Loops
My commute to the office is the same everyday. I walk up Congress until I reach the capitol, cut through the grounds, and then arrive at the office building. Typically I listen to an audio book or podcast on the way. Round trip is one hour and eight minutes. It’d been a while since I’d listened to Radiolab, so I threw on the Looped episode this morning. It was a fascinating listen from which I drew numerous parallels to my current undertaking. The most obvious was under my feet--my commute. I expanded this notion into any form of routine. For one reason or another, the one that came to mind was checking my phone first thing in the morning, last thing in the evening.
It was always the same: wake up to my iPhone alarm, turn off the alarm, check email, check the weather, browse Facebook, browse Reddit, realize fifteen minutes have gone by, then finally get out of bed. In the evening: set my iPhone alarm, turn on do-not-disturb, check email, check the weather, browse Facebook, browse Reddit, realize it’s midnight, turn off the light and fall asleep. It’s hard to change a routine, and eliminating this digital bookend to my days has been refreshing. I’ve found myself waking up easier now. I don’t linger in bed. I don’t have as much trouble falling asleep. I even sleep more soundly.
There was a podcast I listened to many moons ago who’s point stuck with me. The host was discussing the advantages to not checking your phone (and specifically social media) first thing in the morning. It boiled down to this: what do you gain from looking at other people’s highlight reels to start your day?
Biscuits. brews. boardgames.
My biggest urges to flip open the laptop and binge watch something, anything, have been on weekends. So, I bid those goodbye and harassed some friends until they agreed to join me for dinner, drinks, and Settlers of Catan—the holy trinity. Friday was spent whipping up the meal and preparing to dominate the competition. In reality, I suck at Catan but fancy myself a lackluster host who knows how to not burn things. The evening goes down as a success for two reasons. One, no one lunged across the table to garrote their new Catan enemy with a steak knife. Two, as of yet a guest has not texted me that they got food poisoning. Chalk it up as a W—unlike my Catan skills.
March Madness Command Center
Guys being dudes and sports
SPORTS!
Over the last four days, 71 college basketball games have been played. For the record my bracket is killin’ it right now. But that’s beside the point. This is normally a weekend where most adult males in the US are glued to a television screen, letting the madness enshroud them while they stuff their face with buffalo wings, fill their gullet with light beer, and pray to the upset gods.
This year prompted me to get creative. Pictured above you can see my brother’s command center. The dude is a walking encyclopedia of sports knowledge and has been known to make Nostradamus-esque predictions—but his actually come true. Thursday I planted myself at his apartment and we witnessed the madness together. Saturday I watched the games while out & about downtown. Sunday, however, we opted for something different.
Some people say the March Madness tournament is the end all, be all. As a 2017 NIT champion I beg to differ. With that in mind, why watch the B teams Duke it out on TV when you can watch the A teams tear up the court in person? Enter: $14 tickets for 10th row seats for Texas v Xavier in the most hyped game of the year. The crowd was absolutely bonkers—only rivaled by the 6 man football games of Strawn High School vs. Garden City. While the game was no TCU vs. KU in 2013, it was a great game none the less. Texas escaped Xavier in an overtime thriller to advance to the next round.
Lincoln Middle School, C-Team ‘05
Parting note
I’ve been humbled by the amount of questions and comments that have been sent my way. Keep them coming, they force me to think about this whole thing in new ways. I couldn’t be more grateful.