Weekly Good Things 2024 - Week 29
Good Things, and the Weekly Meal Plan.
Hello! Hello! Welcome to another weekly episode of Good Things where I give you a peek into my everyday life during the week, and roundup my good links, ideas, books, and more.
Good Morning,
Happy week to you!
Last night I spent far too long immersing myself in Olympic excitement. One of the joys of modern social media is that we get so much more behind the scenes created by the athletes themselves – beyond the weird scripted television narratives of my childhood. (Okay, I still do watch those because they make me misty, and I’m a sucker for that kind of thing.)
I quite enjoy swiping through the “haul videos” of Olympians opening their well-stocked kit bags for the Paris Olympics in advance of the Opening Parade on Friday. It’s a fun way to get to meet the athletes, take a peek at global sports apparel and shoe brands and fashion. (Fashion loosely in air quotes here, because some of this stuff is wild and avant garde.)
I’ve been fascinated/horrified by the cardboard and foam beds the athletes are sleeping on. While I understand the commitment to reducing environmental impact, it strikes me as wild and absurd that athletes who optimize for every single detail leading up to these games are being given uncomfortable bedding the week they are to perform at their peak. (The complaints about lack of air conditioning in 90 degree Paris weather also haunt me.)
I love watching the travel videos: Olympians being waved off by friends and family, exploring the athlete’s village (there’s a boulangerie with chocolate bread!) And the unconventional travel “how does it all get there??”: gear checks, and the horses (who will be riding at the palace of Versailles!) and how they are transported by air. (Shout out to Cargolux!)
Meanwhile, outside of Paris, the surfers are living it up on a floating cruise ship Olympic village in Tahiti. (Much better beds and views!)
👋 If you are new here, welcome! I try to fill these newsletters with a little something for everyone. (If you are just here for the food, it’s at the end! Feel free to scroll, I won’t judge!)
Personal Values in Practice:
This week, as part of my mid-year review process, I took time to sit down with my personal values.
Day to day, I keep my values on a note pinned to the top of my Notes. It’s a nice directional reminder: a compass when I’m feeling unmoored, and a general reminder of what I want to spend more time in my life doing. It’s a lot easier to live into your values when you’ve identified them, and are doing the work to support them!
My own values that I’ve tuned over the years include: wonder/joy/novelty, Sed Min (Non Ministrari sed Ministrare – not to be ministered unto but to minister – the Wellesley Motto, and loosely - doing good in the world) and Non Sibi (not for oneself, the Exeter motto), Health, Adventure, Self-Efficacy, Leadership, Quest for Best!, Bravery, Mindfulness, Collaboration, Humor and Puns, and Consistency.
I try to make my values part of a truly active practice: I spend time reflecting on how I actually experience living each value, and focus on thinking specifically about how I can live more fully into the value in the rest of the year to come.
Questions to ponder:
What are my values?
Have I connected with my values this year so far?
Who are examples of people living this value to the fullest in my actual life?
What are *specific* ways I can expand my experiencing this value?
If you’ve never worked with personal values, it’s a nice quick exercise to identify some values that resonate with you. I like Lisa Congdon’s Live Your Values card deck, which allows you to quickly sort through your options. (It’s also a fun party activity - you can play the deck with others and everyone puts their top values on the whiteboard to learn about each other, and see what values you all share!)
Good Things This Week:
🐶 Canine and Human Enrichment: Bertram started his Dogtoral Program as a Boston College Eagle. A few weeks ago, I was trying to figure out our next enrichment activity together. Bertram loves classes – we did years of weekly training, including basic obedience, Canine Good Citizen, agility, nosework 🤣, and he’s level three AKC tricks certified – he can do thirty individual tricks! I was delighted to find that BC’s canine cognition lab is just around the corner, and taking pups to participate in ongoing studies. Basically they get treatos and love from researchers while practicing skills - win-win! We completed our first day intake, and Bertram loved it! (Local friends, Sign up your pup here)
✍️ I’m working on a large scale personal project on [Curating Inputs]: identifying great books, articles, documentaries, films, music, etc. that I want to experience.
