i am: in college making friends + meeting people doing well in classes feeling happy and confident, about myself and the things i'm doing i have: gone on a date with somebody (verdict: just friends) gone to my first futbawl game (verdict: the student section is fun, but standing for 3 hours on concrete makes my feet hurt) got invited to a linguistics research lab thing by a professor (verdict: very excited - first meeting on friday) Thoughts This is the happiest (and most consistently happy) that I can remember being, if not ever, then for a long time. I see no reason for things to get worse, and a lot of reasons for things to get better in the next little bit / the future. (it's amazing how much easier things are when you consistently have energy and don't hate yourself) Life is goodski.
Spent about 30 minutes writing a long post. Lost. Summary: 1. It’s lonely at the top. Lots of pressure and not many people to comisserate with. 2. Missing major moments in my kids lives. They’re getting older. Only so many moments. 3. Company is at a pivotal, yet promising point. 4. I’m in the midst of a quarter life crisis. I’ve bought a skateboard and a bmx bike. This is awesome. 5. I travel a shitload. 6. I’ll likely be raising another round in a month. $100k minimums. Who is in? :-) 7. I miss making music and having pursuits outside of Forever Labs. In order for FL to succeed, I must be obsessed, singularly. 8. I’m a bit lonely. 9. How are y’all doing? 10. I miss my grandfather 11. My mom just met Bernie Sanders, like 15 minutes ago.
Do you use a planner ? I’m trying a new one that’s very goal oriented but also stresses the need to have routines and other things as well. Maybe you would feel like you have more space for other pursuits that keep you happy if you got yourself a planner like that. I’m starting the full focus planner for this winter, they’ve got a page for rituals that I like. They’ve got a morning one but also a spot for workday shutdown that would probably be beneficial. I’ll let you know how it goes once I’ve used it more. 7. I miss making music and having pursuits outside of Forever Labs. In order for FL to succeed, I must be obsessed, singularly
Hi all. I’m doing ok. My aunts funeral was yesterday. Funerals suck; it’s impossible not to cry, they’re like a solid cup of condensed sadness. My work is very accommodating and I took today off too for bereavement. I maybe said I was spending it with my cousins but I really actually just spent it with myself (and, eventually, a six pack of yuengling). In the life-carries-on category I have a first date on Friday with my first person I’m actually meeting off of match. Which I drunkenly agreed to pay over $100 for six months’ supply of about 5 months ago. Hey, at minimum I get to go see ant man and the wasp. Death doesn’t absolve anyone of any flaws. But a person can be deeply flawed and still dear to you. I just want y’all to hear that because I got to hear, essentially, that biscuit-crux from another aunt the day I learned of my dead aunt’s death (correction: murder) and it helped a lot. In this case, it’s very very true. I hope to get to bed early tonight. Back to work and deliverables tomorrow. Luh u ‘ski
Life's good, Hubski. My daily routine for summer break: Wake up, play CS or read something for the uni Make lunch & head into work Read emails, fix problems if there are any Duolingo Spanish for a bit Work on my paper Chill & watch Netflix 4pm drink coffee with my coworker Go back and clean up the office a little Right now I'm watching Planet Earth again (thanks nowaypablo), although I should be working on my paper. But I've got time. Other than that, finally got everything worked out with university admission. Cliches aside, Jesus Christ, German bureaucracy is exhausting. Luckily pretty much everyone along the way was helpful (and mostly nice), so I guess it could be worse. Also continuing to get weirdly good at foosball, since there's a table in our dorm's bar. My roommates and I might buy our own so we can play when the bar goes back to only being open Tu/Thu (during the semester).
Hell is where the police are German, the lovers Swiss, the mechanics French, the chefs British, and it is all organized by the ItaliansHeaven is where the police are British, the lovers French, the mechanics German, the chefs Italian, and it is all organized by the Swiss
Cuando estás listo a practicar más, avísamelo. (O si tienes pregunta que Duolingo no explica bien.)
