GRIZZLY PEAR

written snapshots

Category: Life

  • Meeting the resistance at home

    Steven Pressfield has created this specific term “resistance” to describe all the internal mental stuff that keeps you away from doing your best work.

    I woke up this morning realizing that I’m pretty good at jumping into projects at the office, but I do encounter significant the resistance at home.

    It’s not that life at home is a wreck, but I think our papers and finances could be better systematized and organized.

    The question then, is what I plan on cutting out, so that I take the time to square things away.

    As always I guess item #1 is screen time.

  • Buying time

    You don’t buy time during the deadline.

    Time is bought it during the body of the project, during the doldrums between the start and the finish.

    Buy time when it is cheap and plentiful; at the end it is priceless, but no longer for sale.

  • Faith in a couple hard drives

    All my photos are essentially on two hard drives plus whatever is uploaded to carbonite.

    Technically that meets the 3-2-1 rule, three devices, two different types, one off site.

    But still, it does seem a little bit too much faith to put into technology.

    But as a parent of two kids, when would I make time to print these out? What would be the opportunity cost of that?

    As always, trade-offs.

  • Discovery Museum, Las Vegas

    The other day, we went to a free event at the Discovery Children’s Museum.

    A couple years ago we had a membership to this museum, so it was intensely nostalgic to watch our daughter in the same space we used to frequent regularly, just a couple years older.

    It seems to be a frequent theme on this blog, but it’s worth repeating. Single days crawl slowly, but time disappears fast.

    As for the trip, the girl had just as much fun as before, but we found the place equally boring as before. We still prefer Springs Preserve.

  • Chase Bank Parking Lot, Arroyo Crossing, Las Vegas

    When you live in an area for an extended period, mundane places begin to pick up the residue of various experiences.

    Last year (just around this time) we sold our little Mazda that we owned for nine years. I met the buyer outside of this bank because he was pulling his cash out from this branch.

    This year, I met my new tenant to sign the lease and transfer the rent and security deposits between our two accounts.

    Looking at it, you’d never anticipate major exchanges would happen in this little parking lot.

    Until it happens.

    Twice.

  • Upper back pain

    I’ve had several bouts of lower back pain, usually attributable to various forms of physical exertion. However, I’ve realized that such events are always preceded with various forms of neglect or stress that allow the proverbial straw to do the final break.

    But recently I’ve had a new twist – upper back pain! I suspect it was a mix of working on deadline without the greatest ergonomics and playing with my daughter as she sat on my shoulders at the park.

    I’ve had various other forms of non-lower back pain, but of the individual localized variety, not this comprehensive regional stiffness and swelling that I’ve previously only associated with lower back pain.

    In any case, I guess as I stumble past 40, I’m gonna after to take care of my back. All of it.

  • Grateful

    Sometimes you want to write something deep and profound for a big occasion.

    But maybe it’s best to just sit back and be grateful.

    I’m pretty sure I’ve had something to do with my luck, but still I’ve had a fair share of good fortune.

    The funny thing is that stress and “first world problems” still strike viscerally. But step back a bit and I realize that life has been kind to me and it would be uncouth to take it for granted.

  • On a cover!

    A fellow Berkeley alum had a project was on the cover of Architect magazine!

    Unfortunately with kids, life, and work I still haven’t had a chance to read it.

    But I did at least congratulate her this morning.

    We all be growed up different now, it’s a long way from kicking it in front of Wurster Hall.

  • Tao Te Ching, Laozi

    As you may have noticed, I’ve been dabbling with reading the Tao Te Ching, borrowing all the copies available at the library and reading the liner notes and introduction.

    After all, the Tao Te Ching is somewhat impenetrable.

    And then I had this sudden inspiration, let’s start buying copies of this book! I’ll start a collection!

    Old habits die hard.

  • Calculords

    I stayed up till midnight playing this new-to-me iOS/Android game Calculords.

    It’s a cheeky digital CCG where the main mechanic is adding up number cards in your number hand to play out cards in your unit hand, but I digress.

    With my current life, I don’t stay up late much, and certainly not gaming.

    This morning I woke up in an odd mood.

    I suspect it’s a mix of the lovely weather out, mixed with the feeling the grogginess from gaming late into the night. A gaming hangover.

    Strangely familiar, a bit of deja vu, but not in my current setting, not this current life.