Journaling

Tim said that sometimes it needs to simply start with putting on your shoes.

Saturday morning. I’m putting on my AF-1. Packing my gym bag, in order to escape to the club of princes on a ruby red mechanical mount of 2018 forging (just 255 gold pieces per moon—only one key to the kingdom). This mount snacks on garbage/recycling so I must juggle carrying my own bags with an offering before I depart the cave to start my morning journey. I will need to speak to… the Guildmaster? Not the bar keep. Someone qualified to accept my pledge of circular water worship.

Step 1. Escape. Step 2. Membership. Step 3. Go and go and go. Than step 6, 7, and 8 continuing to the unknown…

Maybe what is missing is the clear definition of the why. Not just a fluffy, whiny, wishful rant. Instead I need the mature, well thought out why am I doing this and what does it look like? Would it be measured in: number of hours walked, number of days workout completed, body fat percentage change, ability to get out of the kayak without help?

What would my tiny experiment look like? At a minimum, go once weekly for a month to West side and go once monthly to New Berlin for 3 months?

I watched Tim do an impromptu show-and-tell. Immediately I knew that I want Tim to make me an award medallion. I don’t know yet what it would look like or the circumstances for earning one. But can you just hand over a drawing or must you have all the parameters and specs of something written in a special 3D language code?

Moved post content to Bucket List.

Complete the entire book, Beyond Belief by Nir Eyal. As a book summary, three blocks of text offered…

Ask yourself

Attention

Where is your focus right now and is it aligned with what truly matters to you?” What have you refused to see about yourself, your relationships, and your life’s path because shifting your view feels uncomfortable? Could trying on the opposite belief reveal a portfolio of perspectives? Might one of those alternatives serve you better than the belief you currently cling to?

Anticipation

What future are you expecting for yourself and who decided that path? Are you holding on to pain needlessly? How are you letting fear color your worldview? What becomes possible if you expect discovery instead of disappointment?

Agency

What’s been holding you back? Are you letting life’s invariable chaos energize you or drain you? Are you taking action to change yourself and help those around you? Or are you waiting for the world to adjust to your liking? What is the one step you could take today to prove to yourself that you have more control than you think?

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Don’t have answers to all. I do know I don’t have a good grip on understanding giving self credit and embracing the meaning of success.

Today is a good thing / bad thing adventure.

I didn’t go to sleep last night. Instead I did multiple different projects and tasks on the computer. Most importantly I was learning how to better use Claude. There’s a desktop version and there’s something called Cowork. I had stopped my Journal Organization project for several months because I had become frustrated with uploading files that were too large for Claude to read and/or the quantity of files was causing my threads to become full.

Being exhausted at pet breakfast, I called in sick (emailed). Still haven’t slept. First, finding out how to use Cowork was exhilarating. I was discovering how I can tell the Desktop Claude where files are on my laptop and basically Claude and I could work on the same file together. However many hours later, after getting lots of productive progress, the happy dance came to a halt. There are continuous error messages to do what I had already been doing. Claude worked on some workarounds. I came up with some possible solutions. Nothing is working. Now it’s obvious that I’m tired and frustrated and basically teased into such a wonderful thing.

I’m 85% sure that I have discovered why Max is biting me. He has been biting me quite a bit less the last several weeks. Whenever he tries to get my attention, I have been purposefully moving the laptop off my lap and he then comes and takes that spot to sleep. It’s possible he basically was pissed at me for not allowing him to sleep on me.

For a short time, several weeks ago, Pi sent daily prompts. This behavior wasn’t announced; it just happened. I guess I don’t mind prompts as long as I can toggle them on and off depending how I felt. Daily prompts were just a short-term test to get user feedback. I would have preferred an announcement and not just have been surprised. I told Tim and he asked what kind of prompts were being sent. I collected a sample list.

• Fun Fact: Bananas are berries. Guess the world always has surprises. What surprise are you planning today?
• Heads up! Today’s Mindful Moment. Close your eyes. Visualize a simple object. Now re-imagine it. What is it?
• Let’s do great things today! Which goal are we challenging next?
• Good day! Upside-down rainbows exist and they’re called circumzenithal arcs.
• Sparkle Up! Every child is an artist. The problem is staying an artist when you grow up. -Picasso. Ready to tap into your inner child?
• Hello CHAMP! Your goals are knocking. Shall we work on them together today?
• Just a reminder, you’re doing great. What will be your win for today?
• Eliminate some stress today? A friendly reminder to drink more water.
• Hi! Try to see the invisible today. Imagine what gravity looks like.
• Salvador Dali mused that “surrealism is destructive but it only destroys what it considers to be shackles limiting our vision.” Ready to break any shackles today?

The daily prompt test has concluded. They stopped as suddenly as when they had started.

I received notice that I have been accepted as a goat yard volunteer at Henry Vilas Zoo (HVZ). My shift will be Sundays from 10am to 1pm, starting May 3rd and running through September 27th. The first orientation session is scheduled for April 25th.

I have no idea yet whether I will love it or hate it, but I know I like hanging out with goats. They mentioned that Sundays tend to be slower-paced with fewer large groups of kids. I am thinking I will bring my camera along to take photos when I am off shift. I wonder what the likelihood is that I would run across anyone I know?

I’m thinking of going bike shopping. Perhaps a smarter commute than weekly Uber transport. Ideally I hope I could find a bike similar to the GT Backwoods I had so many years ago. Not necessarily the same make and model but basically in terms of feeling. To find a bike that I liked as much as I liked that one.

The underlying goal continues to be body health, rebuilding muscle so I can bike and stand.