The first post is the hardest post for me to write, I have woefully figured out. I have many grand ideas of what I want to write about, but every time it is time to start writing, I find that I’ve got a couple of pieces of pocket lint and an old piece of candy. Which is to say, nothing comes to mind. Even if something does come to mind, I normally delete it after a few minutes because of how dissatisfied I am with what I wrote. I highly discourage that unproductive habit, despite falling back to it time and time again. Awareness is key to a new beginning, or something like that.

My name is John. You may already know this by virtue of having read some other pages on this site, but just in case, I figured starting with at least mentioning my name was appropriate. This is 150phase, my personal blog. I created this place because I wanted to write, whether it’s about where I’ve recently traveled to, whether it’s a short story I wanted to share with a wider audience than just myself, or whatever the reason, I just wanted a place to write. I can’t guarantee the quality of what you will read, however. I didn’t purport to be good at writing. I think it’s safe to just leave it at I like to write and decided to make a website where I could post what I write.

150phase is leet speak for isophase. This is a (cool-to-me) reference to the way some electrical equipment is constructed in hydropower plants and also a reference to what I do professionally. In hydropower applications, you need something that generates electrons and a way to safely deliver that power to the grid. Once you’re generating power, you need to move that current to a transformer that will then transfer that load into the electrical grid for use. The isophase, or isolated-phase bus, is what carries this current between a generator and its step-up transformer. Kind of like a go-between, but one that is integral to the whole process.

The way I outlined the process is probably not completely technically accurate, and I painted it with broad strokes because I’m not professionally an electrical engineer. I do work with hydropower applications, but I interact with them as a project manager. I am not a seasoned project manager by any means. I switched career fields a just under a year and a half ago, at the beginning of 2024, from a position in procurement to a position in project management. Since then, I’ve been learning what it means to be a project manager in my organization. I really like the work that I do, so it felt right choosing 150phase for my website’s name.

I am an introvert. This may seem odd for someone who made an entire website, but it’s true. My MBTI is ISTJ, which is just a fancy way of saying I am very much an introverted person. This doesn’t matter so much on a website I personally run and control, but when I am on a website that favors the viral, trendy posts, the content I prefer is buried deep in algorithms that neither make sense to me or entice me to stay long enough to figure out how to use it effectively. Furthermore, I don’t intend to put all of my eggs into one basket, so to speak, and place all of my intellectual property wholly at the mercy of a temporary platform that will inevitably cease to exist once its profitability has run its course. I find that last part to be crippling to my motivation to even begin on any platform I do not have full control over.

I think that’s as good as any place to bring my first post to a conclusion: mentioning how I am a strong introvert and how much control I like to exert over things I work on. If those aren’t marks of a quality blog, I don’t know what are. I am, of course, just being silly. Since I didn’t really have an outline prepared for this post, I am just winging it. As awkward as this part has turned out, it has become the way I concluded my first post on 150phase. Stay tuned because I’ll do my best to update consistently.

-John