Work Work Work Work

This weekend was particularly productive.

My wife and I went to a three hour painting class on Saturday, did an Ikea run for a bookshelf for our craft room, had dimsum, went to lunch with her father, among other things.

Outside of this, I probably put in four hours of office work each on Saturday and Sunday.

But I don't feel tired. I am ready for Monday. I even feel rested.
I shouldn't, but I do.

I think here is why:

1. I was not alone working, others including senior management were working with me.
2. We were working on crafting a story to tell our customer that best represents the work we have been doing, and the work we plan to do in the next few years.
3. We have been working on this project for several months now... and this powerpoint is the first time our customer will get to see what we have been producing.
4. We have produced a kickass deck of slides by the end of Sunday... it is relevant and meaningful, it flows with good cadence, and it is devoid of redundant detail.

I don't have to work weekends usually and I feel grateful for it.

In the off chance that I do, I have found it rewarding and meaningful.

And for this, I feel even more grateful.

Facebook Time Machine

Digital v/s IRL

I have been drawing little illustrations for about a month now. They are all for this blog and I have lots of fun doing it. I use a free app called Paper by 53 on my little iPad. I really like it.

However, I have gotten used to the undo button. A bad brush stroke or a wrong color is very very easily rectified.

In fact, the undo feature is probably the most useful feature of Microsoft's Excel, which I use probably seven and a half ours out of an eight hour work day. I could find a way to do most other things in Excel, but if you take away the undo feature, the software is toast!

I was drawing a pear in my Painting with Pastels class at the local art museum this morning. Having never drawn a pear before, never used pastel paper before, and never smudged pastel colors by my fingers before, I was desparately looking for the undo button.

There wasn't one.
The painting turned out ok. It is the best pear I have ever drawn!

Time Machine

I have participated in a few heated discussions on Facebook in the last few years. Though no immediate solution was found in these discussions I though we were having an important journey togther, me, the OP (original poster), and other commenters.

More often than not, the OP simply deleted the entire thread.
The OP turned a dial and went back in time where the conversation never happened in the first place.

It's like having access to a permenant undo button.

When it becomes normal to remove the existence of a conversation in a particular medium, the value of that medium as a place for conversations starts to diminish.

That's when Buzzfeed takes over.

We are in a Beach Vacation

Critical conversations are not sexy. There is no money in having it. Sensationalism gets the headlines and the money.

Sensationalism fuels the lizard brain. Sensationalism shows us a result right now where critical conversations give no guarantee of showing a result.

Sensationalism is the quick beach vacation with plastic chairs and shitty beach drinks. The babes wear bikinis. You don't have to do much but sit around and watch passively. It looks good in a postcard.

Critical conversations are like a long cumbersome hike. It also looks good on a postcard but nothing beyond that. Planning for the hike takes time, energy, money, and lots of thinking. Then you have to actually go. One foot in front of the other. With a heavy backpack. Sweating, hurting, and unravelling your vulnerability with each mile in front of the worst person possible -- yourself.

Sensationalism leads to hatred, one seemingly victimized group primed and ready against another.
Critical conversations could lead to enlightnment but it damn sure does not lead to hatred.

Look, they have a pineapple mojito flavored crushed ice margarita with a salt rim and an umbrella on it. With valet parking!

Understanding Minority

Unless you got your wallet stolen, you would never know how annoying it is to have to cancel all the cards and wait to get new ones.

Unless you ever had siatica pain, you just could not imagine how un-accessible relief really is.

Unless you have lost someone you love, you would not be able to imagine what tragedy feels like.

And unless you are a minority, you can never really understand what it is to live as one, let alone to die as one.

You might think you do, but you don't.

I know because I was not a minority where I grew up.
But I am a minority where I live now.

I now know this: I didn't really understand minority back then, even when I said I did.

In Defense of Routines

In defense of routines that are not created as just substitutes, here are a couple of routines I have been developing in the last few months that are actually making my life a little better.

