Last day before I got back to my regularly scheduled program.

Last day of this small temporary routine that I had made for myself whenever I decided to stay home for the holidays.

Last day of my break.

I’ll be spending it doing something a little out of the norm, which is getting my eyes checked out. I usually do it on a weeknight, but I needed new contacts. I’m not even going to my usual optometrist but the other one just because she was available sooner.

I guess in a way, I am glad that the break is over and that we are starting things back up again. I have a little more routine and more direction in my day instead of just being at home vegging out in front of the couch. I’m glad that I kind of won’t have idle hands anymore.

Last day.

* * *

Back to routine.

Back to trying to eat healthier, not that I’m eating horribly now, but I have definitely gained some weight that I lost back during the break.

It was just a lot of time for me to cook and eat and cook and eat while not being as active.

Definitely need to get my step count back up.

Something to look forward to.

Back to routine.

* * *

Hey Jude

Music.

It’s such a big part of my life.

Humming the sweet melodies that are stuck in my head as I walk the halls. Most of them are the last songs or melodies that I heard before I go on these little brisk walks.

They are strong in creating memories.

Different songs bring up different memories and emotions, time traveling to the distant past. So contemplative.

Music.

Such a wonder.

But I don’t think music have that strong of an impression on me anymore. I listen to music differently now.

Before, I would do everything to the sound of music. I burn miles with a soundtrack that was current with that time. My long morning walks with Pickles would be filled with pop tunes or whatever I was interested in.

Now, music is on the back burner, replaced by books and podcasts. From time to time, I’ll take a time out and listen to music on these walks, filling my life with melodies instead of the spoken word, but they are few and far between.

Music is put aside as I try to maximize my time. I get through books easier and faster if I listen to them. I get through interesting podcasts the same way.

But there is a little FOMO going on though. I don’t want to miss out on the interesting podcast or the be so out of the loop in the cultural zeitgeist. I guess I’ll just have to let it go and be okay with that.

That’s why my YouTube feed is so fucking crowded. I don’t need to see everything. Not everything I watch on there on the regular is interesting, but yet, I add them on my queue.

Maybe this something that I’ll need to start doing for the new year, cut down on unnecessary shit.

I love books, so Audible will stay. Interesting podcasts will stay. YouTube is the biggest time suck and I’ll have to whittle it down. I’ve worked down my watch later queue, so I can start to re-curate with only things that are interesting and maybe it is time to unsubscribe from a few feeds.

Let’s do that now. Cleaned. Cut down. Smaller.

Now I only listen to music is when I’m working or writing. Not many impressionable memories being made there.

* * *

De-clutter.

There’s too much junk in my house, in my life.

There’s just a lot of stuff that I horde in which I will rarely ever use. I keep stuff when I really don’t need to.

Throw them out. Toss them away, I say.

Whittle things down to the bar essentials.

It’ll make life simpler.

Maybe.

It makes sense and I don’t see why not.

I’ve already cleaned out my closet and donated clothes that I don’t wear anymore.

I’ve cleaned out my drawers and cabinets last year and it might be time to do it again.

My kitchen drawers are a mess.

Toss everything.

Donate everything.

Clean out.

De-Clutter!

Live simpler.

Live better.

* * *

The little break is winding down.

This is the last weekend before I head back to work on Monday. Will it be different? Will it be the same? Will there be a short slowness as we ramp things up again back to full speed?

I don’t know and I really don’t care.

Soon, the new work year will start and soon, I’ll get my step count up again.

There are so many things that I will need to do come January.

I’ll need to make a doctor’s appointment for my yearly checkup. I totally skipped it last year. Time just flew by.

I’ll have to take Pickles to the vet for his checkup too. So many checkups.

I’m not sure what to do with Relish. Do cats need regular checkups or are they more like, if something is definitely wrong, then you should bring him in.

No fucking clue man. No fucking clue.

* * *

It’s cold in the shop today. The AC blows hard down the window shield which I’m sitting next too. Sure, I can pick up and leave, which I must might do, but hot damn man, hot damn, they need to warm this fucker up. It’s fucking cold.

