I have spent the last few weeks sorting through some work nonsense. As humans do, my mind tries to map out every possible scenario, focusing on the bad ones, and repeat until I am reduced to a useless pile of human. The best way to combat this is to just write it all out. Pen and paper. It has to be on paper. Don’t type this. Your brain needs that experience of turning thoughts into words into motor skills to get it down. Once you do that, the odds are good you’ll turn that off. It will be resolved in the sense that it’s on paper. This should free you up to take action.

I enjoyed Klosterman’s book on the 90’s and this was definitely more in the same style. An interesting book about what we think we know and how our predictions of the future are complete nonsense. This one took some dedication to get through. It felt like a great theme without a conclusion.

Friday evening the teen came home from work and complained their tire seemed low. Since it was late, I said I would check it in the morning. Sure enough, the tire was completely flat. Since I was going to be out of town the next week, it made sense to get this repaired that day. An unplanned project was underway. It is far easier to take a tire in for a repair than the whole car in on a spare that has to be installed. That is to say if the car even has a spare. So many newer cars come without a spare.

On Thursday, February 22, I woke to my normal routine and noticed my phone had the letters ‘SOS’ where the cellular bars should have been. I quickly learned there was a nationwide cellular outage. This didn’t affect everyone in the house. The prospect of heading out to meet somebody for breakfast meant I had to prearrange where and when we were to meet just like we did when I was young.

When faced with uncertainty, the human animal becomes worried about what the future will bring. These worries are a drain of energy, but they are rooted in survival. Your brain races to find all of the outcomes that are possible. You tend to focus on the negative outcomes over the positive. This is to help rehearse scenarios of survival, but often it just leaves us paralyzed and not focusing on what we should be doing. This is not a positive use of energy. What ever is to happen to you, will happen to you. You should always work on being the best version of yourself to face the many obstacles that will be thrown at you.

I was at a company offsite in early November. By chance, I had dinner with a few coworkers in another organization. In conversation it came up about the company issued backpacks and how when we were much smaller, we had been gifted a backpack with our initials on it. The person at the table had the same initials as I do and asked if I was using mine. I am not and I said I would consider giving it to her, but this was a prized sentimental artifact.

Happy Valentine’s Day, to those who celebrate.

As silly as it sounds, the most honest health goal I have right now is to look good in a T-shirt. What specifically do I mean by this? I mean having no gut, having broad shoulders, arms that denote more muscle than not, and a chest that looks more male than female. From this goal, I can break it down into three main areas requiring my attention and work.

An analysis of one of the better films made in the past twenty years.

This is a very quick read and makes for a good primer on what stoicism is for the average person. The philosophy has vibed with me since I started learning more about it over the last five years.