Three weddings this month! Each very special in its own way, and a majority green (did everything i planned to mostly) month too on the list - Huzzah! I managed to get in on Tezzards, the first provably limited generative avatar drop on Tezos (NFT). On the other hand I missed out on G’EVOLs. I am probably apeing into too many mints.
On the value of not making plans.
I find it easy to say yes to stuff that is a long way away. Except that when the time comes to actually do it, in a lot of instances I would be REALLY happy if it was cancelled for some reason.
Dan Ariely discusses this phenomenon and suggests considering in advance of accepting an invitation a long way away
1.) would you want to do it if it was next week, if no, then you likely won't be keen in x months
2.) would you be happy if they cancelled it, say no!
On the value of art and creative pursuits.
The explosion of interest, investment, and speculation in the digital arts has been nothing short of incredible in the last few months. Having attended a few in person exhibitions like Banksy’s and the Astronomy photographer of the year; the most stunning element of this shift is the accessibility for normies like me to participate. Bored Ape Yacht Club or Crypto Punks are the market leaders now, and were very affordable before taking off. New innovative projects are launching all the time and it almost feels like the dot com boom as a decentralised Web 3 takes shape.
Plenty of sports shaped the month.
Tennis with phoebe, simon, and adam. Climbing with Guy, Dunks, Stefano, James Little. Go Karting with sio. Squash with Jon stanfield and florent. Plenty of music too. Recording session with hugo. Karaoke with Ed lane. We actually bought a piano for the house so that is making a huge difference to the daily list. The band got together for AJ’s wedding, which was gorgeous but stressful. I think from now I prefer just being a guest. That said, having a small role playing Joni Mitchell’s ‘A Case of You’ at Rob and Gill’s wedding was really special and earned a shout out. Tommy D smashed it at his too with Nikhol, possibly less time now for band magic sadly it seems with him :(
Who knew writing a proposal for building a retirement home in Kenya would be an interesting pursuit. Certainly not me. Flexed some university dissertation muscles to get research done for a potential investment opportunity in the motherland. Lovely to think I will have somewhere to rest my bones down the road. The only other work update is a small slide up the greasy pole at work in the rat race. Not sure if promotion is a positive (more pay and responsibility), or a negative (more work and expectation). Guess it depends on your level of ambition in the organisation. Lovely ego boost regardless and notch in the CV belt for storytelling down the line.
As of the day of writing I have completed 533 days in a row of Italian on Duolingo. Typically my approach has been to take it slow and steady, making small incremental gains that accrue and compound over time. Yet whilst I do fully believe in this strategy, it does benefit from concentrated bursts of focus, drive and attention. This came fortuitously in the form of brisk competition from one of my tutoring pupils for two weeks. An unsustainable model to maintain interest (for us both) but has really nudged me along. Another big win for working from home and having the flexibility to undertake such exploits. Some ruminations next month hopefully regarding small acts of kindness (Mahmood) and cancelling or postponing plans (Keels / Beth) but enough for now, lets focus instead on gratitude for the good fortune in undertaking another month the girls (below).
