Quarantine Day 73
This is the longest streak of journal writing I think I’ve ever sustained. I think my only regret is that I didn’t rate each day. Maybe yesterday would’ve been a 3 or 4, after a whole f’ing day of work that ultimately didn’t pan out, plus Boston’s cancellation. Even with “just a number,” though, adding another task seems like I might procrastinate on putting these entries up more than I already do.
I think today’s probably a 7. I have a sneaking suspicion that Fridays are naturally going to be higher on average, and Mondays, lower. I say this because today wasn’t particularly great, or special, but at least it was the end of the week, and my god, do I need some rest right now.
Today’s rating’s also a little higher because my new MacBook Pro finally arrived today. I’ve been thinking about getting a new one for about a year now, after hearing that a 16″ with the old butterfly keyboard was planned. When it finally came out in November, though, I was too busy wrapping up the year at work, and planning for my Thailand and Myanmar trip.
I told a friend at Apple that I was ready in January. Then indecision overtook me, and I never sent him my specs. Then I went off to New Zealand. Then COVID happened.
It’s been a few hours now, and I’m pretty satisfied with this machine. I can’t help but shake the feeling that I overpaid for it, though. I definitely wouldn’t have even considered paying this much for a laptop ten years ago, in college. Hopefully, it will prove to be worth the investment.
Questions
At the beginning of my Memorial Day: 100 Miles Around the Block writeup, I start with “long-ass personality quizzes” from high school. Thinking about them brought back some nostalgia. In one of my earlier drafts of the writeup, I mention being sad about having lost all of them, along with my answers.
Which got me thinking: maybe I should start answering questions about myself now, for a future me to savor and cringe at.
But how would I come up with these questions?
As it turns out, I bought a book called The Question Book: What Makes You Tick? a couple years ago. As its title implies, it’s full of questions.
There’re “four rules of the game”:
- Don’t think about a question for too long; go with the first answer that comes into your head.
- There are no right answers, only honest ones.
- No answer is binding. It can always be revised.
- We all admire people who have good answers. And we admire people who ask good questions even more. But most of all we are touched by those who can really listen.
Sometimes I don’t have any time to write these journal entries. Sometimes I have a lot.
On those days with “lots of time,” I think I’ll play this “game.” I want to know “what makes me tick.”
Last Year. Think about the last twelve months of your life and answer the following questions.
- Your book of the year:
- Your song of the year:
- A film that you saw in the last twelve months:
- Your item of clothing for the year:
- The best sex:
- The most important person:
- The most annoying person:
- A person you apologized to:
- A person that you got to know:
- A person you lost/left:
- A person you neglected:
- A personal who neglected you:
- A bad argument:
- Which of your friends did you see the most last year?
- Who inspired you?
- Who did you inspire?
- Something that changed your life?
- The best gift:
- An expensive purchase:
- The best holiday:
- A sense of achievement (at work):
- The biggest disappointment:
- Did you earn more or less than in the previous twelve months?
- A plan that you carried out:
- How often were you ill in the last year?
- The question of the year:
- Something you learned:
- Something you forgot:
- A political event that moved you:
- The party of the year:
- Your quote of the year:
- The wine of the year:
- Something that surprised you:
- The most difficult decision you had to make:
- Something you regret doing:
- Something you regret not doing:
- Was this your best year so far?
- Why?
OK, looking at this list, as soon as I saw “The best sex,” I knew I wasn’t going to be posting all my answers publicly. LOL. This “first section” is also longer than I expected. Despite Rule 1 Don’t Overthink, I think I’m going to post this journal entry now, then come back to this later.
This is gonna be fun. lmao
