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- June 17, 2014
Producing Day 16: Modeling my Energy Modes
June 17, 2014Read moreToday’s report on the producing versus consuming challenge continues with the first “stumble of the month”: a lapse in productivity despite my “best” efforts. This is followed by observations, assessment, and a list of the motivating factors that actually seem to work for me. Tomorrow, I plan on brainstorming a new approach to my day planning based on today’s musings. Maybe not a form, but certainly a list of “attitude changers”. (more…)
- June 16, 2014
Producing Day 5 to 15: A Whirlwind of Change
June 16, 2014Read moreI’m still on a producing versus consuming mindfulness blitz this month, but I haven’t been good about keeping track of what’s been happening over the past 10 days. I’ve been really busy, as I had hired a friend to clean my house over several days and it’s become the major background activity in my life. In the process, I’ve learned that ANY movement begets forward motion in all other areas, if one has the right attitude. (more…)
- June 6, 2014
Producing Day 4: Hamburger!
June 6, 2014Read moreThis month’s challenge is to be mindful of the time I spend producing versus consuming. I’ve started to collect the daily activity on the June 2014 Challenge page.
Rather than work on forms today, I actually ended up cooking something from scratch on my charcoal oven: hamburgers!!!
Last week I had bought some fancy hamburger patties that had all this extra “gourmet” stuff in them. I found them to be overly salty, with a texture reminiscent of sausage because the meat had been over-mixed. I mentioned this to a friend of mine, who commented that he likes to just add a little salt to his ground beef and it cooks up just fine.
So, I bought some hamburger meat, added some salt and a a little bit of panko (flaky Japanese bread crumbs), and very loosely mixed it together. I wanted to retain that kind of “crumbly” texture in the meat, so I was careful about not overmixing it to smoothness. Then, I heated up my Cobb-brand charcoal oven and cooked them up for about 20 minutes with a bit of mesquite for smokiness, which brought them up to around 170 degrees F according to my thermopen; I wasn’t going for a very rare burger this time, as the ground meat was maybe a little on the old side.
The result? A far superior burger, for less money, without a lot of fancy ingredients. An honest hamburger! I was pleased.
Total elapsed time: maybe an hour of starting up the charcoal briquettes and heating the oven, then about 30 minutes to cook and prepare for eating. It’s been a while since I’ve cooked anything for pleasure, so this was a nice reminder that such options are available to me. I was struck by how something as simple as a hamburger was so easy to screw up, as in the case of the gourmet burgers I’d tried, because the balance of taste and texture in combination with the bun and various condiments is so delicate. The gourmet burgers were edible, perhaps even good in some “enhanced flavor” sort of way, but the lack of total harmony with the other ingredients I had on hand was quite evident. To create a superior burger experience, one must carefully select the flavor profiles to make a purposeful statement of culinary intent.
- June 6, 2014
2014 Resolutions Review 04: Trudging through the Blahs
June 6, 2014Read moreFinally, it is no longer freezing outside here in New Hampshire! Once again, it is time to review my year’s goals as part of Groundhog Day Resolutions!
To recap, this year’s goals were chosen to create more “forward momentum: in both my personal projects and personal relationships:
- Take more “first steps”, with less planning. Trust in my ability to solve problems when I encounter them.
- Write and deploy software applications
- Share my interests with everyone to see where it goes
- Create better marketing content for my stuff
I’ve actually been taking it easy this month, after last month’s more intense work cycle with ongoing client work. I’m feeling somewhat recovered, but have been finding it difficult to make the progress I’ve wanted. I’m a little sick of all the tracking, frankly, so I’ve been experimenting with other forms of motivation.
- June 5, 2014
Producing vs Consuming: Recap of Design through Draft 03
June 5, 2014Read moreI’ve been continuing to work on the “producing versus consuming” tracking form, fixing various issues I’ve had with them. The underlying experiment I’m conducting is whether being mindful of when I’m creating/producing versus consuming makes any kind of difference in how I feel. I’ve made three form variations so far.
