journal
Coming home from very lonely places, all of us go a little mad; whether from great personal success, or just an all-night drive, we are the sole survivors of a world no one else has ever seen.
- John le Carre
- John le Carre
9:38pm, Saturday
Taking a brief break from drawing so i can type and post this blog. I didn’t record the drawing since I just wanted to get started. Setting up the webcam and the recording software would’ve just taken up more time I couldn't waste. Since I don’t have any drawing or gaming footage, I’ll at least place a still photo of the work in progress or something like that for the vid tomorrow. I’ll figure something out. In the background, as I type this, I’m listening to a documentary on drawing. I just watched/listed to one on Escher. This past week was quite productive so I’ll just get to the list. What I got done: Meditation (1x) during mid day break from work, later in the week. Exercise (2X): Did this once on Sunday and the other time was after work. Drawing (1X) Write a blog post What I missed: Journaling On the fence: Healthy diet: I definitely consumed more than my usual 1 cup of coffee daily for a handful of days this week (Including today). I also had diet soda yesterday and some junk food which I usually try to steer clear from. Having said that, Everything else I ate was right on track as far as my dietary needs go. Not great but not terrible either. Other activities unaccounted for that’s not on my original weekly productivity/wellness list: I spent an hour of studying for an IT cert. for a couple of nights. This is the next goal on my list so I’m getting back in the habit of studying in a consistent manner. *** For the forthcoming week: I need improvement in the sleep department. I need to have a set bedtime to regulate my sleep patterns since it varies from one day to the next. This past week, I have been having difficulty waking up to a state of alertness and maintaining that state throughout the day. It became truly challenging during Thursday and Friday when the afternoon slump started earlier in the day and lingered around until I decided to drink some caffeinated soda. *** Any progress is still progress. Moving forward as always. I’ve too much swimming in my head right now but at the same time I am pretty much ready to get some sleep which means I should probably stop typing. Have a great week and be well. [R]
0 Comments
10:12pm, Saturday
Late-ish blog post being written as I take the second to last bite of a cheesecake slice. It’s been another very busy Saturday here in my corner of the world. The usual Saturday chores that needed to be done since there’s no other time to do it other than today. I’m fortunate enough to still be working during these times, and remotely but it leaves me with very limited time for other activities. As I stated in last week’s post, I was going to take it easy for the week. Much needed rest was in order, especially during the evenings after work. No pressure to get much of anything done but rest my mind and my body as I feel the very beginnings of a burnout sort to come through. Having said that, I still got some things done on my weekly wellness and productivity list. What I got done: Draw Leisure time (TV = Prodigal Son; Gaming - A bit of the new game I picked up since it was on sale) Meditation (thrice this week - I did one of them during my lunch break) Healthy diet (no diet soda this past week, cup of coffee a day, no excessive sugary stuff or foods high in sodium) Wrote blog post What I missed: Journaling Exercise *** Not too bad, really. The important thing is that I got the rest I needed while still getting a lot of things done in general. So tomorrow morning, I’ll be recording the audio for this week’s vid. I have an art clip that’s ready to go but my gaming footage did not save properly. I’m about to spend a little bit of time tonight gaming after I post this so I’m going to capture a little footage from that. I also plan on getting a workout in tomorrow as I don’t really have anything planned for tomorrow that’s absolutely pressing, so anything goes. I just don’t like to waste time since I rarely have any free time to do whatever. Time to post this up so I can fire up the new game. Be well, {R} Writing this on a Saturday like usual. The only difference is I will publish on the blog before I post the YouTube vid. I've decided to upload the weekly video check-in tomorrow instead. That's the plan anyway. I'm breaking the pattern a little by doing this but I've had one of those days. I just want to switch off and not worry about recording audio and editing it all together with the video clips afterwards.