It’s part of a bigger project around personal learning mapping.
For the past few weeks, I’ve been working on the podcast project: a deep dive researching the topics and genres I’m interested in, finding great new listening material, identifying the first three or so episodes of each to get started (and now much more.)
It’s a combination research project, data organization and analysis project, collaborative prompt, and all around joyful activity. (Unsurprisingly, I love talking to folks about what they love listening to/reading/etc!)
Some of the questions/thinking that it’s bringing up:
Data Organization and Visualization: How do you organize large scale content and data so that it’s searchable and useable? (After scrolling through a huge range of podcast websites, I can tell you there is a lot of room for improvement!)
Discovery: why is podcast listening software generally SO BAD? Why can’t I see clear listening history? Why are the discovery algorithms terrible? (It’s interesting to see the shift to Youtube as a primary podcasting platform. I think it’s largely interesting because the search/discovery is much more robust!)
Getting Started: Rarely is starting right at the beginning the best way. How do you give people a clear path to interact with content? A taste of the best of the best?
How do you think about presenting mixed media and designing better experiences? Audio content, plus visual, video, mapped content, glossaries and taxonomies, etc.
Anyway, I’m looking forward to sharing soon! (Meanwhile, I’ll take your podcast recommendations, any topic if you think it’s GREAT!)
And a shout out to my friend Lisa, a television producer and fellow fast-thinker who went down WILD rabbit holes with me about this yesterday.
Slow Drip Gardening
The front pot garden got a nice clean up. I got rid of some of the disposable planters, repotted, pruned, and deadheaded.
I replanted a long planter whose inhabitants had dried up with sedum babies. (I just love my sedum.)
Re-potted my inside succulents, and clipped some babies to start some fresh succulents in my extra little pots. Made a little indoor sedum terrarium situation.
My seeded parsley is coming up (beyond my expectations!)
I started thinking about succession sowing, and added some parsley and dill seeds to my herb bed planter.
What are you planting?
More Good Things:
📖 Reading: In my “Year of Sanderson” we’re on to the Rhythm of War (I’ve also downloaded Tress of the Emerald Sea to listen to). Working my way slowly through: William James’ The Varieties of Religious Experience, and David Burns’ ‘The Feeling Good Handbook’. ‘This is your Brain On Music’ by Daniel Levitin. Dr. Casey Mean’s Good Energy. I finished The Curious Secrets of Yesterday by Namrata Patel. I borrowed Dan Carlin’s ‘The End is Always Near’ from my neighbor.
🎧 Listen: I finally finished The Bone Valley Podcast (if you like true crime and investigative reporting, this was excellent.) Still building and enjoying adding to my July Spotify playlist. I’m working on my Podcast Listening List (if you have a favorite podcast you’ve been listening to, please let me know!) I listened to an episode of Hidden Brain on changing our mental maps (including using tactile sensations to get yourself out of mental loops).
🩺 Health: 500 x 5 on hip thrusts. 👀 Wild. I also stuck to running three miles, three times a week, which I’ve been trying to ramp up a little bit before fall racing season. // I went to acupuncture for my De Quervains. (I realized that it had been a LONG time since lying down without stimulus in the middle of the day. Also, cautiously optimistic here that it’s working more than anything I’ve tried in about six months.)
🌻 Flowers of the Week: my hydrangeas are still happy on my coffee table, and my succulents all got a nice little re-pot. I also made a bunch of succulent babies!
🐶 Dog Walks with Friends: Bertram finally got to meet his neighbor, Ollie, a golden puppy, and the good boys took a hot walk together!
🛍️ Good Acquisitions: in some shameless consumerism, I wrote about some of my Prime Day (and General) Picks on The Second Lunch // an adorable vintage French grocery board (picture at the top!) from my Buy Nothing group. // I did not acquire this but am LOVING the fabric art of Lis Sartori.
