mtbc: maze H (magenta-black)
Mark T. B. Carroll ([personal profile] mtbc) wrote2019-01-19 05:17 pm

Too much television

In my household I overheard an amusing, I can't keep up with all the Netflix things. Yeah. It's true. I actually have a Sky Arts show on in the background at the moment: they have a pleasant series in which Daniel Barenboim plays piano concertos. I was briefly confused by that he was both conducting and playing but he keeps his hands busy one way or the other.

With the New Year I had mentioned hoping to do better at making time for progress on my tasks outside paid employment. Last Sunday went quite well: I valiantly battled the television equipment and improved the antenna in the attic. I had previously had it loosely sitting atop boxes. On Sunday I fit it into a bracket and, er, tied the bracket to a truss with garden wire. It is good though: it's out of the way and better set up than with the single woodscrew that secured it when we moved in. It not being our house I didn't drill holes and screw my bracket into the truss: everything I have done is easily reversed, even the woodscrew still waits in its old hole. It did take me a while to find my signal strength meter though.

Today I did a couple of minor things like shredding some papers (why must credit card payment slips include one's full card number?) and changing a smoke alarm battery. Tomorrow I plan to file my Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) with the Department of the Treasury, the government shutdown permitting; I've already pulled the papers I'll need to work through in compiling the summary.

I estimate that on weekdays by around 19h I have gotten home, worked out, showered and eaten. That should give me time to do something useful then watch a couple of shows to wind down before bed. I do love to spend time with my family but I probably also watch more than necessary each evening: such is a risk of on-demand streaming. For example, recently I've been enjoying shows like Homecoming (2018) and Travelers (2016) and have resumed Star Trek: Discovery (2017). Depending on reviews, I may also watch the latest season of True Detective (2014). Hardly the basis of a demanding schedule, fortunately.

I do need to plan my time better. At least writing this entry helped me to see that it should be quite possible to fit everything in; I just need to adjust my habits. Some evenings I already feel worn out, especially if I hadn't slept well, and I figure it is okay to just rest on those but that leaves many other evenings when I can take an hour after the meal to focus on something. Perhaps not imminently: our colds seem to be worsening again.