July 2025 Recap — Chris Vogt, Software Engineer in San Francisco

This is my second monthly recap, a monthly writing ritual I started June 2025 where I recap the month work in a topic-organized journal entry. When these articles are published, they can be accessed on my Now page. When the next recap publishes, I move the previous post into the blog to archive it.

✨ Updates to My Website

I added a few new features to my personal website this month: a new UI for my Steam game play widget and a Discogs widget, both on the Home page, and an interactive career visualization on my About page.

I've also been working to make the theme for my site reusable, so others can use it for their own sites.

💼 What I'm Working On at Work

Continuing with the theme of last month, AI is still a big focus at work. Both as a product feature and as a way to improve productivity and the quality of our code.

🌴 Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

In 2021 I met Francis while docked in Curaçao on a Celebrity Cruise ship. We've kept in touch over the years and met up last year in NYC. A couple months before July he invited me to join him and a friend for their first visit to Puerto Vallarta.

I already had 2 days off work for the 4th of July holiday, and learned a friend and former coworker was also going to be in town with his partner, and so I took an extra day off work and flew down for a Wednesday-Sunday trip.

My United flight from SFO to PVR was fast—only 3 hours, 45 minutes. I recommend sitting on the left side of the plane for the best views, because you'll face inland and see the mountains.

Nick looking out the window as we fly over mountains in Mexico

Talpa de Allende, a Pueblo Mágico en Mexico

Flying over Talpa de Allende, Jalisco, Mexico

I stayed at an LGBTQ resort in Amapas, a neighborhood (colonia) just south of the Romantic Zone (Zona Romántica) and Playa de los Muertos. It's a 10-minute walk to the beach and slightly uphill, making it a good spot to look out over the bay and stay a close walk to the action while having a quiet, private space to relax.

Our 1bd/2ba hotel room was bigger than my last apartment in SF

The hotel bedroom with views of the ocean

The most unique shower I've ever seen for a hotel room

The hotel room had a wraparound balcony overlooking the ocean

The private balcony at our hotel room had a hot tub and a view of the ocean

Bahía de Banderas—the bay from the hotel room's balcony

Looking out at Bahía de Banderas from the hotel

The balcony view at sunset, with a boat in the distance

Here are a few of the photos I took around the area while I was there.

Calle Rodolfo Gómez, just off Olas Altas

Nick sweating in the humidity at Anonymo Bar

Al pastor at Taquería Taco Jarocho in Puerto Vallarta

Old and new friends at The Corner Bar in Puerto Vallarta

Nick and I at Industry Bar in Puerto Vallarta

Tom, Mark and Nick outside of Mr. Flamingo PV

🎵 Collecting Vinyl

Vinyl has taken over my friend group — my friends are constantly talking about new records they're litening to, and I've caught the bug too. I've built up a collection of 37 LPs so far and finally bought a record player, an AT-LP120XBT-USB-BK.

I've been using Discogs to track my collection, which is now rendered on a new widget on the Home page. It uses the Discogs API to fetch and render an up-to-date list of my LPs.

This is what started it all—Roc and his vinyl collection

Mutemath — Play Dead, one of my favorite albums

Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess by Chappell Roan

Roc in dad mode, having just adjusted the counterbalance on the record player

📚 What I'm Reading

At the beginning of the month I finished Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. I maintain a list of books that have been recommended by friends when asked for recommendations on what books left a profound impact and stuck with them over the years. My partner recommend this one, and said for them it was a required high school reading assignment.

In Mexico, someone had left a few copies of Finding My Humanity: I Am Because You Are by Ryan Ubuntu Wilson in my hotel room. I took home one of those copies and am now nearly finished reading Ryan's memoir, sharing story as a gay man coming of age in a rural, conservative commmunity in Colorado, and later a private Jesuit institution in Spokane, Washington.