Distractions

The number of distractions in life is absurd. I am bombarded by a lot of them by no choice of my own. However, I make the intentional choice, and go to varied amounts of effort, to add a lot of them to my life as well.

-When will the new season of my favorite show be on Netflix so I can binge watch all of it in a week?
-Of all the shows, why did they choose to bring back Full House and how can the new season of 24 not include Jack Bauer?
-How realistic can I make the Powerpuff version of me look like? (seriously though, you should try this if you haven't already)
-Should I spend less time watching TV, and more time reading books?
-If so, which book should I read?

-What are all of my social media friends up to?
-Do I really care what people I haven't seen in years are up to?
 Why did I just spend hours spectating on their lives instead of finding something to do in my own life?
-How many likes or hearts or whatever did my most recent post have?
-Why doesn't it have more?

-What ice cream flavor should I buy?
-What brand?
-What size?
-How can I ever eat healthier when Chocolate Brownie Thunder ice cream is so freaking delicious?

-Is that viral video a hoax?
-Is it some sort of advertisement that I am willing taking in that is going to alter my subconscious consumer tendencies?

-What crazy thing did that actor/politician/athlete do or say?
-Why do we care so much?

There are a lot of things I want to and should care about. I want to a better job of tuning out the noise, so I can focus in on what is truly important.

Any ideas on how? 

Unplug

Without being plugged in to recharge, our beloved cellphones run out of juice. I feel like we humans are the exact opposite. We occasionally need to unplug in order to recharge. Conveniently, this chance to unplug coincided with being on a vacation at a mountain lodge where I didn't have great reception. I decided to unplug, and spent the weekend recharging.

I like being connected and informed, but noticed I felt more relaxed not constantly checking my phone for any potential updates. I'm not even quite sure what I am constantly checking for in the first place. It was refreshing. It was needed. I hunger for something my feed doesn't provide. I can choose to get my substance from other sources, starting with the people around me.

Let's unplug more.

*I did use my phone to take this picture of
my mountain adventure... deal with it.

(That said, I did forget to charge my phone upon returning to civilization. My phone died in the night causing me to oversleep my alarm by several hours which basically added a half day to my vacation. This unplanned sleeping bonus did help me feel very rested when I returned to the daily grind.)

Perspective, Yo

The daily grind is tiresome. The steady wear leaves me lacking. It's the importance of unimportant things at work. It's the alarm clock and time clock. It's the emails to read and write. It's drama and doldrums. Everything is a crisis and needs immediate attention. It's all quite tiresome. Looking with a broader lens, it is so trivial what we let be of importance sometimes. Let's try to keep a little perspective.

On a much more positive note, this weekend I am getting a break from the grind with my girlfriend and her family on a much needed vacation to a mountain resort. Saying I am stoked would be quite the understatement!

Sugar Coated

Perhaps to alleviate the sadness of one Craigslist purchase falling through due to the sketchiness of the seller, I met with a much less sketchy seller to look at a coat today. This seller was also not very friendly. Both sketchiness and unkindness are seller traits that tend to lead me to decide against making a purchase. I guess I don't like wondering if I should be fearful that my life is in danger or feeling like somebody is being a jerk when I am trying to decide if I want to buy something.

I don't expect much from email communications with strangers. I don't need emojis or similar fluff. That said, I expect a small amount of kindness, especially when you are trying to get me to buy something from you. I think it is reasonable to dialogue about the item and the price. When I agree to meet at a time and location you picked out, I sort of expect you to show up on time since I am going to all of the work to cater to your schedule and demands. Life happens, so I am understanding when you email that you are running late. However, there is a certain word that starts with an s and rhymes with calamari I expect to see in the email. Maybe I am old-fashioned, but it just seems appropriate when you are inconveniencing another person.

All of that said, I wanted the coat, so I did end up buying it. Now it is keeping me warm while I write this post. Let's remember it is not just coats that warm people up. Extend kindness to strangers. There is no reason to be cold towards others.We are all in this together.

It's Pi Day!

I like math. I like pie. So of course today is a favorite of mine. I have been trying to eat healthier, so this is one of the first years in recent history I have passed on eating at least a portion of a pie if not the majority of one.

