[7/17] 2026 Goal Progress

I had surgery this week. So it's been a week where I couldn't really move around.
That said, even while stuck, I noticed a few things — so let me write them down.

Health

Had surgery. Exercise is on hold for now

I had surgery on Tuesday. It was to remove a deformed bit of bone that had formed on the back of my hand.

So, no gym for me this week. I can't exercise at all, which means health is basically on a little break right now.

The surgery itself went off without a hitch. It's only been a few days, but there's no pain either. Honestly, all I can say is: doctors are amazing.

I've already made it back to work, and I can type without any trouble.

Sleep, on the other hand, is thriving

Maybe it's the post-surgery exhaustion, or a side effect of the meds, but I've been sleeping like a rock. I'm getting way more sleep than usual.

Since I can't exercise, maybe this is my body's way of telling me to rest.

As for quitting smoking...

Total failure. That's all.

Work

With me out of commission, past me did the work for me

Being fresh out of surgery, I couldn't get much work done up until yesterday.

Even so, I kept an eye on Slack as best I could while immobile. And it made me think, once again: automation is wonderful.

Stuff I used to do by hand, I'd automated a while back. Just by glancing at the notifications, I could see work I once ground out manually just... running itself, even while I couldn't move. It really gave me something to think about.

You want to move, you want to work — but you can't. In moments like that, having automation set up saves you almost instantly.

This time it just happened to be a physical, health-related reason I couldn't work. But it's the same when you take a long vacation. The more you automate the work that doesn't strictly need to be you, the more time you get back.

It was a week where the word "automation" really clicked as something great.

Living with one hand taught me this is a right-handed world

When you design apps and services, accessibility is a concept that gets asked for a lot these days. It's about designing experiences that are easy to use even for people with disabilities, or people who have a hard time with their fingers.

This week, I got to feel all of that firsthand. My dominant right hand was out of action, so I was basically doing everything with my left.

And that's when you realize it. Apps, daily life — it's all set up way too much for right-handers.

When you type something in and go to hit the send button, the button sits down in the bottom-right, for right-handers. And my phone is a Pixel 10 Pro XL, which is, well, big and heavy. Holding a heavy device in my non-dominant hand and stretching my thumb all the way to the bottom-right corner of a huge screen — it's quietly exhausting.

Sure, it's probably just a matter of getting used to it. Still, I really felt all over again that the services of this world are built for right-handers. It was inconvenient, but honestly, kind of fascinating.

Money

US stocks recovered a bit, so I took profits

US stocks bounced back a little. What I was holding went slightly into the green, so I took profits and pulled it back into cash for now.

I've already decided where to invest next. Now I'm just waiting for the right timing.

The auto-trading bot is more or less breaking even

The auto-trading bot had a rough July. Even so, it's somehow clawed its way back to roughly break-even.

If I'm honest, I'd love to just hand the whole thing over to Claude. But if I do that, it stops being "full automation," so for now I'm aiming to fully trust the bot.

That said, I still can't completely ignore it all day. Lately bugs pop up now and then, so it's a cycle of watching, fixing, and restarting. Aside from one incident this week, it feels like things have settled down quite a bit. (Though it's not like it's massively in the green either.)

Prep for moving abroad: Duolingo, 197 days straight

The English study I keep up as prep for moving abroad. Duolingo is now at 197 days in a row.

It's a small step. But being able to touch English every day for 197 days straight is, I think, a really good thing.

Honestly, at this pace of studying alone, I'm nowhere near a practically usable level. I can feel that. Even so, I think building the "foundation of keeping at it" comes first.

No matter how busy I am with other work or hobbies, I manage to do at least a little English every day. That version of me — I want to give it some proper credit.

Closing

This week was a week where surgery kept me from moving. But even stuck, there were things I got to notice. That the automation past-me set up came to my rescue. That living with just my left hand showed me the world is built for right-handers.

Next week, I want to focus on English study, watching over the bot, and building a service I'd think "hey, this would be nice" about myself.

The gym is still on hold. Next week I've got a procedure to take out the stitches. Until that's done and a doctor tells me "you can exercise now," I plan to hold off. My trainer told me to rest up properly, too.

And on top of that, it's been so hot and humid lately. Maybe it's the AC, but the whole family has been sniffling with runny noses. I want to stay on top of my health as much as I can.