I think the crank is going out on the bike. It has to make it 400 more miles this season. I have no real time to fix it; after work today I will clean and tune it, do some laundry, catch Killing Joke, then get on a 6am flight home where I will spend 36 hours. Then I will come home and put another 130 miles on it and then get an early flight to Chicago for a trade show. Then I will come back here and put another 130 miles on it - I guess I got a couple days to deal with it and otherwise wrap up my life because then I have three more days, get on a plane, have 16 hours off and then go to school from 7am until 9:30pm. Things are tense here. We have a mole. It has caused Corporate to bring in their goose steppers to drag people into conference rooms and grill them until they cry. We've all signed agreements forfeiting hundreds of thousands of dollars in penalties for leaks; nearly all of us are pensioned Union members who have zero interest in this sort of shit. The guy asleep next to me right now was sound supervisor on four seasons of The Apprentice and he gets about eight calls from journalists a week (he prefers the New York Times to the Washington Post because at least the NYT waits until 8am PST; WaPo doesn't give a fuck what time zone you're in they wanna talk to you NOW). So it's pretty fucking lame to be told that cell phones aren't allowed anymore (but laptops are A-OK for some dumb reason) while everyone stomps around pretending they're being effective at flushing out whatever dumb-ass assistant is willing to risk forever-poverty for magic internet points on Twitter. A friend rummaged through his dad's watch drawer (with his dad's permission of course) and sent me photos. There was an Eddie Bauer (IE Fossil) without a back, a Movado without a back, a Lorus without a back, and a Patek Philippe Twenty 4. It's on the shelf over there. I think I'll check whether it's Chinese or Thai.
Yeah. I'm in that "I could ride with a surly Mexican national at 4am to the airport so I can wait on the runway for two hours while they figure out what to do with the luggage bin door that just fell off so I can watch a movie on mute because there's a headphone jack broken off in my seat so I can spend $60 riding with a Vietnamese national so I can collapse in my own bed for four hours before I pick up my kid have one meal and spend six hours with my wife before repeating the whole process... Or I could just catch up on my sleep" zone.
With the increasing number of people commuting by bike, it makes me wonder how plausible a mobile bike repair business would/could be. It's not like you can't, or don't want to wrench on your own whip... you just lack the time. I mean - there are portable auto detailing and oil change operations... I wonder...I think the crank is going out on the bike. It has to make it 400 more miles this season. I have no real time to fix it
Just started reading my third productivity-related book this week. It's funny - the busier I am, the more I gravitate towards reading books. (I know I'm too busy when I don't have the energy left to read.) As a result, I've started using Instapaper as a means to read more articles with more focus, I'm experimenting with reducing my caffeine intake and I'm thinking of trying to delegate more in my working life. Hashtag neversettle. Part of my foray into the trite-filled swamp that is management books was spurred by a progress meeting I had last week with my superior. (It's one of those half-yearly review meetings where my progress as an employee is discussed. There's a name for that but it slips my mind.) We had a lovely conversation about my productivity and what I do to manage it. I explained some of my system - a constellation of devices, Markdown files, todo lists and Outlook rules - and she was impressed enough that she wants me to mentor a guy that started one month after me. He's a sweet fella but he's been missing deadlines and pulling allnighters to compensate. I don't think he has much of a system at all, and I always enjoy discussing these kinds of things so I'm actually looking forward to helping him."What separates the most productive people from everyone else is that they make course corrections every week to gradually get better at everything they do."
This is why I'm anxious to get to softball practice every week-- because I've spent time at home focusing on my own techniques, comparing with pros, watching youtube videos, trying things out. Eventually, I'm just ready to see if I'm more successful in a game-like environment. Some others also exhibit this constant series of small improvements; others seem to have decided that they're "done learning," and now they've stagnated. To my eye, that seems a lot less fun. Maybe I should practice that more in other areas of life.
I think the techniques themselves are less important than the system behind it. One of the books in this trifecta of productivity books is Scott Adams' (the Dilbert guy) book. He makes the point that goals are for losers (as in, you're a loser for a long time until you actually hit that goal), and that you should instead focus on implementing some kind of system that you'll be able to succeed at and improve over time. So instead of saying "I want to lose X pounds", he suggests saying "I will eat healthy/healthier", which is much easier to accomplish and improve upon. There's also a bunch of research that suggests that you will inevitably hit a plateau unless you develop ways to practice with deliberateness. Cal Newport calls it "stretch and destroy": stretch your current abilities to an uncomfortable level and embrace honest feedback, even if it destroys what you thought was good. That's not necessarily fun though, so I would think about what you want to get out of softball. Could be that it just satiates your sporting and socializing needs. There's no need to strive for perfection in everything you do, but I firmly believe it's good to do everything with deliberateness.
That's not necessarily fun though Then I guess I'm just weird :) A more serious explanation: I think there's inherent beauty in doing any thing well, regardless of what that thing is. This is why it's always cool to see people talking about the things they really care about, even if I absolutely don't care about that thing. Passion is cool. Doing things well is cool. Also I hate losing.stretch your current abilities to an uncomfortable level and embrace honest feedback, even if it destroys what you thought was good.
