My Oh My, There Goes July...

And one more month done. Can you believe it? Only three more months until Brent retires. I mean, not that any of you are doing that countdown but I am so ...

July is OVER.

Over all... World Cup finished. I was able to watch more of the games than I ever have before. All of them being in North America made the time adjustments a non issue. I didn't watch all of them because some of them were at the same time as each other or at the same time as things I'd rather do right then. But I still watched the majority. My pick at the beginning was France but I'd always follow it up with, though Spain could take it. So I feel like I half nailed it. Spain just turned it on at the right time, and the tie with Cabo Verde wasn't a fluke so much as Cabo Verde was actually a really solid team. And with the latest FIFA kerfuffle I'm glad I watched so much of what is potentially the last World Cup.

Nationally we are still a fucking mess. I'm not sure if we are or are not at war with Iran right at this moment. I mean, I know we are, but I'm not sure if Tangerine Palpatine is in a "I SAID WE WERE ON A BREAK!" moment or a "BOMBING THEM TO ITSY BITS!" moment. I don't follow his social media so I'm always a little behind on the latest ramblings, I mean policy decisions.

Dems in disarray is trying it's best to take hold of the narrative ahead of the midterms, though I've been pleased to see more pushback to that than there used to be. I'm hopeful we have reached a point where Dems don't let Republicans and the media set the policy anymore, but only a little hopeful, a lot wary, a little hope. Looking for a moral center to the country that isn't made of shifting sand. Excuse my muddled metaphor, I didn't get a lot of sleep last night.

ANYWAY...on to the personal stuff.

How did the adjusting do? Well, I already wrote a little bit about not writing, which is funny. Also, even with the slow down if I count the two pieces I did for Dana I wrote 17 days this month which is more than I didn't. So the couple small pieces the past few days bumped me over the old goal without me realizing it. I only posted two fiction pieces but like I mentioned as soon I decide to wrap up the Futures piece there will be a flurry of those. But more days than not when not thinking I would miss that target was a nice surprise.

Reading, I read five books this month. One I owned so that was checked off. Two nonfiction, three fiction. The first nonfiction was actually what I thought it would be, mostly, so that was good. Nice to not have a totally different theme than what I was expecting again. It was Inside the Box: How Constraints Make Us Better it was like The Paradox of Choice in that like we think we want unlimited choices we think we want unlimited freedom and neither one actually makes us happy. I've been putting self imposed constraints on myself for, well, ever, and I have to agree. The area that interested me most was how people tend to get more creative within a box than they do with no limits at all. It made me think of the writing prompt fiction I do. It's a limiting device, but it gets me started whereas just sitting down and staring at a blank screen can be way overwhelming.

The other fiction was Liza Minnelli's autobiography. It was...something. If you remember my review about Barbra Streisand's book Barbra is to food as Liza is to men. And also it needed a lot more editing than it got. A lot. And possibly, maybe a little less AI help? But if you like celebrity autobiographies it certainly was one.

I'm still four books behind, but with the new, let's focus less on the numbers thing I'm trying, that's fine. REALLY, it's fine.

Workouts, I realized part way through the month that my new cycle wasn't working for me and adjusted. But then my schedule got a little tweaky and our weather got a little icky so I didn't do the full new routine, well ever. So I ended up the month with basically no movement. A little weight loss, which was a little muscle loss, which is not what I want to do.

Language, still going. Masterclass did one with Yo-Yo Ma on creativity this month, he was as good as you would imagine.

So what does August look like?

Still backing off of the original year plan. Just doing the things I do and seeing where the numbers fall.

I'm going to try to rebuild the muscle I've lost, but that will be dependent a little on the weather. If it gets too hot for too long the garage is no bueno, and that's where the weights are.

Reading, I'll still be plugging along but I'm not seeing where I'm going to make up those four books so... I'll keep working on that fiction/nonfiction balance and the one book I own off the list as well. Though I just got a Humble Bundle pack of a LOT of Scalzi's books so I added to the list of owned, but that just makes it easier to take some off the list as well, right? RIGHT? They did come off of the hold list at the library so I think that counts.

Writing, we've talked about it. We will see how it goes. August is often a creatively desolate month anyway, so...

I did just cancel MasterClass. I've got enough time to do one more cycle if I find anything that grabs me, but they are pushing AI HARD right now and I don't want to learn about AI, I don't want to encourage the AI incursion into every fucking thing. I have no interest. So I kept MasterClass for a year (it was a birthday add on last year) and that's good enough.

I'm trying to get back into August not being just the worst, shittiest, most terrible month. I remember when it was fun. It was a good run. We are starting tomorrow with dinner with the girls so that's a good kick off, and I made reservations for a birthday dinner at a new totally bonkers restaurant so I'm hoping that will be fun as well. And at the end of August it will be only two months left and that will be GREAT.

So here we go... Oh wait!

One more dry July in the books, can you believe it's my third one? Wait...no, fourth! I did my first Dry July in 2023. So three years, but four Julys. It doesn't seem like it's been that long. I am still thinking about stopping. Starting again? Stopping stopping drinking? I just haven't yet decided it's worth the hot flash risk. Maybe when the weather turns again? Maybe not. We will see. It hasn't been that big of a sacrifice, I've found a lot of substitutes for the tastes I want without the alcoholic parts. Mostly.

ANYWAY...

July is over. August is knocking on the door.

For old times sake, have some cake and give a few compliments, will you?