Friday, August 9 2019

Dear Journal,

Yesterday was a pretty busy day. Busy - but productive. Despite getting pulled in a few different directions, I still managed to get a lot of work done. Afterwards, I took Rod to Hy-Vee, and for dinner, we made nachos - which turned out pretty good. After putting Rod to bed, what I should have done was worked for an hour or so on the plex server, then took a nap or done something to relax, but I got fixated and ended up working most of the night on the plex server. I was at such a good stopping point too. I had already set up the drives, configured the service, and instead of declaring victory and heading downstairs for a celebratory beer and youtube binge with Marissa, I kept working past 11PM on a new issue I found.

It's important to know when to stop working. I enjoy working on the computer, but I find that if I don't give myself plenty of time to unplug and unwind, it throws me off and it's harder to relax. Marissa was pretty gracious about it and helped me catch up on chores.

This morning while waiting for the coffee to brew, I watched a few strongbad emails. It felt good to just sit there and watch something silly. I may have to see about working that into my morning routine. It's a great way to start the day.

I don't even bother trying to explain Strongbad to people. Back in the day, I was as into it as you could be. Arguably, Strongbad shaped my writing style… or at least the snarky bits. Sometimes while I'm yammering away at the keyboard and I feel the need to take several detours away from an anecdote for snarky commentary, I feel as if I'm channeling my inner Strongbad. And you better believe there's a Strongbad in all of us.

Topic change - happy Friday! As of 8AM today, I'm going on-call, but I don't really mind. This weekend I was planning on taking it easy anyway. We just got a new computer in the mail, and the last part should be arriving either today or this weekend, but if not I can always get a jump on setting it up. And that's not the angrily-figure-out-other-people's-software kind of work that I was just lamenting, that's just the simple pleasure of assembling a computer from parts and tidying the cables. Cable management is really another form of meditation. It always puts me in a better mood.

Hope you have a great Friday today. If you want to enjoy it like I do, find time this weekend to watch a few Strongbad emails and wrap cables.