nANIMOv

I like trying to get into new things. Sometimes I stick with them sometimes I don’t, but usually I’ll at least revisit. There was a period of about a month where I was meditating every morning. I would practice focusing and clearing my mind, and by the end it I just felt good. It gave me presence of mind and reduced my anxiety. With all the stuff that’s been occupying my mind recently I feel like it’s time to revisit that practice.

I’m currently making my way through The Gene by Siddhartha Mukherjee. Right now we’re just going through a lot of the history of modern genetics, stuff that I’ve learned in school before, but there something about seeing it in this context of being in one place and in chronological order that makes it really fun to read. Narrative is such a great way to tell stories and to make them memorable, and it’s kinda sad that it’s so taboo in education, especially in the sciences.

What does the snooze button really do? We set alarms earlier than we need to just so we can hit snooze 20 times before we wake up in a panic. All snooze does is help us desensitize ourselves to real urgency.

While I’ve pretty much eliminated snooze from my morning routine, I still use it in other parts of my life. I make reminders for myself for things I want to make a priority, but then I end up putting them off and tell myself I’ll get to it later. Next thing I know it’s been weeks from when I initially put it on my to-do list. Time to wake up.

Social media can be really great for some stuff… but can also be really terrible for a lot of stuff. I have an old high school acquaintance that puts up somewhat politically charged posts online. When I see something that I don’t agree with, I always wonder what makes them think the way they think. I sometimes want to say something or ask, but I feel like the comment section of an Instagram posts isn’t the best place for that type of discussion. It could be an ok place, but it’s not, the culture won’t allow it to be.

It also has me thinking how easy it can be to be misunderstood when you only have so many characters to explain yourself. That combined with how accessible and visible shorter posts are contribute to the toxic and inflammatory environment of social media. What’s the solution? I don’t know. How can we change the culture? A good place to start may be, though it might be a lot to ask, is trying to be a little nicer to each other.

We can’t make progress without making change.

Right now I’m working on being more concise. Not everything needs to be fully explained; sometimes it’s good to let the reader — .

For a long time I thought learning a new language at this point in my life was kind of futile. I was under the impression that if you don’t learn a language when you are a baby, it’s almost impossible to learn it. If you think about it though, that seems like it can’t be right. As adults we know basic sentence structure, parts of speech, grammar etc. and even if it’s not the same for all languages we know it does exist in some way for most all languages. That should make it easier, no?

What makes learning a language difficult as an adult is that it is so much easier to speak in our native language. Our minds are predisposed to our first language and so it’s hard to think in a new or different way. But ultimately learning a new language is like learning any other skill. It takes, patience, practice, and perseverance. All of that is hard when you already speak one language fluently because not being able to properly communicate is frustrating and so it is easy to fall back on the form of communication that we know.

Currently I’m learning Spanish and I’m starting Japanese, both of which I’ve been primarily been learning on my own using Duolingo. I have co-workers also trying to learn Spanish and we have “Spanish Club” after work every* week were we meet up for a drink or something and we try to speak only in Spanish.

For me learning new languages is about being able to connect with more people in my personal life and being able to accomodate more people in my professional life. And honestly, I’ve been having a lot of fun with it.

 

 

*we try to do it every week, but it does not always happen 😦

I was expecting to get some pretty important news today, but it never came. Trying not to read too much into what that might mean, but I can’t help but feel so anxious.

I feel like I’ve probably mentioned this quote before, but if so, it’s worth repeating. It’s from The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, “Everything will be alright in the end… and if it’s not alright, it’s not yet the end.”

Now, I’m not a big believer in destiny. I believe people carve their own paths and determine their own fate. For me though, this quote is not about trusting that a higher power has predetermined my good fortune, this quote is about mental orientation. If I believe that things will end well, then they will. What happens in my future may not be or look like I once imagined, but if I maintain my focus on the good, even in the midst of disappointment and sadness, every possible outcome can be in my favor.

Conan O’brien and Stephen Colbert talked a little bit about this on Conan’s podcast, and I think it’s something that seems to be common in many of the great success stories throughout history; that often times the greatest opportunities and experiences of our lives present themselves in ways we did not expect. I’m not trying to compare myself to any of those great successes. More than anything I am trying to convince myself that just because things may not have happened the way I expected them to, that doesn’t mean I can’t make the most of it.

Finally, a lot of this makes me think about all the things I have to be thankful for in my life, my family, my friends, my coworkers, my teachers, my mentors, I probably go on for a while. I am surrounded by people who love and support me, and who push me to be better every day. I would not be who I am or where I am without these amazing, beautiful people in my life.

Much love,

Niko

This one’s dedicated to you. You’re my inspiration 🙂

Clam chowder holds a special place in my heart as my favorite of the chowders. I like comparing clam chowders from different places. My current and long-time favorite is from Breakwater Restaurant in Santa Barbara. The clams are large and plentiful and the chowder has a very small but notable kick to it. If you get it in a sourdough bread bowl, the bowl is pretty much perfect. Crispy on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside. The crust is not hard or stale or hard to tear, it feels fresh.

Clam chowder is always there to save the day when I have trouble deciding what to order. I have a reason choose it; I want to compare it to other clam chowders, thus ordering it at a new restaurants can never be a bad choice. Though when I think about it I put way too much thought into what I should eat at restaurants.

Someone I considered pretty close to me likes to say, “He always has to be right,” or “He gets-off on proving people wrong,” in reference to me. Whether it’s in a joking/ teasing way or not, I’m not gonna lie, this kinda gets to me. I don’t consider myself a know-it-all. I do enjoy sharing what I do know with others, and maybe that’s what gives me the vibe of an arrogant know-it-all. But I enjoy sharing things with others because personally I like learning and knowing new things.

I value truth very highly. If I hear something that is contrary to my understanding I will say something. I’m not trying to make anyone look bad, but I think it is important that myths and misconceptions are addressed. Ok, maybe I do have a tendency to make corrections to even the most trivial of statements. That’s just kinda who I am. If I don’t know something, I’ll almost always look it up. That being said I am the first to acknowledge when I am wrong. If my understanding of something is contrary to the latest, most accurate evidence I would gladly embrace that truth, but I don’t take it personally. Maybe I get a little embarrassed, especially if I defended my position (which I think is 100% valid), but it doesn’t hurt my feelings.

Perhaps this is something that I need to take a step back on so I can look at how I interact with others. If am perceived to be arrogant, that makes it harder to connect with people, which ultimately inhibits me. I will never apologize for advocating for truth and for facts, but I will try to be better about how I approach sharing information and how I address potential misunderstandings, and I hope others will do the same.

I’ve got 4 minutes before they day’s over so I’ll keep this quick.

Actually, I’ve got nothing…

Trying not to beat myself up over not meeting my own expectations. Take it, learn, and move on.