To you, the reader, this is just one entry in a blog post. To me, this is a tale of two weeks. Last week, I was lamenting about how my time-honored, post-work Friday beer that wasn't hitting the spot. This week, I'm looking forward to it if I can remember to drink it. What's changed? My perception of leisure and work.
What is my Friday routine? For almost 15 years, my work week has been Monday through Friday. I would always put in a solid workout right after work because I knew I was going to have a few beers. Sometimes, more than a few. Also, working out before doing anything is always nice because you get that pump - a little extra "feel good" juice. If I wanted to talk to a girl at a bar, confidence felt better from the workout rather than 3 IPAs. The mind just works better after a workout, in my opinion. Last weekend, I didn't start or end my day with a workout. I'm not sure what my rationale was, I just kind of laid in bed watching a YouTube video about people being shitty. Start your day with a bowl of Wheaties, not bowl of pessimism. I treaded water at work, feigning looking busy while still working at home.
Recently, I began reading "Bullshit Jobs: A Theory" by David Graeber. Graeber was an anthropologist who discussed the existence of meaningless jobs and their harm to society and it kind of hit home. In his definition, "a bullshit job is a form of paid employment that is so completely pointless, unnecessary or pernicious that even the employee cannot justify its existence even though, as part of the conditions of employment, the employee feels obliged to pretend that this is not the case." I didn't get completely down on myself, cars break down and need mechanics. Software doesn't work and needs servicing as well. This still didn't allay my uneasiness. I felt adrift that week and haven't really done the things I enjoyed doing.
My physical activity has vacillated recently, either going on runs or doing my Peloton program. Since someone totaled my car, I haven't been able to take my dog to the park on the weekends my partner is working. I started a Peloton program wherein I'm a member of a team and a certain amount of rides need to be done per week to earn points. I had a couple of runs this week and plan some for the weekend as well. I've been trying to keep my drinking at a moderate level and make sure that I'm eating better. I'm even considering John Joseph's discipline regime. If I'm thinking of going vegan, or at least a semblance of it should mean something! My thinking is this: COVID brought light to the idea of personal health and mental wellness is important. If I can make healthier decisions, it's my hypothesis that my quality of life will improve. I'll let you know how that goes.
My job has become a little more easier now that some cases have been outsourced to a team in India. I have had more time to focus on certifications and training, which is good. It's just important for me to have a solid learning path instead of sitting through cold reads of sales material. If there's no plan, then I'm just letting my mind wander and wadding in the toxic waste dump that is social media.
Bullshit Jobs made me focus on not just work, but active leisure. Here's a primer on the differences of active and passive leisure. Essentially, active leisure are activities that use mental or physical activity. Passive leisure is an activity like binging on Netflix. Both are fine, but I was really missing out on activity. This week, I purchased the Supporter version of Untappd. Untappd is an app I have used since 2013 to log all of the unique beers that I've had and where I drank them. With the Supporter profile, I was able to export that data to a spreadsheet and enter it into my SQL database. If you're like me, you can find out more about SQL here. Basically, I can query the database with criteria that I want to know. I can find out what beers I've had at a certain bar. This is fun for me. Also, updating this page after 6 months of activity. I enjoyed updating whomever cares to read this and I've always wanted to provide more content. More sights and sounds!
Think about this as a service pack update and not a version release.
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