Speaking of, last week's upload was the most problematic I've had for the year. It was a later upload than I'd like, so already I was annoyed. Then the video render time was way too long, which was the first clue that something was wrong with the clips or the editor. What happened was that my powerstrip got unplugged by accident in the middle of the first render attempt. When everything restarted, it caused a bit of a hiccup. I ended up starting from scratch, pulling all the original elements and placing them where they needed to be rather than using the preexisting template I had. Once that was done and the video had rendered successfully, I started the upload process to YT. For some reason, it was stuck at processing. I had to cancel the upload twice. The third time finally worked but it was right at midnight, if not right after. By then, I was dead tired, uninspired, and ready to sleep. My Saturdays, although I'm technically off from work, are still quite busy. Now you're all caught up with last week's video upload B.S. So for this week, I'm going to get up early tomorrow and record the audio first thing after coffee, while everyone in the house is still asleep, and my mind is fresh, clear, and less distracted. I'll edit that into the video right after and hopefully, there will be little to no technical issues this time around. As for this past week's checklist. Which tasks did I actually manage to get done? Journaling: I have a couple of good entries in my paper journal this week. Leisure time: I managed to squeeze in a little bit of gaming. It felt like everytime I sat down and tried to play a game, something around here would happen and I'd have to stop. That's my life in general. I have trouble having an interrupted time to myself. I got a bit of reading in as well. Write blog post: Yep, this I did. Meditation: I got a couple of these in. Need more. Missed milestones: Exercise: Still no dice and it sure feels like it. My energy level and overall mood has been less than ideal. Drawing: I just made an edit on my post last night. I'm checking raw video files as I do weekly computer maintenance, and it doesn't look like I recorded any drawing footage. Of course, it doesn't mean that I didn't do it. Maybe I did and just didn't record. Not sure though. So as of now, this goes on the missed pile. Healthy diet: I'd say I'm on the fence with this. I've been eating my usual diet but I have been drinking more soda later in the work week. Since my energy level has been down and my work load has picked up two-fold it seems, the afternoon slumps have been brutal. On the plus side, I've been able to sleep a little earlier for a couple of nights, resulting in about a 9 hour sleep cycle for those nights. That's pretty rare for me, but being able to do that made me feel a little more rested at least. *** I have been thinking a lot about my goals for this year, and I think I need to revisit my plan from the beginning of the year. For some of those goals, I'm right on track and I've actually accomplished a couple of the main ones. However, I think I'm starting to stray away a bit from some of the others. This coming week's plan of action: I'm switching it up. Outside of the day job I'm going to just work on giving myself some downtime during the evenings. I've had some stressful days these past couple of weeks and I think the ratio of work to downtime is way off. All work, all of the time. I need some downtime, We'll see what this results in for next week's check-in. I'm probably going to do the vid upload on Sundays and post the blog on Saturday just to see if that works better for my schedule. Be well, [R] This is probably the latest time I’ve ever tried to upload the weekly vid and corresponding blog post. Video is saving in the background and it looks like it’s taking longer than usual. I might have to cancel out of it and restart the process. It didn’t help that I accidentally unplugged the powerstrip to my workstation which meant that I had to restart everything.
It’s just another reminder that I need to replace this computer. It didn’t really start showing its age until I had to use if for remote work. Seriously, I need to shift the task of recording and editing to the beginning of the day every Saturday. Back to the list. Overall, I did better this week in terms of checking things off my task list. I basically hit all my marks except for exercise. I might have to just get this out of the way on Sundays to at least get one workout in. My work week has been incredibly busy especially certain days. Working remotely definitely has its pros and cons. I’m glad I don’t have to commute but there are a lot of distractions at home. I’ve had to reduce the quality of the video render to see if it would speed up the writing time but it doesn’t seem to help much. This might have something to do with my computer getting unplugged and files not saving properly. I have been diligent and consistent on publishing a vid and a blog post every week since the beginning of the year. I’d hate to miss one because of technical issues. Anyway, as mentioned, I managed to do everything else on the list that I try to do weekly (see below): Meditate Maintain a healthy diet Journal Write a blog post Draw and have a bit of leisure time Now if I can get a bit of workout in, I’m golden. So tomorrow, I’m going to try and get that exercise session in. Because I know I’ll have the time. In doing so, I will at least ensure I’ll get one workout in. After that, I’d actually like to enjoy my day off and not spend it running around doing way too much. I’m going to post this on the blog first since the video is still rendering away in the background. I hope you all are doing alright. Be well, [R] I wish I had better things to write this week but I’m afraid this post is destined to be lackluster.
