There are very few consistencies on this website. Pretty much the only one is the year review and accountability for the following. This is that post.

Review of 2022 and Goals

Going through the goals from 2022.

Rent The House

I’m giving myself a check on this. The original goal was to try and rent the home for the summer and live with my parents or in the van or somewhere else over the summer. The problem came in with the dog. While I can easily find a place to stay, it’s not always as easy to find a place to stay with Coco. I originally wanted to go the West Coast for the summer, but decided against that. With all those factors, I decided to find roommates instead of renting the whole house.

I found roommates and have been renting rooms since August. That counts as win here.

Learn to Cook More

This one is not a win. This is a fail. I cooked a bit and I learned a few things here and there, but I’m not cooking nearly enough to be the adult I want to be. Plus cooking is really just applied chemistry. This stuff should be fun.

1000 Miles By Foot

I missed this. But instead of calling at complete loss. I did about 510 miles before my watch stopped syncing with my phone. This is about 50% of goal, which is failing. Still 500+ miles is still an accomplishment. This setting the foundation for what I’m doing next year.

It turns out that I really don’t like running. The problem with a 1000 miles on foot goal is that you are then spending a bunch of time running or walking. There is no way around it. You have to. To address this, next year I’m going to add a goal that adds in biking and I’m pretty excited about that as well.

Dance More

Definitely fail. I did no organized dancing this year. Part of it was that I wasn’t ready to find a community and part of it was a lack of effort from my part.

Get Better at Cleanliness

Cleaning is a constant process. It’s ongoing and every present. I will NEVER be to the level of this that my parents will be happy with. I still have work to go before I’m happy. But did I make progress? I have cleaners coming every other week. I’ve worked on putting some things away. I definitely feel like I’m making progress.

Working with others

This is a vague representation of the actual goal in my notes. I don’t feel comfortable talking about the specifics of the actual goal. I’m better at working with others, I’m not done with this. I’m on a journey here and still have room for growth.

Write the Acroyoga Field Guide

I’ve started this project in many different ways, I’ve got notes for days. I have ideas I have pieces, but the guide isn’t done. Still have more work to do here.

Consolidate and Minimize

Um, completely the opposite of this has happened in my life. I have more hobbies than I did at the beginning of last year. I have more gear than I had in the past. I have more stuff. I have maximized where I could have minimized.

2022 In Review

This has been a year. Here is an outline of some of the details

• Dealt with the ending of the most significant relationship of my adult life.
• Learned to sew on real sewing machines. I finally understand why a Sailrite costs so much.
• Received a boat and begun the work of restoring it.
• Have given my dog some pretty bad habits and am starting the process of fixing them.
• Set a personal CrossFit Scale Record at 795.
• Traveled to the West Coast for the Holidays but was too sick to attend to Christmas Dinner.
• Finally feeling like I own extended hand to hand with some flyers.
• Worked on the Acroyoga community in Newport.

There are many more events in a year than I can capture in these notes, but this is what is top of mind.

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Upcoming 2023

Reflecting on the goals in 2022, there were far too many to achieve the success I wanted. I have a couple of specific fitness related targets, but for the most part I want to shift this year to focus on working on my identity over specific goals.

For background, I’m reading the book Atomic Habits as I drive these days. There are a lot of very interesting bits of this book. So far, my favorite story is about the “aggregation of marginal gains” from the British Cycling coach Dave Brailsford. He proposed making many small changes the way the cycling team was working in order to try and get a significant improvement in the results of the team. Small things like teaching the cyclists the most effective way to wash their hands to reduce the amount of time they get sick made a huge deal and eventually lead to some major wins by British Cycling who had been pretty quiet in years past.

I’m going for a year of small gains. Many small gains. This is the year of finding small ways in the hopes that it makes a larger goal.

Fitness goals

The one area where there are concrete measurements are in the fitness category. I have two very specific fitness goals.

• Lose 60 lbs. I started at 262 last week. This is the heaviest I’ve been. There are plenty of reasons I’m at this weight, but I don’t like it. Being this heavy has a lot of negative side effects. I’m changing this. I’m going live the healthy lifestyle I want.
• Travel 3,136 miles by foot and bike. This is the distance from Portland, ME to San Diego, CA. A long term dream of mine is to bike across the country. This is a step in that direction. If I can’t do the distance in a year, how am I going to be able to do it in a row? Building on top of last year, this goal I’m adding in biking to try and focus on a cardio source I really do love.

Conclusion

There are a lot of other things I want to accomplish this year, this is just a hint of where I’d like to go. From my projects with zacroyga and zacks_packs, to personal reading and writing goals, to social and economic goals, to working on the house. Still this is a pretty strong starting point and I’m excited to see what 2023 brings.