Morning routine

I start winding down by 9:30 PM, no electronic devices from this point on (writing the blog post is the only exception)
In bed by 10:30 PM and I read one of three books at my bed side table
Wake up naturally without an alarm at around 6:30 AM
Wash my face and drink an entire glass of water
Take Olive for a walk
Make a smoothie / omlette
Scoop the cat litter
Jump in the shower and off to work
Note: no time allocated for checking social media

Gym routine

Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings are gym days (I want to add a 4th day later).
Drive to the gym, 20 mins
Warm up on a cardio machine, 5 mins
Interval cardio, 90 sec of high rev, 30 sec of low rev... repeat till I can't do it any more, which is about 20 min at this time
Weight circuit, this is designed with 10 machines and 10 aerobic step exercises, done alternately over 30 mins
Stretch for 10 mins
Drive home, 20 mins

I am staying midfull of diversions from this routine. I let diversions happen. If they seem like a good idea, I include them in the routine. I do the same to take things off the routine. The intent is to be only as rigid to develop a habit but still flexible to let it improve.

My friend Chuck recommended a Saturday routine that I will explore in the next few weeks.

What routines do you have that you really like?

Administrative Day

There is nothing like routine to pull me out of a funk.

My two subscribers will notice that my last few posts have been less cheerful than usual. It is quite challenging to stumble across an interesting person/story/idea/event randomly in my town. We have a lot of same-old same-old, and very little hustle.

Enter: Routine.
Routine needs little to no thinking, but simply mechanical action. To pull myself out of this funk, I have decided that every Tuesday is going to be Administrative Day. This is the day I process all the paper mails that I receive. Here is the process:
Step 1: Use the fancy hand-carved letter opener to open mail
Step 2: Read and take action
Step 3: Scan items I want to save, then shred
Step 4: Shred and dispose items I don't want to save
Step 5: Remember to do this again next Tuesday

It is busy-work I know but I need to do it. I maintain my work and personal email each at inbox-zero but I am really bad at processing paper mail.

I also need to get out of this funk. Something repetitive seems as good an idea as any.

I really love stumbling upon interesting people/stories/ideas/events. I hope this busy work does not become a permenant substitute.

Because I am afraid it might become a substitute.

In fact, it probably already is.

Complacency

Complacency is checking the box.

Here is a slice of cheese between two slices of toast.
"You asked for a grilled cheese, didn't you?

Not even close.

Complacency is doing the least and switching the auto-pilot back on.

Complacency is insiduous. After a while, we can't even tell what is good and what is passable any more.

Here is an example.
There is a Thai restaurant in my town. It was the only one for a long time. Anyone who wanted any coconut curry went to that restaurant. And they loved it. Only when a competitor opened a new Thai restaurant in January did most people start to realize they have been missing out on some good curry.

The first Thai restaurant checked the box for so long that it defined the box. No one could tell how a Tom Kha soup should taste when prepared well. Since most of its customers did not typically travel to broaden their taste-horizons, this restaurant was free to set the bar as low as it wanted. And what was passable food at best was seen as good food.

You can either be unhappy with passable choices, or be complacent.
Choose one.

Sharing is Caring

Not sharing ideas is a fear-driven activity.

The fear being: I will look bad if I share an idea that other people do not like.

This is what keep people from promoting their friend's music/art/resume/business until said friend's music/art/resume/business has already gained some popularity.

This is exactly how Facebook generates it's non-sequential news-feed. Your post does not see any engagement until someone comments on it. Only then do their friends see it and so on. Quite the chicken and the egg.

So when you share that article from your feed and post it on your wall, you saw it on your feed because it was popular in the first place.

But we like it this way. This way where the curation is someone else's problem.
Preferably an algorithm's problem.
Please, just don't make us do the work.

We are busy.

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This post is inspired by my friend who recently tried to quit Facebook and was faced with emotional sleight-of-hand to make him stay. He talks about his account on his podcast. You should subscribe, he is really good at it.

The City

The city we live in shapes us. It builds our identity. Unlike a car which also contributes to our identity in some way, we can not easily trade-in a city for a different city.

We participate in what a city offers and become members of a contributing community.
We are only a tourist in any other city.

In addition to basic necessities like housing, schools, public services, hospitals, libraries, and grocery stores, a city can expose us to...
Symphonies,
Art galleries,
Art shows,
Farmers markets,
Pride parades,
Independent films,
Diverse cultures,
Integrated neighborhoods where said diverse cultures mingle together,
Creative/Technical/Professional jobs,
Universities for furthering education,
Universities for learning something new,
Local musicians,
Music teachers,
Dance teachers,
Local cuisine,
World cuisine, etc.

Or a city can ignore the list and stick to the basics.

Our identity is being built either way.

We are not the audience, we are the recipients.