29 Days of Happiness #29

My own bread made with grain from my last brew toasted with peanut butter and honey.

Watching Hugo while still working on my Kukri and also honing and oiling the norman sword (long overdue, need to be more conscious of that ones care)

Writing the 29th one of these, a full month of irregular length from when I started.


I though this might become a chore, and sometimes I was forced to write the next day if I didn't get to it before it was time to crawl into bed but it never felt like a chore.  What it did do is make me look for the good things in my days rather than letting the bad take over.  

And strangely enough it has given me an odd kind of joy to share these moments with an audience, some of which I know and I imagine some I don't.  There is no reason to keep good moments just to yourself.

Even more startling is I feel like I might keep doing this, not necessarily on a daily level but more when I have those enjoyable moments and I can't contain them or feel no reason to.  I set out to change myself and I think I have in a small way, but those are the best changes because they have the tendency to last.



oh and one more moment of happiness:


SNOW!

29 Days of Happiness #28

Taking Sal for a walking in glorious sunshine during a lunch break


Got the Kukri knife today which was cool because I spent several hours sitting talking to my friend and carefully honing the blade to sharpness.

Oddly enough sitting and writing this while AC/DC plays.  Never been a huge fan but it works...

29 Days of Happiness #27

Taking my lunch break to meditate and do karate in an empty conference room at work.

Slowly reading The Unfettered Mind again.

Finding out the Kukri knife I ordered was coming earlier than expected (for those who know me the last thing I need is another edged weapon but I couldn't help myself)

29 Days of Happiness #26

Morning aikido is always followed by hot chocolate at Lake Champlain chocolate outlet store with everyone which is always enjoyable but because it was so warm I got a milkshake which was awesome (for that very same reason of warmness I went for a run afterwards).

Getting out of the apartment with a friend to go to an art opening, then sitting eating good food and enjoy a brew and then getting to the docks to watch the sun set over the Adirondacks.  All in all perfect end to the weekend.

Completing the website redo finally and putting the finishing touches on a cover letter for a job I really want just as the clock hits 10pm.

29 Days of Happiness #25

Making these really cool covers for my graphic novels for the redux of www.justoffal.com.

Oddly enough working almost a straight 15 hours on redoing my website.  That kind of intense work has a certain enjoyable nature to it all.

Taking my dog for a walk and after finding the sidewalks sheet ice after the storm sliding on my ice trekker things and walking without a misstep.

29 Days of Happiness #24

Just the simple fact it is friday and I don't have to work tomorrow

Driving home with snow covering everything (for the second time the entire winter)

Gaming with my friends and in the course of it all chatting about life.  It is good to be able to maintain those distant friendships

29 Days of Happiness #23

Getting those annoyingly addicting M&M cookies from the grocery store on my lunch

Finding a job that I am truly interested in, hopefully it will provide the opportunities I hope it will

Laying in bed and thinking of possibilities of this coming year 

29 Days of Happiness #22

Getting together with some friends for the evening.

Watching a subtitled Japanese film and having the subtitles cut out at the very last 15 minutes or so, it was quite funny.

My porter and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.

29 Days of Happiness #21

A walk in the woods for lunch one a set of twisty trails near work. 

An hour of intense Aikido then a 3 mile run and what was nice was that it did not cripple me doing it.

Mmmmm rice and pan seared tilapia... a quick and tasty dinner.

29 Days of Happiness #20

Waking up to fresh coffee and bagels, a good end to a great visit from the 'rents

Taking a lunch break, an actual lunch break and breathing for a second.

Talking ship design, life and adventure over a homebrew with someone from Aikido

29 Days of Happiness #19

a bit belated...

Showing aikido to my dad...

a very tasty tapas dinner completed by Lake Champlain Chocolate mocha chip ice cream.

watching my mom laugh so damn hard there were tears while watching Top Gear,

29 Days of Happiness #18

A lazy morning with no rush to get up.

Mother Myricks butternut crunch..... so good.

Showing my parents how to brew beer, specifically a Bavarian Weissen (a wheat beer like a heffe).