One of the things that I”m reading suggests that i put more time towards creating vs consuming. I agree. I read all day, every day. I write occasionally. I write for my company more than I write for myself or the world.

I live in my dream town. I was worried about living here. Would I eventually become tired of the world around me? Would the amazing feelings become mundane? Would the romance of the space be replaced by the monotony of living here every day.

The truth of the matter is that some of it has. Some of the romance has faded. Some of the wonderful moments of each and every day are issued. I don’t walk the streets the way I did. I don’t hang on every photograph I can take. I see moments and live in them and let them pass without capture or hunger for remembering them forever.

But there is beauty in this too. There is beauty in seeing the world around me become regular. Regular enough that I’m not troubled by experiencing EVERY, LITTLE, MOMENT. I can let this moment pass because there will be an equally amazing moment tomorrow, or the next day.

I still love Newport. I love the fact that I don’t drive nearly as much as I used to. I love the fact that I work remotely from a home in a town that I love. I miss my friends. I miss some of the amenities of living in places with more people. I miss some of the amenities of living in a space where driving is normal and there is more variability of what one can reach without crossing a body of water.

I still love this town. I don’t know enough about this town. I’m hoping to learn and put together more information on it, and to that point to share it with whomever wants to read it.

My company did a new caricature of me for our logo wall and I’m a pretty big fan. I’ve had stickers made, and will continue to have fun things made with the new design. For inspiration I gave them: pink, sunglasses, acroyoga and unicorn. This is what I ended up with:

Thanks Airkit.

The pilot episode of the West Wing is one of my favorite TV episodes of all time. I love the writing of the show, and I really resonate with some of the characters on the show. In the episode, Josh’s job is in jeopardy and he might get fired by the president. There is a ton more in the plot of the episode including one of my favorite lines of the entire show “… a sudden arboreal stop.”

While all of this is captivating the last scene of the show talks about how they seem to all have been taking a break and it is time to get back to work. The president says, “breaks are good”, and then generally goes on to say it is always good to take a break once in a while to clear one’s head before resuming work. He goes on to say that the break is over and the time for action is now.

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This parallels where I feel like I’ve been for a while. Some of it by choice some of it by force. Covid caused me to slow down a lot. I was in the gym every morning and doing acro or something fun every evening before covid started. I was living in California, biking a lot, swimming a little, and climbing and adventuring a ton. Taking photographs with my friends, and traveling to fun spots to take photos. With the pandemic that all ground to a halt. I moved from California back to the east coast and found some fun new hobbies, including coffee, sewing, my dog, taking care of my house, and repairing a boat (which I’ll admit, I’m not good at yet, but I will get good, and my boat will be awesome someday).

Still while finding these hobbies it was hard for me to really grow the way I wanted to grow. I have gained more projects without finishing them. I need to finish. I need to do. I need to MOVE, and I’ve started doing that. The dog makes me get up at 6 in the morning, we go to the beach and I walk a mile (yes, I haven’t posted an update on goals recently, and I’ll admit, I’m not doing great on my 1000-mile goal for the year, but I guarantee I will get more than half of that, which is still a pretty freaking big improvement from last year).

I have started a couple of businesses, one around sewing and one around technology support, both of which are just getting off the ground. It’s not like I’m not doing things, but I have felt clouded. I have felt blocked by something external. Something intrinsic to my life, but something I can’t place a finger on. Finally, I feel like it is lifting and I’m doing things. It might be connected to movement. I’ve gone from not doing much movement to doing a fair bunch. We are acroyoga-ing several times a week and it is fun. I’m walking every day. I’m going back to Crossfit.

So in short, breaks are good, and I don’t lament, resent, or discount my break, but it’s time to put my head down and get back to work!

This is a down week. Some of the reasons I can’t fully share, some of them I can.

My 99 1/2 year old neighbor passed on July 4th. He had been in the house the entire time my family had been in the area and he was always super nice and cool to me. He was super sharp until the end and was still working as an attorney. There is no service for him. He outlasted his family and pets, so doesn’t have a huge amount of community, but he was an awesome man.

The economy in general is starting to get pretty rough and that is not helping with work.

I’ve run into some interpersonal drama in my social circles.

My family is in town which is both awesome and stressful. I don’t really feel myself with my family. Can’t really explain.

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The point is this week has been heading down. We could keep it going down or I can turn the frown upside down and start making things better. Remember there are positives in this week too. My family is in town so I’ve had lots of laughs. We got to sail a bit which was also nice. It’s a shorter week because of the holiday.

