April 1, 2023
News
The Atlanta tennis court system has apparently changed the company that manages their court booking. This is after changing the company a year ago as well. Each app for the bookings is horrible. Tennis court booking is a very simple problem. There are many competitors. For some reason the city of Atlanta has chosen two atrocious options each after the other. The first one they had was great. Mark my words, there's foul play at work here.
I got a nice bump at work. Going to look at watches later today with my dad. I'm not sure if I will get one... a nice watch is a very extravagant expense. At the least it will be fun to look around at them.
I haven't played the guitar seriously in years. Whenever I try to play now it feels like I am an old man trying to run. My brain knows what it wants to do but I just can't quite make it happen. Oh well... I would love to start off new with music instruments and take up the piano. I think that is my favorite instrument.
Culture
My dad and I went to see Bruce Springsteen in Greensboro, NC. The show was amazing. Bruce Springsteen is 73 years old and it looks impossible that he is that old. His music is phenomenal and the show was really creative and energetic. Consider grabbing some nosebleed seats if he's coming to your city... I wouldn't have wanted to miss it.
My friend drums in a band so I saw her band play recently as well. The singer was amazing. They did covers of "Crazy," the song with Cee Lo Green and "Give me all your love" by Alabama Shakes with that large lady who sings really well. Those covers were phenomenal. Their name is Emde. The covers they did were amazing.
Health
I'm back at it again on my slightly psychopathic health journey to live forever. What's new: cold showers. It's pure pain first thing in the morning. Andrew Huberman and Joe Rogan threw out enough mentions of random body chemicals and scientific studies to convince me that this is a good thing to do. And unsurprisingly.... it's amazing. I get up and get in the shower and sit in the cold water for 3 minutes then I am super energized and ready to attack the day. I've been doing it every day this week and I plan to continue.
In that same vein, the Athletic Greens are here to stay. Again, there probably is a significant placebo effect, but I feel good taking it.
I signed up for a gym to start lifting weights again. I've been jogging to the gym (3/4 mile), lifting weights for about 20 minutes, then jogging back. So it's a really quick workout but it's one that I can do every day. I need a quick workout that I can fit really easily into my day, and so far this has been perfect. I feel a little bit silly going into the gym for just 20 minutes when there's people in there who are staying in there for 2 or 3 hours at a time. But honestly I have things I need to do and I can't spend forever in the gym, I've decided that it's totally fine to get in, do my stuff as quickly as I can, then get out. As long as it's a daily thing I don't think there's an issue with it.
Opinion
A lot of my friends are starting up new projects and adventures in their lives. I think it comes with the season... Spring has sprung and everyone is hopeful and ambitious and excited to start doing things after a long restful Winter. The most difficult thing for me when thinking up new ideas and getting excited about the future is deciding what to do and committing to it for a long time. Nothing comes from anything without sustained commitment. I'm at the point right now where I am finishing up one set of projects — a side coding project and long distance running — and moving onto the next. While the next things are still in flux (as I said, ideas are forming), I feel proud and accomplished that I have achieved what I hoped to with these completed projects. I built a fully featured web app and I ran a marathon. These were my (somewhat tiny) goals, and I can be proud that they were achieved rather than abandoned. It's always extremely easy to chase the next new shiny thing when the old things lose their newness and excitement. So it's an accomplishment in itself just to have been working on these things for as long as I have, especially getting all the way to completion. I'm really happy to hear about all of my friends' projects they are working on and I look forward to seeing them come to fruition.