Who I Am

I'm reading this fascinating book right now called "The War of Art" by Steven Pressfield. It's really challenging me. Mostly in terms of how I spend my time. I probably have about five-to-six hours a day that's "free" - before work, lunch, after work, after kids are in bed. I hadn't thought about that until just now, but that's a lot time. Some of that time, I'm watching TV while we exercise, maybe an hour of it is doing choreso and household tasks, and some of that is my lunch break. But the book has really challenged me to think about how I'm using that time. Or what I aspire to be doing. And I can answer that pretty easily - I'd like to be reading or watching TED talks. I have a backlog of books and nearly 300 talks waiting in iTunes. Now, not all of them are ones I will eventually watch, but until recently, they've just been growing. Only recently (thank you iOS 4.3 and Home Sharing) have I started to watch them more regularly.

But is there demands on my time that are fruitless pursuits? Very much so. A lot of Facebook. Mostly the stupid game CityVille. I realize it serves no purpose to keep playing. There is no profit, I will never have bragging rights as the supreme dictator over all of Cityvilleland (heck, with the new upgrades I have to watch criminals just wander around because all my cops are asleep because they're out of doughnuts - yes, it is that stupid). So, I'm quitting CityVille.

I had another thought recently - what if I were moving to an assisted living facility? What if my life had to be reduced to that which could fit in a single room, largely taken up by a bed? Well, for one, I'd need a huge flatscreen TV. But besides that, I'd need to throw away a lot of stuff. Since I'm not doing that, there's lots of things I need to keep like tools and a lawn mower, but somewhere along the way, I got out of the "simplify" kick. And it's time to get back to it.

I'm feeling good. I'm going to get back on track with filling my brain with useful and interesting stuff and working to simplify my life.

I've been also giving a lot of thought lately into how I might go about building a office/reading room under the deck. Like for real, with a roof and a floor and walls. Well, walls of windows. I think it would be cool, I just need to go to that reclaimed historical architectural place in Tacoma to find some windows I can install at an angle so that the rain would hit them. Of course, that costs money I don't have. Maybe I'd better focus on the design for now.

But not tonight, I can probably fit a little time in on another book I'm reading: Moby Dick. I'm only reading it because so many people have read it and I know it's a "classic" - but man is it slow.