt or feel like sharing.
- I make videos on Jira: https://www.youtube.com/@ravs
- I make videos on Open Source and Linux: https://www.youtube.com/@blackberryboy
- I also started making travel videos: https://www.youtube.com/@blackberryboytravels
- I also started a channel in Hindi: https://www.youtube.com/@ravisagarhindi
- Our company YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@sparxsys
I really want to grow my YouTube channels and make regular videos but at the same time my work and life will always be my priority. I will soon resume making regular videos but I already have thousands of video, so feel free to subscribe.
Sparxsys Trainings
Last year I launched https://training.sparxsys.com/ where we have started building courses. Please sign up, there would always be some free courses, we have plans to organise free webinars as well in future.
Control on sugar, carbohydrates and Intermittent Fasting
In the last few months I have started focussing a bit more on my diet. I have stopped adding sugar in my tea and also try to avoid foods with added sugar. I think it has helped me, although I was healthy before but after this change I can feel my weight staying in control. I never liked sugar but stopping it completely has improved my health.
Also controlling carbohydrates has helped me keep my weight in control. I don't eat white bread or any bread now. Couple of times in a week I take couple of rotis but that is it. I hardly eat any rice now. I try to eat a lot more protein now and try to lift weights regularly.
I have been measuring my weight daily for many years now using Renpho smart scale. I think it has helped a lot. I also use MyFitnessPal app to track my food intake as well.
Finally I wanted to share that I started following Intermittent Fasting - so I eat my breakfast at 12:00 and lunch at 15:00 and that is it. Dinner is just couple of drinks and very light snack.
I am sharing all this because it has helped me keep my weight in control and I feel really very good. My energy level has been great and my productivity is also good.
I spent entire August in India
I live in the UK, this is my home where I spend most months in a year but Delhi is also my home. I went to Delhi late July, spent the entire August there and came back to the UK in early September. I went to Goa and met my colleagues there, met around 30 people mostly old friends, colleagues, spent lot of time with my family and close friends, drank all the possible beers in Delhi :), travelled in DTC, went to watch a movie in theatre, travelled a lot in the metro, went to CP several times, flew kites on 15th August and enjoyed a lot. All this while still working.
It was my first trip to Goa and I am so glad I went there. I think it is really beautiful and I hope to visit Goa regularly now.
Upgraded my sites to Drupal 10
It took me a while to upgrade my sites to Drupal 10. This site was on Drupal 9 for many years but I spent some time this weekend to upgrade it. Couple of months back I tried ddev and I must say it is amazing. Upgrading Drupal these days is not straight forward using Compose but ddev makes it easy.
That is it for this blog. I hope you enjoyed reading this blog.
