This weekend was dominated entirely by one event: a trip to Mongo, Indiana for canoeing on the Pigeon River. Me, Laura, Kristin, Kristin's sister and her two girls took up three canoes and paddled from Spero Bridge on a trip that lasted just over four hours. The river is exceptionally low thanks to a lack of rain, and our journey was punctuated by constant dragging and walking of our canoes. Even with the extra work required to get downstream, a full lunch and frequent breaks really helped pace the trip. After five trips on the Pigeon River, I feel like I have developed a good sense of how I want to pace the whole ride.
Now if only everyone else was as leisurely as me about it. As well, even though the day was hot and ride long and tiring yesterday was a blast.
B3 out.
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Sunday, June 17, 2012
This Is Not the Reboot You're Looking For
Reboot Weekends are absolutely pivotal to me. I disconnect myself from my usual routine, try new things, unplug my computers, and turn off my mobile phone for an entire weekend. No texts, no calls, no Internet. This invites the kind of peace and quiet that I need sometimes, and allows for the kind of self-reflection that I do not usually allow myself.
This weekend I did a Reboot with the expectations of analyzing my current place in 2012: what goals I have accomplished, where I am heading, what relationships I want or need, and what I have yet to accomplish for the year. Frustratingly enough, it took me all weekend to simply arrive at the answer of "I'm not on track." In fact, this weekend was a prime example of what is wrong with me lately: I have improper motivation. My goals for 2012 have become vague, and thus my drive to complete anything wholly has disappeared. While I spend lots of time writing, programming, and reading, I am getting nothing done in these crafts.
But anyhow, a brief summary of what I did this weekend:
Saturday started with a huge 34 mile bike ride that took me from my apartment in Perrysburg to Oak Openings. I ended the ride sore, blurry-eyed, and unusually tired. I need to do this ride more often.
Given the warm temperatures and impending rain, I dashed out to Oak Openings Sunday morning and played in the rain - literally. After a short hike to grab a few pictures, I was caught in an intense summer downpour. I took a short hike around Mallard Lake in this warm rain and all-around enjoyed myself.
I spent Sunday afternoon doing laundry and getting real, productive writing done on an upcoming project, but that was the extent of my weekend. I devised a new weekly schedule, reworked my weekly food options, and cleaned my apartment.
Something was missing this past weekend. I was not able to shut my mind off or completely cut the Internet cord. This was not the Reboot Weekend I needed. It was just a weekend alone. I do not feel re-energized or confident or ready for the second half of the year. In fact, I am ready for another Reboot. The best Reboot weekends come right off a major meltdown, but I should not have to suffer through that just to find a new beginning.
Now that I know what little I am actually capable of in a time of need, I know that I need to be more drastic the next time I do this.
My next Reboot Weekend will be sooner rather than later, and a hell of a lot more meaningful.
B3 out.
This weekend I did a Reboot with the expectations of analyzing my current place in 2012: what goals I have accomplished, where I am heading, what relationships I want or need, and what I have yet to accomplish for the year. Frustratingly enough, it took me all weekend to simply arrive at the answer of "I'm not on track." In fact, this weekend was a prime example of what is wrong with me lately: I have improper motivation. My goals for 2012 have become vague, and thus my drive to complete anything wholly has disappeared. While I spend lots of time writing, programming, and reading, I am getting nothing done in these crafts.
But anyhow, a brief summary of what I did this weekend:
Saturday started with a huge 34 mile bike ride that took me from my apartment in Perrysburg to Oak Openings. I ended the ride sore, blurry-eyed, and unusually tired. I need to do this ride more often.
Given the warm temperatures and impending rain, I dashed out to Oak Openings Sunday morning and played in the rain - literally. After a short hike to grab a few pictures, I was caught in an intense summer downpour. I took a short hike around Mallard Lake in this warm rain and all-around enjoyed myself.
I spent Sunday afternoon doing laundry and getting real, productive writing done on an upcoming project, but that was the extent of my weekend. I devised a new weekly schedule, reworked my weekly food options, and cleaned my apartment.
Something was missing this past weekend. I was not able to shut my mind off or completely cut the Internet cord. This was not the Reboot Weekend I needed. It was just a weekend alone. I do not feel re-energized or confident or ready for the second half of the year. In fact, I am ready for another Reboot. The best Reboot weekends come right off a major meltdown, but I should not have to suffer through that just to find a new beginning.
Now that I know what little I am actually capable of in a time of need, I know that I need to be more drastic the next time I do this.
