BuJo Initiate

It’s the Ex week again, and like for the past few years now, I’ve taken it as holiday time. It has also been the habit to use the time to do practical economical household craft projects each year during this time, as sort of an advanced preparation for making winter a bit cozier. This time around is no exception. Last year, it was some carpentry to reclaim storage space; other years, it has been canning preserves. This year, I’ve minimized and simplified things even more for a multi-day project.

Over the past couple years or so, one positive habit I have been cultivating for myself is carrying

One template format I'm exploring . . .

around a pocketbook and pen. Sure, a note taking app on the phone is quite handy, but when in a pressured dash or impulse to record, capture, and recover something more instantly and accurately while it is on the tip of my brain, the pen and notebook beats the cellphone. I have been finding my old-fashioned pocketbook to be as indispensable to me as carrying my keys, wallet, and my cellphone. It has helped save me a lot of time, money, and energy, especially in spots when the phone had little to no battery power left.

I like technical innovation a lot, but honestly, only up to a certain point. We think we are doing well for ourselves by organizing our lives with apps on our phones and computers, but this is illusory on some levels. It is ultimately making us comply to a complex system that suits tech companies in finding new ways to control us with ones and zeros, and for them to glean more of our money and personal data from us. In this sense, apps can tend to cheapen the quality of your life, or they at least make the data of it more valuable to everyone except yourself. There is a point where we lose sight of being able to create a very personalized, customized, and more organic system that allows us to stage things better for our own organizational needs, our unique learning modalities, our own personal goals; one that accommodates for recording through our more private and practical eccentricities. Those ones are not for sharing, the non-bloggables: thoughts and ideas best left on a page of paper, with the privacy assured.

One of the things I regret about my formal education, from childhood on through to my early university years, in the days before academic computer use, and before the internet was available, is that I never had any teacher at any time of my life who put any effort at all on teaching me how to do the very essential and elemental thing for excelling in true higher learning. That is, really teaching me on how to organize myself with the practical skill of efficient written planning/journaling, and effective note taking. It seems absurd, but it’s true. Sure, I of course learned literacy, but only mastering merely the taking in and absorbing of information part of it. I always had substandard teachers and mentors for helping me exploit my strongest learning modalities to transpose, and express, what was going on in my head in the way I sensed it, and frame it in the best organized and condensed manner on to a page that was most memorable and comprehensive to me. My willingness to write, or “show my work”, as was always demanded of me, just wasn’t there, and from that I think I suffered greatly in such a way that I was always reticent, reluctant, reserved, made to feel embarrassed, about expressing any form of creativity at all through the written word or graphics for the longest time. I was no dullard, there was lots of thinking going on; but I was always embarrassed with my poor organizational ability of trying to sort it out on paper. Capturing thoughts through note taking was like trying to catch wriggling live fish with soapy hands. I improved a lot over the years, but my journey to get better at it has been a very independent and solitary one, and I missed the most critical of years of when what I know now would have served me better at an earlier time. I’m trying to actively compensate for that even today.

This all brings me now to making a concerted effort at learning something that encompasses serving me as a means of approaching efficient minimalism, enhancing my productivity, and being a creative pastime. Currently, I’m immersing myself in the craft of bullet journaling (or BuJo* for short)¹. Like most of my hobbies and pastimes, it is nerdy thing that is a nice blend of aesthetics that pleases the senses, and orderly precision that gets mathematical, scientific, and data oriented. What I gain from doing it is a clearer snapshot of how my mind works while figuring out goal-oriented objectives. One thing I’m noticing is that there is a great and drastic schism in the quality in my handwriting between the floodlight mind (cursive, observing and fervent collecting a vast array of thoughts instantaneously) and my spotlight mind (block printed, mindfully focusing and methodically organizing them on paper, without the pressure of time and other stressful distractions). Comparing the two is seeing my brain operating and functioning in two different levels, or existing on two entirely different worlds, for each process. I wonder if there is name for the weird psychological anomaly to describe this huge difference between each modality. Examples provided.

My manic, brain-on-fire,
"conspitated looking" as one
of my friends once called it,

cursive writing vs.

