Work(s) in Progress

Short Notes

I love reading other people's blogs. I had a few things catch my attention this weekend.

(1) Scott Adams has an interesting post on practice that ended with this sentence. "It makes me wonder if the passion part of our brains will ever be manipulated by drugs so that passionless people get just enough OCD to obsessively practice something until they get good at it."

(2) Kyra has a wonderful post (rant) on health and fitness (and the obesity epidemic in the USA) on a budget which reminded me of Maggie's posts on frugal dieting and fitness. Truly, I can (and often do) spend more on meal than Maggie would spend on a week of healthy eating.

(3) Clay Lowe was interviewed and included in that interview was an amazing poem. I'm going to grab a snippet.

Her dreams have all gone to bed by Clay Lowe

The wind whispers between
raindrops of yesterday’s past
the memory of her last kiss
fades to black

She can see her happiness
stagger out the front door
into the arms of another
perfumed night

Her broken dreams have
all gone to bed haunted by
ghosts of lines left unsaid

...

go read the rest. And be sure to check out Clay's blog. I can't wait for his book to be published in March. I don't even normally like poetry but Clay's poems tend to resonate with me.

(4) I follow Ben Casnocha on Twitter and read his blog regularly. This tweet resonated with me today: "We unconsciously dislike / repel people in whom we see parts of ourselves that we cannot or do not want to accept. (DFW)"

I see this everyday and could not agree more. 

Goals for 2009

Last year, I had only two major goals beyond succeeding at my new professional path: Fitness and Spanish. I can't say that I succeeded at either. 2008 was an incredibly eventful year. While I wish I'd made more progress, I'm not sure that it was actually feasible.

#1. Fitness: holding steady at about 131 pounds and 22% body fat. I can easily run a 5K. This is not great, but at 40, not horrible either. I can and will do better for 2009. Where did my muscle definition go? I can almost see my abs but my back and arm muscles are long gone. On the upside - I can do 5 whole boy push-ups and 1 unassisted pull-up. I'm shooting for at least 10 and 10 this year, and abs. Darnit. It's not that hard; I just need to add some weights to my workouts. Perhaps my first triathlon. Perhaps some running races. I can do better.

#2. Spanish:Utterly lost in the shuffle. Jo no hablo espanol. Sigh. Rewind, repeat. I still have the CDs. I also now have the Apple iPod touch 32 GB (2nd Generation)on which to load said CDs. 2009 will be the year I begin to understand, if not speak the 2nd most common language in Colorado.

#3. Bliss: I learned this past year that life is horribly short and can be taken from us at any moment without warning. I will no longer be deferring opportunities for bliss until tomorrow or next year or next decade. There is only NOW. This year I will redo my scuba certification (I was PADI certified in 1990 but need a refresher) and go on at least one diving adventure. I may get chubby (#1); I may only ever speak English (#2); but my gosh, I will pursue the bliss. Life is short.

p.s. I still love my, no longer new, job! This year will see the ending of my career as a scientist. I keep waiting for the panic attack, the loss of identity, but it has not yet come. I have only relief for the burden and obligation that is about to be lifted.