I didn’t know I didn’t feel good. Yes, I put on a few pounds during the COVID lock downs and stay home orders during 2020. I have heard that a lot of people did. I have finally gotten rid of that weight. It was in the process of starting to shed that weight that I figured out, I hadn’t realized I didn’t feel good until I started to feel so much better.
The process of shedding the weight has been multifaceted, as it should be. What I discovered, and to be fair the process of gaining the weight started well before 2020. What I discovered, or, realized was that I had slipped into bad habits in several areas of my life. For this story the reasons don’t really matter. What matters is that I had let my habits regarding feeding myself become convenience, not what was nourishing. While I continued my Taekwondo, it really was my primary exercise and just not enough for what my body needs. But I didn’t start to make progress in dropping the weight and getting things straightened out on my own, though I tried.
Earlier this year I got an email to join a program that was being funded by my insurance. (I guess insurance companies have finally figured out it is more profitable to keep us healthy than to pay for all the chronic illnesses that come with being sedentary.) I ended up signing up before I realized what I had done. And then, because I felt I’d been duped, I resented signing up for a while. But I got a new scale which was incredibly helpful as I was soon to discover, the one I had was no longer working right.
I will say two things regards the program and working with it. Like some other programs, the biggest part is accountability. When I record what I ate, do I really want to say I had a whole bag of cookies or M&Ms for lunch. And having a “coach” to help look for patterns has helped. I/we figured out I wasn’t feeding myself properly, I wasn’t staying properly hydrated, and I wasn’t getting near the movement my body needed. That high hamstring issue is from sitting too much and was a clue I was missing.
So I’ve been getting much more activity, staying better hydrated, and eating better for a few months now. And one day I was marveling in my head about how much better I feel. And that’s when it hit me that I had so slowly fallen into not feeling that good that I didn’t even know I didn’t feel good. It’s like the story of the frog in the pot of water. If you raise the heat gradually it doesn’t register it is in danger of boiling to death.
It turns out there are side effects of feeling better. Not the ones you might expect. Yes, I have clothes I can wear again and some things aren’t as hard as they once seemed. Those side effects I expected, or at least hoped for. There are things that I didn’t expect to be impacted. I’ll try to share some of that in a future post. And I’ll work on getting a picture or two for the next post.
This week I am on vacation, or vacancies as my home office colleagues say, from the day job. Since I am not traveling it doesn’t look much different than when I am working with a couple of minor exceptions. I don’t get up as early, and I don’t spend the bulk of my day at my work computer trying to keep systems running.
I have been in the fortunate position over the last sixteen, seventeen months to be able to work from home for my day job. My company went into remote work mode as a test in March of last year and doesn’t plan a return to the office until September. And then, they are expecting a more hybrid approach to how people work.
Personally, I have loved working from home. For so many reasons. So much so that I have struggled to find things I don’t like about working from home. What I have come up with, and it’s not really a dislike it’s more of an unforeseen disadvantage, is that I don’t get near as much natural movement in during the day. Where in the office, I had the walk from my car to the office and back again, I don’t have that at home. Another thing I had in the office was the 300 or so steps to the nearest bathroom. At home that walk is less than 50 steps, and if I go to the nearest one to my desk it’s about 10 steps. This has contributed to the increase in girth and weight over the year. Which I’m happy to say I have managed to remove, but that’s for a different post.
All through the year, we, particularly in my office, have been regularly polled on our desire to return to the office and in what capacity. I have consistently expressed my desire to continue to work from home. Note, I live 5 miles from my office, but it can take 20 minutes to get there at 6:30 in the morning and 30 minutes to get home at 4:00 in the afternoon. With this desire to continue to work from home, I have been a bit anxious as news of the discussions of planning for the return to the office have been happening.
A few weeks ago, the official announcement was made for my office. The lease for our office space ends at the end of this year. Even without the pandemic, we were going to need to do something. As it turns out, with all of that polling less than half of our office wanted to return to the office and for those who did, most didn’t want to be in the office full time. So, my office, is going virtual. We will be the trailblazers for our organization, and we will see how it works.
I am thrilled. I’m excited to get to continue to work from home and relieved to have that all settled.
