Today was good, but unusual with working a half day to fine tune my property tax trial report in the morning hours, which only felt better as the morning went on. The corrections my senior appraiser suggested, in conjunction of my own analysis started to just really click and sound the way I wanted. It was exactly the fruits of my labor I needed after having a good enough attitude, but growing marginally less stoked about the assignment, with diminishing dopamine and serotonin the more time elapsed. I reassured my reviewers that their feedback was well received. I responded well to everything, but it was good experience growing through my occasional embarrassment, if there was an obvious error inconspicuously tucked away somewhere, or a detail I hadn’t considered. I’ve definitely improved internally in not beating myself up, or taking that type of stuff as personally, even when I try to conceal it from others. But it’s the first time I’ve been required to do an in-depth analytical writing project as a paid professional. The cool part was putting to use all of the shit learned in school, and college. Get your notepads out, kids! There’s always a time in life when the math has to be mathing, and the words have to be wording!

It was also cool that I was allowed to use generative AI in my job to help me refine some sentence fluency and organization, and look for redundancies, but keep the substance and word choice. In absolutely no way could AI have written a comparably good report for me without my original ideas. It was only to polish my writing, and even then, I only liked (or partially liked) what AI fixed maybe half of the time in sections. AI is also notorious for hallucinating and making false statements that in niche, complicated generative AI searches that aren’t always obvious to spot… Despite the tangible efficiency gains, it just don’t see a plausible scenario where AI is taking my job, or most professionals' jobs anytime soon. To me, AI chatbots are mostly amped up search engines.

Since I had some extra time this afternoon, I went for my first long, slowish jog in a couple of weeks, (12.98 miles, just shy of a half marathon). I really felt my decline in peak fitness from my marathon last October. Getting sick, running fewer miles, skiing instead, and just navigating life’s inevitable day-to-day bullshit had be slacking a bit. That said, I’m still in decent shape, as I realize not everyone (maybe even most people) aren’t fit enough to casually run 13 miles. It felt great though getting crisp and fresh sunny winter air after spending too much time indoors and on screens. But I still ran our overweight Flat Coated Retriever for the first mile since it was warm, and ran our anxious small German Shepherd for the entire 13 miles along trails near our neighborhood. While I felt great throughout the run, I felt pretty fatigued and lazy upon returning home. I tried to stay in tune to my body and mind.

After showering and eating freshly cooked pumpkin waffles, with berries, mangoes, hemp seeds, and a little syrup, I laid down on the couch. Normally I have a hard time just sitting still, not doing something, or being distracted by something. My smartphone and laptop were accidentally left in the other room, and I just felt reminded of the value in being able to relax for a few min, without scrolling, or doing anything. With this new Oura ring, I have a free trial of the Headspace meditation app. I haven’t gotten into a rhythm or habit yet, still, of meditating. My watch’s 5 min breathing meditation auto-posts to Strava without specifying its meditation, or anything relevant, and I never took the time to disable or fix that feature. So far I like it Headspace, maybe more than Simple Habit. I also can use my MERP/FSA card for a Headspace subscription. Every time I see my individual therapist, we settle in for a brief, maybe 90 second breathing. It’s been great. Would recommend for anyone seeing a therapist.

One of things I’ve been thinking about is how important it is to have some hobbies that you are into, and your partner (if you have one), and/or those who you may live with. Being less burned out, and taking care of yourself makes you more able to take care of others. I think setting an intention and discipline for self care, where you cultivate independent interests outside of work, school, or your family is vital. My wife has been into crafty projects, including sewing, gardening, and now “aquascaping” and having a fish tank. It works well for her brain, and nervous system and serves as a good passion and distraction, as well as reading. Even though I’m not an active participant in her hobbies, I’m still supportive however I can. It’s pretty cool to see.

In addition to outdoor activities, playing music is one of my hobbies. I’ve always had an aptitude here, and noticed sounds more than most. I am very grateful to my parents for gently encouraging me to play guitar and getting me lessons a kid! I am someone who is usually minimalistic and prefers quality over quantity anyday. If I can’t justify a use for something, I likely don’t buy it or have it. I’m very rarely an impulse buyer.

Anyways, many years ago, I bought my uncle’s Modulus Graphite Series electric guitar (I couldn’t afford it as a teenager, but my parents loaned me the money interest free to buy it, and I paid them back). This guitar is custom made with dual active EMG pickups and a tremolo bar. It sounds absolutely amazing on its own, and the playability is easy, smooth on my fingers, and stays in tune very well. It’s even more perfect with the Fender Princeton Reverb Amp, with for a clean, jam band sound. If you have one high quality guitar, and one high quality tube amp, you are set. The amp’s analog sound has a reputation for staying clean and toneful even at moderately loud volumes, and doesn’t naturally distort without a ton of input. An analog fuzz pedal can mimic.

Everything else, effects, pedals, are all just “extra” (although I eventually bought used an M13 digital effects unit and a JamMan looper).

It’s a great experience to play jam out, and play, and it’s on my short-to-medium term goal list to start playing open mics and with other people, but there is something about learning a new song, experimenting with improvisational scales and chords, with bass, acoustic, or vocals that has a calming, artistic effect on my soul. Even if it’s just picking up the guitar for 15 min on a regular basis, it feels like a reigniting of my passion. Will talk more sometime, but I’m getting tired tonight. Looking back, I’m like, “man, haha my thought flow went on a random, strange journey!”

Check out below the photo of my guitar setup. The M13 has pretty cool, color coded lights, which adds to the ambiance.