Categories
Art

Drumsack Farm Painting

Painting the landscapes outside where we live, as well as a bit of the inside, over the past month has been a fun way to get back into more regular watercolor painting.

With the latest one, I spent more time on it and worked sporadically over the course of several days. It was good just to have a piece out on the table that I could sit down and work a little on as I felt like it. It’s also kind of essential with watercolors in some sense as you need to allow for drying time in between sections, depending on the look you are going for. I’m sure this process annoyed the crap out of my wife and kids but hey, it was worth it. šŸ˜‚

Continue reading “Drumsack Farm Painting”
Categories
What I learned last week

What I learned last week (#80)

Book excerpt that I enjoyed:

“Itā€™s a lot harder to fake your way as a remote worker. As the opportunities to schmooze in the office decrease, the focus on the work itself increases.” (Jason Fried, David Heinemeier Hansson, Remote)

Quote I loved:

The quality of your life is the quality of your questions.

Tony Robbins

Waking up thirty minutes earlier:

I can make all the plans I want, but the day does inevitably get away from you, and front-loading your day with the highest priority habitsā€”the things you want to learn or enjoyā€”is a solid means of giving each day a chance to be great.

Continue reading “What I learned last week (#80)”
Categories
Misc

Thirty minutes

Picture of drawing of wife and daughter

Yesterday I found myself in the car for an extended period of time, something very rare this year. After a few stops along the way, I decided to switch attention away from the new RTJ album (so good) and switched on a recent Tim Ferriss Show with Hugh Jackman. Iā€™ve missed listening to podcasts now that my commute is gone (really the only thing I miss) and this one was, as usual, great.

I was thinking about the beginning where he talks about what he learned from Patrick Stewart:

And he said to me that when he was about 60, he realized that he was never going to read all the books that he wanted to read in his life. He did the calculation. He decided that no matter what time his call wasā€”letā€™s say heā€™s picked up at fiveā€”whatever time he would have woken up, he wakes up 30 minutes earlier, gets a cup of tea, and goes back to bed, and he reads. He said, ā€œI donā€™t read the paper because it makes me angry. I donā€™t read my emails because it usually makes me anxious, gets my mind going.ā€

I think all the time about how Iā€™d like to read more but there doesnā€™t seem to be enough time in the day.

Continue reading “Thirty minutes”
Categories
What I learned last week

What I learned last week (#79)

Inspiration for changing the world in seven charts:

https://www.outsideonline.com/2414779/world-change-charts/

Sound and vision facts about birds:

Barn Owls can pinpoint the location of a mouse thirty from feet away, strictly by sound, and then fly to that exact spot even if the mouse makes no further sound.

Sound and vision
Continue reading “What I learned last week (#79)”
Categories
Misc

Sound and vision

Illustration of kids looking through binoculars

I received a pair of binoculars as a birthday present recently, and the kids and I have been using them to explore the surrounding country and notice birds. Just in time for summer. I also read more of What It’s Like to Be a Bird and was again reminded how crazy cool birds are and how much we still don’t know about them (like when irruptions happen), which makes me happy.

Here are some sound and vision-related facts abut birds that I think are super cool.

Continue reading “Sound and vision”