There will, I don’t doubt, be hiccups and issues. Even though we have been doing this for over a year out of need, it will be different as the restrictions that made it necessary are lifted. As the world opens back up, there will be temptations for some to maybe flex those hours in a way that isn’t really appropriate. And, as there has no doubt been, there will be the struggle to draw the line of when we are working and when we get to call off for the day. Something that I deal with due to the nature of what I do.
Even with the struggle to draw the line between work time and off time, I look forward to being able to continue some of the good habits I have finally started to develop while being able to work from home. They have made a significant difference in my well-being. And while I am looking forward to adding back some out of home activities, such as Taekwondo in the studio instead of my living room, I know there will be some relearning of how to work that schedule that has been so up-ended this last year plus, and now is a little different because of the lack of commute. You would think that would make it easier. I sure hope it does.
As you can tell I haven’t been very good at keeping up with writing again this year. Even when I have an idea or topic to write about. I have been finding it a little frustrating. However, I just realized some of why I haven’t been getting as much written and I may have a solution, or at least one I’m going to try.
With being home so much and not getting out and about as well as not getting a lot of art, of any kind done lately, I don’t usually have a lot of new pictures to include with my post. I like to include the pictures to break things up. However, there is the prep work for the pictures that I don’t always like to do. The pictures are a thing for me, especially when they aren’t specific to the topic of the post. My solution involves less pictures unless relevant. That does mean you may see posts without pictures. I’ll try to keep those shorter since reading all text on a screen isn’t always ideal.
And as with today’s topic, sometimes there really aren’t pictures to share without making something up.
What I wanted to share was how much fun I had working on the songs for a Children’s Songs for Guitar course through Udemy. No really, it was a blast. It sounds like it’s really simple and basically it is. The key to the course that made me want to do it to begin with is that all of the songs are in G major and they are all played within the G major scale. When I first started the course, my first thought was ‘Crap, I don’t know the major scale’. Yeah, so off I go to find a diagram of the G major scale. And lucky me, I was able to find one with all the different positions, much like the pentatonic scales I have dealt with. Cool!
The great thing about learning these songs in the G major scale is that I now also know better how to change their key. Just like changing the key for a blues song. What I found even more interesting, and fun was playing the songs in a different key and hearing how it changed the feel of the song. Like ‘Amazing Grace’. Playing it in G sounds ok but it doesn’t have a lot of life. Move it up to B or B-flat and you have a whole different story.
I have finished the course and intend to use what I learned about the G major scale to practice moving the scale patterns to the different keys and getting some comfort with that. It should enhance my soloing skills as well as my playing overall. As part of that I expect to be playing many of those songs in the different keys, just for exercise. At least, that is and was the plan.
And then my plan got knocked off its rails. I was merrily going along practicing my new scales and songs and I started another course, that I tried to work on last year, Christmas songs, I also started a beginning piano course. You might think this is what knocked my plan off its rails. It isn’t. It was two things that killed the momentum. First was a long and stressful week at work that left me little energy for much at the end of the day. And, more significantly, I added both the Christmas songs course and the piano course to my ‘To Do’ list and completely lost interest in doing either.
Yes, I know that is pretty messed up. I think what happens is when I see them on the list, I then see them as either I ‘have to do them’, or they are the only things I can be working on. It really takes all the fun and joy out of them when I put them on the list because, now they are chores.
I am a fan of the list in general for helping me to not forget things I want to do but that are not pressing and allowing me to then clear them out of my head so that I have space for what I really need to think about. However, it seems that, for me, it is not always helpful.
This is the first week I have taken the guitar and piano off the ‘To Do’ list. It will be interesting to see if that helps and how soon I make the time again for one, or both, of the courses.
And now that I have a different approach to my posts, I might get posts up a little more frequently again. I already have an idea for at least the next post. That’s always a good start.
As I noted in my last post, I had some time off from the day job and was using it to finish up some projects around my home. I swapped some furniture already, the couch, some lamps, and the tv stand. I still have a few pieces to be delivered. There are some new side tables coming and new accent chairs. I will be excited to get them I’m also excited to have finished up some of the projects that I have been working on.
Meet Phil the Pothos
One of the things I have been working on for about two years is changing out most of the light fixtures in my place and replacing the ceiling fans in the two bedrooms. I have had the light fixtures for two years. Finally, a couple of months ago I ordered the ceiling fans. Once they arrived I put in a call to an electrician to come out and install them all. I will do a lot of things myself, electrics are not one of them. I scheduled with the electrician to do it during the week I was going to be off work from the day job. I wasn’t going anywhere so I might as well do it then. It took them about half a day to change out four lights, a chandelier, and two ceiling fans. And it looks awesome. I’m so happy. Not only does it look awesome the lights solved a problem I was having, especially in my kitchen, it was too dark. Now I have light again.
