Guilty Good

Today was about doctor referrals. Spent the morning setting up appointments for me, Mairin and Kaia. Life is so busy throughout the school year that part of our staycation must be dedicated to maintaining our health. It’s not exciting my any means but necessary. At one point, however, driving to and fro, I couldn’t help to think how distant the stress of school felt, even a few days removed from it. The days are slow and lethargic and absolutely perfect. After a decent lunch out, we were home and ready for naps.


The late afternoon took us swimming at Miles and Keri-Lee’s. We had a few drinks, some wine, played Star Wars Battlefront (to make sure the Teen rating was okay for the kids) and then home for an early bedtime for the kids and a wide open night without much to do. Maybe a movie with Mairin, definitely the latest episode of Atlanta is on deck.


Earlier in the day, we also made a quick stop to the book store where I bought the Amy Schumer bio and the latest by Jonathan Saffron Foer. I am still bogged down in a mediocre YA book, but I hope to power through that in the next few days, so I can get back into my reading groove. It has been forever and that is not acceptable.


Speaking of bad habits. I was meant to run today, but the swim date and early evening cocktails nixed that idea. The fact that I am still hungry and actually ordered McDonald’s delivery is enough to make me feel pretty shitty, that is until the sweet salty goodness hits my mouth. I have somehow convinced myself that I deserve the things that make me feel guilty.


At some point soon, I hope to tightened things up a bit- more running, back to a more hardline vegan approach, reading every night, but in the meantime- it is Wednesday night, I have another week and a half off. Nothing to do tonight or tomorrow, the McCrunch veggie burger is on the way and if things get super crazy, I might have a glass of wine while we watch Atlanta.


Side note, we don’t currently have Netflix for a variety of reasons, but I really want to watch 13th, but having a hard time finding it anywhere other that Netflix.

Ups and Downs

The Raiders are 3-1 and just beat a 3-0 team on the road. It was a nail biter. Again. But we pulled it off. It has been years since I have been this excited about football. We are legit and playing hard. All other AFC West teams, except for the 4-0 Broncos lost, as did the Niners. Life in sports is good. Had a great time hanging with friends watching the game and sampling 19 craft beers from the US. Sometimes you need a little Monday night bump to remind you that life is not all routines and work.

3-1 for a Raider fan is like the play off season. Bring on the Chargers!

….

Me to students today about publishing:

Publishing means that you want your work to be read. It could be a small circle of close friends or family, or if you are an egomaniac like me you want every word you think, read by everyone in the world. You believe that your ideas and the way you craft them are valuable and worthy of being read and shared and consumed and absorbed by as many people as possible. You believe that your life and the way you see the world and the way you draft your pose has value. You believe that writing is a way to be alive and being read feeds your soul. So you write. You write often and you shove your words down people’s throats, because you know that they will be better for it. It takes a while to cultivate this level of audacity, but as a writer it is what will carry you through. For now, just write and when you are ready you can publish to bigger and bigger audiences.

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I took the bus home tonight, and if I ever should get on any kind of soapbox, please note that I got off the bus for another veggie burger meal at McDonalds, before I got on another bus home. It didn’t feel good waiting in line. And it didn’t feel good walking to the bus stop, but man did it feel good inhaling the thing.

Old and Ugly and Gross

“If I’ve properly studied what’s going on in me, there’s a good chance it’ll read as if it’s about you.” Alain de Botton

Today wasn’t great. It wasn’t so great in a bad way, just in a not so great way. The day never really felt like it got off the ground. You ever have days like that? Ran a few errands in the morning that didn’t have the intended results. Although, Kaia came with me and we had some- sing-Pearl Jam-at-the-top-of-your-lungs-father daughter time.

The rest was mediocre.

The timing of my showers was off, and as a result I felt a bit sweaty for most of the day. Timing your showers in South East Asia is a key survival skill.

I didn’t eat right. I had some random McDonald's Fries, a Coke and an Apple Pie around 3pm that was not a good idea. This is my go to gluttonous, feel guilty for supporting corporate devils, but do it more often than I care to admit, snack.

It was cloudy and grey and the pool was uninspiring. I’m not cutting my hair or shaving my beard until the end of February, when I will shave it all off for our annual Hair for Hope event, but today the young beard was itchy and gross, and the hair felt a bit like a helmet. I was not comfortable in my own skin.

I felt old and ugly and gross.

We also took Kaia to get a manicure, watched Lemony Snicket, fell into a nap, and bought some bread from the store.

…

Sometimes when I’m bored I google myself. You might think this particular act is nothing more than narcissistic navel-gazing, (Kind of like writing a long Facebook status/blog post everyday for a year) and you might be right, but you might also think that I am tending, with due diligence, to my digital foot print.

Because I have chosen to put so much of my life online, it feels like the responsible thing to do- is to know what is out there for when/if anyone should type my name into the search engine.

Tonight, the results were about the same as usual. The main page was Twitter, my blogs, Facebook, Flickr and some random work I have done on other sites. The images were all kosher too. Mostly the thousands of profile pics I have used for various social media, a few shots of Kaia and actually lots of pictures from my PLN (personal learning network). The video section also checked out- youtube channel front and center, followed by clips of me singing at school and a variety of videos I have made for workshops in the last few years. The pleasant surprise was when I clicked on news.

I wasn’t expecting to see much of anything, but there were at least seven or eight websites that had used my Creative Commons Licensed photos for their content. A few shots of workers I had taken in Doha, a photo of Kaia dressed up as a scientist was on two STEM pages, and a shot of Singapore was on some travel site. They were all correctly attributed which was good. There was also some French article about me from 2011 when I was in Hong Kong. Not sure what it said exactly, I hope it was good.

It was reassuring to know that a kind and communal internet is possible. Not everything has to be viral or troll-laden. We can create content and openly share it with other people who might need it. Seems like a simple concept, this internet, but sometimes if feels like it has gotten too murky.

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I read today that there are gangs of roaming violent boys from Morocco, harassing people at a train station in Stockholm. And recently a vigilante gang of masked Swedes went into said station and beat them up. This story feels like a lose-lose for humanity.

…

Lessons Learned:

• Not everyday is going to be great, or inspiring or even that interesting. 
• Some days are just meant to pass by. 
• Living your life online needn’t be scary and your work and ideas can end up in interesting places. 

1. Tell us about a mediocre day you recently had. 
2. Google yourself right now and share the results. Anything surprising?