Mikes Thoughts

random life things

I don’t really do reminders or todo lists any longer. I guess because there is nothing to remember or check off. I ascribe to the Cambodian method.

What can’t be done today is not done today.

That’s my spin on it. I spent 20 some years agonizing over projects and schedules and timelines. Some amounted to over $20m in activities with all kinds of vendors and partners and contractors. They could not do project schedules. Or did not want to. So I did them. They hated it because I was the client and the company believed my version.

So when I left it all behind it was with a sigh of relief of no more OneNote. No PowerPoint or shared files on sharepoint. Absolutely no Microsoft Project.

So I left it all somewhere and instead life became more random. More unplanned. More Cambodian here and Vietnamese there or wherever I happened to be. I think this is why I eschew second brains and PKM things. There is no order. No ultimate authority that says this must be done today. It’s us that do that. We need to believe there is order. And time goes along with it. We need clocks and time and reminders. Because of order. Fuck all that.

Life is not whirring clocks and todo text files. It is random and sometimes not. I’ve said before life is supremely indifferent if you use things or todoist or apple reminders. Just doesn’t give a F.

So most of my days are not spent nitpicking todo lists are siphoning down on the required things. My wife is fond of saying,

Your job is to walk and drink coffee

So I try to do those things. And writing. Writing becomes the focus point because so many things come from itinerant jabs at my journal. Links formed. Random thoughts almost captured.

Today is an example I guess. What is there today. There’s coffee at Spring Coffee. The AC whirs. It’s peaceful and just beautiful inside. I sit in the big comfy chairs. And I write here. Today I get money. The pittance in the US becomes a nice life here. My wife enjoys it and she will enjoy spending it. U just take my morning. My almost new iPhone 13 is a joy to me. Writing on it with IA Writer is all I could want. So I write. Coffee right there. No words said here. A Khmer man sits away on his laptop. Might as well be light years away. I will put this down and perhaps peek later.

17 June and back

Well here it is. This day. I’ll be heading to breakfast with my wife. Last night drank a bit. And then a little more. Beer just does something for me. A gentle little buzz and a headache until I walk. I think it’s my rebellion against living like this.

The writing is too. I just get to the basic point with it. No glorified and complex system. No order. Don’t need none of them things. After all this is about random life things and not garage doors left open so you can watch the work or play. I’m gonna go to this place after breakfast this morning. More there and maybe a photo if we’re lucky.

After it all. Start and stop. And wait for my barber to open. Now at a coffee shack that has that as a name. Seems fitting.

coffee shack

All the random bits and bobs come around again. I’ll just wait it out and send this along to 11ty, GitHub and Vercel.