It's satisfying for sure, but it's not fun in the spaß sense of the word. Totally agree. (One of my favourite subreddits is /r/ATBGE.) The perfectionist in me always strives to do things well from the get-go. Which so far has worked wonders, but the downside is that I avoid failure like the plague and thus don't always know how to deal with it.I think there's inherent beauty in doing any thing well, regardless of what that thing is.
What's your workflow for that like? I really enjoyed it on iOS from an aesthetic standpoint, but found it to be a huge PITA to actually use, because it won't read RSS feeds or auto-update. Instead I had to go to Safari and add an individual article manually, and then save it to instapaper. The app itself was fantastic to actually read from, as I said, but it just felt like a glorified ebook reader or something. I e-mailed them about it, and even then, they told me you had to use a third-party tool to stream RSS/Atom feeds to Instapaper. Having to do that means Instapaper was redundant. I really wanted to like it, though.Instapaper
I have abandoned RSS a long long time ago and I know Instapaper is not really meant for that. Instapaper does have an email address you can send stuff to, so you could probably automate (IFTT?) an RSS feed to send email to that address. For me it's a "read later" app. I noticed that I enjoy sitting down and reading a bunch of articles distraction-free, but the various sources that I get my articles from (Hubski excluded) are optimized to keep you scrolling, not to have you read stuff. So I now shoot articles I read on Twitter off to Instapaper so that I can actually read it with focus instead of reading about it half-distracted by the next shiny thing. Plus, its highlighting function is just perfect for me, as that's what I always want to do with text (but rarely get the chance to). I can now highlight interesting passeges and easily send them off to my notes system in Google Keep after finishing an article.
That makes sense. I've thought about how that might work for me, but it just doesn't. Which as I said, is a shame given how nice it is to actually read on. But for me, all it does is add another step.
Something in my backyard for you. I hope you're well, amigo!
Kids have been back in school for a few weeks My oldest kid is amazing... but I think he basically hates me But I think it's "normal" life is stress life is hard life is good I miss this place. VERY HIGH LIKELYHOOD of a Michigan type meetup in early-mid October. stay tuned.
I've been low key depressed for a couple weeks. It's preferable to the depression I get sometimes where I only move to go to the bathroom or smoke but it's still pretty shitty. I'm not even working my way out of it by being an adult a few times a day as is my general strategy in this situation. After two years of bullshit, disappointment and discouragement I might be stuck like this for a while, not wanting to do anything or having energy to do things I enjoy. It's very meh and there's not any solace in the fact that crippling depression and manic psychosis are worse.
I find going to the supermarket a pretty nice way of just dragging yourself out of bed and, like you said, being an adult to cope. There's always something you can restock: rice, beans, toilet paper, olive oil. It's not the most efficient, but for staying afloat while low-key depressed, I think it's a good strategy.
I've been too broke to buy food at several points recently. From about 10-3 is the only time I can expect to leave my apartment without being stuck in ridiculous traffic. And the grocery stores here are crazy busy if I don't go during that time window. I really need to move to a different living situation
Well, I've gone 1 for 3 in big races this year, with one more to go before the year ends. Race 1: Marathon - finished in under my goal time, injury free, had a fantastic time. Race 2: 50k - cancelled due to wildifres Race 3: 20mi - Oooooooooooooooh boy. This one I was extremely excited for, after having ran the half-marathon distance last year, which is no longer offered. The entirety of the race occurs in the backcountry around Mt. St. Helen's, and features a handful of lakes, amazing rock formations, and expansive fields. Single track trail is a beautiful, sexy thing if you're a trail runner. The course itself is slow, technical, and with significant elevation change. Roughly 4,850 ft of elevation gain in the 20mi, and roughly 8,000 ft of elevation gain in the 50k. To say it's challenging is accurate and possible an understatement. But the atmosphere, the community, the camaraderie is unlike anything you experience running a road race. It's part of why I trail run. Training largely went well, my legs were feeling fresh, and the first 2.5 miles went swimmingly. I was on target to hit my goal of 4:20:00. And then, I hit underbrush just off the trail. And then, it grabbed at my foot. And then, I rolled the ankle. And the, I was down. Hard. Everybody passed my, friends stopped, strangers stopped, lot's of asking "Are you okay" - "Yeah, I'm working on it" as I literally have no movement in that foot and swelling starts immediately. It's 2.5 mi to the start, or 2.5 mi to aid station 1 (AS1). Fifteen minutes go by, and I'm able to move, at least enough to get up, as some of the back-of-the-pack starts to pass me by. At least there's still people around. I make the decision to proceed to AS1 because there's a medic there, and shuffle my way over the course of what feels like the longest 2.5 mi of my life. Hours go by, or maybe just tens of minutes. Pain comes and goes, and my right ankle is now twice the size of my left... I finished the race. It was a stupid decision to keep going, and more damaged occurred because of it. One trip to urgent care for x-ray and the good news is, there's no fracture! Just a severe sprain, which will take as much time to fully heal. But no cast, so that's nice. Boot, ice, compression, and plenty of biking. I'll be writing a full post on this race for a Northwest Trail Running blog, which will be my first piece of externally published writing. if it all goes well, maybe I'll do more in the future. How can you not keep going when you're rewarded with views like this later on in the race? Race 4: A 50k I'm supposed to, and will, run in November.