My next Reboot Weekend will be sooner rather than later, and a hell of a lot more meaningful.
B3 out.
Sunday, June 10, 2012
A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That
This past week was interesting. The week started poorly: work had been slow to the point of worry, and I have not traditionally handled certain types of job stress too well. Suffice to say, this stress improved by the end of the week and into a better-than-average weekend.
Friday night I took off to the new Hollywood Casino in Toledo with Laura and Kristin. This was my first casino experience and it was quite a blast. The casino itself is unfitting for Toledo - the glitz, the glam, and the glory is an entirely new experience that is unmatched anywhere in Northwest Ohio. Dozens of table games are surrounded by thousands of glowing and buzzing slot machines, themselves flanked by beverage centers, high-class restaurants, and high-stakes tables. What could make all this even better? How about the casino being a smooth ten-minute drive from my apartment? Yeah, I found a new Friday night hobby (bonus: it doesn't involve drinking!).
Saturday was quiet. I did a quick bike ride through Side Cut and did my laundry at my parents' and... that was it. Literally, quite quiet.
Sunday was something a bit unexpected. I went to Ann Arbor with Colleen. We went into the city without any real idea of what we were going to do (having no plan is one of my big pet peeves, but whatever). Sure enough, Sunday mornings in Ann Arbor are fairly dead, with the well-cultured and thick downtown area closed for business. A coffee shop or two lingered open, but we quickly made for the outskirts of the city before ending up at IKEA.
I went into IKEA with the usual mindset: cheap, crappy Swedish furniture and not a lot for me. As always happens, I left IKEA with a ton of ideas floating about my head. Here's the short version: I have 3 or 4 big items that I will be picking up from IKEA to spruce up my apartment before June is up. How does a kitchen island, a new computer desk, a new office chair, and perhaps a couch or kitchen table sound? Yeah, I went idea-crazy today. Oops.
On our way home we tried Noodles & Company (my review: meh, salty pasta with a few interesting flavors). Finally was Cabela's and a tiring drive back to Ohio.
A little cleaning, a little swimming, and a little writing will make up the rest of my night. This week will be on-and-off busy followed by a much-needed Reboot Weekend.
B3 out.
Friday night I took off to the new Hollywood Casino in Toledo with Laura and Kristin. This was my first casino experience and it was quite a blast. The casino itself is unfitting for Toledo - the glitz, the glam, and the glory is an entirely new experience that is unmatched anywhere in Northwest Ohio. Dozens of table games are surrounded by thousands of glowing and buzzing slot machines, themselves flanked by beverage centers, high-class restaurants, and high-stakes tables. What could make all this even better? How about the casino being a smooth ten-minute drive from my apartment? Yeah, I found a new Friday night hobby (bonus: it doesn't involve drinking!).
Saturday was quiet. I did a quick bike ride through Side Cut and did my laundry at my parents' and... that was it. Literally, quite quiet.
Sunday was something a bit unexpected. I went to Ann Arbor with Colleen. We went into the city without any real idea of what we were going to do (having no plan is one of my big pet peeves, but whatever). Sure enough, Sunday mornings in Ann Arbor are fairly dead, with the well-cultured and thick downtown area closed for business. A coffee shop or two lingered open, but we quickly made for the outskirts of the city before ending up at IKEA.
I went into IKEA with the usual mindset: cheap, crappy Swedish furniture and not a lot for me. As always happens, I left IKEA with a ton of ideas floating about my head. Here's the short version: I have 3 or 4 big items that I will be picking up from IKEA to spruce up my apartment before June is up. How does a kitchen island, a new computer desk, a new office chair, and perhaps a couch or kitchen table sound? Yeah, I went idea-crazy today. Oops.
On our way home we tried Noodles & Company (my review: meh, salty pasta with a few interesting flavors). Finally was Cabela's and a tiring drive back to Ohio.
A little cleaning, a little swimming, and a little writing will make up the rest of my night. This week will be on-and-off busy followed by a much-needed Reboot Weekend.
B3 out.
Wednesday, June 06, 2012
A Countdown To The...
I have been working feverishly on my creative writing. More specifically: an old favorite piece of fiction. What follows is a little sample of an upcoming story.
Everyone was dead. Not just ten, not a hundred. Everyone at the graduation ceremony. Maybe a thousand. Parents, grandparents, sons, daughters, and almost worse than anything else, classmates. Best friends since kindergarten hugged one another in their final moments, their cold bodies intertwined with one another as they laid face down on the hard dirt. Younger brothers and sisters clung under the graduation gowns of their older role models. Soft, pink flesh wrapped around hard, cracked brick. Bodies that breathed life just two days ago sat strewn about the rubble and ruins of the school campus.
