I was getting burned out a bit on some of our staple go-to options, and decided to splurge on something a bit different. I was looking up Chinese restaurants in the area, and happened randomly across Qing Xiang Yuan Dumplings.
After a solid, several few weeks of just non-stop work… the last thing I’d personally want to do is house work. But I’m not Liz, who suited up tonight and spent time in the basement… continuing her pocket door cleanup work.
A long while back, I signed up for Google Stadia. It seemed a neat thing (play the latest video games without needing to have a super powerful computer – use one of Google’s, and do it remotly over the Internet).
Tonight thought, we both ended work a little earlier than usual. And so we set up outside, for one last fire that might be the last time we do this, given the colder days ahead.
“Negative emotions are various but they are similar in one dimension, which is it hurts and leads people to react, to amend, to try to counter the negative feelings. One possible way to recover – or to generate positive utility – is to seek nostalgia that reminds people of the good old days.”
I have had and seen coworkers burn out. So far, I’ve been holding pretty steady… but there’s a part of me that wonders how long until I go the same way. Liz and I have talked, briefly, about trying to come up with ways to better separate our work and personal lives. Because so far this year, we’ve not done a great job of that.
I was working on the house recently, and when I was looking for music to play… ended up looking at my Spotify collection by Album (sorting only by album name).
This was a fun thing, as I ended up remembering a ton of albums I haven’t listened to in… well, in ages. A lot of digging into old favorites, songs from a bygone era.
Without hyperbole, Liz has been working nonstop for weeks now. Late nights during the week, long days over the weekend. As an outside observier: it’s been brutal.
Put in time today in the dining room, also trying to get paper and Masonite down to protect our new floor.
Part of what I did was bring up the table saw, and to do some custom cuts of Masonite. I’m overlapping boards in a few places, but ultimately I’d like to just have a single, smooth surface.
A huge point that both Bob and Nick made to us: tape the paper to the paper, not to the floor. The chemicals from the tape will seep into the wood, and when you go to remove the tape… you’ll remove some of the stain as well. And while it can be repaired, you’ll always be able to tell something happened.
Tape the paper to the paper, tape the Masonite to the Masonite. No tape to the floor, ever.
I’ve been returning to this bit from Dave Chapelle’s SNl monologue from last week. There’s a moment at the end that I thought was particularly spot-on, and worth sharing.
Interesting side fact: I also follow a talented photographer named Jarrad Seng, who ended up touring a lot with Passenger and has directed a lot of videos for him.
It’s odd to see them in this state. Withered from being outside, and a few fresh stems after returning indoors.
There isn’t much to this video. It’s just a snippet of the afternoon, standing on my front porch, as the leaves just seemed to pour down. A hint of fall, a signal of the cold to come.
A quiet, unassuming moment I felt worth capturing.
It’s a challenge with these images, as we only end up coming downstairs well into the evening (we need to wait around 90+ minutes after Nick’s done to walk on the floor). We don’t really get to see the floor much in daylight, as it’s dark when we actually can walk around.