My relaxed and focused self

block printing

My goal with this pastime is to get a journal formatted and formulated with templates for the

One template I designed that I may 

use for seasonal tasks. I couldn't

 find anything like this in a stationary 

store. Custom made is the way to go!

remainder of this year and the entire coming new year. What will I do with it all? Well, to automate some plans without the actual need for technical automation; to make cybernetic changes and adjustments without the cyberspace. I’m not trying to think like a machine, but I am trying to enhance my own recording and processing of stuff in much the same way that computers do: more effort to taking a small codified, point/mark, or bit of info to record and ramming it through a formatted program or function to filter out a result. Pixilating points (or customized bullets) to track data is a simple and effective way to record progress. The gist of this being investing in time to structure a perfect (for me) format now so that I can waste very little time and material for recording stuff later. Minimal effort through simple coding that can lead to big results. There is stuff to enter that is not as simple as purely numerical, or a yes/no, true/false, 0/1,

kinds of data. Some stuff, of course, is trackable and traceable only on a spectrum, or layers of spectra, or else needs a full out verbal explanation. The modular nature of this system allows for this too. I’m most interested see what kind of artistic infographics I’ll be able to create and incorporate as well. I want to see if I can progress from being crude to making the great leap ahead of being . . . slightly less crude with my graphical talents. Most of the detailed subjects that I will be recording, and tracking, are too personal to post here. However, I will disclose the broader general reasons for this new objective:

• Shifting from Day to Night Mode – Someday, I hope not too soon yet, I will be transitioning to doing night shifts. It will be a major upheaval for my body and mind to adapt to, with phases of insomnia assured to come; my working memory being the worse off casualty due to that. Hence, I’ll have to get into the habit of writing things down more often to not lose track of things. Also, having lists of things to work through eliminates the burdensome and torturous task of having to make decisions in such a state (or suffering consequences of making bad decisions in that way, read further below).
  
• Total Schedule Reorganization - There then must be a major reorganization of my schedule for my daily activity, have a productive rhythm to my day; to conserve my energy, and my social life and relationships outside of work. 
  
• Monitoring Health – Another offshoot of switching to nights is needing to actively check myself over for signs of physical deterioration due to the odd hours and unnatural rhythm of wakefulness. Knowing and marking the ideal time to exercise, and what and when to eat during this (mal)adjustment period is critical also, since “breakfast” kind of doesn’t work (doesn’t feel right) as a meal option in mid-afternoon. Alcohol consumption periods are things to be mindfully reckoning with too. What gets measured gets mastered.
  
• Impulse Grounding – One of the things I have noticed after long bouts of insomnia is the poor ability to make sound decisions. The likelihood of acting on impulse rather than think things through rises significantly. For example, this is especially bad when I want to commit to a minimalist lifestyle, but then act on a reckless spending spree for impractical things after too little sleep. BuJo is a way to do a brain dump and check your thoughts outside yourself, with some frame of order, to analyze and weigh pros and cons. At the very least, the very act of doing this is a much cheaper alternative of using one’s time rather than falling into an impulsive habit of mindless consumption of whatever it is that one could possibly become addicted to.
  
• Cheap Hobby – It only needs: a writing instrument of your preference, and a good quality dot

  

  My entire Bullet Journaling kit.

  (or grid) paged journal for the basics. For refined line forming for edging and bordering and such, a cheap geometry set from a dollar store works. Additional lettering stencils and templates can be found cheap in an arts and craft shop, or even in a dollar store. Just engage the imagination, and that’s it. A minimalist’s dream come true! Very portable, and it doesn’t need a battery for power (except maybe just a good source of caffeine). It’s a big step upward from an adult colouring book anyway, and far more practical to use as well.
  
• Veering Away from Toxic Social/News Media – Simply substituting a bad use of time for a better, more constructive, one. I will have a genuinely more enriching time working on a means to sort my own life’s issues, and creating my own viable solutions for approaching problems and goals than thinking and believing, that during these turbulent politically charged times of the election season, that any government or other social institution, is going to be genuinely interested in doing that for me. It’s my time to opt out of indiscriminately spending too much time and attention on negative news and social media during these times of waiting for our nation’s federal election coming this October, and the bloody ridiculous circus of the still 454 remaining days of campaigning until the American election. Working on my own betterment through my journals will be a nice retreat away from all this.

The most satisfying and enriching thing about using BuJo as an analogue system of note taking and calligraphy²: purposely taking a plain word and page space and embellishing it such as to make it so strikingly elegant and distinctly vivid enough that it becomes impossible to ignore. Imagine then how much more powerful it would look when it is applied to a whole written thought or idea. Goals are made to appear to have an esteemed meaning, as truly worthy goals should. It somehow makes your own ideas and listed tasks and duties appear more alive/animated. Even the duller things on a to do list can then look like they could be integral parts of some overall grand adventure.

A potential syllabus list

with flipped open pages

to record book titles

journaling is the chance and choice to be liberally creative and expressive with stylish lettering and artwork in one’s journal, thus further stimulating and empowering one to use the entire brain; not just the analytical and logical left hemisphere. I really believe there is some weight to this as a benefit, adding artful flourishes through doodles, and calligraphy.

