Ups and Downs
Mar. 17th, 2016 12:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
absurdheroI've been doing private entries every day for the last four months.
Taking the drastic step of dedicating my Livejournal to Actual Journaling has been helpful for me in a number of ways. As the first season of Serial points out, you rarely have an idea of what the hell you did on a given day that may only be a couple of weeks ago, but it's insurmountably worse when you try to figure it out months or years later. Writing a daily Captain's Log style journal entry helps me get daily events out of my head and into my mind's external hard drive so they are not lost to the ages.
Most of what I write about is mundane (work, food, politics,) and I feel like I could easily share a lot of that as Friends Only posts if not Public, but I worry that if I put any sort of filter on myself it will not be as useful as it could be, and it could be discouraging moving forward. That said, I miss interacting with people, so I want to start sharing certain thoughts with a marginally bigger audience.
Here's one for starters - It seems pretty late in life to come to the basic realization that caffeine keeps me on my toes while beer slows me down, but that's exactly what I'm confirming these days.
Our trivia team normally consists of me and Chris, her Dad and his partner, bringing two generations of knowledge together for a winning (well, placing at least) combination. But they called out sick tonight, and Chris and I were on our own. Even with our two-person team, we still managed to snag 2nd place, plus we were awarded some "beer money" for having the host's favorite team name of the night. (Rutherford B. Trippin' for the win.) While it's certainly not the only factor, drinking a bunch of tea and abstaining from beer for the night kept me invigorated, sharp and on task.
Thinking about this night compared with my subdued showing at KamiCon @midnight last weekend (more on that tomorrow), I now know that when I need to perform, whether in the case of a trivia game, public appearance, or otherwise, I need to caffeinate in order to bring it. The role of alcohol is less clear - maybe when I'm tempted to give in to Abrupt Introversive Gopoofery and abandon conversations it could serve to take the edge off, but it's also possible that I'd remain a non-participant in the conversation because my default buzzed state is pleased complacency.
Taking the drastic step of dedicating my Livejournal to Actual Journaling has been helpful for me in a number of ways. As the first season of Serial points out, you rarely have an idea of what the hell you did on a given day that may only be a couple of weeks ago, but it's insurmountably worse when you try to figure it out months or years later. Writing a daily Captain's Log style journal entry helps me get daily events out of my head and into my mind's external hard drive so they are not lost to the ages.
Most of what I write about is mundane (work, food, politics,) and I feel like I could easily share a lot of that as Friends Only posts if not Public, but I worry that if I put any sort of filter on myself it will not be as useful as it could be, and it could be discouraging moving forward. That said, I miss interacting with people, so I want to start sharing certain thoughts with a marginally bigger audience.
Here's one for starters - It seems pretty late in life to come to the basic realization that caffeine keeps me on my toes while beer slows me down, but that's exactly what I'm confirming these days.
Our trivia team normally consists of me and Chris, her Dad and his partner, bringing two generations of knowledge together for a winning (well, placing at least) combination. But they called out sick tonight, and Chris and I were on our own. Even with our two-person team, we still managed to snag 2nd place, plus we were awarded some "beer money" for having the host's favorite team name of the night. (Rutherford B. Trippin' for the win.) While it's certainly not the only factor, drinking a bunch of tea and abstaining from beer for the night kept me invigorated, sharp and on task.
Thinking about this night compared with my subdued showing at KamiCon @midnight last weekend (more on that tomorrow), I now know that when I need to perform, whether in the case of a trivia game, public appearance, or otherwise, I need to caffeinate in order to bring it. The role of alcohol is less clear - maybe when I'm tempted to give in to Abrupt Introversive Gopoofery and abandon conversations it could serve to take the edge off, but it's also possible that I'd remain a non-participant in the conversation because my default buzzed state is pleased complacency.
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no subject
Date: 2016-03-18 09:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-03-18 10:28 pm (UTC)One thing I've found useful is just to do it chronologically from the time I wake up until I write the entry before bed, jumping around as appropriate to the subject.