✅ Tackle a Nagging Task: this was a great week for getting things done. I’m still bullish on my “Done List” which is where I simply take note of all of the errands I do as I get them done. I repotted my succulents. I cleaned out several handbags (in case you were wondering where my 20 G2 Gel Pens were). I donated about….20 pairs of sneakers to Marathon Sports in Wellesley. I listed three items on my neighborhood Buy Nothing Group (and they were picked up!) I updated my nagging task list on the whiteboard.
📺 Watching: I’m looking forward to starting René Redzepi’s Omnivore on Apple+. I started watching Simone Biles’ Netflix Documentary, and Sprint (although couldn’t quite stay focused for either). I did finish Bodkin which I generally enjoyed.
🤣 Memes and randomness of the week: I have this bookmarked and keep sending to folks: a cure for hiccups: Step 1: breathe completely out, emptying your lungs, Step 2: take a deep breath in and hold it a few seconds, Step 3: without letting any air out, breathe in a little more air, then hold for a few seconds. Step 4: repeat step 3 And then you're done. (Source)
The Weekly Meal Plan:
Why do I do this? I’ll note, my meal plans tend to be more of a directional support for me than what I actually end up eating in my week. (I think a lot of people who do meal planning feel obligated to actually eat the things they come with rather than just using as a placeholder/inspiration. I do not feel so constricted.)
🍒 Good Eats from this Past Week: Yasmin Fahr’s grilled tahini-honey chicken thighs. Very nice indeed! // A box of Kraft Dinner (from Canada) // Lizzy’s Pistachio and Cookie Dough Ice Cream with Rainbow Sprinkles and white chocolate chips // Trader Joe’s Peach Raspberry Crumble // Trader Joe’s Carrot Cake mini sheet cake // a spam musubi from HMart
✍️ Every week I spend some time working on my "Let’s Eat” kitchen organization spreadsheet. I’m working this week to consolidate some notes - favorite recipes recommended by friends into one place on my sheet.
Bean of the week: Rancho Cranberry Beans (barbunya pilaki)
Weekend prep: I went to farmers market on Saturday morning, and picked up cucumbers and tomatoes (I was too late for fish!)
Sunday: Momofuku Bo Ssam via Smitten Kitchen, cabbage
Monday: Vietnamese beef, cucumbers, rice
Tuesday: Snacks at an event
Wednesday: Red Fish with barbunyas
Thursday: Scallion pancakes, bbq chicken
Friday: Out @ Kyuramen
Saturday: Dumpling tomato vinaigrette
Lunch Options: Dense Bean Salad with grilled chicken. Egg Salad. Salmon with marinated artichokes and beans. Lamb vindaloo with yogurt, tadka dal and yogurt. Coconut chickpea curry. Trader Joe’s Kimbap. 🦞 A lobster roll off the summer list.
Snacks: 🍒 Cherries. Blueberries. Strawberries. Yogurt and berries, yogurt with lemon and nuts, eggs, cottage cheese, cheese sticks. Turkey Chomps. Raspberry chia pudding with yogurt.
Treat options: Apple Tartines. Key Lime Pie. Trader Joe’s S’Mores in the freezer section. Popsicles. Dark Chocolate covered pistachios. Chocolate Lava Cake. (Still want to grab a new Flour Bakery corn muffin)
What are you eating this week?
Previous Years:
Something I really enjoy doing is flipping back in my journal or my blog to the week of the year over the past several years. When I write it out in a list like this, it feels like a nice accomplishment!
Observing the data this week: Another reminder to take out my camera and head to the ocean.
2019: Good Things Week 28 + 29
2016: Tech Talk: Apps Corner (early Canva user!)
2014: Weekend Things. Who needs sunshine? Stopping to notice the little things. Just keep moving. The Long Walk, La Brasa, Pork Dinner,
2013: Race Point Beach
That’s all for now! Hope you have a great week!
xo, Sam
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