29 Days of Happiness #17

Coming home and finding it warm enough to go for a run in daylight. 

Understanding a difference between a karate kata and application and how the kata gets you only half way there.

Painting chaotically until late in the night...

29 Days of Happiness #16

Receiving my direct deposit from work mere hours before another automatic charge went in place that would have otherwise overdrawn it.

Working on the redesign for justoffal.com and playing for a good chunk of time with layout.

A phone conversation with my Uncle in which my phone managed to hang on despite saying the battery was quite low for most of it.

29 Days of Happiness #15

Completed a couple of hard things at work that have been on my plate since I started working there and feel like I am making some progress overall.

Granny Smith apple slices, Stilton cheese and honey.... absolutely brilliant.

Good company, good food, good movie... a good way to end the day with Sigur Ros song Seaglopur to finish off the night.

29 Days of Happiness #14

Mmmm coffee in the morning....

Actually making real progress with a very difficult distributor at works, something that has been non-functional for longer than I have had that job. 

Making a twisted anti-valentines day drawing for all my single friends.. which is almost all of them.  Weird.

29 Days of Happiness #13

After not falling asleep until 3AM, waking up feeling bad, emailing work I would be late then getting 3 satisfying hours of sleep followed by a slow morning with coffee.  Wish I could have more of those.

Kaitenuchi Otoshi, which is one of the 36 Jo basics (short staff used in Aikido) does this very cool spinning move.  Very fun to do once you start to get it.

Venture Brothers along with mac and cheese.  Just what I wanted

29 Days of Happiness #12

Sal curled up on my legs during one of my breaks from working on HTML in the early morning.

A walk, dinner and conversation with a friend.

Finishing working on the website, approximately 20 hours in two days but it is going to look slick.

29 Days of Happiness #11

It is 2:24AM and I am just getting to this because I have spent almost the entire day rebuilding my website (not ready yet).  What I have accomplished so far looks really good which makes me happy so I am putting that down as one.

Troubleshooting HTML5 and getting those small moments of realization and understanding.

Ending the night with a long philosophical discussion with an old friend.

29 Days of Happiness #10

Although I don't really want to mention work here I still have to say getting two enrollment done (don't worry, know what that means wouldn't help it make any more sense)  that were about 6 months in the making. 

Gaming long into the night with friends.

Getting something to work on my computer that reminded me that it is easy to look too far when the solution is right in front of your eyes

29 Days of Happiness #9

Mount Mansfield was pink from the setting sun today, I love the view as I leave work.


Actually taking my lunch at home and taking the dog for a walk in the bright sunlight

Getting taxes done!  Really who doesn't feel happy to have that done.

29 Days of Happiness #8

Discovering that while the new web filter at work blocks all news, weather, pandora and almost all the podcast sites out there I can still access Stitcher.com so I can still listen to something.

I pan-fried some Sai fish fillets and it left some very very tasty crispy pieces that tasted like fried chicken.

Writing another epic Aegir short story based on an intense dream I had last night this time involving an ice demon name Havis... 

29 Days of Happiness #7

Cheddar cheese bagel with cream cheese for breakfast (work has free bagels Tuesdays and Thursdays.  It means getting there a half hour early to get the one you want but totally worth it.)

Flying at Aikido, specifically the ushiro throw the other person over your head move.  Fully airborne, just saying.

Getting ready for bed before 10 so I can get a full nights sleep instead of being sucked into staying up late trying to avoid the dawn.

2-5-12 Mount Philo and a Wildflower Park

Mount Philo is a small state park on top of a kind of plateau-like hill jutting out of the Champlain Valley flood plains.    At the top of the peak of very, very icy trails there are several outbuildings and some amazing views.

 More clear skies and a good view of the Adirondacks.

 On the return I stopped at a Wildflower Farm which had walking paths.  Given the state park had been so busy I figured Sal would be happy to stretch his legs.

 I was right.

 A small frozen pond

This is the main building with the day's last light hitting it.

This is a cool park although I would return to Mount Philo with my crampons instead of the ice trekkers I have, the paths were like frozen streams and even Sal was slipping.  I took the road back down from the top to eliminate the risk of death.

