There’s a lot of sitting in marketing work, all while staring straight into the electric glow of multiple screens. When it came time to think about New Year’s resolutions, one of the first things that came to mind was to get up from my desk every day.
Sitting at my desk through lunch has become part of my normal work pattern. Without taking that time to get up and move around, that’s a whole lot of stationary time. Every. single. week day. I know I’m not alone in this – otherwise standing desks wouldn’t be in demand.
It seems like such a small thing – just 10 to 15 minutes of walking around the work neighborhood, but this short break packs a lot of punch. I often use it either to mull over something that needs solving or to clear my mind of all the work clutter and think or nothing at all. Either way, I come back to my desk with a calmer mind.
One unexpected bonus has been inspired in part by Lydia Whitehead’s initiative to bring adventure to the every day. I use these small walks as a chance to discover the unexpected. One day I peered down an alley between two buildings and stumbled upon a marriage proposal. Another day I found this wee knit bunny left on a ledge.
To me, these images are like a visual version of the six word story: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” as told by Hemingway. There’s a full story there, but also mystery.
Did she say yes? Is a little one pining for this lost bunny, or did someone leave it behind, yarn bomb style to make someone smile?
A Good Kind of Disruption
I might not have noticed if I hadn’t accidentally hoarded my vacation days resulting in an extra long winter break. Aside from a bit of work on Think Kit I spent far less time at a computer since I don’t know when. Whatever work and thought patterns I’d developed were wholly disrupted by excesses of lounging, family time and movie-watching.
Sore Thumb Multitasking
And thank goodness. Otherwise, it may not have seemed so weird on returning to work when my brain instantly switched to that internet-fueled multitask mode – you know, the one when you have one eye on tweetdeck and incoming email while you’re knee deep in a project.
That first day back, I didn’t sit at my desk to work straight away. Instead, I stopped in the main room to flip through the newspaper. In came a co-worker to chat up the holidays. As we shared stories of our break, I couldn’t stop thumbing though the paper. All the while – my thought process: “Wow, this is really odd. Why am I flipping through this during our conversation…” until the inevitable lost train of thought.
A-ha! That was weird, huh?
Routine multitasking of internets and inboxes would have felt like the normal business of getting back to work. This multitasking was just plain weird, so I had a greater awareness of the shift in my brain. I noticed the fogginess, the slower processing, the not-quite-grasping any one thing as fully as I might with a more singular focus. It became obvious that despite the gross inefficiency of chronic multitasking, I was hard-wiring my brain to work this way, even when it didn’t matter.
Frankly, it scared the hell out of me. I wonder if I can break this bad boy, and if so, how much more I’ll accomplish?
In the days of apartment living, I bought this tiny desk. It serves more as a storage place for mail piles, knitting needles and other supplies. I tend to only work here if I want to use my Wacom drawing tablet. The desk is just wide enough to house my 17” laptop, the tablet and a cup of coffee.
Mostly, if I’m working from home, it happens right here:
This year, I tested myself and found I can, indeed, still pull an all-nighter… And it was amazing.
I wasn’t partying, and it wasn’t because a project blew up or a client demanded a crazy deadline either. All of that delirium and extra caffiene was for a cause. 24 Hour Web Project is an annual event in which SmallBox donates a website to a worthy nonprofit.
This year we doubled the fun, and in just 24 hours, our small, but mighty team conceptualized, designed and developed two custom websites for Earth House and INDYCOG.
Sure, I may have had more fun at a few rock shows and dinner parties this year, but the feeling of being part of something that changes the game for a nonprofit is the coolest feeling.
This post is part of Think Kit, a blogging project by SmallBox.
Much of this year, I dipped into old flames musically – I fan-girled it, front row style for Sebadoh in a tiny venue, 15 years after first seeing them in Bloomington. Another icon of my youth, Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks played Earth House (I saw him around ’96 as Pavement). These rockers releasing new music and touring unleashed a memory lane that led me deep down a path to Archers of Loaf. I probably listened to All the Nation’s Airports 3 times as much this year that I did when it was first released in 1996.
