justintfirefly

August In Review, September Check-In

Earlier this week I gave one of my employees an assignment that involved a lot of “machine work” – not necessarily minutiae or monkey work but repetitive data-entry-style work that for better or worse is just sometimes a part of the job. This kind of thing can get boring pretty quickly so I’ve learned over the last (almost) 12 years that it’s best to put on some freaky YouTube videos or some interesting music in the background while you’re doing it. I told him that I’ve found it helps to include either Black Metal or Smooth Jazz in the mix and he said he was already a step ahead of me.

I’d later find out that he meant he knew about the project I was officially assigning him but for a moment I thought he already had a Black Metal/Smooth Jazz playlist queued up, or maybe he had an artist in mind who somehow mashes the up the two genres (so far Kim Dracula is the only one I know who utilizes elements of both but it’s hardly a mashup). The violent swing from the screechy, grinding elements of Black Metal to the hypnotic, almost hallucinatory elements of certain Jazz may throw many people off, but that’s just a day in the life of my music taste.

This month I’ve been diving into a wider variety of music than usual with selections by:

Variety is the spice of life, they say, and I guess I’m getting all the flavor imaginable. This month has consisted of the single most stressful week of work I’ve experienced in the last decade, dreams about rescuing Brüe from a bear, incredible frustration with Tennessee’s government and a helluva lot of getting shit done.

Allow me to elaborate.

Goals I’ve Kept Up With:

Clean Eating & The Spirit Returns

As of today I am one day away from being finished with Week 7 of the Spirit Returns program, which means I’m on the heavy-lifting 5/3/1 segment of phase 2. I’m pleased with how it’s all gone so far. I’ve gotten noticeably stronger already and my chest, arms and legs have grown. My weight has fluctuated from as low as 231 to as high as 239 in the last month so who even knows what’s happening there. I’m not trying to lose weight, though, so I don’t really care.

Lately I’ve been embracing post-workout carbs and I’m really digging it. I still have my protein shake as always but I’ve been adding a serving of oatmeal or a banana-protein muffin (homemade, of course). It’s too soon to tell if it’s actually helping me but I’m definitely enjoying it.

3-Month Goal – Read 3 New Books (15 Books, 12 Month Goal)

Woah. August was a BIG month for books for me! I was finally able to finish the last bit of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values by Robert M. Pirsig. I give the book a solid A! I then knocked out Coach to Coach: An Empowering Story About How to Be a Great Leader by Martin Rooney (D+) and The Art of War by Sun Tzu (C-). That brings my book total for the year to 12, which was my original year-end goal! Today my random number generator chose my next book: Punk Rock Blitzkrieg: My Life as a Ramone by Marky Ramone.

More Writing 

I have written at least a little bit almost every day for the last month, which feels great! Just in August I posted my July Review and five Albums That Influenced My Taste In Music posts (including Green Day, AC/DC, Iron Maiden, KISS and Mayhem). I also spent some time ironing out a guest post for Katie’s blog detailing the fab design aspects of a modern mountain cabin Airbnb we stayed in while visiting Asheville recently. It has to be checked by the boss lady and made CMS-ready by her assistant but after the necessary edits I’ll be a published author on the blog of Knoxville’s hottest interior designer! 

List On The Other Page

I realize this may seem vague but I have a to-do list on my June-September goal-setting section of my planner and one of the written goals was to complete all the items off it. As of today, I’ve accomplished almost everything, leaving a single project with four weeks left to complete. SURELY I can knock it out!

Life SAVERS+P

I’ve been tracking my time spent practicing Silence, Affirmations, Visualization, Exercise, Reading, Scribing and Playing in my planner and it’s been rad. I haven’t hit all the goals every day but I usually hit most of them most days – and all of them frequently. I’ve been utilizing some podcasts like 3 Minute Meditation for my silence and Think Positive: Daily Affirmations by Dachia Arritola for those affirmations and it’s been SUPER convenient and helpful. 

12 Blog Posts

Honestly I had kind of forgotten that I had set a goal for my June-September timeline to write 12 new blog posts. If you count this one, I’ve now written 11 with a month to go! You could even call it 12 if Katie publishes my guest post for her blog this month! Kinda killing it here.

Goals that Need Revision:

Clean Eating & The Spirit Returns

I realize it may be confusing that this particular goal is on both the “good” list and the “bad” simultaneously. Truth is, I am killing it at completing this program as designed but the truth is also that I need to switch it up sooner rather than later. With a full five weeks left on this program, I have decided to wrap up week eight (de-load week, phase 2) then fire up a different program. This is good because that will get me through the mud run I’m scheduled to participate in later in September.

So why the change? I recently had a not-so-friendly interaction with my soon-to-be-former doctor about some of my lab readings. I won’t use this platform to drag her name through the mud but it was incredibly unprofessional. At the end of the day, however, my numbers are still alarming and in an attempt to, you know, not die before I turn 100, I’m going to be making some changes. I’m working on the program design right now but it will consist of many days of lifting, daily cardio and a nutrition plan that’s heavily inspired by DASH. I also plan to document the whole thing — my blood pressure, my body fat, my weight, my supplements, my workouts … all of it. And since I don’t have my fitness blog anymore, guess where that information is going to land!? Anyway, stay tuned for that.

New Goals:

None this month!

Goals I’m Letting Go:

Warning

A while back I said I was going to take on learning Green Day’s album Warning on guitar just like I had Dookie, Insomniac and Nimrod. I was able to get through “Warning,” “Blood, Sex and Booze,” “Church on Sunday,” “Fashion Victim,” “Castaway” and “Misery” before I got tired of the project and went a different direction. I’ve since learned how to play “Anarchy in the UK” by the Sex Pistols, “Should I Stay or Should I Go” by the Clash and added “Where Eagles Dare” to my Misfits repertoire. Randomly this morning I learned how to play “Stand By Me” on bass because it was in my head for some reason. Anyway, I’m still playing, just knocking off the Green Day project for a while.

Rad Things From August:

In August, I grilled what felt like 4,000 homegrown tomatoes for Katie to use in homemade salsa, made smash burgers, fajitas and hibachi chicken with fried rice on the Blackstone, made Katie biscuits and gravy for the first time (she usually makes it for me and I’ve been holding out because I’m spoiled), helped Katie make and portion a TON of homemade vegetable broth, started going back to the office two days a week, went on a short weekend vacation to Asheville, got strangely sunburned while tubing, enjoyed my first raclette with prosciutto over figs and crostini, dunked corn-dog nuggets in cheese fondue, entered to win a photoshoot and cash prize with Inked Magazine (I’m somehow doing really well), applied for my first ghostwriting gig, supported the local horror scene at CreepyCon and enjoyed a bangin’ root beer float from Cruze Farm. 

One of my podcasts’ affirmations today was “I love meeting new people and being social.”

LOLNo

Rumor has it Katie and I are going to be staying home for a while as we get our finances, sanity and well-being back together and I’m glad. I think our next shindig is going to be a Halloween party and I’m considering dressing as Hollywood Hulk Hogan but we’ll see.

Either way, whatchu gonna do? 

See what I did there? Ever onward.

-JS

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