I shared the picture of the new tv stand in the last post. I actually finished that up while on vacation. That took a little longer than I expected to put together. I like it so much better than what I had.
The bedroom painting finished!
My other big project that I worked on was painting my bedroom. You have probably heard, or read, my rant about this tan color that was on all my walls and I could no longer stand. Just to make it clear, that color was on the walls when I bought the place, I didn’t put it there. The bedroom was the last room with that color and I have finally finished painting the bedroom. Unfortunately, that color of tan is really hard to cover. It has to be neutralized first. That meant a total of 3 coats of paint for each wall. And as I don’t have a spare sleeping place, I decided to work on it a bit at a time. I spread it out over the month and worked on it at the weekends. I’m glad I did it that way as there were days that when I finished my joints then spent the next day or two screaming at me in protest. I’m really happy with the color, and now the new ceiling fan. It’s nice and peaceful in there and I generally think I rest better.
I did get someone to come and pick up most of the old furniture and the boxes of donations. That was nice to see. They didn’t take the couch though so I’m still working on how to get it out of my garage. Now, I also have some light fixtures to go with the couch. I have one more possibility I’m going to try before I give up and just have someone haul it off to wherever.
Music gear to be traded in
There was one more ‘clean out’ project to do. One I’ve been working on mentally for a year or more. I had a bunch of music gear that I was ready to trade in. One day, I thought, ‘I’ll take that in while I’m on vacation’. I was going to do it on Wednesday. But the Wednesday before, on my lunch hour, I suddenly had the urge to clear out the stuff in the music room that was going to get traded in. I put it all in a pile in the dining room. I then called to find out, with the social distancing and such, if I needed an appointment. A few more questions and I was able to find out that the gentleman I had worked with in the past was still working there and would be in on that Friday and Saturday.
So, Friday, after work I loaded the car with all the things to trade in and made my way to my local Sam Ash music store. I got some help with hauling it all in and then while they assessed the value of everything I got a chance to try out the Fender Jaguar.
A cleaned up music room
You may remember from some of my posts last year, that I was having trouble with my fretting hand and arm and wanted to try out a guitar with a shorter scale neck. The Fender Jaguar and Fender Mustang, from what I found have the shortest scale neck on a standard size commercial guitar, 24 inches. I do like the shorter scale. It was quite comfortable and easy to play. I found all the switches, and location of some of them, not as friendly. I know there are lots of people who like all the switches. I’m not really one of them. So, I passed on the Jaguar.
There was one other thing I wanted to look at, a steel string acoustic guitar. I was trading in a Takamine Dreadnaught that was really too big for me to play comfortably. I couldn’t play it sitting down for very long so I would play it standing up. I had also come to not care for the tone of the instrument. Because of that, I wanted to replace it with something that fit my body better and had a tone I like. And that was what I looked at after the Jaguar.
The gentleman at Sam Ash, knows his stuff and was able to help me find several options that filled my needs. Even with limited stock he found several guitars that were more my size, not dreadnaughts, and had good tone. It ultimately came down to sound because the one other request I had for it, having a cut away, turned out to not be a deciding factor. I bought one without a cut away, that fits me really well, sounds great, and I can comfortably play for way longer than I should. It’s a great quality guitar and will likely be the last acoustic I purchase. Oh, and just for those in the know that want to know, I got a Martin.
Phil, starting to get friendly with a guitar case
And with that the last of my guitar and music quest has been completed. I have some great, good quality instruments that I enjoy playing and expect them to keep me happy for a long time.
And you all were worried after the last post that you wouldn’t get to read about the fun music and art stuff anymore.
Now with those projects complete, I’ll be moving on to the less exciting and more grown-up project of replacing appliances. Though I will also be starting another fun project.
