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       Move your feet
       May 22nd, 2018
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       It's been a while since my last phlog*. I've been wanting to get
       back on gopher and do some serious plain text awesomeness, or at
       least comment on the really cool happenings around the space. Cat,
       love your diet, tell me more! How are you and your partner going
       to handle it when you go back down under? Sparkipx, how's Felix
       holding up now that you've been able to ride for a couple weeks?
       Is it harder to do long distances on a folding bike than
       a non-folding one? I've never tried one before. jynx, I'm totally
       fascinated by single player RPGs and I need to go back through and
       read up on your stuff. Tabletop role-playing is my #1 activity of
       awesome, and that sounds stellar. horsemans has a cool gopher
       wishlist that you guys should check out. I bet you can offer a lot
       of responses there. [0]
       
 (TXT) [0] horesmans - gopher wishlist
       
       Several of you are on vacation or soon returning. Welcome back and
       all that. I hope you'll share insights and adventures. I love
       travel stories so much. Hell, I love STORIES so much. tfurrows,
       I'll be checking out Variations soon! Oh, and I have a Fiskers
       push-mower and it's badass. I have to use it twice a week or the
       grass grows too long for it to be effective. That part sucks. But
       if you have a really small lawn, it's so nice to be able to handle
       it quietly and "naturally".
       
       Recently I've been absorbed in a string of poor projects at work
       that have been eating up my mental energies. The work isn't hard,
       but the clients have been difficult. I've been avoiding
       unnecessary computer time as a way of disconnecting. Marry that up
       with some unexpected (but welcome) consulting work, and my time
       became even more short. Mostly, though, the thing that's kept me
       away is a rededication to that principle I mentioned in recent
       posts, deliberate practice.
       
       I've been working on my shakuhachi quite a bit, and even met with
       my kali instructor in the park at the side of a lake for
       a fantastic jam in the rain. He built me a new shakuhachi, which
       is just fantastic. It's a 1.9 (slightly deeper sound than the
       standard 1.8) jin nashi flute and it's absolutely perfect. I'll be
       sewing a new case for it soon, and an extra for him as well in
       thanks.
       
       I've also been walking a shit-ton. Every morning I wake at 6:35
       and head outside to walk 2 to 2.5 miles on the canal towpath that
       is the road I live on. Each evening, after putting my son to bed,
       I head back outside and do another 2 miles. Sometimes I zip around
       the neighborhood for a change of scenery. Sometimes I head into
       town and walk the sidewalks. Most often I stay next to the canal
       where I know the landscape features that mark my distance by
       heart. I pop headphones in and binge audiobooks while I'm out
       there. It's heaven.
       
       Walking is a "keystone habit" for me, a term I learned from that
       book on Habits with the yellow cover that I can't remember the
       name of. When I walk, I do other good things as well. I eat well,
       I sleep well, I think clearly. If I don't walk, holding on to the
       other things is more difficult. So, walking rocks!
       
       Hopefully I'll have more to share soon. In the meantime, I need to
       go for a walk.
       
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       * I have a pet peeve about when people waste time in blogs and
       phlogs talking about how they haven't posted in a long time.
       That's the nature of the medium and the repetitive act of
       explaining or apologizing for it serves no purpose except to make
       you self-conscious. Now here I am doing it myself. Stupid.