Alongside this weird revisit of late 1996, a few records, all female vocalists, really grabbed me and hung on for dear life. Apparently the theme of the year is ethereal vocal with a side of noise. I’d be hard pressed to choose which of these I’ve repeated most.
Asobi Seksu:
St. Vincent:
In the end, I might give the edge to Mr. Gnome. As much as I reach back for the stuff of my youth, I love exploring too. This two piece out of Ohio hit me by surprise with some seriously unexpected song architecture.
This post is part of Think Kit, a blogging project being organized by my workplace, SmallBox.
Today’s prompt | Thursday, Dec 1: Favorite Photo Have a snapshot that encapsulates your year? Or one that represents a great moment? Maybe it just looks dang cool. Show ‘n tell time — let’s see those pics!
Taken from my iPhone while biking with Louie in Mackinac Island, Michigan, this photo captures my most joyful moment of the year.. We traveled the entire perimeter of the tiny, fog-cloaked island in the early morning.
I’m no hoarder. At least not in the reality tv show sense. But digitally? Oh boy. I’ve got some fessing up to do.
I’m that person sucking all of the bandwidth because I have 59 tabs open in my web browser. And my Google Reader? Overflowing with subscriptions I can’t possibly keep up with. The number of unread posts seriously startles me sometimes, a glaring reminder of all of the information I’m “missing out” on.
Don’t get me started on unused social media profiles. I *gulp* had an identica account I had a hard time deleting because I adopted so early I had “sara” as my username. In the wide world of the interwebs, it’s no small feat to be the first “sara” to something new on the web.
But what’s the point? I didn’t even realize exactly how much all of this digital baggage was weighing me down. Until I got one too many spam notifications from a silly old profile I was keeping on a Ning community.
The moment I finally pressed that delete button was sweet indeed. I was an air balloon struggling to get off the ground, just needing to drop another sand bag. Thud.
And so, I unsubscribed to a few of the blogs that have been in my Google Reader feed since Summize existed (Yes, I even had defunct Summize feeds in my subscriptions – how shameful!). Thud. Thud. And the identica account featured above – don’t bother looking for it. It’s gone too. That screenshot above is the last evidence of existence.
I have more sandbags to toss and I can’t say I’ve taken full control of my browser tab hoarding, but this thing finally feels light enough to fly. Here we go… up, up and away.
For as long as I’ve lived in Indy, this shell of a building has stood at the corner of 16th & College. I always wondered what used to be there, and how it got cut in two, revealing its former middle.
Today that building was demolished, and I watched in equal wonder with the disparity of reactions online. From ‘Thank God that eyesore is gone’, to anger that it might have been saved. Here’s what I thought: it looked like a life-size doll house, just waiting to be styled. I had never seen a cross section of a building like that, and it certainly captured my imagination.
And now, in its demolished state, it shows just how differently we funny animals approach the world. You say eeee-ther and I say eiii-ther. Farewell, old thing.
My love for movies is starting to take over my free time. But I couldn’t be happier to announce I’ve joined myoldkentuckyblog.com as editor, film. The blog has been a strong voice in the music scene locally and nationally, and I’m thrilled to pioneer film coverage for them.
A project of the Indy Film Fest, the Bigger Picture Show features re-invented movie posters for an art show/fundraiser. I took a stab at one of my favorites, Waiting for Guffman. Though it’s one of the funniest movies I’ve ever seen, the tragedy within the comedy offers some of the most interesting moments in the film. When Corky erupts on the city council because he’s been denied budget for his production and threatens to go home and bite his pillow, the panic the acting troupe feels when they see that the folding metal chair they’ve reserved for the critic is empty, the moment Corky St. Clair realizes Guffman isn’t Guffman at all, just some random bloke. The spinning propeller of his beanie cap and over done eyeliner seem to mock the tragic deflation in his expression.