29 Days of Happiness #6

Seeing the full moon over Mount Mansfield as the snow capped peak is turned orange by the setting sun against the dark blue sky.

The feeling of many small dents on my Jo (a martial arts weapon, a short wooden staff basically) from hours of practice.

Seeing the final product of all the work put into brochures for Aikido for the first time in printed form.

29 Days of Happiness #5

A slow morning where Sal woke up, stretched his lazy furry doggy head out and rested it on my shoulder, then gave a long, deep, contented sigh. We are Pack.


A solid scramble up ice covered trails to the peak of Mount Philo to discover a sign which names all the Adirondack peaks from their profile as viewed from Vermont.  I have been looking for that for a long, long time.

The Rum Diaries, a movie that has kept my up way too late but somehow eludes to some important point, something essential, although I am not sure what yet.

2-4-12 Camel's Hump Winter Summit

Camel's Hump isn't unfamiliar to me, but climbing it in winter is.  I got into the parking lot and as I pulled out my snowshoe a car that was leaving let me know that the trails were crusty enough that I wouldn't need them.  Again.  What a weird winter.

For about 2/3rds of the trail there were ski tracks.  It was impressive given the grade, I am guessing they hiked up and skied down.

 Sunlight through all sorts of snow crystals is just beautiful.  I would need a 15 megapixel camera  and a website that could show it for you to see the amazing covering of snow.

 I summited in 2 hours and 10 minutes which is damn good time, and given the crusty snow that was again without snow shoes.

 It was such a clear day I could see Mount Washing in NH and Whiteface in NY and of course Canada.  This is looking south towards Mount Abraham.

 Mount Mansfield in it's frozen glory.  I may have to hit that next week.  Maybe I can use snowshoes this time.

 I tried to take a self portrait to show all the ice on my beard but did not realize the sun was over my shoulder

Slightly better.

I made it down in 1 hour 20 minutes or so. Kinda half running, I tried full running but I could feel my quads were not up for it.  It felt great to do my first true solo winter ascent.  I left Sal at home not being sure of the conditions and given how cold he can get.

29 Days of Hapiiness #4

Summiting Camel's Hump in the winter solo to reach the top in amazing time with stunning weather.

A shower and a sniffer of brandy.

Good conversation over good but delayed dinner, then green tea ice cream.

29 Days of Happiness #3

Getting a new work computer and finding that Pandora was not blocked by the web filters.

Unpacking then repacking all my gear for snowshoeing tomorrow where ever I go, it appeals to the OCD part of me to make sure everything is there and functional.

The sparkling of snow in highly focused moving spotlight on Church Street during a light show.  It really looked like diamonds dancing in the night sky.

29 Days of Happiness #2

Seriously, WTF podcast made my list again as I had to bite my lip from laughing out in the middle of my work cubicle.

My new monitor at work that is double the size of my previous one. 


Dinner with my next door neighbor and landlord involving enchiladas, some of my home brew and lots of good conversation.

29 Days of Happiness #1

Today while at work I listened to this podcast by Shawn Anchor (I highly recommend it).  While the talk was amusing there was something compelling in the whole thing.  My life, over the last couple of years, has been filled with a great deal of unhappiness and more recently depression.  I have been getting out of that depressive state and trying to make my way with my life but I think something Shawn says is very true: "The absence of disease is not health."

So per his lecture I am going to try something, if it works wonderful, if it doesn't maybe I will understand my life much better.  For the rest of the month I am going to write three things that bring me happiness in whatever gradients it may come each day.  I figure at the end of the month I can look back and realize that maybe my life is actually quite nice.  So here it goes:

Listening to the TED talk podcast and having to restrain myself from laughing out loud at work because I am listening to the whole thing over a single headphone plugged into my laptop.

Driving home in the rain, cold in the dark with warm of being in a car rather than a bike and pretending I am a fighter pilot navigating the traffic.

Glorious crunchy fatty crust from an oven baked ham that was delicious, unhealthy and will slowly make me more and more a vegetarian one delicious bite at a time because as I write this I feel way too full and rather gross at this point.