Weekend Wrap 12/07/2025
Each weekend, I like to pause, reflect, and look back on the past week. This isn't a deep dive or grand reflection—just a quick review of a handful of things that brought me joy, made me think, or challenged me.
I’ll blame it on coming off a long holiday weekend. Or something. This week felt like a crazy dumpster fire of a week. Some weeks are just like that. All we can do is move on, do our best, and have hope that tomorrow is better, even if tomorrow is figurative, not literal.
Music
It has to be the approach of winter in the Northern Hemisphere. I can’t think of any other reason why so many dark albums have come out in the past few weeks.
Maybe that is also why I find them so appealing. Seriously. I’m loving the gloom.
It’s right there in the title: Latitudes of Sorrow. A split from two bands I love, but haven’t listened to much lately, Latitudes of Sorrow has two songs from Shores of Null, two from Convocation, and one where they both share the spotlight.
This is death/doom of the finest variety. Shores of Null is much more melodic. Yes, there are still harsh vocals, but also glorious cleans. Convocation takes everything and makes it much, much, MUCH darker and more sinister. Either way, you can’t go wrong. This is a fabulous little EP to hold us over until we get more music from both of these phenomenal groups.
Books
I continue to really enjoy The 3-Body Problem. I’m far enough into it now that the story is emerging, and it is gripping and fascinating. But that was last week’s book, so this week, I also dipped my toes into something more, well, just more.
I was reading an article about important books of the 20th century, and Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid popped up. I don’t know why this book had been in the depths of my subconscious, but there it was, and reading the article triggered a desire to read this tome finally.
So, I went to get the Kindle e-book, only to discover that it wasn’t available in that format. So, a 900-page, non-fiction book landed on my porch this week, and I immediately started to read it.
I don’t know how to explain this book, other than it seems to be a meditation on consciousness and where the “I” comes from. It is fascinating so far, but I also anticipate this will be a book I will be slowly working on for some time.
Sometimes you need to break the mould and just go for something different. This is very different.
Podcast
I’m going to take this time for some shameless self-promotion. On the episode of The Middle of Culture that dropped this morning, Eden and I just got silly and had some fun. We made a tier list of fast-food and fast-casual dining. We shared some, likely, controversial opinions.
I think this was a really fun change of pace, and I invite people to check it out. It’s just a silly time.
Quote of the week
Years ago, during my first run as the sole urologist at my hospital, the administration brought in two people to talk to us about burnout. Feeling supremely burned out, I looked forward to learning anything that could help me with the overwhelming burden I was facing.
I walked out after 2 hours of a planned 6-hour symposium.
It was insulting. The entire gist of their presentations was this: we were burned out because we weren’t breathing properly. We were in a constant state of “fight or flight” because we weren’t taking the time to calm ourselves, breathe deeply, and be mindful.
If we were burned out, it was our fault.
Bullshit.
That’s one of the many reasons this quote resonated with me so strongly. Truly beneficial practices of mindfulness, stress management, and optimization have all been bastardized by corporate America. We are urged to practice all of those things, but not because they will help us be happier, have more fulfilling lives. No. It is for one reason alone:
To be more docile, compliant, manipulable cogs for the corporate machine.
I practice mindfulness (not as much as I should), but not so I can work better. I optimize my workflows, at home and at work, so I can spend less time working. I try to reduce and limit all the useless garbage I’m forced to do at work daily, so that my actual focus is on helping people.
That is why we should do those things—for people. For the people around us, those we work with, live with, and most importantly, for ourselves. Our mindfulness should be a practice to let our work have LESS power over us. We must have boundaries to prevent it from engulfing our very souls.
Because it wants nothing less than that—our very being, chewed up and shit out in the name of shareholders’ portfolios.
Don’t let it. Set boundaries. Be mindful. Optimize what you can. But only do it for yourself. Never do it for your work.
It doesn’t deserve that from you.
What didn't work
Sleep. Again. Still.
Those damn lights. My stupid eye masks. But that’s not all.
I’ve really done a poor job at having a good evening routine. This past week, I didn’t take care of that time. I believe that, as much as the annoying light, has disrupted my sleep patterns. It led to some really tough days, as I was exhausted. Couple that with four early surgery mornings in a row, full clinic days, and a surprise resident (and still with the med student), and this week was beyond exhausting.
At least some of that I can take action on.
Wrapping up
This time of year is challenging for me. I know I’ve mentioned it before. I always feel like I am just getting through.
If you feel the same, we can do this. We can get through it. It will pass, just like it has every year. Then we can be on the other side. And get ready, be stronger, and do it again next year.