Reboot



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August Third, 2016


Sapient pearwood is a really hilarious. Can't seem to get it out of my head, probably because I've been reading a lot of Terry Pratchett novels lately. The other thing I can't get out of my head is Wil Wheaton's latest blog. Yes, that Wil Wheaton. The one who played that kid on TNG and now makes his living being a real person who is also a nerd. Last Fall he wrote a blog about being less than the person he wanted to be and so decided to make some changes, specifically

  • Drink less beer.
  • Read more (and Reddit does not count as reading).
  • Write more.
  • Watch more movies.
  • Get better sleep.
  • Eat better food.
  • Exercise more.
All laudable goals, right? I think I've made them all myself at various points in my life and with varying degrees of success.

Drink Less Beer

Like Wil, I homebrew, blog about it, and enjoy tasting new beers everywhere I go. Exploring the gastronomy of places I visit, be it St. Louis, the Rocky Mountains, or Florida, for me is right up there with experiencing the geology. And in American culture today that means microbrews. Kultur ist wichtig.

I'd also add wine to that (I did live in California for a year). And scotch. And tequila. And schnapps. What say we just call it alcohol. I actually stopped drinking entirely for the better part of 2010 and 2011. But damn if I don't enjoy it. And it's great for helping ignore those nagging worries that are always pulling at the edges of my brain. And sometimes in the middle.

But calories.

And depression.

And livers aren't really that replaceable yet (although mine is still running like a champ according to my last physical a few months back).

So let's call my first goal

  • Drink Less Alcohol
because I'm going to Europe in a few weeks and no place's gastronomy is quite so tied to alcohol. But how about holding off until then? That'll give this goal a little more specificity beyond the nebulous "less".

Read More

I actually made this a serious goal two years ago, more specifically,

  • Read 50 Books a Year
and have succeeded the past couple years . I like always having new ideas in my head and I've even allowed myself to deviate from a strict diet of nonfiction. This is a good one to keep up with, although I'm a little behind so far this year.

And while we're on the subject of expanding horizons, I'd like to add in another goal:

  • Travel Often
This one has always sort of been there, but some years I forget how important it is. Like earlier this year when I allowed a planned trip to Alaska to get scuttled. It remains the only state I haven't been to. And having visited every state as well as Canada (many times) and Mexico I realize that I need to expand my horizons. Hence the trip to Norway. The main thing that's been holding me back is a fear of security checkpoints. Every trip I've taken to Canada except the last one I've been stopped, harassed, and had my car searched. People in uniform love their security theater. Although last summer I went to Canada without issue; the difference was that I brought Cara. She will also be coming with me to Norway and once inside the Schengen zone there won't be anymore checkpoints. Hopefully. Also, seeing Alora and now Brittan travel to Europe has emboldened me to do likewise.

Write More

I've been journaling for decades, and writing this blog for 12 years now. I've tried to do NaNoWriMo and even got Alora started on that obsession of hers. So I'd say I'm doing pretty good on this one too. So let's call it

  • Write Regularly
and move on. This blog is already getting long as it is...

Watch More Movies

Movies are entertainment - a diversion from reality. Trying to hide from reality is something I need to do less of, not more. Sorry, Wil, I'm going to have to leave this one off my list.

Get Better Sleep

Nightmares suck. I can definitely relate to Wil there, although I will say for me alcohol keeps them away. Most of the worst ones tend to be about losing a loved one; often because of my failing to protect them. The Ghost and the Darkness and it's realistic depiction of those manhunting lions is no doubt the source of many of the visuals in those dreams.

Since getting into my mid-30's I've really stopped sleeping in. It was never something I was particularly good at, but now I'm up with the sun every day. And, yes, that means I've been waking up before 6 lately but in midwinter I'm waking up naturally after 9 because of the latitude I live on. Thus the only real control I can exert over how much sleep I get is to go to bed on time. That means

  • Get to Bed By 10 PM
Again, this is a more concrete goal than the one Wil set, but I like specificity. It helps to have a yardstick to measure progress against that you can't cheat. I also know the main impediment to achieving this goal: late night movies. Last night we stayed up watching Agents of Shield (yes, I know it's garbage). I know if we removed the TV from the bedroom this would happen a lot less. I would remove it right now. But she-who-shares-the-bed-with-me has always had a TV in her bedroom and is about as willing to give it up as her pillow. Earlier in our marriage I won the argument for a little while, but mainly that just meant Cara fell asleep watching TV on the couch instead of in our bed.

Eat Better Food

Gastronomy, as I mentioned earlier, is a passion. I love to eat. And Wogslands are know for their girth. My ancestor who emigranted from Norway, the first Wogsland in America, was noted for his "corpulent propensities...caused by indulging in too much intoxicating beverages." So, yeah, there are some genetics working against me. The best success I've had in this area was a few years back when I stopped drinking soda and my Coke every morning (which the Europeans at SLAC made fun of me for) became black coffee. No sugar. No cream. Just water and caffeine. But I still go to McDonald's. A lot. I'm a stress eater and those burgers are magical.

My grandmother is also turning 90 tomorrow, so there are some genes on my side.

Exercise More

Ten years ago I looked at my fat self, said "this won't do", and signed up for a 5K. Since then my goal has been

  • Run a Race a Month
and I've done pretty well keeping up with it outside of the Winter months. It's harder to find races then (especially when we lived in Nebraska) and harder to get motivated to run in the cold weather. I've also started throwing in the odd race along with geology and gastronomy as part of my travels. This had led to the completable goal to
  • Run a Race in Every State
which I am tracking here. Maybe such goals are off topic for this post, but I'm including it anyway as it fits into the general driving theme.

Craft

Wil's craft is entertainment. My craft is code. Part of my personal growth is growth in that profession and thus I'm also including

  • Write Better Code
among my goals. To this end I read books about the languages I use at work - JavaScript, PHP and Python. I attend meetups and hackathons to learn from other craftsmen in the field. I also dabble in other languages (Rust, Go, etc.) and try to help other coders on StackOverflow. Everyone is the Red Queen in the tech world, running as fast as they can just to avoid falling behind. For me JavaScript is the hardest to keep up with because there is just so much happening with that language right now. I also don't feel as mature in handling code run in the browser as I do about code running on the back end. I grew up with the command line and I still feel most at home there.

Summing Up

I've tried making necessary changes lots of times, but a month of dieting and exercise always seems to get undone with a weekend of pizza and beer. It just seems like life is a constant struggle that eventually you lose. Odin listening to the Raven on his shoulder trying to stave off Ragnarok a little longer.

Still, I keep on struggling.

Maybe that's all any of us can do. Anyway, here are all my goals, restated and in one place:

  • Drink Less Alcohol
  • Eat Better Food
  • Write Better Code
  • Run a Race a Month
  • Read 50 Books a Year
  • Travel Often
  • Write Regularly
  • Get to Bed By 10 PM
  • Run a Race in Every State
Maybe sharing them with the world will keep me focused; striving to become that unobtainable person I want to be. Maybe this will inspire you like Wil inspired me. I know, there's only 9. Lists are suppose to have 10 things. Couldn't I just add one more? Well, as someone who often overloads himself with more goals than he can possibly achieve, no, no I won't. I'll just have to be content with 9.




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Last change was on 4 August 2016 by Bradley James Wogsland.
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