I’ve been doing this every year, mostly because I think it’s important to take a few minutes at regular intervals to think deeply about my emotional state, desire, preference, and life trajectory. This is number 5. Number 4 is here.
Personal Culture:
- What is your favorite band? Cosmo Sheldrake, Nömak, Stan Rogers three way tie.
- What is the genre of music you listen to most? EDM with lots of foley work, sound design, and sonography
- What is your favorite pastime? Writing
- How do you spend most of your free time? Reading and watching explainer videos by myself or drama televison with Jane
- What is the most irksome thing in your day-to-day? Feeling directionless — chores and other work are not so annoying. I am capable of wasting endless time and energy in no particular direction at all.
- What do you admire? Level-mindedness in spite of or because of ambiguity and complexity
- Where do you work? The College of Pharmacy at the University of Minnesota
- Is there anywhere you’d rather work? Where? I’d rather be working for NASA or on my own (well funded) projects.
- What do you do at work? I build instruments for remote sensing in pharmaceutical studies. I create tools that organize and process data from those instruments.
- What would you rather do? Robotics and Aerospace are still super interesting, but I don’t know exactly what I’d be doing or why.
Stress:
- What is your biggest source of stress? Work, and the limited natures of time and attention
- What scares you most about the future? Not knowing whether I will ever know what I am supposed to be doing
- Do you think more about your present, past, or future? Present and Future — some days I just get through, but when life is good my planning horizon stretches and I think about the future. I don’t spend much time lingering on the past. The lessons I learned from the past are ingrained in my reflexes and habits, and not in my conscious mind.
- Do you actively combat your stressors, or keep your distance? I actively combat. If something makes me feel bad I do what I can to deal with it immediately.
- Have you been successful in your life? Not yet
- What is success? Love, safety, comfort, respect
- Does it feel like you have good friends that are a large part of your life? Yes, I live in a great house with great friends that I see frequently. I have a great extended circle of weirdo friends that I care about and that care about me.
- Are there actually good friends that are a large part of your life? YES! I’m always sad that there isn’t more time to invest in my friendships, but the friendships are there and I love them.
- Where did those friends, if any, come from? D&D, Minneapolis’s burner community, High School, College, Jane’s college friends
- Do you worry about money? Why? Yes, mostly because I know I should be putting up money for the future. I’m in the black, but money spent frivolously doesn’t pay interest.
Happiness:
- What is a hobby you would like to get in to? 3D printing, though this is so accessible that I’ll be into it literally tomorrow
- What is one type of thing you would like to do more of? Writing. It’s so calming, focusing, and positively habit building.
- Who holds the most sway over your happiness? My loved ones.
- What’s something that you’ve discovered to be enjoyable, recently? Learning new ways to think about old things
- Are you happier than the people around you on a daily basis? Sometimes! Been working on being joyful and appreciative.
- How much time do you spend actively engaged in an activity per day? 12 Hours
- How much time do you spend with your mind wandering per day? 4 Hours, though I think one of my biggest accomplishments this year is finding ways to make my wandering mind more positive and productive
- On a scale from 1 to 10, ten being most positive, how positive are your wandering thoughts? 8
- How often do you relax? A couple times a week?
- What separates relaxation from the rest of your time? Reprieve from responsibilities, gentle reading, television, or writing
Movement:
- Are you making progress towards your goals? Yes, slowly
- Are you living where you want to be living? Absolutely. I love the communal living situation that my friends and I have been cultivating for the last few years
- Do you often see the people you want to see? Yes, usually. It’s hard to find the time and energy to see everyone I want to see all the time, especially considering their geographical spread
- Are you in a job that is along your career path? Yes? I’m not sure I know what a career path is anymore. There aren’t “higher level” tech jobs that I’m even that interested in. Besides money it’s all horizontal promotion.
- Have you made enough money to finance your goals? All of the inexpensive ones
- Are your friends successful? Some are getting there! I know successful musicians, artists, and academics
- Are you a better person than you were before? I think so. I think my general understanding, capacity for empathy, and decision making skills are still improving.
- Would your loved ones say that you are a better person than you were before? Hah, definitely not certain.
- Would your colleagues say that you are a good person? Occasionally unreliable, but mostly good, I’d say
- What is your end goal? I want the respect and competencies necessary to self-determine in this world that is increasingly alienating
Silly things:
- What’s your favorite toothpaste? I’ve been using the same Costco toothpaste for so long that I’m not even sure I know. Probably still a baking soda one if I had the chance.
- How many pairs of pants do you own? 15?
- Do you have any socks with holes in them? Thread bare and threatening, but all such nice pairs that I really have to wait until the last minute to toss them
- Do you have a roommate? Jane ❤
- What is your favorite soda? Reed’s Ginger Brew
- What is your favorite liquor? Hmm, Gin?
- What do you read for fun? Mostly non-fiction books about interesting ideas or people
- What is your favorite video game? Haven’t played a video game seriously for a very long time
- What is your favorite T.V. show? Westworld was pretty dang good
- Are you on a diet? ……no
