>> Thank God for running. Running, along with lindy hop, serves as a fantastic antidote for anxiety and stress for me. (I’ll be advancing to 25 minutes of consecutive running tomorrow.) Given the sudden onset of autumn in Seattle (we are being robbed of summer!!!), I anticipate that I will become one of those crazy people in blinding fluorescent clothing who go running when it’s pouring buckets out. (Running has also nicely augmented my lindy hop habit—I can keep up with faster songs now with greater ease… although I could easily attribute that to the fact that I’ve now been dancing for about two years.)

>> I will not gouge my eye out with a fork. Although attending eight kajillion meetings increases that impulse. (Hence the “Thank God for running” bit.) I shall have a better attitude about administrative crap obligations.

>> Zen Things Done? The endless pursuit of maximizing my efficiency continues. I haven’t read through the entire series, but I hope that it will be more simplified than GTD. Maybe I’m just not disciplined enough, but GTD consistently seems too bulky for my purposes. For the GTD aficionados out there, I reverted back to index cards and am now operating out of a Levenger pocket briefcase soft plastic-feeling knockoff that I found for a wonderfully frugal price of ~$2.00. Problems I had with using a pocket notebook (like a Moleskine) was (1) the lack of ease of capturing data (have to open the book, etc.), (2) the lack of clarity of tasks I had to get done on a given day (I tucked an index card to the cover underneath a hair band, and (3) the inherent linearity of a notebook. I like this knockoff (I think the official title is an “Oxford Notecard Holder”; I got it at Office Depot) because of its slim profile, its clean simplicity in holding index cards (which I can shuffle around at my heart’s whim), and the two outer pockets which can hold cards for plain viewing (one has my daily “to do” task list; the other one holds a two-month calendar). It even has an elastic loop on the side to hold a pen (I am one of those people who warmly support Pilot G2 gel ink pens—extra fine, of course). I heart simplicity.

>> Gene Kelly. Some people argue that Fred Astaire was a better dancer, but I’m definitely a Gene Kelly gal. When Kelly dances, he’s exuberant; there is something measured and restrained about Astaire’s dancing (compare here). (Plus, Gene Kelly’s smile—that wide, toothy thing that occupies his entire face when he’s singing in the rain—is breathtaking. Kelly also does amazing things on roller skates. Kelly, while dancing, looks the way I feel when I’m dancing, though I’m quite certain that I don’t have his grace or style.

>> The Point of Life. Graham shares another video and reminds us that the point is to “sing or dance” while the music is playing.