Sep 30
Write “OYSTER” in the sand. Face the San Francisco Bay and bark like a seal. Do a handstand for five seconds. Hold the Golden Gate Bridge in your hands. Twerk. Scrounge for 99 cents even. Run 10 miles. Kayak through the bay. Do some trivia. “Chin” an orange. Slam a beer. Bike 20 miles. Tie shoelaces in an ice bath. Get fish from Point A to Point B. Bowl blindfolded. Scramble some words. Climb a few hundred stairs. Finish. Eat pizza. Sleep like a rock. Read more
A few nights ago our three-year-old was throwing a massive tantrum before bed. It started with a vehement toothbrushing boycott, transitioned into a refusal to go anywhere near her bedroom (I gave up on the toothbrushing with barely a struggle), and culminated into a flat out, lying-on-the-floor, foot-kicking, red-in-the-face episode of screaming “I’m hungry! I need fooooood. I’m SO HUNGRY. I’M SO SO SO HUNNNNNGRY!”
I didn’t reach for the fridge…I started crying. Nearly sobbing, actually. Read more
According to Merriam-Webster, a writer is “someone who has written something.” Bing Dictionary offers up this definition: “somebody who can write: somebody who can write, who writes well, or who enjoys writing.” Hmmm…maybe I can call myself a writer after all, despite the doubts that surrounded me today. Read more
Yesterday marked the official beginning of Fall, a season I experience mostly through nostalgia now that I live in California. As a child growing up in the Midwest, I was acutely aware of Fall’s crispness. Our family often continued living in our summer cottage well into the fall, huddling in front of a glowing red space heater as we got dressed to go to school. We piled on wooly sweaters, raked leaves, and celebrated our progress by jumping into the piles and emerging with heads full of crimson oak leaves. Read more
I sat at a desk today for the whole afternoon. Barely got up. Read and typed and read and typed…things I love to do…but things I’m better doing with some interruption every 90 minutes, or at a standing desk. So between work and picking up the kids, I squeezed in a 45-minute workout. It meant picking up the kids a bit later and sweatier than usual, but it also meant that this happened. Endorphins are flat out magic.
What would you add to this list?
A colleague’s father is ill and deteriorating every day. A friend just failed her second cycle of IVF. My son is struggling with the transition to his afterschool program. Our neighbor’s husband works in New York all week, every week. Our babysitter is worried about how she’ll pay for school. A friend’s child isn’t sleeping at night. I wake up homesick for my parents some mornings. A friend has been suffering from puzzling headaches for months.
After already eating a sugar-laden yogurt and a piece of toast smeared with that totally amazing Justin’s Hazelnut Butter spread (“healthy” Nutella), my son asked if he could have a “treat” (read: sugary something). “No love,” I replied. “You have had enough sugar for today. Sugar isn’t very good for your body.” “Why isn’t it good for me?” he asked? I then racked my brain to think about what a 5-yr-old would be able to understand. “It’s just empty calories,” doesn’t really work when someone has no concept of what a calorie is. Read more
The living room furniture doesn’t match. There isn’t any art hanging over the fireplace.
Home feels like home.
The vegetables in the garden died because we neglected to water them too many times. There is moldy pizza sauce in the back of the fridge.
Our bellies are full and so are our hearts. Read more
The south edge of the office was walled in glass, offering sweeping views of the downtown skyline. And on September 11, it opened a direct line of sight to the terror the nation was watching on TV. Suspended in disbelief, I remember being jolted by someone telling us all to call our families and let them know we were OK. “The phone lines are going to get busy…call right now,” she said. I returned from calling my family a few minutes before the second plane pierced through the second tower. Read more
“If you ask yourself ‘What’s the best thing that happened today?’ it actually forces a certain kind of cheerful retrospection that pulls up from the recent past things to write about that you wouldn’t otherwise think about. If you ask yourself ‘what happened today?’ it’s very likely that you’re going to remember the worst thing, because you’ve had to deal with it. But if you ask what the best thing is, it’s going to some particular slant of light, or some wonderful expression somebody had, or some particularly delicious salad.” – Nicholson Baker Read more
Learning from parenting and life, while trying to get dinner on the table
A quixotic quest for the bright side.
don't sweat the baby stuff
by SBK & Associates
hacking health, designing life
Rudey's Room
Posts with strategies and tactics on building great products and how to be a better leader
Tim Ferriss is the author of five #1 New York Times bestsellers and host of The Tim Ferriss Show podcast.
hacking health, designing life
Marginalia on our search for meaning.
hacking health, designing life
wellfesto 