There is an awesome clarity that comes when you have very clear priorities – and in my case one of those is my health. As I alluded to in my three words for 2023, I’ve had a couple of recent minor incidents that have brought this home to me.

A key one was back in November 2022 when I went for a routine colonoscopy. Having had colon cancer, this was my three year checkup and all was great. No signs of cancer and everything looked good. 

BUT… they had to keep me a bit afterward in the recovery area until they could get an acceptable blood pressure reading. I didn’t think a whole lot of it, but a few days later when I went to our local pharmacy to pick up a prescription for our daughter, I had to wait for a bit and so I sat down in one of those blood pressure test machines that we often have in pharmacies here in the US.

And.. I had elevated blood pressure!

Not high enough to be in the “Get thee to a doctor now!” category, but more in the form of “Dude! You need to make some changes NOW if you want to be around for a while!“

So I have.

I’ve been eating healthier, reducing my sodium intake (such as not eating the pretzels and chips I love to eat), drinking more water, and… a key point… trying to get at least 30 minutes of exercise each day.

Given that I work in a home office and don’t have to go anywhere, it’s tempting on very cold days to just stay inside, but I’ve been forcing myself to leave and go outside.

This health lens has caused me to make some choices:

• If I have a block of time when I can exercise, but I want to write a blog post or record a podcast episode, I ask myself “Is this due TODAY?” and “will it matter if I do it tomorrow?” If the answer is no (as it usually is), then I don’t do it and go exercise.

• If I want to listen to a recording of a work meeting I missed, rather than listen to it while sitting in my office, I open the recording on my iPhone and listen to the meeting recording while walking around my neighborhood. This has the added value that I actually focus on what is being said in the meeting rather than being at my desk only half-listening while I look at Slack, websites, email, etc.

• I have continued my enjoyment of walking at Shelburne Farms, an amazing and beautiful area that I’m lucky to have about 5 minutes away from our house. Living so close, I can time it to fit a good walk in between other things going on in the day. And when it gets lighter (and warmer) I’ll start going in the very early morning again.

• For days when it’s too cold and windy to enjoy an outdoor walk, I have started going to a local ice skating rink. I’ve figured out how I can drive there, skate for 30 minutes, and then get back home all within an hour. 

In general, I’ve used the lens of “will this help me improve my health?”

Owning an Apple Watch has also been helpful. I’d dismissed the “closing the rings” Activity thing as a silly gimmick, but I’ll admit that there is a certain satisfaction in knowing I hit my daily goals. The Health app is also useful, and tracking my heart rates, sleeping, etc, is all useful.

Thankfully I have a job that is project-driven and so I can shift my work hours around and start earlier or work later so that I can do some of these things during the day. (And I do recognize that this is a privilege that many people do not have when their jobs are tied to specific hours or locations.)

My goal is that by the time summer comes around, I’m hoping to get back into the running I used to do. We’ll see. I need to be walking faster before I jump into the running again.

The good news is that this all does seem to be working. Two months later, my blood pressure is back down to near normal levels and in fact is even reading as “normal” sometimes. I’ve lost a little bit of weight (still have a long way to go). I’ve found that “Hint of salt” Wheat Thins taste pretty much the same as the regular ones – and I’ve learned how much additional sodium is in so many different foods! And I’m feeling a bit better in general.

Amazing what happens when you have that clarity of priorities in making daily choices!

P.S. I’m also playing in a curling league every Thursday night an hour north in Bedford, Quebec, which gives me two hours of movement that can be intense at times if you need to do a lot of sweeping. It’s kind of fun to look at the heart rates recorded by the Apple Watch after a game and see how up and down they can be.

This past holiday weekend our older daughter brought a new fun activity – “Hallmark Christmas Movie Bingo”. If you are familiar with the “Hallmark Channel” here in the USA, they produce many seasonal romance movies. They vary widely in quality and some are a bit cheesy and cringe-worthy. Many of the movies follow a common formula … something like… high-powered marketing exec in New York City finds out her fiancé is cheating on her, and so goes away to spend Christmas with one of her old friends at her house in some rural location (often Vermont). While there, something happens (car breaks down, big town event is in chaos), and she meets some hunky man who she is initially repelled by… but by the end of the movie they are either kissing, getting married, or she is leaving her job in New York to relocate to this ideal life in the rural town. Or something like that. Usually the main character seems to be female, although I’ve seen a few male. Often they are cynical and think Christmas is just a consumer spending experience.

Anyway, this formulaic production model turns out to be perfect for a bingo card. Here are just some of the squares on one of the free sites that offer these cards:

• Trip to a Christmas tree lot
• Main character is a single parent
• Main character is a workaholic
• Setting is a Christmas-obsessed town
• Characters pretend to be dating/engaged
• Town’s major industry/historical landmark/major tradition is in peril
• Character from the big city grows to love small-town life
• Unexpected help from angel/Santa
• Main character is keeping secret that could ruin everything
• They lost their Christmas spirit when a parent or spouse died
• Reliving Christmas traditions past helps renew someone’s Christmas spirit
• Love interest comes to her rescue by doing something manly
• Cute dog
• Delayed flights
• …

You get the idea.

