A few milestones creeping up the works here: A month until marriage, 100 days left of the blog, my one year anniversary at my work. All dredging up the ol' reflecting glass and giving me pause to get some perspective.
I've been pretty sad lately, and it has to do with many things, the primary sources being weather, creative drudgery, tough decisions and isolation. The last one is subtle but I am alone a great deal. My office is heavily sanctioned off and I only socialize with a few of my coworkers. As anyone who travels in the city knows: the more people you encounter in your commute, the less you see them as "people" because brains weren't meant to handle so many strange new faces, (family groups, hunter gatherer crap.) And to top it off, and not that I blame her because I totally understand, Emily works pretty late hours so when I get home at the end of my day I typically won't see anyone until she gets in a couple hours later. I think much of it stems from not living close to people we know...it takes significant planning to get anywhere and if you're down in the dumps, putting in the effort is twice as hard.
But going back to the reflecting glass thing, I'm considering making some revisions to my challenge for next year. And yes, I do think I will keep this up for another year, just in a different capacity. Here's some musings:
-Take up meditation: I did it in school for a bit, and with how busy I get and how much I need to surround myself with stimuli, this would be a massive boon on my health. I think I can even sucker Emily into it. I like the idea of forcing myself to slow down and concentrate on concentrating on nothing. It's the opposite of what I'm doing currently.
-Curfews instead of Fasts: Though I may still keep track of what I consume, I'll not set goals for it. I will, however, begin to stop the poorer habits I have around sleep and screens and (sometimes) food. No screens after 11 seems pretty reasonable to me. Not all the time, but at least during the week. And one "early" bedtime a week (before 11.) Gotta get that sleep going.
-Post only one creative thing here for everyday...but not on the day. So basically 365 posts over the course of the year with either a drawing or a poem or weird rambling but they don't have to be done each day. This is sort-of what has happened to this project now, because as much as I like to believe I am an infinite font of creation, it ebbs and flows and can only perform at gun point so many times.
-Exercise 5 times a week Simple. Mix it up. Run. Bike. Hike. Swim. Lift. Squat. But only 5 workout days. Two of those are for resting. And this rule is unflinching. I need to learn to stop pushing myself so hard. Getting older is about learning your limits and I still believe I don't have any. Gotta learn to be human sometime, might as well start now.
Anyway, it's a start.
Today's Drawing (inspired by the word "Fracture" from seven years bad luck.)
Today's "365" Project (Make something that transports you across a room. I went the less literal route and used my Makey Makey to "transport" my ability to play Pokemon on my computer across the room. It was NOT intuative but cool as shit.)
"Hand Hack"
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I've been pretty sad lately, and it has to do with many things, the primary sources being weather, creative drudgery, tough decisions and isolation. The last one is subtle but I am alone a great deal. My office is heavily sanctioned off and I only socialize with a few of my coworkers. As anyone who travels in the city knows: the more people you encounter in your commute, the less you see them as "people" because brains weren't meant to handle so many strange new faces, (family groups, hunter gatherer crap.) And to top it off, and not that I blame her because I totally understand, Emily works pretty late hours so when I get home at the end of my day I typically won't see anyone until she gets in a couple hours later. I think much of it stems from not living close to people we know...it takes significant planning to get anywhere and if you're down in the dumps, putting in the effort is twice as hard.
But going back to the reflecting glass thing, I'm considering making some revisions to my challenge for next year. And yes, I do think I will keep this up for another year, just in a different capacity. Here's some musings:
-Take up meditation: I did it in school for a bit, and with how busy I get and how much I need to surround myself with stimuli, this would be a massive boon on my health. I think I can even sucker Emily into it. I like the idea of forcing myself to slow down and concentrate on concentrating on nothing. It's the opposite of what I'm doing currently.
-Curfews instead of Fasts: Though I may still keep track of what I consume, I'll not set goals for it. I will, however, begin to stop the poorer habits I have around sleep and screens and (sometimes) food. No screens after 11 seems pretty reasonable to me. Not all the time, but at least during the week. And one "early" bedtime a week (before 11.) Gotta get that sleep going.
-Post only one creative thing here for everyday...but not on the day. So basically 365 posts over the course of the year with either a drawing or a poem or weird rambling but they don't have to be done each day. This is sort-of what has happened to this project now, because as much as I like to believe I am an infinite font of creation, it ebbs and flows and can only perform at gun point so many times.
-Exercise 5 times a week Simple. Mix it up. Run. Bike. Hike. Swim. Lift. Squat. But only 5 workout days. Two of those are for resting. And this rule is unflinching. I need to learn to stop pushing myself so hard. Getting older is about learning your limits and I still believe I don't have any. Gotta learn to be human sometime, might as well start now.
Anyway, it's a start.
Haiku of the Day:
Apologetics:
Hacking design flaws with a
positive outlook
Today's Drawing (inspired by the word "Fracture" from seven years bad luck.)
Today's "365" Project (Make something that transports you across a room. I went the less literal route and used my Makey Makey to "transport" my ability to play Pokemon on my computer across the room. It was NOT intuative but cool as shit.)
"Hand Hack"
Hey Mic!
ReplyDelete@Dem damn screens: Have you tried redshifting your screen? This guy keeps rigorous data on how much various things affect his sleep, and using the free program f.lux cut his sleep latency by a whole half-hour... http://www.gwern.net/Zeo#redshiftf.lux
@this: This is an achievement min, keep at it!
@Marriage: Congrats! I will beam what Celtic magic remains in my watery blood over to yous. But only for that one day; use it wisely please.
Thank you Gav. I've been following your stuff and as always I find myself in awe of the breadth, deepth and clarity of your understanding. Thank you for the congratulations and the suggestions...I have already installed redshifting programming on my devices and it's wonderful.
DeleteMiss you my friend. I'll treasure that Celtic magic when it comes. And if you find yourself in Boston at any point, you always have a place to stay.