Jason Becker
December 5, 2021

The last few weeks I have been experimenting with a new focus mode setting. I call it Down Time, and I now have it turned on most of the time when I am not working or in Sleep.

The only notifications I receive are messages from Elsa. I have no apps on the Home Screens for Down Time. All widgets, except for my home row.

I originally let a few other people and apps “through” my notifications. Turns out, there’s really no app that deserves to break through. Maybe something like Flighty when traveling. And the people? I pretty quickly realized that no one I talk to had any expectation of immediate responses always. They sure don’t respond right away most of the time. So it turns out letting them notify me was more like feeling good someone “liked” my post on social media. It was about a little endorphin hit because someone was thinking of me. Those hits are hollow though, and the addiction is shockingly easy to break.

Overall, the feeling is one of just a little more quiet. I like that in focus modes I can still see there are non-Elsa notifications when/if I want to look. I check my phone often enough that I don’t really miss anything— sometimes there’s a message that’s been sitting around for 10-30 minutes. I never miss anything critical, and I check my phone often enough that nothing sits for hours unless I let it intentionally. Maybe this is more extreme than how you want to spend your weekends, but I would strongly recommend zero-basing your phone and only adding back what you miss. It will probably be less than you think.

December 4, 2021
November 28, 2021
November 27, 2021

I guess she had too much to eat this holiday.

Brandy on her back on the couch.
November 25, 2021
November 20, 2021

Dwell is thinking about how to define a “livable” city. It seemed like it was going well until the last criteria— community agency. If I’ve been convinced of anything when it comes to planning, it’s that concentrating power locally preclude all other elements of livability.

November 19, 2021

Trying something new this vacation, which may turn into my new evening and weekend routine. No app Home Screen. No notifications except from Elsa.

 focus mode called Down Time
November 14, 2021

Milk and cookies at a bar with a book? Alright.

November 7, 2021
November 6, 2021

She knows how to make me feel loved and appreciated.

Gracie laid out on my chest staring up at me in bed.
November 1, 2021
October 17, 2021
October 4, 2021

After presenting at the annual conference of the Colorado Association of School Business Officials (on equity-based budgeting), I got to stick around for a weekend in Vail about a week post peak foliage. No complaints about being back on the road for work.

October 1, 2021

Sometimes it’s a real sacrifice to travel for work.

September 20, 2021

New Jamaican spot in Baltimore— we will return.

September 18, 2021

These may just look like oysters shared with a friend, but actually they represent a small restoration of myself.

16 oysters laid out on a bed of ice at True Chesapeake.
September 3, 2021

Took advantage of the gorgeous weather yesterday with a short mid-day walk to what is possibly my favorite pandemic discovery in Baltimore, Druid Hill Park’s Zen Garden.

A short field with trees and stones in the background showing the outer part of Baltimore's zen garden
August 29, 2021

Some things happening now:

  • Weight loss has gone well since returning to the gym in April 2021. I am about as fit as I’ve ever been in my adult life. I’m not feeling a lot of strain with keeping up with my physical health, so I’m hoping to keep this rolling, permanently. For whatever reason, this time everything is working.
  • That vacation to Tulum was both great and terrible – we got away, we rode bikes, we hung out on the beach, and we ate some great food. It was nice to be active somewhere else. But for days during that trip I had a sinking feeling. Anxiety? Stress? I’m not sure. But I found the idle time challenging, and I think overall my feeling was, “Uh oh, that’s a lot of emotional weight from the past year and a half and I think it’s all catching up right now.”
  • So this summer has been mentally hard. I’ve had good days and bad days. I’ve been meditating lately, and I think maybe that’s helping. But the whole pandemic has been hard and the delta variant snatching away what normalcy I was starting to feel has been devastating.
  • We’re going on more vacations, and I’m quite excited, because I’ve learned the alternative is a greater risk to my health right now.
  • I picked up the pace of reading this summer and it feels great.
  • I’ve logged out and deleted the Twitter apps (and all tweets, which happens after 60 days anyway). I’ve reduced some of my RSS subscriptions. I turned off easily finding my archives on the blog. This is not meant to be permanent, just seeking some additional quiet. I need a reset. I am allowing too many things out of my control to impact my emotions.

Feel free to email me if you’d like to correspond and you don’t have my phone number.

Here are a couple of recent dog pictures.

Previous Now Page

August 24, 2021

Really hard to capture how cool this shattered glass looks.

David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust behind shattered glass on a red wall.

What kind of dog lays here like this?

Brandy on her back on the couch.