No one could recall exactly what happened. The day started perfect: the seventh of June, high school graduation. The weather cooperated in all the best ways: sunny and warm with the temperature easily in the lower eighties. Everyone was in their place. The school auditorium filled up by the hundreds until friends and families began to watch their favorite sons and daughters walk across the expansive stage. Some were clearly nervous, stumbling up the stairs or using the wrong hand to grab the diploma. Others smiled overzealously at the crowd as camera flashes bounced off their faces. Some danced, some cheered, and no matter the show, everyone in the audience clapped furiously for their graduates.
Brent was nervous for sure. He was near the back of the line, and although he was in a graduating class of nearly two-hundred, he forgot about his plan to carefully watch everyone ahead of him walk so he knew exactly what to do without looking like an ass. A shallow set of metal stairs rose to the stage and crept up on him, and before he could compose a healthy smile, his name echoed throughout the auditorium.
“Brent...” and then something else. His last name, maybe? He wasn’t sure. The words fizzled as the thump-thump of his heartbeat filled his ears. Thousands of eyes were on him. Camera flashes bolted across the room. Brent put one foot on the stairs, a hand on the railing, and lifted his other foot.
Then his world began to spin. The stairs seemed to move under his feet. Sweat poured down his face. So suddenly? Was he this nervous, this fast?
Flashing cameras halted and a dozen people screamed. The ground was shaking. It kept shaking, each tremor more violent than the last. More screams from the crowd, this time loud enough to echo throughout the auditorium. Long, sudden cracks tore through the three-story brick walls while large pieces of the ceiling began to crumble into the crowd below. Hundreds of people scattered in different directions. Only the those near the edges of the room made straight lines for the exits - the middle of the crowd succumbed to tons of concrete, steel, and wood as they chaotically pushed and shoved into one another.
There was a moment of calm silence in Brent’s ears when the first dozen people were crushed under the crumbling ceiling. The violence was unlike any he had seen, only the stuff from distant stories his mom told about her job as an emergency room nurse. Faces were crushed, arms and legs ripped from bodies, and screams instantly muted.
Brent regained focus in time to watch a group of his robed classmates fall into the thin wooden stage below them. Brent jumped from the metal stairs, turned towards an exit not more than ten feet away, and... and that was it. The last memory from graduation.
Although he was uncertain how many days had passed since then, Brent awoke from a haunting dream that morning, but was no sooner conscious than he discovered the worst of his nightmare was reality: his dead family strewn about him. Mom’s hair fancied up for the occasion, soaked in blood. Dad’s shirt and tie missing, his bare chest torn and shredded with the shrapnel of bricks, steel, and bone. The sight was sickening. Was the nightmare really over? Could Brent’s eyes lie to him?
Among the silence and rubble of the destroyed auditorium were sobs of crying. The world was different, irreversibly changed, and although Brent did not understand why or how, he pressed onward. His sore body shambled from one corpse to another, searching for the distant sound of crying. Bodies were fresh - all recently dead - and each one a classmate or parent or grandparent. It was the graduation day from hell.
B3 out.
Everyone was dead. Not just ten, not a hundred. Everyone at the graduation ceremony. Maybe a thousand. Parents, grandparents, sons, daughters, and almost worse than anything else, classmates. Best friends since kindergarten hugged one another in their final moments, their cold bodies intertwined with one another as they laid face down on the hard dirt. Younger brothers and sisters clung under the graduation gowns of their older role models. Soft, pink flesh wrapped around hard, cracked brick. Bodies that breathed life just two days ago sat strewn about the rubble and ruins of the school campus.
No one could recall exactly what happened. The day started perfect: the seventh of June, high school graduation. The weather cooperated in all the best ways: sunny and warm with the temperature easily in the lower eighties. Everyone was in their place. The school auditorium filled up by the hundreds until friends and families began to watch their favorite sons and daughters walk across the expansive stage. Some were clearly nervous, stumbling up the stairs or using the wrong hand to grab the diploma. Others smiled overzealously at the crowd as camera flashes bounced off their faces. Some danced, some cheered, and no matter the show, everyone in the audience clapped furiously for their graduates.
