Time is a limited resource. We all get only 21 days a week.
How great it’d be if we had a full month of 100 days. Alas we are stuck with only 93 on a good month, only 84 in February.
Some suggestions to make the most of these limited days:
Eat once a day when hungry, but it’s okay to skip some days.
Every third day should be mostly sleep.
On non-sleep days, make a point to move around.
If you’re employed, you’ll need to spend 5 days a week mostly working. That still leaves 16 days a week! Live those with your best life. Live them like you’d want to retire.
“The passion hypothesis is not just wrong, it’s also dangerous. Telling someone to “follow their passion” is not just an act of innocent optimism, but potentially the foundation for a career riddled with confusion and angst.”
“From this point to the Downtown YMCA front desk using the stairs, you will burn around 14 extra calories. Do this every day and that will add up! It’s my Y.”
A quick Google search says losing a pound requires about a 3500 calorie deficit. 14 calories every day is 5110 calories a year, so that’s 1.46 pounds a year.
Another Audible listen by John Scalzi, narrated by Wil Wheaton. This experience was even amplified by Ber making her way through Star Trek (the original series) on Netflix. So every time I came back from the gym where I listened to Redshirts, she’d be watching Trek and I couldn’t help but laugh.
Redshirts is to science fiction what Last Action Hero was to Arnold’s movie career. You don’t have to be into Star Trek to enjoy it, but it’s a lot more fun if you’re already in on the joke. Basically: what would happen if all the people that died just for the sake of screentime action realized they were being suckered?
Wil does some amazing voice work in this one. In particular a great little conversation in an alien language. The words-on-a-page version I’m sure is good, but I finished it really happy to have gotten it on audio.
Scalzi won the Hugo award for Best Novel with this book, but I think his Old Man’s War universe is still better overall. He just happens to play some tunes that appeal to all readers in this one. A good read for the science fiction lover or the reader who only occasionally picks up the genre.
Louisville’s Jefferson Memorial Forest has three separate recreation areas and more than a dozen trails. One of their recommended hikes starts with the Yost Ridge Trail at the forest Welcome Center, until you get to the Mitchell Hill Lake Trail. The lake trail loops around Mitchell Hill Lake, whereupon you can backtrack the Yost trail to the welcome center again. 3.2 miles round trip.
Amber, Grace, and I had been meaning to go on a hike for some time and today had perfect weather for it. We really enjoyed the trail, especially how the lake sort of pops into view all of sudden.
Mitchell Hill Lake comes into view from the trail. Photo by Amber Gustafson.
Yesterday I listened to a Planet Money episode called “Burnout.”
In that episode they play a clip from an interview with the psychologist that coined the phrase, Herbert Freudenberger. In it, Herbert says that he “[doesn’t] know how to have fun. [He doesn’t] know how to be readily joyful.”
It wasn’t depression, and it wasn’t really exhaustion, it was more that he was so focused and unrelentingly pushing himself with his work that his mind had forgotten on how to do anything else but work.
As soon as I heard that I identified with it. I’m doing more work than ever and I feel like I’m growing less than ever. I’m tired all the time and all I can think to do is chores, errands, more work, or crashing into bed. Even my leisure time feels like a series of chores. I’m not depressed – I keep waking up everyday and I’m working out and I’m checking so many damn boxes on so many damn lists.
But man, I’m really sick of it all. Like a drug addict watching their cigarette just burnout, I’m really just watching myself get older and tired and taking in that long journey to the middle.
And like they talk about in the episode – there’s really no one that takes this kind of thing seriously. It’s not a recognized problem. So it’s up to me to make my own way.
Finishing a lot of books lately. This one was finished late at night in bed when I should’ve been sleeping. When I realized how close to the end I was though, I had to just keep going through the last 10% of the book.
The whole thing reads like a dream. Not the “it was all a dream” end of a television serial, like an actual dream where you’re simultaneously exploring something new and comfortably thinking about something familiar.
Going too far into the plot gets spoilerific too fast. So let’s just say that a man named Shadow goes on a really crazy road trip. If you’re planning on going on a road trip in America anytime soon, I think this would make an amazing audiobook for your travels.
American Gods (Author’s Preferred Text) on Kindle with avid reader cat, Bagheera.
It feels like an important read. Literature, not fluff. My Kindle edition included discussion questions and I could see a high schooler writing a really great report on it. I’m not into that kind of write-up here on the blog, but you may be glad to know you could.
But I still had a lot of fun reading it. There’s a motif of Shadow mishearing others’ names and it’s fun to catch the real name in spite of his error. The scenes are all great encounters on their own; as much as it is a page-turner it’s also a great pick-up-again. No matter which section you read it will be beautiful to read and another layer of the story.
For a big book that you’ll be proud to have read, this is a good one. I could see myself reading it again and recommend it to you without hesitation.
American Gods by Neil Gaiman, part of my 2017 Reading
Grace is starting to get mobile, but not fully crawling yet. She is fun to play with but her energy needs really wear on me when I’m on baby duty. We are trying to take advantage of opportunities to have others watch her when possible so that we can enjoy better the time we do spend with her and she gets the go-go-go she wants.
Joined the YMCA and it’s been a good call. Their facilities are conveniently located and well kept. I’m following Pavel Tsatsouline’s “Power to the People” program for strength, then following that with rowing and walking. On occasion I add some variety with kettlebells and olympic lifts. I’m getting stronger and I’m able to train many days in a row (which I could never do after sessions of CrossFit.) They also have childcare, so it’s an amazing day when Ber and I can both workout and have someone else watch the baby while we do it.
Working on the PHP Development track at Treehouse. I’ve never written any PHP outside of a WordPress environment so this is proving educational. It’s funny how many things I confuse as a being either a PHP thing or a WordPress thing because I’ve never really had to separate them.
Having a hard time at work. Really pushed for a goal from August to December and that didn’t work out as I had hoped. Call it ambition misplaced. I’m spending some time regrouping and gaining back core competencies that I wasn’t practicing during those months. Not sure what I’ll aim for once I’m back in the groove to avoid that kind of mistake again. I’ve had more interactions with customers this month than any other though, so that’s not time wasted.
Finished several books (see my previous posts.) I also have a review of American Gods by Neil Gaiman almost ready, just need to take a picture of the avid reader cat. Currently reading Hug Your Haters by Jay Baer and CivilWarLand in Bad Decline by George Saunders.
Alex "Gus" Gustafson 