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Life

This week started with a birthday bang and ended with a wistful whimper.

First of all, thank you for your birthday wishes. It made my day so much brighter to hear from you. I smiled all day long.

Well, almost all day long: that evening, poor FunkyPlaid got hit with a nasty flu. We spent the rest of the week huddled inside our chilly flat with bowls of homemade soup and purring cats. Not such a bad way to spend the time, except for the flu part. (He is feeling much better now.)

One of my birthday gifts from FunkyPlaid was a Misfit Shine activity and sleep monitor! I finally got to switch from Fitbit. I’ve used Fitbit devices since 2010 and all of them have had miserable battery life. The Shine uses a watch battery that should last 4-6 months at a time. It also tells time, and I can wear it many different ways instead of just in a crappy plastic wristband. So far, I’m pleased with it. Time to take it for a run and see how it does.

Week 2 of 12-week wellness programme: I am doing well with some aspects and not so well with others. I already have a lot of experience with paying attention to the various foods I shove into my face. However, I’m rubbish at group interaction because it’s all done through Facebook, plus most of my group is in a different timezone. But I have a peer coach now and we’re going to work together via email, so I feel okay about that. 

In general, I’m not feeling that great about my life right now. The birthday week was a good distraction, especially because I was more social than usual; I scheduled plenty of Skype sessions with faraway loved ones and had coffee with Babs at Artisan Roast. But now all that is done and I am again facing a bunch of unhappiness.

And Leonard Nimoy died.

Work

Not much progress happened with JDB1745 this week, as we rethought how to structure the location authority. I cannot wait until this part of it is finished, mostly because we have been doing authority work for what feels like forever and its payoff is so “of course, that’s what a database is supposed to do.” 

One thing I learned from the weekend gig this week: many of the “life hacking” feeds I read don’t mention the importance of being a good coworker. I think it is far more essential to be a good coworker than it is to achieve inbox zero every day.

Here’s my top three suggestions on how to be a good coworker:

1. Leave your bad mood at home. I’m not talking about venting here and there; we’re all struggling with our lives outside of the workplace, and it’s good to be able to share your gripes with your friendly acquaintances. But the second we allow the residual negativity to impact how we do our work, it becomes everyone else’s problem too.
2. Refrain from discussing your religion or your politics. Think of how you’d feel if someone started expounding the virtues of something you really, really disagree with — and you are trapped in an already awkward social situation like a workplace, where you’re not sure how to confront someone on that without it impacting your future working relationship. 
3. Do something that will make a coworker’s life a little better. If you appreciate the job that someone does, tell them. If you know one of your coworkers likes a tidy workspace, tidy up a little bit of it. It doesn’t matter how small this is, as long as you show that you realise that our lives intersect in this place called work.

Writing

No blogging this week. What started as a birthday-day break ended up a week-long break. I have a few last book-club posts to write.

I took a bunch of handwritten notes for a short story in progress. Handwriting my drafts is working so much better for me, I’m kind of surprised that I forced myself to work against this for so long.

Hobbies

I had these once, I think.

Media

I finished reading “Turning Pro” and restarted “The Bees”. 

FunkyPlaid and I saw “Birdman” and I loved every moment of it.

Top artists I listened to this week:

• Postmodern Jukebox, again, always.
• Bo Burnham, and I’m still on the fence about him. He’s a bit frantic but I love the wordplay.
• Kevin Hart, which won’t happen again. I made it through four tracks of his live comedy album before giving up.

FunkyPlaid and I gave up on watching “Dead Like Me” and switched to “Pushing Daisies” which is superior in every way.

Ink o’ the Week

I received five new ink samples from Goulet Pens’ Ink Drop, although I’ve only tried one so far, the lovely Caran d’Ache Divine Pink in my Esterbrook Dollar Pen. It’s fuchsia, in the best way.

The Lamy 2000 still has J. Herbin’s 1670 Stormy Grey in it. Still so good.