Active Recall!

Podcasts, videos, and iPad art

Some Friday ramblings before heading off to a camping trip

I’m testing out the chaise-lounge-lapability of this Smart Keyboard Folio for the 12.9″ iPad Pro 2021. Gotta throw all the words in there. At some point I’ll make a video about why I went with this instead of the Magic Keyboard. (And am still tapping the screen like it’s 2017 instead of using a sweet sweet trackpad.)

Actually I can start with that for the ramblings.

… got distracted by Twitter just now and drew this thing which is supposed to be about how “visualization” can mean something in your head and something on paper and (WITH THE POWER OF DRAWING) you can turn one into the other.

Even better than that, it feeds back—you’ll always get more ideas while sketching.

Another nice thing: the chaise-lounge-lapability is pretty good so far, even with sketching! Didn’t have to adjust the iPad while drawing, though I did just need to lightly hold it in place with my left hand.

(Which I can’t show without taking a photo with my mouth.)

In any case. I’ll be heading off to some campsite for the weekend.

  • Title: “Best iPad… FOR CAMPING???”
  • Thumbnail: My shocked face and holding the iPad over a fire or something.

On second thought, I’ll leave it at home.

It’s exciting to be packing the backpack regularly again. Wait, I mean. It’s exciting to pack the GORUCK GR1 again.

There’s that Louie CK bit about how we use words like amazing and genius for the most regular things. On one hand, there’s some of that with how I just used exciting. On the other hand, a year ago we were still using both hands to wipe down our grocery deliveries with sanitizer.

So it is (actually) exciting.

Workout 6/23: Press & Squat

Check out the full notes for “Tiny Habits” by BJ Fogg

This isn’t heavy, I know I know. (But it’s heavy for me!) This is the risk of posting workouts online. But it’s a type of note and I’ll figure out how to sort this thing later. Not sure I’ll keep posting these but it does add to some of the Atomic Habits satisfying element.

Here I’ll grab a quote to make it make sense to share here.

I know I mentioned Atomic Habits, but Tiny Habits is a good one too. Here’s a quote about embracing the new identity you want to embody:

Identity shifts are change boosters because they help us cultivate constellations of behavior—not just one or two habits here and there. This is important because most aspirations require more than one type of habit change. It’s a set of new habits that will get you where you want to be—especially in the areas of fitness, sleep, and stress.

But it does relate to how James Clear would put it: cast votes for your future self.

If becoming someone who posts their workouts online consistently is what it takes to work out consistently, I’ll take it.

Todo: Category page updates

Just sketching this out real quick to capture an idea for the category pages, in particular for the iPad stuff on this site. There’s an ‘iPad’ category page but it just posts every single post with full content.

It’s just a
very
very
very
very
tall page right now.

Not super useful. If I want to continue adding smaller posts about things I’m using the iPad for then I need a little bit of a nav. This will likely stretch my template hacking to the limit.

But it starts with a sketch. Links on the left that will go to the full post.

Procreate animation: Bouncing ball | iPad Pro 2021

I’ve been doing a few more shorts (1-minute videos) lately and it’s been a fun format. I believe in a couple things but don’t apply them enough:

  • Making short daily content: I’m a big fan of the whole idea of consistency over intensity. I learned that initially from kettlebell training. But it’s been helpful to have as a mindset for side projects. Daily content is nice because it doesn’t linger outside of that time block where you’re making it. And it’s the type of content to practice building systems with. Still, I haven’t done enough of this and will try to switch that up in the future.
  • Sharing sawdust: This is sharing parts of your process or just other artifacts that are created when creating some final output. The example that always comes to mind for me is all the extra that came on the Extended DVDs for The Lord of the Rings. The extended films were sort of sawdust sprinkled back on. In any case, I understand that this stuff is worth sharing but I tend to overthink it. I start thinking I need to narrate over a sketching timelapse. Then I need to tell some story where the VIEWER is the hero blah blah blah.

It’s okay if the sawdust is just a short pouch for the viewer to pick up for a few moments of entertainment or, at best, inspiration.

Road to 159: week 2 of 8

Previous weeks: Week 1 or just go to the Road to 159 tag for all the posts.

Progress

  • Starting weight: 171 pounds
  • Current weight: 170 pounds (-1 pound)
  • Goal: 159 pounds

Okay yeah so I need to be doing some kind of averaging to account for water weight. BUT that won’t leave me the option of dehydrating myself in the last week to “hit” my goal.

Anyway, things are slow moving but they’re moving so I’ll take it.

I’ll buy into that idea that the longer it takes to take it off, the longer it takes to gain it back.

What went well: RPT and consistency

Just getting the movement going consistently has been good. I started using the Strong app again and I have a pretty simple setup. Four workouts:

  • Incline/squat
  • Incline/DL
  • Press/squat
  • Press/DL

While the apartment gym doesn’t have a squat rack, it does have a barbell so I can do some deadlifting. For incline presses, I’m using dumbbells. For squats I’m doing double KB squats. For the press, I’m doing single KB presses.

We’ll see if this is enough volume and if it’s heavy enough.

Since it happens in the kitchen, something that worked well was Kevin’s paleo microwaveable meals. Aka chicken breast + sauce. Tastes good and is super easy.

Also: getting a plastic container of mixed greens and shoveling some in my mouth before meals. Tastes terrible and is super easy.

What can be improved: social meals, as always

Maybe I need to eliminate “as always” from my vocabulary. Or something.

Anyway, we had a lot of meals out toward the end of the week. Pasta, pizza, rice cakes…

Really good but maybe I can just focus on reducing volume and increasing activity. I wrote another post and mentioned trying a schedule to have heavy days on Friday and Sunday rather than the usual Sat/Sun rest days.

What to try in the upcoming week: Buena Vista hikes

It’s about 2.5 miles up and back. If I write for 15–20 minutes at the top then it’s a nice way to spend an hour. Gonna see how it goes doing that this week.

I did try it on a heavy lifting day and it was just too much. I’ll probably burn out or just straight hurt myself if I try to do that every single day.

Info diet x fitness and nutrition

Pat Flynn & Dan John, as always. I wish I still lived in New York so I could do the RKC cert. Though I’d fail the test at this point so maybe it’s better that I can’t go to it.

Then there was a nice recap episode on Shawn Stevenson’s podcast with a bunch of useful tips.

And also Pat Flynn had Mike Matthews on and that was really great for an up to date explanation of what Mike does for his routine right now.

It also fired me up to get back to reading more. (Mike reads for 60–90 minutes a day, split into AM and PM sessions.) The AM session is in the sauna first thing in the morning. The PM session is a way to wind down the work day before heading home to spend time with family.