I have that 24 move poomse I have to design. What is that about? The Master where I take Taekwondo, as part of the third-degree black belt or third Dan test requires you to demonstrate the knowledge you have gained by creating what some call a creative poomse, or form. You create your own form using the knowledge you have acquired over your time studying Taekwondo doing the formal poomse as well as hand techniques and other drills. It must utilize more advanced skills and be of a degree of difficulty fitting a black belt. As I understand it, I will need to do another one in five years when I test for fourth degree. To put this requirement in perspective, fourth degree (fourth Dan) is Master level. So, by achieving third degree, I will be one step below Master. I have about a year before I am eligible to test for third Dan. I want to work on creating the poomse starting now so I have time to refine it in design, and then to refine my execution of it.
The new look of the living room. Almost done.
I’m still working on the PowerShell for work. I had plenty to do while on vacation and didn’t make that my focus. Though before I started vacation, I was finally getting into the main part of the course I bought on the subject. And, in the book I have been reading, I am past all the basics section and moving into the more advanced, and possibly more useful section. I’ll be getting back to that really soon. I won’t have a lot of excuse not to. The upgrade project I have been working on at work is just about complete, at least this phase of it. That means, I’ll be expected to get back to my PowerShell and scripting studies. I’m good with that.
That is the excitement for now. Next time I’ll tell you about the guitar course I’m working on. And who knows what else I’ll have to share.
I’m not sure I’m quite ready for things to “get back to normal”. Sure, there are things I would like to be able to do more comfortably. I’m just not sure that I’m ready to return to the way things were. I’m, also, not sure that we can completely. Which, I think could be a good thing.
While I look forward to seeing family again without masks, an getting hugs, and even going back to the Taekwondo studio, there are a few things, I’m not sure I’m ready for. The social obligations, or the perceived social obligations. The feeling like I’m letting someone down if I decide not to go do something because I would rather do something else, or just because I don’t want to do that right now.
I took the opportunity of the lockdown closing the gyms to figure out that I don’t really like going to the gym. It’s not that I don’t do things to try to stay active and get in exercise. I do that. I just don’t enjoy the social expectation that you have to go to a gym to stay healthy. And I found that at this point, I don’t enjoy the gym experience. I’m happy to not have to return to that “way it was before”. And I found out something else.
I wasn’t looking for this revelation or realization, but due to the nature of lockdowns and having to stop for a bit, it was able to find me anyway, I got to recognize that there were things for which I was putting in a lot of time and effort, and a good deal of my focus, and while they were and are nice distractions, they aren’t helping me with the thing that needs to be my higher priority. That is my day job. This is a big shift in my thinking that may seem to be sudden, though, it is a few years in the making.
A few years ago, the day job wanted me to get a certification. I had old opinions about certifications that they were mostly a waste of time, but they wanted me to take the test. I made an attempt at it, didn’t pass, and then didn’t try again. My inner two-year old decided to throw a temper tantrum. I was still railing against, not, the opinion of the test, but of where I was in my career and life. I wasn’t doing what I went to school to do and I was indignant, at least inside, that I had/have all this creative talent, and maybe even brain power, and I wasn’t doing anything “great”. They day job was not happy about my not trying again and it became more of a requirement for them that I pass the test than a desire for me to.
My original couch.
I did pass the test on the second try. And I found something out. Because of my experience with people who had taken and passed more than a few Microsoft (in particular), certification tests, I had a low opinion of their value. I knew people with their MCSE that couldn’t change a hard drive, and one that apparently was responsible for a virus intrusion at a bad time of year. I also knew a guy that could buy the study book on Friday, spend the weekend studying it, take the test on Monday, pass, and return the book on Tuesday.
What I found out, after taking, and passing that first certification test is that the tests have changed. They are harder than what I expected. You do need to know your stuff, or at least to have been exposed to enough of the technology to be able to figure out the answer based on your study and experience. Studying for the certification tests was a good way for me to get further knowledge of the stuff I work with and am responsible for as part of my day job. As a result, I now question the attitude of the people that say they don’t need schooling for working in computers or that certifications are worthless pieces of paper. Yes, there are people that are good at what they do in the technology field and they are self-taught, or mostly self-taught. Kudos to them. That doesn’t mean they couldn’t also benefit from the knowledge they would gain by studying for a certification test or taking a course.
Not only did the requirement, to take and pass that certification test change my opinion of computer certifications, it also forced me to look at my attitude about my day job up to that point. Or at least the few most recent years leading up to that point. What I figured out, much to my disappointment, was that I had no plan B and I needed to make plan A work. It took time but I started to better embrace the idea that I was going to need to take a few more certification tests. Though, the study needs were a little frustrating. It meant I would have less time to play at being a digital artist, or at being a guitar player, or even at being a traditional artist, or whatever other fantasy I had that I might be. It meant that I needed to look realistically at what I need(ed) to know for the day job as opposed to what I dreamed I could/would do.
