Senses working overtime #471

1 Smelling: The great outdoors at Maple Grove...

...as I harrowed the paddocks and collected firewood from the woodshed.

2 Reading: The Road To Woodstock - Michael Lang

3 Listening: Captured Angel - Dan Fogelberg

If you want just one song try Aspen/ These Days.

4 Watching: Monk 

We're still enjoying this series - up to the end of Season 2 now.

5 Tasting: Ross' cheesecake explosion

My brother and his family are on an American adventure, including a visit to The Cheesecake Factory in Atlanta.

Overtime: 

The more a man finds his sources of pleasure in himself — the happier he will be. Therefore, it is with great truth that Aristotle says, 'To be happy means to be self-sufficient'.

Schopenhauer in his essay, The Wisdom of Life.

Senses working overtime #470

1 Autumn at Maple grove

Yes, a return to that tree at Maple Grove. Leaves are clinging on.

2 Reading: Maktub - Paulo Coelho

I'm trying not to read this too quickly. A couple of pages a day is enough - otherwise I won't digest the messages and I need to savor the experience.

3 Reading: Degrees Of Separation - Laurence Fearnley

After taking ages to read Bleak House and Scattershot, I'm whizzing through two books too quickly.  

4 Listening: All About Me - Mel Brooks

I am still enjoying listening to this audiobook on my daily commute. Mel Brooks! What a guy!

5 Watching: All Quiet On The Western Front (2022 German version)

I have had this on my Netflix list for ages and we plumped for it last night. I'm usually not keen on foreign language films dubbed into English (I'd prefer to watch it in the original language with sub-titles, but I knew I'd be outvoted). Didn't matter too much with this visceral portrayal of a tragic story. Haunting is an overused adjective, but it sums up the experience of watching this film.

Overtime: 

Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.

Voltaire.

Senses working overtime #469

1 Back to the frenetic fast-paced work environment

Apologies if that's headache inducing - but...

2 Watching: Monk

I love whodunnits and this is the perfect show to watch after it was back to the five day rinse and repeat work cycle. We're on to season 2.

3 Listening: Bill Evans - How My Heart Sings!

Nothing better to calm the nerves before Monk

4 Reading: Scattershot - Bernie Taupin

After a promising start, I'm finding this hard going. He tries too hard to impress and the name-dropping is just sad after a while. Working week has meant little time to read it but I'll persevere.

5 Reading: Books Don't Sell - Seth Godin

Overtime: Morning habits

I love reading Thomas Oppong's Postanly Weekly articles. This one on early morning habits is terrific.

Senses working overtime #468

1 Autumn at Maple Grove continues.

2 Reading: Scattershot - Bernie Taupin

Yes! Having finished Bleak House and the current Mojo, I'm on to this easy read (thanks to K Simms esq for the loan).

3 Listening: Fleetwood Mac - Future Games

Rediscovered this one this week. A five-star classic.

If you want a sample of the Christine McVie magic held within its grooves, try Morning Rain.

4 Listening: Mel Brooks - All About Me

5 Listening: WTWMC True Colours

Amigo Kev has this week's choice (he's gone slightly rogue and chosen 'blues'). Watch in real time as the three amigos grapple with choosing 5 songs from the 2 billion with 'blues' in the title. Choices drop from Monday onwards.

Overtime: 

Writer and designer Edith Wharton on what causes old age:

"The producer of old age is habit: the deathly process of doing the same thing in the same way at the same hour day after day, first from carelessness, then from inclination, at last from cowardice or inertia.

Habit is necessary; but it is the habit of having careless habits, of turning a trail into a rut, that must be incessantly fought against if one is to remain alive... one can remain alive long past the usual date of disintegration if one is unafraid of change, insatiable in intellectual curiosity, interested in big things, and happy in small ways."

(Courtesy James Clear)

Senses working overtime #467

1 Autumn at Maple Grove this week

Same tree at Maple Grove, different week - really! Check it out.

2 Listening: Field Music (their debut album)

If you wanted one song to try: If Only The Moon Were Up

3 Reading: Bleak House

 

I know, it feels like Groundhog Day in this edition, but now at page 603 (out of 720), I'm on the home straight. Plus, it's good!

4 Watching: 3 Body Problem

It was okay, started well and kept us watching but it could have run half the length and still been as effective.

5 Listening: WTWMC True Colours playlist

We're up to shades of red - watch how it plays out in real time this week (G 'Yee Har' K's choice).

Overtime: 

Writer and scholar C.S. Lewis on what why small choices matter:

"Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of. An apparently trivial indulgence in lust or anger today is the loss of a ridge or railway line or bridgehead from which the enemy may launch an attack otherwise impossible."

(Courtesy of James Clear)

Senses working overtime #466

1 Weather this week

Looks like a colour printing gone wrong right. Maple Grove today.

2 Watching: Pain Hustlers

Emily Blunt and Chris Evans on form!

3 Reading: Bleak House

Up to page 380. Over half-way!

4 Listening: Explosions In The Sky - Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Live Forever

And if you want just one track from this instrumental post-rock album by American foursome Explosions In The Sky, try final song With Tired Eyes, Tired Minds, Tired Souls, We Slept. But the whole album is great.

5 Reading: Seth Godin - The color-coded wires

Have you ever wondered what the wiring layout behind the control panels at Abbey Road studios was like?

Neither have I.

The Beatles recorded some of their best work there, and I have no idea if it was a rat’s nest of tangled wires, or if each wire was labeled, coded and perfectly aligned.

Just as I have no idea if Eliot Peper writes his novels in Scrivener or Word.

Yes, of course, for sure, it helps if your tools are properly arranged and maintained. Yes, it saves time and effort to embrace mise en place and get your workspace right.

But making it even more right, alphabetizing the pencils and making sure your servers all have the right names–that’s simply stalling.

Overtime: Marcus Aurelius

Never regard something as doing you good if it makes you betray a trust or lose your sense of shame or makes you show hatred, suspicion, ill-will or hypocrisy or a desire for things best done behind closed doors.

Senses working overtime #465

1 Autumn at Maple Grove this week

2 Listening: WTWMC True Colours

We're now doing our hair colour (silver and grey) - Kev's choice.

3 Reading: Bleak House

Up to page 274, nearly half-way.

4 Watched: The Gentlemen

We finally finished the second set of 4 episodes. I liked it, but didn't love it. The Susie Glass and Bobby Glass characters were superbly played though.

5 Reading: Fifty failures by great directors

Overtime: On failure

"When my brother and I were growing up, my father would encourage us to fail. We'd sit around the dinner table and he'd ask, "What did you guys fail at this week?" If we had nothing to tell him, he'd be disappointed. The logic seems counterintuitive, but it worked beautifully.

He knew that many people become paralyzed by the fear of failure. They're constantly afraid of what others will think if they don't do a great job and, as a result, take no risks. My father wanted us to try everything and feel free to push the envelope. His attitude taught me to define failure as not trying something I want to do instead of not achieving the right outcome."

Entrepreneur Sara Blakely