In Maricar's words, what is the book about?
Feris heads to camp. Bye Evernote. It's cold in HK. Mama E & Papa O explore.
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Moments of the Week (Feb 26- Mar 3)
For the past two months, Feris has been looking forward to camp. After three days, she came back with stories about wild boars eating their food, sleepless nights because of a rock and snoring in the next tent, and cold showers. I asked her if she wanted to go camping again, and she said yes, especially if her friends were there. She's growing up.
The temperature dropped through the weekend and we received alerts. How cold? 50. We are spoiled. With the humidity right around the corner, I'm appreciating it on my morning runs.
Mama E has been cooking up a storm and inspired Lea’s new song. To the rhythm of Cabella’s Senorita, “I love it when you touch my longganisa.”
Papa O likes to walk and drags Jero around as his buddy in crime. Whether it’s 3am or 10pm, it’s always a good time.
Thinking Out Loud
Do you use Evernote?
This longtime user has had enough. I receive multiple full-screen pop-up ads a day pestering me to upgrade. Sometimes, it’s one directly followed by another. Sheesh. This has been going on for months and I finally made the switch.
What do I use it for?
1. Priorities and To-Do Lists
2. Cooking Recipes - No matter how many times I've cooked something, I need to reference a checklist and order of steps
3. Notes for Purposefully Lost. As ideas come, I jot them down.
4. Random Ideas or Quotes I would forget in 10 minutes if I didn’t write it down.
I switched to Google Keep. Important features include access on all my devices, real time sync, and a clean layout to view my notes.
I migrated a few of my notes the good old-fashioned way; copying and pasting. No more ad pop-ups and Keep is doing its job. There are no formatting options but I’m getting creative with emojis.
What do you use for notes?
I’m Writing a Memoir
I’m feeling really good about the improvements to the memoir and I’m making final edits. The cover continues to be a work in progress and Maricar tapped into her art teacher colleagues for feedback.
They start with consultative questions like:
What is the book about?
What emotions are you trying to convey?
In answering these questions, Maricar came up with the following description:
"The essence of the book is not about the actual places we’ve visited, but how we’ve changed and the joy we found by embracing it. Going on this journey as a family made it better because the misadventures are collectively shared among us, so that not only the memories last but also we divide those struggles among us to make the weight easier to carry"
I thought it was well said. If you've read an advanced copy, would you agree?
On The Move
Run With Me on Strava - 53.85 mi, 5,482 ft
Group Runs - Big Medium and Small Loops
In Discovery Bay, there are only so many roads and most of them aren't flat. This constraint forces us to get creative with our workouts. Peter led this week's sessions and it was Big Medium and Small loops at different locations.
Tuesday - Beach Loops with 45-second recovery
Thursday - Peninsula Hill Climb with recoveries on the descent
Last Sunday's King of the Hill with nearly 6,000 feet of elevation took a toll on my quads. It's both the climb and the descents that have a cumulative effect.
All my runs have been easy and between 3-7 miles. With Lantau 70 in two weeks, I’m finding the balance between recovering and squeezing in a few trail runs and leg work. The cramping at the end of my last race is evidence my legs would benefit from strength training.
My weekend runs were dependent on how my legs were feeling. I was hoping for a long hilly run, but I was still sore so I stuck with a pair of backyard runs up to the golf course via DBIS steps. Some elevation is better than none.
I’ll wrap with a James Clear quote on consistency.
"In theory, consistency is about being disciplined, determined, and unwavering.
In practice, consistency is about being adaptable. Don't have much time? Scale it down. Don't have much energy? Do the easy version. Find different ways to show up depending on the circumstances. Let your habits change shape to meet the demands of the day.
Adaptability is the way of consistency."
Need to check your Strava for the KOTH report. I used Evernote years ago. For the last 10 years or so, it's been Microsoft OneNote for longer notes and for last 5 years Keep for to do lists and goal setting. I add images to the notes in Keep that I use often - love that. I feel like I the post-it note format of Keep doesn't work well for longer notes though: size of window, post-it brevity...
I use the Notes app on my iPhone, or a Google Doc that I keep adding to, like “Brilliant Ideas” or “Random Thoughts”. I like my Moleskin notebooks best.