There are healthier pie options, but those mainly serve to remind you how good the unhealthy pies are. You might think this lack of dessert consumption would have put too substantial an obstacle on my ability to enjoy this special day. Well, you would be wrong!

It is not easy to try to eat healthier, so it is rewarding to succeed at that on a day as difficult as this to abstain from the round goodness. I also got a backdated raise at work, so that was most excellent. This Pi Day will be remembered as the one I got dough in my bank account, not baked into a delicious pie and stuffed in my face.

Spring Forward, I'm Back!

Three things.

1. Daylight Saving Time was proposed as a way to conserve candles. This is 2016. We mainly use candles once a year to signify how old we are on a cake. We promptly blow out these candles after a short song because they hinder us from stuffing our face with cake. We don't need to conserve candles anymore.

2. No matter the potential reward, putting yourself at risk for a Craigslist deal is not worth it. Also, if a deal seems too good to be true, it probably is. For the above reasons, I will most likely not be buying a collection of silver dollar somebody inherited from a grandpa they didn't really know and wanted to exchange for my weight set at 1:00am.

3. Let's not get hasty, but it looks like I am back internet! Did you miss me?

Running not Over

I've started to run again. It seems to be a seasonal thing. Not calendar seasons, but personal ones. You have to enjoy running to be out there right now in near freezing temperatures especially after working outside all day in that coldness.

While running, I've had quite a few close calls with cars. Usually, it is there fault for not paying attention and probably slightly related to the incredible rate of speed at which I am traveling. Thankfully, if I am paying attention to people not paying attention, it usually negates any potential problems. Tonight, I take responsibility. At a very young age, I learned to look both ways before crossing the street. I'm sorry car. I'll do better.

Pictured: Vintage me running a 5K race, probably breaking the speed limit.

leaves.

People are always doing so much artsy stuff with leaves this time of the year. Using them as great analogies about things changing, posting pictures of leaves in mass quantities in all their radiant glory, doing really cool art projects with the leaves themselves, the list goes on. Me? Right now, my main experience with leaves is that I rake them up in a nonstop battle against nature. In fact, my job this time of year is less to wash cars and more to wage war against the elements.

Multiple times I have found myself raking fallen leaves in near freezing temperatures before the sun has even decided to rise. I mean the previous statement literally and figuratively. I've physically found myself doing that as required by my boss. It is a very real reality I face each day I go to work that more leaves will have replaced the ones I collected and my boss will still want the lot to be kept clean.

These times of early morning raking have also helped me find myself on a more personal level. I recall one time in particular when it was pouring down rain and I had yet to discover where the rake was stored so I was using a broom to try to sweep wet leaves plastered all over the parking lot. Let me give you some advice, it doesn't work and is a losing battle. At that point, I wasn't at all enjoying the magnificent array of colors leaves can be, analyzing all the great analogies I could concoct about being swept up in the ever changing seasons of life even though I was using a broom. I wasn't even remembering past art projects I've done with leaves or trying to come up with new ones. I was simply feeling sorry for myself and the situation I was in.

Slowly, almost as slowly as my pile of leaves was growing, I realized how much I have to be thankful for. I am blessed with a full time job in a city I love and look, the leaves are brilliant shades of orange and red and I have functioning limbs to be out here sweeping them up! I even thought of a few clever analogies and art projects the leaves could be used for!

Life will be difficult at times. You'll be trying to sweep up wet leaves with a broom in the rain early in the morning. The right appreciation for all you've been given will help ground you in the reality that you have much to be thankful. Leaves are going to fall and need to be dealt with and you might only be equipped with a broom. How we choose to deal with this reality is the only thing that can we can change and conquer.

Back to leaves. I'm always leaving, and never coming back when it comes to this blog. I'll try to do better.

Pictured are leaves still on a tree, an apple tree I picked apples from. Apples that became a delicious pie, but that is perhaps a story for another time.

Poor Pour

Today I was thirsty and at the store, so I decided to treat myself to something other than water. I bought a tasty looking raspberry lemonade. One of my professor assigned some readings that she had one photocopy of outside her office to read. I decided my special drink would make sitting outside her office for an hour reading lengthy technical articles would make things better. After leaving the store, I took one sip of my drink to know what deliciousness awaited me and to motivate me to walk the 30 minutes to her office to have at least an hour of reading, but more importantly, the rest of my drink.