I’m coming closer to understanding why monks in the medieval era were charged with the tasks of illuminating pages, making copies of calligraphic manuscripts, and other such scrivenery. Apart from being just merely literate, to do such a job well very much requires and demands a deeply focused, disciplined, and meditative mind. It can be very relaxing. However, I’m certainly not a monk. The best advice I could give as a novice for starting a page template is just to dive right into it. It is 100% guaranteed that it will be imperfect at the start, making lots of mistakes in your initial formatting, lettering, and page section alignment. So, once that is all done, set it aside for a long while, have a drink or two, then come back and review it, and then be totally relentless, ruthless, and absolutely merciless with editing it, and redo it until you get the right design and style that really satisfies you. You are allowed be your own harshest critic since you are going to be the only one interacting with this material; you have no one to please but yourself by taking such a measure.

The first mess . . .

. . . then the final product. Custom made and adapted for a coding 

matrix system unique and personal to me, and again, 

it can't be found in any regular stationers shop.

I have nothing more to include with this entry, except for this last thought from a quote by the author of my guidebook:

“Each Bullet Journal becomes another volume in the story of your life. Does it represent the life you want to live? If not, then leverage the lessons you've learned to change the narrative in the next volume.”
― Ryder Carroll, The Bullet Journal Method: Track the Past, Order the Present, Design the Future

*- I like Bujo because sounds more to me like some unique, Zen-based, Japanese term for some sort of work ethic discipline, like kaizen.

1. The initial resource I used was The Bullet Journal Method by Ryder Carroll. I solidified the reason why I decided to undertake this; after that though, I’ve been finding a multitude of ideas for personalization on Pinterest.

2. I’m not ashamed to say, as a guy, that I love the artform of calligraphy. Before you scoff and think by default that it’s a sissy craft to do, consider this: the most instrumental class that Steve Jobs said he ever took (before he dropped out of college) which he said had been the most influential one for the inception of the Mac computer wasn’t a software programming class, wasn’t a computer science or engineering class; it was a calligraphy class. In a roundabout way, the practice of it forced him to see things differently through the elegance of design, and natural forms and ease of interface that made one want to engage with using a computer. Proper design is powerful stuff!

5Q5A: A Spark of Minimalism

The inspiration for writing this morning came from yesterday evening. It has been a busy, yet generally a peaceful, weekend. I took a break from my practical rush-about errands; dealing with irritating surprise fix-up projects, and other personal chores, and made some time to socialize a bit with my family who came in from out of town. My sweetheart and I joined my mother and one of my aunts for a bite to eat at a stop north of town as they were making their way back home after visiting one of my other relatives who was recently hospitalized. This place was a fringe-of-town truck stop: geared more for serving fuel to large transports, or being some convenient pit stop to truckers bypassing the city than establishing itself for any kind of fine dining. My mom, generally having less of a sense for navigating by street addresses, chose going there because it just was a familiar landmark to her coming in and out of Saskatoon, and because it was practical and time-saving: being on a more direct route heading back to the highway to home. It was also perhaps probably the easier decision for her to make for a rendezvous after the intensity of a hospital visit.


After our meal and visit and upon saying our goodbyes and getting up to leave the place, I glanced over the convenience store section on the way to the exit. Amongst the bric-a-brac of merchandise there, in the racks of sundries apart from the confectionary shelves, was a display of folksy door signs (most of them of the tacky, man-cave, kind of trailer park chic quality). They were crafted with little sayings reflective of those with the kind of mentality and humour of cruder cultured sorts who spend much more of their lives being vagabonds on the road, criss-crossing this province and country than being in a secure permanent dwelling, and using their energies less in trying to make and model their living space to something akin for candidacy for Better Homes and Gardens, obviously. One of the signs did catch my both attention and appeal. It said something simple like “Collect moments; not things”. It was reflective of the suppertime conversation we just had, which at one point briefly touched on the topic of minimalism. It also prompted me to write down some answers to some questions that entertained me afterward. 

Q1. If there was a kit of things or gear (aside from clothes, meds, and hygiene essentials) that I would have for a prolonged road trip travel minimalist style, what would they be? (10 items or less)


A1. The stuff would most likely be:

• Wallet
• Cellphone (charger and earbuds)
• My Swiss Army Knife (mostly for the bottle opener and corkscrew)
• Leuchtturm 1917 Medium (200 mm X 150 mm) notebook, dot formatted, enabled for use with Whitelines Link® app, with small clear plastic ruler in the back cover pocket.
• Pen (black ink, fine tip)
• Travel Mug
• A Deck of Playing Cards (or set of dice)
• My dog (collar, leash, feeding bowl)
•          If I get strangely get some urge to cross the US border during these crazy and troubled times down there, my passport

Q2. What was the best minimalist activity done today?


