Friday, Friday, Friday

It was another busy day at work today. The Teams messages started rolling in at eight AM. There was a lot to get done today, and people were getting to it early. I was at my desk around eight-forty-five with a warm tea and a slice of bread in my hand.

We had a leads meeting and then peeled off to pass on the relevant information to the rest of the team. Our goal was to implement as many of the changes and new information to as many paintings as possible before we met at three PM with some other teams.

The whole point of the day was for us to course current and let the other teams in on the knowledge we had gleaned. Communication is key in any successful team, and we all left the meeting feeling like we were in a better place. It was going to mean more work and more effort, but at least we had a plan to get to our goal. It’s the worst feeling to be treading water or, even worse, moving further away from your goals. 

Monday should be the start of a better week as of the results of these meetings today. And that means a little less stress and more creative energy to spend on my writing at the end of the day.

All this effort today meant I didn’t get out for my lunch time walk. And now as I right this in the evening it is rainy and damp and I just don’t want to go out in that. Not tonight. It’s a perfect night to curl up with a good book and a cup of Earl Grey. And just happen to have both at my side.

Today is the fifth month in a row where I have consecutively posted a daily blog. Something like one hundred and fifty posts starting in October if I remember correctly. After five months it has started to feel like this is just something I do now, like breathing or maybe mor importantly using the facilities. I do it daily and I feel better afterwards and they both involve boatloads of shit.

I’ve noticed that I am more comfortable righting these posts and sharing my thoughts with the world. Not that world is interested, but it’s here to read if they were. Either way it feels like I have acquired another writer skill or at least increased my proficiency at writing them. And any progress, no matter how simple, feels great.

My wife, seeing how tired I looked, suggested that I take the night off and I almost gave into that idea. But the idea of killing my streak stopped me. There aren’t too many reasons why I can’t do this daily anymore. What’s funny is that she is downstairs getting in her “One a day”. She paints a digital image, and she said my idea of starting and keeping a blog streak had inspired her to do the same with her paintings.

And that feels super cool.

The power of streaks is a real thing. The power of challenges is another thing. When you put them together they for into some sort of super-entity that gives you superhuman powers.

If you are out there reading this that I hope to inspire you to challenge yourself to something difficult, something you think you can’t achieve and set out to achieve using the power of streaks. Imagine where you will be in a months or years time.

I’ve managed to keep my chess streak going and my 2026 world challenge going using streaks. And I imagine I’ll add others as time goes by or challenges end. It’s too powerful a tool to ignore.

This week Kristi Noem was fired by Trump, and the price of oil has shot up. And Noem may go to war with Trump because he suggested that she perjured herself during her testimony. There seems to be some issue with a company called Safe America and may have personal ties to Noem. Or the awarding of a lucrative hundred-and-forty-million-dollar contract may have been suspect. I imagine this means we will be paying more for our goods and groceries. It seems like Russia may be aiding the Iranians as well by giving them information on how to attack the US military. Things are looking more dire for the United States. We can only hope that cooler heads will prevail in the end. The stock market dropped a near three hundred and fifty points today as a barrel of oil went above ninety dollars.

Meanwhile here in the North, Prime Minister Carney signed a quiet deal with the Japanese regarding energy and defense. And just the other day he was all smile with the Prime Minister of Australia. Seems like the real international dealmaker isn’t Trump, it’s Carney. And then, just today, I read Trump is willing to come back to the table with Canada and resume trade talks.

What a week!

I am very much looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow and catching up on some well-needed rest. I plan to have a fairly heavy writing day tomorrow, focusing on my mentor assignment. I’ll need to continue expanding the story I started for the assignment. I’ll likely write in set times taking breaks along the way. I think the only plans we have is to go for a cup of tea at a friends for a few hours. Otherwise, my goal is to write as much as possible on Saturday and Sunday. This will allow me to get ahead on the word challenge and give me plenty of time to write the assignment, which is due the following Saturday.

Creating a little breathing room is something I want to accomplish this week. I want to know what it feels like to have no pressure to write. Will I still write anyway, or will I let myself use up the head start?

I want to believe that I will continue to add more words and increase the buffer space, reducing my stress and releasing all kinds of creative energy. But I want to learn more about myself and see how I’ll respond.

Why not run experiments on yourself?

It’s fun!