It was a fun addition to watching the movies – and quite honestly kept me watching one very cringe-y and unrealistic movie when I might have just left the room to do something else. Hallmark staff clearly understand this, as they have written about it, and even sell a bingo kit. There are, of course, many free sites offering such cards.

What fascinated me, though, was to learn a bit more about the Hallmark Channel itself. A Wikipedia article traces its history from its origins in the late 1980s and early 1990s with two religious cable channels. These combined to become first the “Faith and Values Channel” in 1993 and then the Odyssey Network in 1996. In 1998, Hallmark Entertainment and The Jim Henson Company (think of the Muppets) became investors and the channel further reduced its religious programming to focus more on “family” shows.

In 2000, the ownership structure changed and in 2001 it was rebranded as the “Hallmark Channel”. The Wikipedia article goes on to detail the evolution of the channel, including the involvement of both Hillary Clinton and Martha Stewart at different times – things I was not aware of – as wall as the development of the seasonal content that many of us may be aware of today. I also was not aware of all the animal programming, although that makes sense in the context of their historic “family friendly” programming.

The article also notes some of the Hallmark Channel’s struggles between its more conservative origins and the more inclusive society we are in today. And noting the evolution of the channel to include LGBTQ characters or stories.

I seldom watch the Hallmark Channel myself, and I don’t know that this weekend’s experience will change that, but it was an enjoyable way to spend some time together – and it was interesting to learn of this larger history.

I have always enjoyed our ceremonies of light and dark, here in the cold mid-winter of northern New England.

The winter solstice here is always a time of celebration. For us, it is the shortest “day” in terms of daylight – and the longest night. It is cold here at this time of year.

The solstice gives us hope. From here on out, the days only get longer… and at some point will start to actually get warmer. (We have to go through some much colder periods first, though!)

We celebrate here so often with candles… with fires… with flames… with light to drive away the darkness.

In the Christian tradition, there are the candles of advent, the Christmas trees with their lights, and… today… the many lights that people decorate their houses with. In the Jewish tradition, there is the menorah with its 8 candles that are lit during the days of Hanukkah. In older pagan traditions, there were similar ceremonies of light. Today, in our less religious times, we cover our houses with “holiday lights”. In a school our daughters attended when they were younger, there was a beautiful advent spiral walk with candles.

Many of the ceremonies have different meanings, of course,

Yet each in their own way brings light into a time of darkness.

There is beauty and magic in that.

Dear Duo,

I’m not sure your new “learning path” that you rolled out on November 1 is working quite the way you wanted it to. At least for me.

You see.. yesterday I did not do a single French lesson!

Why not? Simple… because now that you have forced users along a single path, I know that when I do the one lesson I have available for me to do, I will then be rewarded with a “15-minute double XP boost” (I will receive double the “experience points” (XP) for each lesson.) And during the day yesterday, I didn’t have a block of time where I knew I could have another 15 minutes to do more lessons. I had random moments of 5 or 10 minutes, but not a larger block of time. And sure, I could have just done a lesson and NOT used the 15-minute double-XP period, but at this point I’m DEEP into the gamification, and so I want to use those time periods to get more points!

The result was.. I didn’t do any French lessons.

Finally, about 9:00pm I realized I hadn’t done any Duolingo, and so I went in to do a practice session to at least continue my streak. But it wasn’t one of the regular lessons.

Somehow, I don’t think this is what you want people to do.

To back up a bit and provide some context, I started using Duolingo a bit over 9 years ago in July 2013. I started paying for Duolingo Plus (now “Super”) 3 or 4 years ago. I’m currently on a 415-day streak, and I’ve bought into the gamification to the point that I’m in the “Diamond League” and work each week to get enough XP to stay in that league.

So I’m all in.

But your November 1 change is seriously affecting the way I’ve used the app. It used to be I would work in several different skills at once. And if I was challenged for time, I could just so lessons in multiple different skills, potentially bringing several skills to be one lesson away from being complete (which would then get the reward of the double XP boost). Then, when I had a block of time, I could start completing those skills to get the double XP boost.

Now, that approach isn’t an option. I have to keep moving along a path. I can’t work in multiple skills at once. (I can switch to another language and do lessons there, but then that is diluting the time I want to spend learning one language.) I understand your view that this is a better way of learning, and maybe I’m just that grumpy guy who is resistant to change, but it is a VERY different way of working than how I’ve been doing it for the past 9 years.

I do wish there was the option to work on different skills and not be so locked into the same path. Maybe I’m missing something with the new redesign, but so far I haven’t figured this out.

Sincerely,
A previously enthusiastic Duolingo user who is less excited now

Yesterday was my first day back at work after 10 days away on vacation where I did not check work email or Slack.