A2. Apart from reading, writing this, and spending time with my girlfriend: it was the commitment to do some walking and jogging around the Meewasin Trail. I only needed my shoes and some good music to keep my pace and rhythm going. Even after hurting from doing it today, it wasn’t ever a wrong thing to do. It has been four weeks since I got my new orthotics, and my feet and legs are finally starting to feel like they are now screwed on straight. There was no mental inclination to “train”, or to plan steps ahead for making or beating some records, or pressured thinking/calculating of how much of this I must do to lose the more-than-just-residual amount of bodyfat accumulated from last winter’s miserable and energy-sapping indolence. It was enough just to try to re-discover and adapt to a new stride, pace, form, and posture for enduring the 10 km circuit of mixed walking/running. It was just the simple and pure enjoyment of being outside and present in nature on a peaceful Sunday morning; breathing the sweet morning air, and seeing others walking and running along the trails enjoying it with me. It costs me nothing, and yet the moments gained from doing it are priceless.


Q3. What is the appeal of minimalism, and how could one sell it to others?


A3. The appeal is that I’m left just to work for the things that really matter to the genuine core of me, instead of for the sake of putting on some ridiculous false front to impress others. The latter hyper-competitive measure, which only fosters hyper-consumerism, is a really stupid way to use not only one’s money, but time and energy, especially with technology going obsolete at a dramatic pace. The best progression through technological advancement is etherealization: being able to do more with less actual material. Having more stuff is just building up more expense and need to store and secure it all. For me, owning less clears my head of a thousand extra senseless worries that I just don’t need. To have breathing room, and not be tripping around over clutter is another bonus.


Q4. What are most valuable things that every minimalist-minded person should have?


A4. My list of these things would be:

·         A valid library card, or alternatively

·         Access to the Internet

·         The simple fundamental of maintaining good health, and having a valid provincial Health Card (access to free health care is something we take for granted). Keeping abreast of one’s health leads to better . . .

·         Functioning senses (consumerism teaches us to buy and do things that feed the senses, but what good is it all if the very senses you are trying to stimulate aren’t working?)

·         Physical mobility (you’d find out how valuable that is if you ever become, or work with someone, confined to using a wheelchair), which makes one better able to have . . .

·         Access to nature and greenspace: one of the worst things that we are doing to psychologically and spiritually impoverish ourselves (no matter how much money one has, or enabled one is) is increasingly denying ourselves contact and interaction with nature: being complacent and indifferent to its absence, destruction, and disappearance, and missing out on its splendour and our sense of connection with it. Without that, we then instead typically opt to retreat into mindless cycles of consumption simply for self-stimulation

·         Having a minimally sized pastime that can be enjoyed on a park bench or picnic blanket

·         A good memory for organisation; an ability to use one’s mental faculties to the fullest. People buy duplicates of stuff because they often forget that they’ve had bought that targeted thing earlier on to begin with

·         A good system of expanding floor space, and effective use of storage and wall space.

·         Ultimately, the knowledge and sense to know when you have enough stuff

Q5. What insights have I gained through my own attempts at living a minimalist lifestyle?


A5. The major one is that of all my possessions that are just strictly for my entertainment and leisure, about 80% of them are in printed word, shiny disks, or further reduced to coded ones and zeros. I learned what kind of space I value most. My most valuable space, during summer, is the deck (it’s not a large space), where I have direct contact I have with the outdoors with the sunshine and fresh air*. If I collect anything at all with tendencies that verge onto the frivolous and superfluous, it would have to be board games and puzzles. I have a lot of books that I could liberate too.

Noting all this now. I see something in A1 that I really want to seize, and making better use of, but I need to make some refinements for the idea first. More on this in another entry later.

*- Any act of taking away any precious summer leisure time away from Canadians is one that would incite riots.

Summer Holiday 2019: Happy Thoughts

It’s ridiculously early this Sunday morning. I should be sleeping, but I can’t. I needed to do some head-clearing: both on the physical and mental level, and I’ve made the poor choice of using caffeinated warm beverages to do it. My choices for the days booked off for my summer holiday time are centred around the simple and practical reason of avoiding too much sleep-deprivation. I usually take the week around the solstice off as a “first period” of my summer holiday, because I struggle to sleep as it is, and this phase of extra daylight hours makes it worse. The other sleep-disrupting period of summer are the annoyingly noisy days of the Ex echoing through my neighbourhood, and I find it necessary to book time off then too.

