🎍 What else is there to look at, after all?
Ep 19: A dearth of snow, the serenity prayer, and the joy of keeping websites up to date.
Hello from upstate New York, where the grass-to-snow ratio is still far too lopsided for this time in January. Will I get to cross-country ski before the month is out? Unless we go to Buffalo or Watertown, signs point to no.
A Tip for the Modern Worker
Accept the things you cannot change. This key clause of the serenity prayer can unblock so much of the angst that comes with an unpleasant situation. You may be stuck with a bad boss, a tough client, or an annoying colleague. If you accept the situation for what it is, at least for the moment, you can more readily take steps to make the situation more bearable.
This tip is one of 365 in my Handbook for the Modern Worker. Some advice doesn’t go down easy, and neither do these examples. But if you can’t change something, don’t waste too much of your energy being upset. Instead, channel it into making it more bearable. I’ve made a few major career decisions in the face of things that were seemingly unchangeable. Resolution can take time, but that slow burn of your own intentional change can pay large dividends.
#365DayDraw
I drew this and wrote the accompanying annotation as part of my #365DayDraw project 6 years ago today.
Shape storm
Inspiration was harder to come by some days of my drawing challenge. When I drew this, I recall having no clue what to draw, so I just started drawing abstractly. It reminded me of this past weekend, face down on a massage table, staring intently at the well-worn bamboo flooring. What else is there to look at, after all? Well, after a few seconds of staring, faces started to pop out at me, connected in my mind between the floorboards’ random scuffs, lines, and dots. They all had little personalities, quirks, and fantastic features. Now if there was only a way to take a visual snapshot of what’s in one’s mind’s eye?
Commentary
Two years ago I gave my kids a really fun gift. Here’s the tweet I sent out at the time (but don’t follow me there, I’m a happier Instagram user)
Since then, we’ve done several rounds of updates, and they’ve all been terrific fun. The pottery page on Elizabeth’s site is integrated with Etsy so it features pottery pieces that are new and available, without intervention on my part. And, I just revamped Xander’s music page to include samples of him playing the many instruments in his wheelhouse. I’m so proud of both of my kids and it’s a pleasure to help them market themselves this way!
The sites were borne from a pandemic-inspired hobby project to move most of my WordPress sites to Eleventy. It has a far-lighter footprint, is wicked fast (they’re static pages, after all), and it’s kind of fun to write in markdown. Read more in my blog post about Eleventy if you’re interested.
Miscellanea
🏃 I enjoyed my second week going to this season’s Mithacal Milers (spelled that way because, you know, Ithaca) at Cornell University’s Barton Hall. If you’re local to Ithaca and are looking for a fun place to hang out with like-minded walkers and runners of any speed, come give it a try. It’s a fantastic group! The FLRC Winter Chill series is also great fun, though less dry and less warm. We’re halfway done with that series now, but it’s not too late to join in.
Tonight is the first rehearsal of the Trumansburg Community Chorus. This is my first time singing in a large group since the start of the pandemic. I have all of my music ready to go in forScore. I love singing with the iPad: it’s great for keeping music organized and accessible and is a cinch to annotate as we rehearse.