As far as my weekly goals go, this past week has been the worst week since I started recording and posting here at the beginning of the year. On this week’s video, I incorrectly stated that I only managed to do 2 things done off my list when in fact, it’s three. I was able to meditate four times this past week. Which I believe helped me get through the busy week. Leisure time: I got in some gaming time, about 3 hours worth. I also watched the new episode of The Walking Dead as I always do. I wrote a blog post on Saturday. Everything else below I missed. Exercise Journal Eat healthy (I ate more junk food and drank more soda than usual) Draw Yep, not too happy about the output for my side projects and personal goals. It’s been a tiring week to be quite honest. I’m trying to get as much rest and relaxation this weekend so I can be ready for the coming week which looks to be another busy one. Tomorrow, I’ll write down a weekday schedule for before and after work. Something I haven’t been doing as much as I used to. It’s 8:47pm and I need to post this up along with the vid so I’ll conclude here. Be well, [R] 9:26pm, Saturday
Another week, another post. As always, my video is rendering in the background as I type this. I need to plan this a little better so perhaps I can write the post a little earlier in the day when I’m not as tired but for now this will have to do. This past week has definitely been an improvement from the previous one. The back pain I had before has now subsided, It’s still there but my movements are not as restricted plus I’m not in nearly as much pain and discomfort. On to the check list. What I didn’t get to do:
What I got to do:
For the upcoming week, I’d like to add sufficient sleep to the mix. I don’t think I get enough of it. Not even during the weekend. I’ve always had an issue with not getting ample sleep. For the longest time I used to struggle with insomnia. Nowadays, the issue is that I wake up too easily in the middle of the night, therefore my quality of sleep suffers. My video is still saving so I’ll go ahead and post this up. Stay safe everyone. Be well, [R] 9:04pm, Saturday.
What a week this has been. Not just because of what’s going on with the world but just in general. The week started off with an old back injury that decided it was a good time to remind me that it’s still there. Needless to say, my entire workweek at home consisted of having a heating pad and an extra pillow for my computer chair, plenty of breaks so I can stretch, hot showers, and ibuprofen. The week ended with us taking our dog to the vet to get some diagnostics done (so waiting for that is going to be fun, plus we have to return in a couple of days for additional tests). Yep. So what did I NOT get done? No exercise (due to back injury acting up). No drawing. Stuff I got done. Journaled once (I was mistaken; on my audio I recorded, I thought I had written two passages). Meditated twice Wrote a blog post A tiny bit of leisure time (I try not to miss The Walking Dead when it’s on). I still eat pretty healthy (limited caffeine, low-sodium, fruits & veggies although I can use more veggies I think.) I believe I am snacking more than usual though. ** It looks like my video is done saving/rendering so it’s a good time to conclude this. What works: Being present. Meditation. What doesn’t work: Worrying about tomorrow. Worrying about things you can’t control. Not getting enough sleep. Not allowing yourself to do things you enjoy just because. Ending this on a positive vibe The good: Grateful for everything I have. Grateful for being a tough motherfucker who pushes even harder when things get a bit wacky. I can't help it. I don't know how to quit. My strategy for the forthcoming week: Tackle it like a boss. I'm going to post this then load up my game on Steam. I need some down time. *** If you happen to be reading this, I hope you are doing alright. Be Well, {R} |
Archives
May 2020
|