As far as holiday time goes, this round is certainly not 100% satisfactory. Of course, as per usual, as it has been for the last few years, the early allotment of my summer holiday time has become muddled with bad fortune. I’ve been spending the better part of the week of it battling a super-bad, sinus cold. I won’t prattle on about that: I’m miserable enough knowing that it has already stolen quality time and energy to share with my girlfriend during her booked time off. Relating more details about it won’t make it better. I’ll only say that if I were forced to choose between one or the other, that I’ll take and endure a winter cold any day over one that strikes me in the middle of summer.

We also had a fine dump much needed rain for this region, which was most certainly welcome to help break this long stretch of drought. However, I just wish it hadn’t all come at once during this time that I’ve been off work. I really shouldn’t complain about that either because I was cooped inside all the time anyway being sick. It was a bit disappointing to miss the solstice day as it should have been for these parts: normally bright enough to be able to read a book outside until about 10:00 pm. Instead, it was so dreary that my evening lights were on turned at 11:00 am.

This time off also coincides with having to re-train myself to walk right again, with the inclusion of custom-made new orthotics. The adaptation process has been slow (slower than I want), and I can’t yet do near the amount of walking that I normally would do during this time off. The difference between using them and not using them is like night and day. There is the initial pain and discomfort, felt right to the bone and joint level, of adjusting to them to deal with. Of course, I wouldn’t lucky enough to have these things become set right during my time off, for better times in my life, but they’ll be all right for me to use for an entire day just by the time I come back to work. Whoopity- freakin’-doo!

Besides fulling shoes with high-tech composite insoles, and emptying boxes of tissues and mugs of tea, this term of my holiday time (the alone part) has only lent itself to: allowing me to grapple with necessary and practical chores and fix-up tasks, too much idleness and screen time, me being trapped in the inertia of having no energy, me struggling to think clearly with a snot-addled head, and yielding little else in regards to what I would call fun and enjoyment. I did do one thing quite successfully though: I avoided all the negativity being broadcast and deluged upon me through the television news channels and social media during this time.

Of course, the sensible mission while on a vacation is to not just be avoidant of negative crap; it should be a purposeful movement in some direction toward just being happier than one would be if one was working. It was a good time to put my head into the book I found: The Happiness Equation, by Neil Pasricha. To pull oneself out of a miserable mood, sometimes it is just plain old sensible and practical common sense measure to immerse oneself in list making, specifically a happiness list, i.e., the things that truly make you happy, grateful, or at the very least are a relief to you, and turning all your attention to building and adding on to it: a literal counting of blessings. I would encourage everyone to do such a thing. Neil has done this for himself in his book and blog, The Book of Awesome, and A 1000 Awesome Things. For me, this is the result of my own exercise of doing this (though numbered, there is no real ranked order to this list):