This post is rambling, but so often we see positivity in this world. It’s hard to remember that moments aren’t always positive. Sometimes they are sad, negative, hurtful, but our lives are a collection of moments. The variation in moments allow us to fully feel the positive ones. Sometimes there is nothing wrong with feeling a different emotion in a moment. Sometimes the moment ahead is the exciting one.

A friend of mine posted on Instagram the other day about how too many people aren’t standing up for this issue. I’m not sure what my track record is on standing up, but hoping to make a stand here, at least.

What has happened in this country with the overturning of Roe V. Wade is crazy. It’s crazy for a bunch of reasons. Not the least of which is stare decisis in which a decision was made a long time ago but the current make of the court isn’t standing on precedent and just overruling the existing world. While that isn’t my moral feeling on this, and morally I think we need to allow people to have freedoms, the issue of consistency of law is a big one. The law was set, and now the judges have unset the law.

Beyond all of that, the thing that gets to me is that everyone thinks of this as a 3 / 6 decision. It’s not, it’s actually a 3 / 1 / 5 decision. Also, I don’t even really know each of the justices on the court. I’d really like to change that. I’d like to understand who is an ally and who is against personal freedoms in a way that makes sense.

Judges

John G. Roberts

Chose to not agree fully with the removal of Roe V. Wade, but did think that the Dobbs law should be overturned. While I’m not a conservative, this seems to strike a middle position. Believing that the law should be overturned in Mississippi is not the same as meaning that Roe was just wrong. So while I don’t share Robert’s view on this case, his view of Roe continuing to exist is something I agree with. Nomimated as Chief Justice by George W. Bush (jr) and took his seat in 2005.

Clarence Thomas

Sided with the majority in ruling to overturn Roe V. Wade and remove the constitutional right to an abortion. Conservative judge and definitely someone whose views I’m personally afraid of. Nominated by President Bush (sr) and began serving in 1991.

Stephen Breyer

Part of the minority voted against the decision. He was nominated by President Clinton and took his seat in 1994.

Samuel A. Alito

Wrote the opinion for the majority, and in my mind has a very closed mind. Nominated by George W. Bush (jr) and took his seat in 2006.

Sonia Sotomayor

Part of the minority descent against the decision. Was nominated by Obama and took her seat in 2009.

Elena Kegan

Part of the minority descent against the decision. Was nominated by President Obama and took her seat in 2010.

Niel M. Gorsuch

Joined the majority opinion. Was nominated by Trump and took his seat in 2017.

Brett M. Kavanaugh

Joined the majority opinion. Was nominated by Trump and took his seat in 2018.

Amy Coney Barrett

Joined the majority opinion. Was nominated by Trump and took her seat in 2020.

Understanding this all

I was listening to What Roman Mars Can Learn About Con Law, and they made a very interesting point that is clear from the nominations and seats from above. This shouldn’t have been a surprise. This was going to happen based on the liberal judges that were put in place. This has been coming for a very long time.

This makes me think about some very big questions:

• Should we put a term limit on judges now that the human life expectancy is so much longer than in the past?
• Should there be more means to remove judges that don’t reflect the belief structure of the American people?
• Was there really anything the democrats could have done to prevent the appointment of Amy Coney Barret?

There are questions about what should have happened in the past and what we can do in the future. I wish the path forward to really making a change was clear, but it isn’t. Do we need to move to red states where our voices will be more valuable?

I’m hunting for answers in this, and don’t have any. If you have a way to organize and do something, please share. I feel very powerless at this moment.

1000 Miles Project

I did not get all the miles I needed last week. This is the final week of the month and I’m at 70 miles as of this morning. I did a 5K with run / walk method in under 42 minutes so that time is improving and I’m hoping to get over 80 by April 1.

While I might not be at my goal of getting back up over 90 miles this month, I do have a chance of actually improving month over month. I’m moving in the right direction in terms of miles. Each month is more than the last. Anyway, hoping for at least 10 miles this week!

Cooking For Myself

Not winning here, but not completely losing. I’ve eaten out too much, but I did go to the grocery store again last week so I’m moving in the right direction. I just need to plan for and cook more dinners.

Cleaning the House

There was a day last week when most of the downstairs was put away. I’ve brought in more things from the van, and I”ve moved some stuff around, but the house is actually getting there. I was also surprised about how little time this actually required when I committed myself to do it. This might be a big thanks from the R&R day at work.

Getting My Life In Order

I’ll call it a win. Today at the Finance time at the coffee shop I went through a bunch of my unknown expenses in YNAB and started to label them. Thinking of budget in this way is healthy and I’m pretty excited to be doing this. I’m not sure how long it will take me to be fully successful here, but progress is good!