I arrived outside her office and removed my backpack. Instantly, I knew my special drink had left its container and saturated everything in my backpack. Sure enough, after that one sip, I apparently didn't fasten the lid although I believe the lid was designed poorly and it wasn't my fault. My notebook inside my backpack was soaked. My clothes got a bit wet too. Everything reeked of raspberries. It was very sad and frustrating. Not only that, I still had all the reading to do, thirsty and smelling of the juice I only got one sip of.

Some days are like that. Something you look forward to wrecks everything and destroys your notebook. However, if you are going to smell like something you spilled all over everything, raspberry lemonade isn't that terrible.

trust.

While reading a rather dense book for one of my political science classes, I came across a definition of trust that was thought provoking. According to the late Charles Tilly in his book on democracy, "trust consists of placing valued outcome at risk to others' malfeasance, mistakes, or failures." It got me thinking about who I trust and how I show that to them. Maybe it isn't the best definition you've heard, but after reading for hours through material that was not very interesting, something about this simple statement stood out to me. It is worth considering how you choose who you trust and how to you show them that you do so.

I'm Back. Maybe.

It has been quite some time since I last told the world how my day went. I'm not sure why I ever felt like I needed to do so or who even read my ramblings. For the longest time after my rather abrupt blogger death , I mainly felt relief to not feel like I had to blog everyday. Now, I am thinking it is good for me to write.

That being said, who knows exactly how I will feel tomorrow or the day after that. If we are going to be honest, who even knows if I will be around tomorrow or the day after that. It is a fact of life that you never know when it is going to end or if Danny is going to feel like blogging. It is up to you how to deal with those realities.

Golden

End of an Era

Today I am headed out on a road trip to California with some friends. I believe it will be an amazing adventure and lots of fun activities will be partaken. However, it most likely means I won't be blogging. It most definitely means I will miss a day. Thus the record of continuous days will end, not with a last minute dash to a computer as I always thought, but with a planned miss. I didn't think it would end this way, but I have accepted it. My blog July 21, 2007 - December 11, 2010.

Crazy Ending

Today was a most interesting and entirely hectic end to the first quarter of my senior year at Western. My first final of the week was this morning at 8:00am. I set my alarm last night for 6:25 so I would have time to study a bit more and make it to my final with plenty of time.

I woke up this morning at 8:52am, first confused and then in a panic. It turns out, I had set my alarm for 6:25pm which wasn't very helpful at all in waking up. I ran to my final and was able to hurriedly finish it before the 9:50am deadline. It was 50% of my final grade so I am so very thankful I woke up when I did and was able to make it there.

I took another in class final at 10:30am and felt pretty good about it. I just turned in my take home essay so I am officially done with Fall Quarter. What a crazy ending.

Almost There

Today is my last full day to study. I am close to finishing my essay for my Modern Chinese Politics class, even though I just finished my other essay for that class and this one isn't due until Friday. I also somehow found the time to finish a book I started two days ago in my spare time. I suppose it helped to have something other than finals to work on this week.

Amorphous Help

Today I have started on my next essay and studying for my in class finals. I am using going to a movie later this evening as motivation to actually get work done. It is easier to be efficient when I have less time instead of having too large of an amorphous block of time in which to study. It has been a very productive day so far.

Essay Done and to Start

Today I finally finished my essay. That means it is time to start my next essay. It also means it is time to prepare for the essays I might have to write for my in class final on Thursday. I only enjoy essay writing to a point, one I am rapidly approaching.

Cut it Out

Today I have continued to work on my essay. I went a bit overboard, and wrote over 10 pages for an essay that was supposed to be 7 pages. It has required quite a bit of condensing and outright elimination of parts. However, I still think it is a good essay and can leave my stronger points and cut out the weaker ones. It is still sad to eliminate so much writing though.

Write On

Today I have been working on an essay. I actually enjoy the topic, so that helps. I am a bit tired of writing in general though so I am going to stop writing this post right now.

Work Wise

Today is Friday of dead week. This week hasn't been too bad so far work wise. I am still alive. However, everything is culminating into a very busy last week of classes. I hope I survive.