1. Summer (or any season, in whole or in part, when I can enjoy being outside without freezing my ass off, or slipping on ice), but I’m thinking specifically of enjoying longer days. Living at this latitude is ideal for that
2. Peace and quiet when it comes to me. I can then hear myself think
3. My girlfriend’s company: whenever she has time for me
4. My dog (the being that is the closest thing I have for a daughter
5. Dogs in general, even the more unpleasant ones are more tolerated by me than the wrong sorts of people
6. Living in Canada, a peaceful place with more freedoms and less violence and corruption then most other countries on Earth
7. Time spent with my family (parents, brothers, in-laws
8. The soothing sound of gently falling rain
9. Dining outside in the fresh air
10. A properly working dishwasher (and now knowing some tricks on how to repair one if necessary
11. Inventing a meal from scratch, and cooking it successfully
12. Leisurely bike rides along the trails by the river
13. Jigsaw puzzles, when I’m in the zone, all time stops for me when doing these things
14. Reading, and being able to read in more languages than just English and French
15.  Writing, with the same dimensions to be thankful for as the point above about reading 
16. Playing Kaiser, or other card games with my parents (either as a partner or an opponent
17. Colourful sunsets
18. Sitting by a fire (campfire or fireplace)
19.  Relaxing by watching the clouds go by as I sit outside on my deck (like right now)
20. My Union, and the great supportive staff and fellow brother and sister members in it
21. The Union conferences and workshops that I attend and learn from
22. Relaxing in the sauna after brutal, bone-chilling cold day
23. Greenhouses (specifically inhaling the floral air made by a mass of photosynthesizing plants condensed under one roof – it’s the essence of aliveness, an instant pleasure)
24. Successfully growing a plant that hasn’t instantly died in my car
25. Watching my nephews growing into the fine young men that they are
26. Super-sized sudoku puzzles (like the 16 x 16, or 25 x 25 varieties)
27. Vietnamese pho soup and noodle bowls, very comforting stuff
28. Spicy food in general (becoming fond of more types of curry)
29. Barbecued meat of almost any kind
30. The smell of baking bread, fresh homemade bread is the bomb!
31. The smell of homemade chicken broth
32. The smell of frying bacon (Canadian perfume)
33. Making beer; drinking the results
34. Sampling most types of beer really
35. Netflix, although the variety and viewing options often overwhelm me
36. The local Farmers’ Market
37. My Alt Rock and Indie music playlists
38. My Classic Rock playlists
39. Spotify and Stingray music streaming for discovering all else that’s new
40. Having enough money left after paying the mortgage, bills, fees, and taxes
41. Playing Poker (and winning at it) – a time when it feels right and very liberating to be a cocky smartass
42. Haggling at garage and yard sales
43. Finding useful free stuff at the giveaway table in my building
44. Finding a bargain on the things I like and appreciate
45. My Xbox game console, because sometimes you just must vent off anger properly, and blow the heads off a few despicable digital Nazis
46. Massages that actually soothe my knotted-up muscles 
47. Eggs, and all the groovy things one can do with them
48. The smell of incense (so many aromas to like)
49. The voice of Alan Watts, and listening to his philosophical lectures
50. Juicy, perfectly ripened slices of watermelon on a hot day, with a little sprinkle of salt or Tajin seasoning
51. Putting on a fresh pair of brand-new socks
52. Putting on some gotch¹ with the exact and optimal fitted contours and dimensions for exemplary containment and comfort, preferably from just out of the dryer
53. Finding shoes that actually fit my strangely configured feet
54. Meeting a goal and crossing it off a checklist: no matter how small or trivial – it’s accomplishment
55. Watching young kids learn things using all their senses, attention, and fascination, and listening to some of the interesting questions and observations they come up with
56. Hikes through the wilderness (foraging for stuff)
57. Discovering new ways of not wasting stuff (energy, food, water, discarded material, etc.)
58. Fishing (especially if there is a prize catch)
59. My bathrobe, and having cozy days when I don’t have to wear anything else but that; being liberated from wearing pants at its finest
60. Long soaks in the tub full of Espom salts (feeling relieved more than happy)
61. Playing Scrabble
62. Playing Backgammon
63. Trips to food shops with strange and exotic merchandise
64. Connecting to foreign strangers when I greet and thank them in their native language
65. Swimming in the ocean: I discovered that I can actually float and (sort of) swim in saltwater
66. Seeing pictures of some of my friends’ babies
67. Puppies – you truly would have to be some kind of soulless psychopathic monster if you don’t find puppies adorable
68. Running – if done right, one does indeed experience a runner’s high
69. The best part of running: pulling off the shoes afterward, super endorphin rush there
70. The first new snow of winter: the only minute fraction about winter I like apart from . . .
71.  Christmas
72. Seeing the winter landscapes covered with hoarfrost
73. The unique winter solstice my girlfriend and I celebrate: Yule Bookfest
74. Cannabis is legal here in Canada - even though I myself am a non-user, I’m happy when stupidly archaic, overly punitive, and useless laws and prohibitions get repealed
75. Universal healthcare in this nation, with Pharmacare in the works as a possible reality here too in the near future
76. My laptop computer
77. My smartphone
78. The internet
79. The wonderful electrical and telecommunications networks we have for making all this stuff work
80. The mobility that all points 76 to 80 allow me in this country
81. The fact that I can drink the tap water here
82. Whenever I don’t have to wake up to an alarm clock
83. Functioning flush toilets
84. Reliable postal service (live outside of Canada for a while in a developing country fraught with mail theft, and it becomes something that you won’t ever take for granted ever again)
85. Fresh fruit and vegetables when in season
86. Owls – for no other reason than I just think that they are uniquely evolved and fascinating types of birds of prey. Creatures with proportionately huge eyes to body size capture my attention in general
87. The kind of technology that comes around that makes you wonder how you were ever able to survive without it
88. Infographic and flowcharts that better allow me to visualize data
89. I have air conditioning in my home (and car) if I need it
90. It doesn’t get to be plus 40 degrees with 95% humidity here (I can tolerate -40 with -50 wind chill over that
91. I have a perfectly sized living space that’s adequate for my needs
92. A super heavy quilt to crawl under in winter evenings, especially after . . . 
93. Nordic skiing
94. For cooking, realizing the combinatorial mathematics in crafting and blending things up for stuff like toppings for pizza, fillings for a sandwich, or seasonings and marinades for barbequing. When it comes down to it, you can ultimately have an infinite selection for any pizza, sandwich, or BBQ, or at least more than you’ll ever get to sample in your entire lifetime. It’s mindful abundance at its best
95. Perhaps a silly detail to include, but I’m happy to have something like insurance. I hope that I ultimately won’t need to use it for some disaster
96. Happy to be living in a city with lots of parks and greenspace
97. Single malt scotch (not too smoky, with more notes of caramel and aged leather), a decadent pleasure
98. Margaritas: the only tolerable way to consume tequila  
99. I have my own washer and dryer in my suite, and there’s no more need to experience the hell of using a public laundromat
100. The sound of Ella snoring: because she’s an old girl, it let’s me know that she’s still alive
101. Slipping on a bunnyhug² once the evening chill comes on
102. My commute is only 12 minutes by car, 20 minutes by bike
103. Peeling a tangerine in one long intact piece of rind, crumpling that up and giving that a squeeze, and smelling the aroma of it. It immediately takes me to a happy place
104. Cheese and pickles, in any form
105. Discovering when any species of wildlife has been taken off the endangered species list
106. My pantry and freezer: both are always full of options that prevent both boredom and starvation
107. The Saskatoon Public Library: I love free reading materials, plus exercising my intellectual freedom
108. Alternately, all the bookshops in Saskatoon
109. Scientific and historical non-fiction, especially material written by Michael Pollan, and Bill Bryson
110. Novels by Jonas Jonasson (the funniest Swedish author ever; if there are funnier, please let me know)
111. Technological, medical (and overall social) advances and breakthroughs that bring more independence, ability, and access to the world for people with various disabilities.
112. Perusing national and global statistics, making comparisons in terms of what can be linked to progress and overall wellness (incredibly nerdy stuff, but hey, that’s just me being me!)
113. Cozy darkness, involving various forms of snuggling
114. My leisure time coffee (sugar and cream), otherwise I take it black while at work
115. My rockabilia T-shirt collection
116. Interesting logic and math puzzles
117. All the powerful and constructive things that can be done with a simple pen and paper, and a little imagination
118. Success stories involving the implementation of greener, cleaner, alternative energy technologies, and efforts to better recycle and repurpose the waste we’ve already left on this planet
119. The concept and practice of etherealization: being able to do more with less material and energy
120. Jeopardy!, bar room trivia contests, and other ways to bleed off the pressure from all the trivial facts building up in my head (making otherwise useless information potentially useful, even if the outcome is just scoring some winning free drinks)
121. Road trips when driving isn’t too overstimulating (Saskatchewan is perfect for this)
122. Lastly, for now, the simple fact that when I encounter people who are greedy and yet wasteful consumers, and who may start to judge me; thinking that they are somehow superior to me because I have less than them, I can counter back to them saying that I have something that they don’t seem to have. That is, that I have the knowledge that I already have enough. Sure, more is nice, but enough is a good start. The constant pursuit of more often just brings more unhappiness because you have more to protect, defend, and ultimately worry about. It’s another good lesson that I acquired from this book.