I moved. No draft. Better.

* * *

As one can see today isn’t as focused as it was yesterday. There was direction and substance in yesterday’s posting, but today, today is just ramblings to rule get things out. Today is junk day.

Free writing.

The day is still early, but it’s lonely here today. It’s quiet today.

Sure, for the most part, the usual crew is here, no Iris, but it’s different.

I don’t know why, but it is very quiet. Not that many people waiting or wanting to get tea today. They come and go, come and go.

Usually I’m a fan of that, but not today. I want some solidarity, someone to come in pick a table and just hunker down and get some work done, like I am doing.

I don’t know why, but that’s how I am today.

* * *

Today will be a slow day as I just sit and ponder what to do today, or the day ahead or just surf and waste time. Who knows?

Blah, switching gears.

Back to creative writing.

I want to finish the prose I’m working on.

2016.

New year.

It’s a brand new day to a brand new year. I actually stayed up just past midnight to ring it in by reading a book.

I’ve been trying to finish the Louis Cha – Jin Yong The Condor Heroes Trilogy for years now.

These series of books consist of The Legend of the Condor Heroes, The Return of the Condor Heroes, and finally The Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre.

I’ve been wanting to read these books for the longest time as I grew up watching the Hong Kong TVB Series in the early 80s. I loved them.

I have read the second one years ago and a few months ago I started on the first one. These books are fucking long. Each book comprises of four separate books, each totally about 500 pages each. So, yeah, long.

I’m about halfway through the third book of the first series. So, soon, I’ll finish.

After I finish The Legend of the Condor Heroes, I’ll most likely rewatch the series again and then I just have to decide what I want to read next.

I don’t have that many ambitious reading goals for 2016, like I didn’t have one for 2015, so I’m debating as to what to read next.

I had a reading goal a few years back when I just wanted to finish one book during that year, but I never finished it. I didn’t even get a quarter of the way through. That was way too ambitious. That book? David Foster Wallace’s The Infinite Jest.

It’s a hipster book, I know. All hipsters read it and loved it and whatever it, and every raved about it, I know I know, and I just wanted to read it. The movie Liberal Arts with the lovely and beautiful Elizabeth Olsen slyly made reference to the book and Wallace without actually saying it.

It’s still on my TBR list. Maybe one day I’ll finish it. Maybe.

I think I’ll just put off The Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre and read a few smaller books before I get back to it. I have quite a few books in my TBR and I’m sure I can pick a few to get me by until I want to read HS&DS.

Maybe I should get back to Stephen King. With the whole The Dark Tower series coming together and being filmed as a TV and off shoot movies, that might be what I’ll do next year. I’ll just get back to Stephen King that way, by reading the entire seven book series.

I think that will be good enough. I’ll be rereading a few of the books again, but I’m fine with that. It’s been at least 20 years since I’ve read those books. It’ll be like new again.

* * *

2016.

New Year.

New starts.

Resolutions.

I usually never ever do resolutions and stick to them. I thought I was going to get in shape and be healthy a few years back. Got a Fitbit and new running shoes for it. Never happened. I think I ran for like two days and then gave up. Six months later, I turned my Fitbit in for a refund because the band was getting jacked up.

Now, I do have a new Fitbit which I have for over a year and have been getting my step counts up for most of the year. Am I any healthier, probably not, but it’s something.

I don’t think I’ll do any health related resolutions. Those are tough. I think for the most part; I am relatively healthy. I don’t eat terribly and most of the food I eat are home cooked with whole foods. So, it’s not like I’m consuming things I can’t pronounce or don’t know what’s in it. I’m relatively healthy and that’s a good thing.

So, nothing health related.

One thing that I’ve always wanted to do is to learn music. I’ve always been curious about reading music and being able to play music. I’ve always been a little jealous of musicians and think how they are able to make music is magical.

Maybe it is time for me to actually focus and learn how to read music and pick up my guitar and finally learn it.

Learn the cords. Learn how to strum. Learn how to pick. Learn learn learn.

Maybe I’ll be able to do it.

