Personal – Page 7 – For Your Consideration

April 11, 2022April 9, 2022

Journaling Update

I’ve been journaling consistently for a few months, and it felt like a good time to quickly reflect on how this habit has grown.

I’ve been using the app Journey to give me a daily prompt for a gratitude statement, just a single sentence, and have handwritten in a journal each evening. I made it through a Moleskin notebook by the end of February, and have since upgraded to a Rhodia WebNotebook. It’s a huge upgrade in quality, particularly since I’m using a nice rollerball pen that bled through the Moleskin pages.

Writing each night has not been the burden I thought it might, nor have I become complacent. Even on the few nights where I was unexpectedly up late, I took the time to jot down my thoughts. It offers a consistent outlet, a place to examine the day and reinforce the parts I want to remember. It is a meditative act as well, a time of solace, where I sit down alone without any other distractions.

I don’t see myself stopping anytime soon. I’m hooked on the routine, and it has kept me accountable to myself in a way that my habit trackers and other systems never quite managed. While they are good for a quick glance at the past, they don’t provide a running narrative; they lack subtlety. I’ve already bought refills for my pen, and look forward to a few months from now when the current journal is filled.

March 28, 2022March 27, 2022

Trip Lengths

I just wrapped up a 5-day trip back to Minnesota, flying in Wednesday afternoon and flying out Sunday morning.¹ It’s the first trip of less than a week I’ve taken in over two years, and these shorter trips have their benefits.

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More or less. Our original flight was scheduled for 11, but ended up being delayed a little more than an hour.

March 21, 2022March 20, 2022

Thinking About Hobbies

My hobbies ebb and flow. I will rekindle a strong interest in some skill, old or new, and maintain it for a few weeks, perhaps months. It’s subsequently replaced by another pursuit.

I’ve realized that most of these interests are not separate; they tend to be manifestations of the same general themes. Any specific hobby tends to involve music, writing, sports, or technology, and during any given time period I’m most likely juggling hobbies from each of those four categories. Understanding this dynamic helps comfort me if a project fizzles out: there will be another one along shortly.

March 14, 2022April 27, 2022

Rediscovering Guitar: The Purchase

To satiate my recovered and expanding interest in guitar, I decided to use some money from my bonus this year to purchase a nice electric guitar. While I love playing acoustic—they sound beautiful, are easy to pick up, and always feel comfortable to me—electric guitar opens up a new world of effects, sounds, and styles. Plus, with a pair of headphones, you can have the full experience without much noise for everyone around you. Not wanting to waste my money, I dove into research

March 7, 2022March 6, 2022

Rediscovering Guitar: The Passion

I started learning piano in 2nd grade with an unweighted 61-key digital piano, and an assortment of self-guided piano books. Putting time into piano allowed me to join the percussion section once I started 6th grade.¹ Armed with a reasonable knowledge of music, the free time that childhood offers, and experience learning new skills on my own, I began playing guitar in 7th grade.

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They didn’t want to teach you how to read music alongside the several instruments you had to learn.

February 21, 2022February 20, 2022

Practicing Missing

I’ve watched and listened to hours of disc golf content across YouTube and podcasts over the past few years. Since I started playing about 9 months ago, an increased portion of that has been focused on instructional content: specific videos about form, techniques, tips and tricks, anything to help me feel more comfortable and consistent on the course.

Just like with regular golf, putting is the most frustrating aspect of the game. Particularly in disc golf, where you are approaching this relatively large basket and all you need to do is throw the disc in from 20 or 30 feet (ideally), it looks childishly easy. Yet I have a lot of trouble with consistency. Sure, I can make a few, but overall I’m missing in pretty much every possible direction during my round. In fact, both on the course and during my warmup I am practicing how to miss.

February 14, 2022February 14, 2022

Extravagant Dining

Erin and I are working on tighter budgeting, eating out less, all that good stuff. We’ve been pretty good since coming home after Christmas. Going out to eat has become something we plan and budget for; it should be an event, not an excuse to not cook on a lazy night.

To that end, for Valentine’s weekend, we booked ourselves two dining experiences.

January 31, 2022January 30, 2022

Juggling Obligations

I’ve kept myself busy over the last several months. College was the last time I had such a large number of projects and concerns, but most of them were essentially the same. While I would have four or five classes each semester, these all fell under the banner of school, similar to how several work projects are basically the same to me. However, I’ve since begun tutoring and writing curriculum on the side, while trying to maintain some of my other routinized projects. Add wedding and honeymoon planning, and admittedly, some days it feels like I hardly have any time for myself. Working out how to balance all of this is a difficult task.