Well, here I am. Back in Davis. Back at my old office. Back doing my old work. There are some new faces at work and some new places in Davis. By and large though they seem unchanged. As if when we left they were folded into a pocket of time and left until my return.
What seems different is me and my relationship with this town and my work. I know how important Davis is now. Knowing what you want also means worrying that it won’t be there for you at some point. The desire to preserve is strong, sometimes it goes too far, it can be corrupted into a desire to retard. To push against the flow of time, of growth, change, life. The key to staying young isn’t not to grow old but to not ossify, not become rigid. I never used to worry about this; I never felt I had opinions, ideologies, or thoughts worth keeping. But, now I find myself being reactionary, not because of any inherent flaws or negative opinions but rather because something is new and different…
Uh-oh, it looks like I’m rambling. Before I lose my small audience completely I better stop. Hopefully, normal posts will resume this week or next as I settle in and resume the life I had here before D and I left.
Happy New Year to you all! This post is late but you know how it is with the Holidays. I kind of wish we could find a way to spread them out a little better. The gauntlet from Thanksgiving to New Year is killer for whatever normalcy you have in your life. No wonder I feel the need to make resolutions come January 1st. My life gets completely frazzled and torn out of shape by December 31.
1. Pay off credit card debt – This has been a millstone around my neck for too long. I want it gone by the end of the year.
Done!
2. Climb Half -dome – Now is the time to start planning this.
Nope!
3. Cut down on distractions – I spend too much time reading stuff. It’s all very interesting stuff but it doesn’t serve any higher purpose. It’s just another way to distract myself from my life.
I got distracted and failed to keep this goal. Though I do think I was better at being focused
4. Write a poem a week – 52 weeks, 52 poems
Um, kinda? I got through February, so eight poems and I did start the SSPP (Surreal Space Poetry Project)
5. Draw something once a week – 52 weeks, 52 doodles
Nope!
6. Continue meditation – Extend meditation time from ten minutes to twenty, add evening meditation.
Meditation came to an abrupt stop with the time change in 2012 and then the move…
7. Step away from the television and computer – I have a great dog, a beautiful wife, and wonderful friends. I should spend more time with them instead of tapping keys.
I did do this!
8. Fix my knee, start running, cycle more, swim more, do some free weights – I figure with all the free time I have why not make myself better with it?
Did it! Except until the move to San Diego but one of my goal’s for this month (Jan ’13) is to find a weight gym
9. Intentionally left blank
10. Intentionally left blank
Yeah, I don’t know what that was about!
Grade: Satisfactory. Room for improvement in areas.
I’ve done goals for the last two years (2011 and 2012) and I don’t think they’ve done much for me. Either I have anxiety over them and feel like I’m not accomplishing anything or it feels like I’m being coerced into doing something by past me, future me doesn’t like that. I might do goals/resolutions for 2013. But, before I do I need to think long and hard about them as well as how to make goals that I won’t forget about or just not do.
Two weekends ago I was up at Lake Berryessa with the rest of my Masters Swim Team, Davis Aquatic, putting on our annual mile swim event. I’ve swam the mile swim before and I had decided that before we moved away I should go full bore and do the two mile swim event. FYI this post contains pictures of me in a Speedo. Hot, I know.
I’ve just know got around to viewing Kirby Ferguson’s ‘Everything is a Remix.’ If you haven’t watched it the first part (of four) is embedded above. Kirby does a good job of presenting an alternative, and I think more accurate, description of what ‘creativity’ is, how it happens, and what makes ‘genius.’ The process is so much more complex than our out-dated and inaccurate idea that a limited amount of geniuses are born and that they work alone on their mountains changing the world when the come down to reveal new ideas and thoughts.
I can’t recommend this short series highly enough, and if you enjoy it I recommend looking over Kirby’s kickstarter project and sending him that money you’d normally use to buy your coffee this afternoon.
