Building Friendships & Reading Books!

WELP I completely whiffed on USING our DK30 tool (ah the joys of packing and moving) but I overall had a GREAT DK30! Here’s a summary of the goods!

Reading - I massively ramped up the frequency of reading and blew through another Dresden Files book. Although I wanted to start The First Law Trilogy, I did find myself having some of that “negative momentum” of trying to start something new. I wound up re-reading World War Z (maybe not the most encouraging book to read during a pandemic but I still love this one).

I also restarted Chew! It’s a comic series I purchased when I was much younger (maybe 10 years ago) and it’s remarkable how different the book feels now that I’m an adult. As weird as this sounds to say, I feel like I wasn’t very good at “reading comics” when I first bought Chew. There’s a certain balancing act of reading vs looking at the art that takes a bit of time to get used to. I feel like I missed SO much tone and characterization when I read Chew a decade ago. It’s a real treat to start consuming again!

Overall, I’m super pleased w/ how the reading goals went! Almost all our books are still in boxes so I’m hoping to not fall behind on my reading habits. It’s hard to make yourself read when all the books are hidden away!

As for calling buddies, I was happy w/ three of my four weeks. I called an old StarCraft friend, two game dev buddies, and even did a zoom call/party with a bunch of esports friends! Each of the calls lasted almost 2 hours and it was wonderfully refreshing to reconnect.

The last two weeks, however, have been completely full of packing and moving tasks. Upon reflection, I don’t feel like I could have fit in more social time, so I’m not too bothered by that.

But, here’s my BIG THOUGHT for the end of DK30:

I think I need to figure out a routine to return to good habits if I get disrupted for a week. Consistently, I’m very good at “sprinting” in focus. I can pick up a habit and hold onto it on a week-to-week basis (eg start exercising and stick to that for 4 weeks straight). However, whenever there’s some disrupting event that takes up a week (ie 6 days working a live event or 8 days packing up and moving to a new city), I find my habits COMPLETELY fall apart. I almost always need a full week to recover/recoup before I can reset back to normal and, often, in that week I stay up late, sleep less, eat unhealthily, or do other not-so-good habits.

Perhaps I need to have more focused rest/sleep/do nothing time after disruption? Perhaps I lack discipline? Perhaps I need a ritual/routine to deliberately reset? I’ve noticed this pattern in many of my DK30s where I “nail” the 30 day period but have those habits end whenever a significant event rolls along.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT!

Either way, thanks for reading my ramble! I’m very happy w/ this last month as I’m finding reading to be incredibly therapeutic in these stressful times. I hope to lean on it more in the coming weeks too :)

I AM A PARAGON OF SUCCESS!

I arranged a phone call w/ one of my old SC buddies and had a delightful catchup chat. We hadn’t spoken much in the last 2 years but it was fantastic to hear what he’s been up to and also to share book/media recommendations.

On that note, I have successfully finished THE DRESDEN FILES book 10! I was originally planning on starting The Blade Itself this week, but MAN do I want to head to book 11 (one of my favorites in the series).

I think I’m going to force myself to NOT fall into the rut of just reading comfort food and instead drive towards the book I had originally planned (The Blade Itself). I find that I typically need a few hours of a new activity before I get enough momentum to start doing it naturally. Funnily enough, this is why the “Day[9]'s Day Off” series was very helpful for me to expand my gaming exposure. Normally, I’d get turned off by a game in the first hour and then go back to StarCraft, but the 6 hour allotted time helped me get over those initial humps and get INTO new stuff! Perhaps its the same w/ my reading habits? :D

Either way, I’m probably gonna call one of my LA buddies whom I haven’t spoken to in a while to catch up this week. Things are lookin up!