Standing back and re-reading all this, the thing I notice about this list is that most of this stuff is achievable for very little, or no money at all, so it should not be that hard to find happiness. Nothing on here is really centred on politics or religious beliefs, or some other thing that’s generally seen as a violation to another’s sense of well-being; which for me is the base all the crap that makes the news so unbearably ridiculous to watch. I quit deluding myself in thinking that those things will ever make me happier. That’s the stuff that anchors people to their negative thoughts and beliefs, to give themselves permission to seize and hold on to some prejudice, or otherwise actively postponing happiness until condition X, or other variable, is met, (utterly stupid stuff like, for example: “Oh I’ll be happy when X is voted out of (or into) office, I just have to wait through the four years for that to happen and endure the misery and react with conflictive drama that I chose to dream up and speculate for it”; “I’ll be happy when they get tough on all these X people from doing Y behaviour(s), by taking Z action(s) on them. Hell, I’ll even support some measures of authoritarian fascism to have that happen.”, or “I’ll be happy when I meet my lord X, (Jesus, Allah, or some other dreamt up omnipotent patriarchal monarch figure) in heaven! I just have to wait out the rest of my lifetime being sanctimonious, hypocritical, wishing ill on non-believers, and following cult teachings until that may happen”. Those are just coping mechanisms at best; embracing such things rarely sets up a stage for any period of lasting contentment, especially when you are constantly facing people with differing or polar opposite opinions and ideas than you have.