None of this happened overnight. It wasn’t a lightening bolt that hit me out of the blue. It took thought and reflection. And though the beginnings of it started much before the pandemic started, the opportunity for them to grow and gain a stronger foothold for me and in me, that, came with all the lockdown measures. There is a benefit in forced boredom. It is the place where we get to be creative, it is the place we get to heal, and it is the place where we get to reflect on those things we have been able to avoid by staying too busy to look at them. And what I got to see is that I have a very good day job. I have opportunity to learn and grow in it if I choose to, and if I will step up and make the efforts. I may need to put in my personal time to gain knowledge in the areas that I can be of most use for it and that is the nature of the field I work in. If I were a Medical Doctor, at least a good one, I would need to continue to keep up with the changes in medical science as well. So, this requirement is not unreasonable. Challenging at times, yes, unreasonable, no.
My new couch.
Because of this shift in my priorities, and because I’m still settling into it, I’m not ready for things to go back to the way they were. I’m not ready to go back to doing all the same things I did before. I’m not ready to return to the same perceived or otherwise social expectations and obligations. I’m still getting comfortable with my new priorities, and I’m not ready to have to say ‘no’ to things, I’m also not ready to face the people that I have come to realize over an incredibly tumultuous year, have such different values from me, something that is a whole different topic.
All this shift in priority and focus means I have spent much less time over the last year playing guitar and working on art projects. That doesn’t mean that I haven’t done some of both. On the contrary, I have managed to complete a few cool art projects, and I’ve learned at least one or two new songs on guitar. I, also, studied for and passed a certification test and started studying for an additional test or two.
Though my efforts at studying for additional certifications have been somewhat diverted to learning some things in order to implement a project for the day job, I still plan to try for another test this year. Because of that, more of my time will be spent on stuff for the day job. I have finally embraced it as a career, not just a job, and as such it has become my priority. I don’t intend for it to take up every waking moment from now on, I hope to stay a reasonably well-rounded person so, I intend to continue to pursue my hobbies. And that right there is the key shift for me. The things I do, art and music, while very much a part of who I am, I am still a musician and an artist. Those activities that I engage in as a musician and as an artist, are my hobbies. They are not going to be my way to quit the corporate world and make my way. I am not going to become this overnight sensation in any of it. I do them because I enjoy them. And something about them insists I do those things. I may, on occasion do something cool with one of the hobbies that is notable beyond just being fun. But I won’t be playing at any of them as a side gig anymore. Oh, I still have projects planned for the art, and I have courses for the guitar that I want to get into as time permits. I still have video games I want to play, and maybe try to build, and I still have animation projects that sound like they would be fun to make. And if they all happen great. If some of them don’t, that’s ok too.
And so, I’m not ready to “go back to how it was before”. I am ready for a new normal. One that is more purposeful, that expends less energy trying to escape from what I have and more time embracing and accepting it. And more time actively working to improve it.
The new TV stand.
Currently, in addition to working on PowerShell for the day job, I’m also working on things around my home. Some of the new furniture has arrived and the young men upstairs were of great help and took some of the old furniture to the garage for me so it can be picked up for donation. I have been doing some cleaning out of things and so along with that furniture I have a bunch of boxes of miscellaneous stuff for that donation pickup. I’m excited about this. I’m still painting the bedroom. I’ve got one wall left to do. It has more furniture against it and one of those items is the bed so moving stuff will be a task. But once it’s all done, that will be the last of it for that room. There are still two more pieces of furniture to come. They may be a while before I get them. But that’s ok. The way things look right now is so much closer to what I want that I can be patient. I have also started that 24 move poomse I have to design. I’ll try to remember to explain what that is about next time.
I don’t have as many pictures this time. Just the difference between the new sofa and the old one. It’s more of a difference than it looks in the pictures. Oh, and I have one of the new tv stand, though I forgot to take a picture before I took the old one out so I don’t have that for you to compare. I’ll have more soon. I’ve got time off from the day job and I’ll be working on finishing up some of the projects around my home. And I might even manage some time to just chill. That would be something.