Brent was nervous for sure. He was near the back of the line, and although he was in a graduating class of nearly two-hundred, he forgot about his plan to carefully watch everyone ahead of him walk so he knew exactly what to do without looking like an ass. A shallow set of metal stairs rose to the stage and crept up on him, and before he could compose a healthy smile, his name echoed throughout the auditorium.
“Brent...” and then something else. His last name, maybe? He wasn’t sure. The words fizzled as the thump-thump of his heartbeat filled his ears. Thousands of eyes were on him. Camera flashes bolted across the room. Brent put one foot on the stairs, a hand on the railing, and lifted his other foot.
Then his world began to spin. The stairs seemed to move under his feet. Sweat poured down his face. So suddenly? Was he this nervous, this fast?
Flashing cameras halted and a dozen people screamed. The ground was shaking. It kept shaking, each tremor more violent than the last. More screams from the crowd, this time loud enough to echo throughout the auditorium. Long, sudden cracks tore through the three-story brick walls while large pieces of the ceiling began to crumble into the crowd below. Hundreds of people scattered in different directions. Only the those near the edges of the room made straight lines for the exits - the middle of the crowd succumbed to tons of concrete, steel, and wood as they chaotically pushed and shoved into one another.
There was a moment of calm silence in Brent’s ears when the first dozen people were crushed under the crumbling ceiling. The violence was unlike any he had seen, only the stuff from distant stories his mom told about her job as an emergency room nurse. Faces were crushed, arms and legs ripped from bodies, and screams instantly muted.
Brent regained focus in time to watch a group of his robed classmates fall into the thin wooden stage below them. Brent jumped from the metal stairs, turned towards an exit not more than ten feet away, and... and that was it. The last memory from graduation.
Although he was uncertain how many days had passed since then, Brent awoke from a haunting dream that morning, but was no sooner conscious than he discovered the worst of his nightmare was reality: his dead family strewn about him. Mom’s hair fancied up for the occasion, soaked in blood. Dad’s shirt and tie missing, his bare chest torn and shredded with the shrapnel of bricks, steel, and bone. The sight was sickening. Was the nightmare really over? Could Brent’s eyes lie to him?
Among the silence and rubble of the destroyed auditorium were sobs of crying. The world was different, irreversibly changed, and although Brent did not understand why or how, he pressed onward. His sore body shambled from one corpse to another, searching for the distant sound of crying. Bodies were fresh - all recently dead - and each one a classmate or parent or grandparent. It was the graduation day from hell.
B3 out.
Sunday, June 03, 2012
Okay, Let's Do This Thing
My life has lost a lot of focus in the last month or so, which was almost exactly what happened this time last year thanks to a smattering of things trying to steal my attention in different directions. Last year was saved by a major Reboot Weekend over the Fourth of July. It looks like this year will be the same: I'm planning a weekend to myself sometime in June. Three days of bliss. I need it.
My big focus this June is to set myself up for a fantastic second-half of 2012. For example:
My big focus this June is to set myself up for a fantastic second-half of 2012. For example:
- My Summer Vacation. July will begin with a variety of events, namely my first vacation of the year. July 3rd will be a repeat of last years' fantastic Perrysburg Fireworks at Fort Meigs. I plan to bike down to the fort, meet up with friends and family, and have a blast. I won not be resting on the fourth, however, as I will be going to Cleveland to hike for a couple days and eventually visit some friends. I should return home Saturday, only to leave for Columbus Sunday afternoon to attend the Build Responsively web design workshop - an event I am extremely excited about.
- Debt Free, Finally. I am setting up a new (and very strict) monthly budget that will allow me to save money towards a huge year-end goal: paying off the remainder of my student loans. I will be debt free by the end of 2012. What comes after this? One major vacation in 2013, of course. After that? Saving for a house. Yes, this is really happening.
- A Developer's Dream. I have three major, personal programming projects going on right now, all of which I will be wrapping up before the end of the year. The biggest one, Recipe Library 2.0, will hit full-force in July and continue until its completion sometime in October. The rest of the year will focus on reviewing my current personal and professional portfolios ahead of CodeMash in January 2013.
- Summer of Biking, Full Tilt. I have been having a great time biking so far this year (our great weather has helped!). Beginning in July (and really, this June) I will be cranking on biking four days a week for a total of 40 to 100 miles per week.
- Oh, Yes, and The Fall Season. The first week of August will kick off the usual fall season of activities with the new, 7-day Wood County Fair (up from 6 days). After that I roll into the usual lineup of festivals and trips that come with the changing seasons.
I have a busy, disciplined six months ahead of me. June is just a warm up to the insanity.
B3 out.
B3 out.
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