A list of a hundred and twenty-two items is a pretty good start, and after listing all this I do indeed at least have some elevated spirits, despite still being stricken with a cold. There is more stuff yet, but it’s too personal to post here. I should continue and aim for 365 items after posting this, so there is at least one thing for every day of the year to be grateful for. I’m now happy that I’m a third of the way there (#123).

1.1.Gotch – Canadian English colloquialism meaning men’s underwear

2.2.Bunnyhug – Saskatchewan English, meaning a pullover hooded jersey

5Q5A: Summer Vacation 2019

I’ve been fortunate to have booked time off for holidays for this part of summer that coincide with those of my girlfriend. We spent this past Fathers’ Day Sunday at my parents’ place; having a good visit with them. On the way back home, we talked about this and that in terms of how we were going to use the rest of the days during the time off: for things and events both together as a couple, and for each others’ personal time separately. She asked me if I did any blogging lately, and it struck me that I didn’t write or post anything for the longest while. I have no answer as to why such a lapse happened, except for the fact that sharing the delightful company with such a lovely, intelligent, and talented person occupies more of my thoughts and time now; I’ve been finding more solace in that now than I do in any writing. To keep myself focused, I resume the rest of this entry in 5Q5A format.


Q1. What whammies am I having to deal with this time around for this summer holiday?


A1. It never fails. I always seem to get some curve ball pitched at me that serves to be some obstacle to contend with, impeding me from having a completely blissful summer holiday; mostly in the form of unwelcome and unexpected expenses needed to rectify something requiring immediate attention. It has been becoming a repeated and inevitable cycle annually: a regular expectation that some freakish issue or series of unfortunate events will manifest themselves to make this happen. Last year, it was emergency surgery for my dog. This year, the (sometimes excruciating) state of my own knees and hips demanded that I replace some orthotics immediately (it greatly also affects how active I can be). Add to that, there is a malfunctioning dishwasher (drainage issues) to fix now. Instead of freely frolicking around elsewhere, I’m now relegated to take a crash course in how to be an appliance technician, or someone who may need to call a certified one if I can’t fix the problem myself. No functioning dishwasher means no way to properly sanitize bottles and equipment for beermaking: the other project I wanted to do this week. Added to that are repercussions of work-related issues that I choose not to explain here. It’s most definitely an unsatisfactory use of part of my holiday time. However, I do keep myself grounded by reminding myself that whatever problems I have during this time, they are pretty darn minimal compared to most those of the people I work for.


Q2. What cerebral things are becoming entertaining this time around (things in the mind that one can do that don’t need a specific or physical time and place)?


A2. Lately, I’ve been becoming intrigued with learning more of the nuances of poker: Texas Hold’em poker specifically. Aside from playing the actual game itself, it’s also a playful challenge in mastering being able to mentally wrangle things like the hole card rankings, pot odds, and putting other charts, tables, and other statistics into some mnemonic order. The technical side of playing the game (playing a tighter game) has improved a lot for me; the psychological (mastering effective bluffing) part of the game will always be a work in progress. I’m giving it a break for now; not allowing it to become an unhealthy, addictive, obsession.


Q3. If expense and travel time weren’t factors, what would have the plans otherwise been?

A3. Probably going on a road trip to Waterton Lakes National Park – getting away from this drought zone and enjoying the Rocky Mountain air may do us both some good.


Q4. If instead then resorting to cheap(er) thrills, what are they?


A4. Checking out and exploring the yet unvisited and unknown local shops in and out of town that cater to our eclectic and esoteric interests; and fashioning the odd little feast for us to indulge in throughout the week is also in the works. Using my moments of solitude, like this one, in my mornings and afternoons just be content to sit outside and chill out, playing my favourite music, with either coffee/beer/strong badass cocktails, with my laptop or notebooks, plotting my own little schemes of world domination for new world order (at least for my own little singular point of this world anyway).


Q5. What is the happiness being enjoyed in the here and now?
  

A5. At this moment, making a pleasant discovery about my dishwasher and being able to announce and exclaim, “Yay! The <bleep>ing thing drained completely!!!”, to my girlfriend in a text message. It’s like I successfully passed some sort of adulting test through appliance repair. Now I’m relieved and freer to enjoy the rest of this week in peace.


Addendum: I found and started reading a book later in the day about happiness; which itself seems like a fitting thing to do on a holiday. The Happiness Equation by Neil Pasricha was my chosen non-fiction read of the week. One of the better lessons in it is that you should never make yourself too busy for the dear people who matter to you.