It won’t be easy and it’ll take a lot of time, but that’s all I have, time. Maybe do something worthwhile with all the spare time that I have and just learn something.

I just need to figure out the best approach on how to do it.

I’ve tried to learn many things on my own and many of them weren’t very successful.

I think it is a matter of focus, a matter of commitment, and just a simple matter of practice.

Do it.

Once I learn, from there, the possibilities are endless!

* * *

2016.

New Year.

Blank canvas.

What I chose today could in turn dictate and shape what will happen for the rest of the year.

There’s a fad or a life choice that had been going around for quite some time now. It comes and goes and recently it came back up into the zeitgeist again, and it is the year of Yes!.

It first came to my attention quite a few years back, 2005, I believe, when Yes Man came out. Recently Shondra Rimes’s new book is about her year of yes.

The concept is simple; say yes to everything. If an opportunity comes up, say yes to it. If someone asks if you want to go out and do something, say yes. Just say yes to everything.

Simple.

Maybe this year can be the year of yes. I don’t see why not.

To be fair, I’ve done something similar a few years ago. It wasn’t a year of yes, but I agreed to do things that I normally wouldn’t do, which got me to get out of my house more and socialize.

It’s not that I haven’t tried it, but it is something that had always been in my mind, to say yes more. To participate more. To do more.

Yes.

Let’s be clear, it’s not like I say no all the time. I don’t. I’m just picky as to what I want to do.

I’ve gone out a few times this year. I’ve always said yes when someone asks me to hangout or go out to dinner and what not. I’ve always said yes in terms of hanging out with Dan and getting drinks from time to time.

I don’t say no to everything. I just know what I want to do and what I would rather not do.

I just think that my friends, and what a limited number of friends that I do have, knows my character and personality that they just don’t ask me to do things anymore.

But, whenever people asks me, maybe this year, I’ll say yes a little more often.

Who knows? Imagine the possibilities.

2016.

The Year of Yes – with caveats.

Fine, I’ll just say yes more. Let’s make it that simple.

* * *

2016.

New Year.

Let’s bring it back to something that I’ve been telling myself, one of my mottos, which is just control, and not sweat the small stuff.

If something bothers you that you have no control about, don’t sweat it. Let it go. Just relax and let it go.

I know a lot of my anger and frustrations this year was all work related and because of a few individuals. I have no control on how they work and who they are.

Just let it go. No point in letting it get to me. No point in being angry about them. Just let it go.

It’ll help me talk less shit about people. I’ll just help me be a better person.

So, practice what you preach and just be a nicer person, a better person, and just let things go.

Be nicer. Stop talking shit.

Just stop talking shit.

This may help cut down on the inner monologue of judgments that come and go about people I see and what they do.

I want that to stop. I don’t feel like a good person when I do things like that.

So, I have the control over what gets me angry, so just take control and not sweat the small stuff.

I am already good at not letting the big things that I have no control about get to me, now it is time for the small stuff.

Let’s do it.

It’ll help me be a better person and a much much nicer person.

Be nice, asshole.

* * *

2016.

New Year.

Leap year.

I have one extra day this year to be even more awesome.

I’m kind of glad that I’m not doing a 365 this year. Man, imagine, one more day of taking pictures. 365 days is already hard enough, but man, 366. Fuck no.

But in all honesty, there are a lot of things that I would like to do. All of these things listed are things that I can do anytime in my life. I really don’t need a new year to start doing them. Not at all.

I’m not sure if I’ll get to finish or even start to do any of the things that I listed here or not, but it gives me a little hint of things to look forward to, I guess.

I’ll most likely do what I normally do and that is just wing it and go with the flow. I’ll do whatever I feel like doing and whether I follow through and finish it or not, I’m not sure.

I’m not going to put that kind of pressure on myself.

No pressure at all. All of these things are life and death things.

They just are things that I would like to do to better myself. These are things that I would like to learn.

All in all, every year, I just try to be a better person, learn something new or interesting or just continue to learn and retain information that I don’t already know and just grow and be a better person.

In all honestly, that’s not a lot to ask for.

2016.

Here we go.