I approached it with the usual perspective of “Ugh! How many messages will I have to wade through!” Quite often it can take a day or a couple of days to get caught up.. and sometimes you can feel like you need a vacation from taking a vacation! 😀

I have a whole regular “return from vacation” routine down. The first thing I do is copy my entire email inbox to a mail folder so that my inbox only has new messages and I can start responding to those items. Then at some point in the day I start scanning through that mail folder to triage messages in importance, making sure I see messages from our CEO, senior management, my manager, our team, etc., etc.  Before I do that, of course, I usually spend time working my way through the zillion Slack channels we have trying to figure out what his most important. Usually the whole process can take hours to days to recover.

So I was prepared that this would be my first Monday of 2022.

To my utter surprise… it was the exact opposite!

You see, our executive team had decided to shut down the entire organization for the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day, judging that all of us needed a full break to rest and recuperate given the pandemic and so much chaos happening in so many parts of the world.

And… perhaps more importantly… people DID take the time away!

There were a few email messages from staff, and a few from people outside the organization, but so few that I didn’t even bother with my usual “move everything to a folder” routine.

And Slack was blissfully quiet… at least until I got there yesterday! 🤣

There was no recovery time needed! I was just able to get in, answer a few queries and then get started with 2022 work and planning.

In 30+ years in the corporate world, I’ve never had a “return from vacation” quite like this – but I’ve also never had a company or organization truly shut down.

It was wonderful – and I highly recommend it for other companies!

P.S. We’re hiring! (Although only for a couple of positions right now, but other positions do open up over time.)

When my wife and I were raising our daughters, there came a point when we tried to impress upon them that just because something was true didn’t mean you needed to SAY that right then. Yes, Dad might have dark circles under his eyes and look terrible because he was up all night sick, but does he really need to hear “you look terrible” right at this exact moment in time? That may be true, but did he need to hear it?

At some point we started suggesting running comments though a filter of three questions:

• Is it TRUE?
• Is it NECESSARY?
• Is it KIND?

If the answer was “Yes” to all three, then go ahead and say it. If not, perhaps hold back.

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that * I * don’t always hold to that. Sometimes I’ve fired off a snarky message on social media that, while true, was probably neither necessary or kind. 🙁

Which was what got me thinking about these questions again. Right now there is so much vitriol, anger, and even hatred spewed out by people online. It’s been this way for years now… just look at the comments section for almost any YouTube video. And some of us of a certain age can remember back to some of the meanness in some Usenet newsgroups.

But I think it’s gotten worse lately. In part because of some of the extreme polarization that has happened politically in many countries around the world. There’s a winner-take-all, “you’re with us or you are the enemy” kind of mindset that is increasingly prevalent. And two years of a global pandemic have affected us all. We’re fatigued, exhausted, frustrated, angry … we aren’t at our best.

Just last week a young woman enthusiastically announced on Twitter that she was so excited about a new job at a company working with cryptocurrencies. She was excited and delighted to start, and was eager to work with other people.

And then people piled on her saying truly terrible things because they didn’t like the company she was joining or the overall industry into which she was going. Very mean, personal things.

You could watch in her subsequent tweets as what had started as a joyous celebration announcement turned into something extremely negative.

Why did people need to do that?

Sure, some of what might have been said might have been true about the company. And yes, the cryptocurrency “industry” is currently full of scams and fraud.

But was any of that truly necessary to share with this particular person? And was it kind to her?

We so often seem to forget when we fire off quick messages on social media, in particular, that there are human beings just like us on the other end of the exchange who will be receiving our snark and vitriol.

And right now with all the pandemic fatigue, in particular, critical statements we might brush off at another time can instead be taken quite hard.

If we all could use these questions as a filter BEFORE posting, might we wind up making the world a bit kinder?

Something to think about.

The origins of those questions

As an aside, I couldn’t remember where my wife and I had first heard those questions. (Perhaps on social media!) So I did some digging and found that, as the image with this post shows, there are many different versions of the questions in different orders. Some attribute the phrase to Buddha, but this article explains how that is false. The author noted that there are similarities in Buddhist texts, and dug deeper to find a Victorian-era (1872) poem by Mary Ann Pietzker, and references even before that to a “Reverend Mr. Stewart”.  Other articles point out similarities to a Quaker “three sieve” story, and even to some statements from Socrates. We may never know the exact origins, but regardless the questions are good ones.

As we celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day today, April 22, 2020, my mind jumped back 30 years to "Earth Day 1990" in the state of New Hampshire. I made some choices that year and seized some opportunities that introduced me to the worlds of communications, community organizing, and public relations. I approached 1990 thinking I was going to be finishing up a Masters in Education degree and heading back to Connecticut to teach in a public high school. But life took very different turns and presented new opportunities. The choices I made then set me on the path that led to where I am 30 years later.

I reflected on all this in a podcast episode:

Happy Earth Day to you all!

P.S. See also this post I wrote today: On this 50th Earth Day, We Are Using The Internet To Change The World