That looks like an amazing course. I hope you make a strong recovery for November. I'm not sure what I'd have done. I've never done a DNF in a race. I suspect it's mentally very difficult if continuing is at all an option. It's probably harder than a DNS.
I'm here at this late morning trying to give a shit about work. Have a couple uninteresting errands to run at lunchtime (most of which involve mail), and I think I may do an emergency caffeine run as well. 'Cause damn. The long weekend was glorious, and I desperately needed the downtime. One of the things I've realized, now that I'm on a good medication regimen, is just how much more energy I was using to do basic adulting. I'd had a vague inkling of this, and actually have written a couple drafts of this reverse-John Carter idea as a blag post but haven't really been able to make it work. Perhaps I just need more time in the New Regime to get a handle on what's happening so that I can kind of figure out the hook. I also think I've been too focused on this idea of explaining versus telling. I'm not sure I can fully put the distinction into words, but hopefully I'll be able to put together something workable. That aside, the real upshot has just been some deeper levels of mental/emotional exhaustion than I was aware of, and I think it's taken me this long (so more than 6 months) to recover enough to feel tired. I'm also having to re-learn a lot of how my inner workings, well, work. On a more prosaic front, my (kung fu) teacher and I are organizing a big marketing push to start ASAP. We've both had a lot of other stuff and projects going on, but now's the time to try to get some more students up in this bitch. I'm glad he's helping, since he actually has some experience with this stuff. I have 0 facility for advertising and find the whole thing exhausting, to say nothing of hating how social-media-focused it's all become. Truth be told, I'm not sure how to sell us anyway. You really have to feel what we do to appreciate it, as by design it looks boring as hell. (We have an only-have-joking rule that if it looks cool, you're probably doing it wrong.) MMA is all the rage right now, and we have to walk a fine line between "pointing out the issues with their approach to things" and looking petty. I think YouTube may help us, as we can kind of show a little more. I want to engage with folks, but don't want to get into a pissing contest, and that's a tough thing to do on the internets. We kind of have to take a "retail politics" approach, in that a vast majority of what works is just talking to people. Hard to do that en masse, though. That's about it. Gamings continue: I've gotten good and hooked on Dead Cells, plus am still playing Graveyard Keeper, Elite, and Just Cause 3 (super excited about 4 coming out later this year). Also started into Ni No Kuni 2 last night (I've been craving a good JRPG), and my daughter and I sometimes play Slime Rancher. I've gotten most of my tech issues resolved, and I know have a working Nextcloud server, a good plain text editor on my tablet so that I can move what I'm working on around, and a VPN service I'm happy with. (I was using Nord, but there's been some shadiness surrounding them that I bailed for a different one called Mullvad.)
This is the height of Lake Monona in Madison, Wisconsin. There's flooding around the shoreline with some flooding around storm drains as well. Some buildings have been sandbagged. I know there are some very low lying homes, but I haven't been by to see if they're underwater. They probably are. The rain seems to be endless.
It's gorgeous here today, though. The forecast is clear of rain for a solid week, so hopefully those impacted by the high water will be in better shape soon.
I was doing something different and made a sort of Fugue on Sunday for the hell of it. Not someplace I would normally venture, but doing stuff like that is usually the most fun compositionally. In just over three weeks I'll be on my way to Japan. 14 days in Tokyo and Kyoto. All the lodging and such is booked. Now I'm working out a list of all the stuff to hit while we're there. Work is going well right now. I still feel badly undercompensated and financially stressed, but I've mostly accepted it for now and I'm not letting it steer my mood. I also may end up recording my band. Our recording arrangements in-progress fizzled out for the nth time, so I figure it's now time to just go ahead and take control. Between all of us, we should have all the gear and know-how the get it done as well as any of the people we were looking at working with initially. We spent last night recording drum sounds to sample our drummer's kit. It was actually a fun experience. We'll see how it goes.
Does anyone have experience "converting" movies from iTunes to be watched on other devices? I'd like to be able to copy movies I've purchased onto my phone.