Clubs

Last week I started clubs at the coffee shop. No one joined me, sadly. Still, it is good to have that time set aside for me to do each of the weekly projects. Today during finance I got through all my uncategorized expenses on YNAB. I did some fun art last week and I’m excited about doing that again tomorrow. I took my camera out for the first time in a while last week and took a few frames. Progress in all these areas is fun.

1000 Miles Project

I’m still behind. Both in the course of this year and in the course of the month, but there were some circumstances last week that made it a little more challenging. With my birthday and hack day being on the same week there were a couple of days that I didn’t get any real miles. I tried to make it up over the weekend, but fell a couple of miles short. I’m at about 58 for the month, and about 220 miles or so for the year which is not nothing, but isn’t where I need to be.

Walking with the dog can range anywhere from 19 minutes a mile to 32 minutes depending on how she is behaving. Going to the gym and running on the treadmill means I get more than 4 miles an hour so the plan is to start shifting more of mile activity to the gym and try to get ahead in the last couple weeks of the month.

Cooking for myself

Not super great on this front. I ate out a bunch, but often keep on saving left overs so that I have more food for multiple days which is good. The real challenge is that I don’t go the grocery store to pick up food on a regular basis and I need to change that. I looked at signing up for a local milk delivery service that might also bring in produce that could start changing this habit.

Cleaning the House

The more I think about this, the more it is a matter of figuring what I want MY house to look like. It has been the family house for so long that I’m not entirely sure what a house of mine would look like. What is the art? What is the furniture? What stays and what goes? It doesn’t help that there are still things from my mom everywhere that need to be moved out.

I’m making a conscious effort to spend more time on Sunday cleaning which is good, but won’t be enough for the initial effort of getting this place the way I want. Still I’m moving along at it and at least making some real progress.

Renting the house

Cleaning the house has to come first. I have som plans for what I want to do there, but the house needs to be in better shape before this happens. I’m still waffling between getting a permanent roommate, or just renting for the summer.

New Project Alert:

I’m going to start clubs at Simple Merchant Coffee. A different club for each day of the week. This is the current plan:

Monday	Life Hacking and Personal Finance
Tuesday	Art (drawing and painting)
Wednesday	Photography Day
Thursday	Math (both generic and discrete math)
Friday	Earth Sciences (and other sciences if needed)
Saturday	Book Club
Sunday	Coffee Club, discuss quality of coffee.

Step next will be to create a google form for sign up and interest in the clubs. Hopefully start a mailing list of some sort to remind people.

I’m still trying to figure out how long I want the meetings to be. A quick 15 minute gathering? A full hour seems like too much. We will figure it out.

This is my beginning of march update.

1000 Mile year

Despite having a VERY strong start to the month, I fell off at the end. This was mostly due to the fact that there was a BUNCH of traveling in the month. I got to about 71 miles when my target was 77. Combine that with my 49 or so miles from January and I’m at about 120 miles so far for the year.

While it is disappointing that I did not hit my target, the trajectory is definitely going in the right direction. If my pattern continues I should be over 90 miles this month? We’ll see. I did sign up for Planet Fitness (which is the cheapest gym with a treadmill near me). I’m two days into the month and only at 3 miles, but hoping to go to the gym tonight to catch up a little.

Acroyoga Field Guide

I started and stop and started again. I’m stuck with how I want this book to look. Do I want it to be a small book with a bunch of references that I carry around or do I want it to have a lot more information with a bunch more instruction? I’m leaning towards the latter. Either way, I’m not sure Pandoc is actually the tool I want. I’ve switched to 11ty and I’m making some progress there. I’m mostly just learning the platform.

I’m pretty convinced the content will be free on the website and the purchased book will cost money. I’m not 100% sure how it will all work, but I’m operating on that framework.

Renting the House

Starting to clean a bunch. I have lots of unpacking and a bunch of cleaning to do before I’m at the stage to rent the house. I’m trying to recruit my brothers to come and help with a weekend of home repair as we get stuff ready.

I’m also considering doing something crazy and getting a roommate instead of renting the house for the summer. This would allow me to be here on a more year-round basis.

Other Goals

Still hunting for local dance lessons, haven’t found any I’m excited about.

I’m working on learning to cook, but my family took some of my pots when they went to the boat so I still need to buy a couple of things to be very self-sufficient. I also really need to go grocery shopping. That being said, I have been making most of my meals at home, even if they are from limited stuff I’ve found around the house (lots of PB+J).