Nothing special to say today so let's hide behind my little binky, which I more commonly refer to as Proper Admin.
The fifth Saturday
A glut of accumulating vacation time combined with a lack of vacation options has forced me into the position of inventing excuses for taking time off before it disappears into the annals of HR's time-tracking record. I think I've stumbled into a decent solution, and one I might maintain whenever possible as an extended self-care weekend - taking a day or two around the fifth Saturday of the month. The fact that it only rolls around four times a year is ideal - I won't use up all the time I need for a real vacation yet I'll have a consistent space on the calendar for personal maintenance work, which sometimes gets crowded out of my regular calendar.
Admin 360, or The Ancient Japanese Method of Doing Stuff
I've also started using three minutes as a rule of thumb for most tasks - if it takes less than three minutes, I try to do it as soon as possible, but anything longer than three minutes gets scheduled for a future date. A really useful consequence is what I'm calling the '360 list', which is a list of all non-urgent three-plus minute tasks - the idea is that once I get to around sixty minutes of work, I set aside an hour and take care of it all. If things continue to go well, I may even slap some tired marketing label ('Japanese') on the idea; I'll be one bestseller away from having a show no one can find on Peacock.
Gee, we are annoyed today, no?
I just heard Trump say 'China Virus' again, so I'm in a great mood.
Anything go your way in August?
So far this season, Taki has more goals than Messi and Ronaldo... combined.
So just sports.
Yes, speaking of sports, the NBA's return in their so-called bubble has been a vindicating experiment for me. I've always been an admirer of Damian Lillard and he has been outstanding this summer. I've also been a fan of Jamal Murray and it's been great to see him emerge as a potential superstar player. The rise of Luka Doncic has always been a matter of when, not if, at least as far as I've been concerned.
But the real star in my mind has been Jaylen Brown, who I've mentioned at times in the past on TOA. And again, it's been for reasons unrelated to his excellent performances on the court. Here's Jaylen, quoted from this article:
"Everybody keeps saying, 'Change is going to take this, change is going to take that.' That's the incrementalism idea that keeps stringing you along to make you feel like something's going to happen, something's going to happen. People were dying in 2014, and it's 2020 and people are still dying the same way. They keep saying 'reform, reform, reform,' and ain't nothing being reformed. I'm not as confident as I would like to be."
His comment reminded me about one of my (many, many) concerns as we approach the end of 2020 - everyone comes out to vote, the results go a certain way, and we all pat each other on the back and say "well done". By now we should all know large parties are a threat to our safety, but I'm not just talking about the ragers around the block; every four years we renew our commitment to a two-party system, which includes among its strengths a capacity to "promote centrism" and "encourage parties to find common positions". What two-party system is this?
Patience with an experiment is one thing but when I see the result going the opposite way of the supposed intent, I think it's a great idea to try something else. Another Jaylen quote I've highlighted here in the past suggested that America has a certain idea about requiring winners and losers - to have "people up top, and people down low." It's time to rethink this idea before it kills us all.
In the next month... of True On Average:
1) I start catching up on 2019's reading reviews.
2) Bamboo toilet paper?
3) Mayor Marty needs Apple.
