Nothing to report. Just the usual sleeping, eating and job hunting.
Well, perhaps one note of interest: I had pasta for dinner; last time I had it was probably 1-2 weeks ago. I missed it! I don’t think my diet would be enjoyable without it, it’s good that it’s such a widespread commodity nowadays, especially in the Western world!
:-)
2 months agoGood day! Woke up earlier than usual (although I want to wake up even earlier tomorrow), worked (not much, ‘cause I had a couple of errands to run in the morning and then I had water polo in the afternoon), went to water polo practice and then had a very nutritious dinner (grilled chicken, with a side dish of spinach and chickpeas), while watching the latest episode of Entourage.
And, to make things even better, I got a positive email related to my job search that really made my day! It’s the n-th proof that when you’re job hunting you need to make a habit out of asking help and reaching out to whoever you think might be able to help you. It’s no time for being embarrassed or having second thoughts. Being bold and proactive pays off, ‘cause in this way you’re going to stand out from all the others competing against you that are not being that way.
Alright, one more TV show and then it’s sleep time!
2 months agoWeekend update!
Highlights:
I woke up late again, but I didn’t feel guilty about it, since I went to sleep at a reasonable hour last night and I had to recover the lost hours of sleep two nights ago. Also, I try to sleep a bit more in the days after I work out (or play water polo), I think my body needs it. I wonder how skipping a meal affects my diet though… is it ok because I’m sleeping in and my body doesn’t need as many calories? Or should I still try to have 3 main meals every day?
Well, I’m off to watch Glee’s second episode and then a blu-ray version of Wolverine!
:-)
2 months agoMinor improvement over yesterday’s schedule: this time I woke up at 11 and at least I got some work done in the afternoon!
Before waking up, I was having another weird dream: I was an actor who had been on the first 2 seasons of The Wire and just when I got my character’s first ever long dialogue in the script (with Herc, if I remember correctly) at the final episode of the season, I got shot at, kidnapped and tortured by a gang of friendly looking characters and sexy girls. I know, it sucks.
Funny story of the day: I had wanted to call a friend and invite him out for a couple of week-end activities, but for some reason I never found the courage (until today)! I don’t know if it’s him, or the fact that he doesn’t uses Facebook a lot so I actually have to talk with him on the phone if I want to invite him (I’d much rather write an email or a Facebook message), or what… it just seems to me sometimes that calling people is such a hard task! And leaving voicemails is a nightmare, I’d rather send a text message with what I wanted to say. Quirks like this don’t help in my job search, unfortunately, where calling is one of the most important things I have to do.
Positive note of the day: today a water polo team mate of mine notice my muscle gain. That makes it 2 team mates noticing that I got in better shape. Not bad.
:-)
2 months agoAnother day when I wake up at noon and end up thinking to myself “well, if I haven’t worked in the morning I can’t possibly work now…”, as if all the stars need to be aligned every time I put myself to work! Well, guess what, dear myself… they don’t have to! You can still do some work even if all of your impossible contextual conditions are not met, even if you slept in, you feel tired, it’s raining, you need to go to the grocery store, etc.
If that wasn’t enough, there’s one more challenge. I always feel like hitting a wall: I know what I have to do but I don’t know if I want to do it… it’s just another episode in the battle between my ambitions and my laziness (or better, lack of capacity to go the extra mile). I’ve always wanted to reach the maximum result with the minimum effort and I rarely have the strength to go out of my comfort zone. My motivation is apparently not strong enough. Maybe if I made it a discipline issue rather than a motivation issue something could change… for example, eating healthy has now become a habit, through weeks of discipline. Same goes with fitness. Maybe, just maybe, I could apply the same discipline concepts to my job search and do things not because I’m strongly motivated in doing them, but just because they become a daily habit. That’s it! That’s what I have to develop… daily habits in my job search. Calling, emailing, sending out resumes and cover letters… anything that’s a tangible action. Not only researching, listing, prioritizing jobs/organizations endlessly as I did for the past months. More talk, less thought!
We’ll see how that goes. For the moment, I made a rough schedule of how my daily activities related to my job search are going to look like. It seems that I have just 7 weeks left, I’d better use them all and really give it my best, ‘cause I know I can do better than this.
[end of rant to myself]
On a positive note: my 2 weeks of workouts so far resulted in an increase in maximum push-up reps of 37%. Way to go, me! See what you can achieve with good planning, persistence and hard work?
:-)
2 months agoWhat a weird short day!
I woke up at 5:00 AM, my face and head were on fire, couldn’t stop itching, and I couldn’t stop scratching. I was having a hard time falling asleep again, even after I went to the kitchen and just slid a couple of ice cubes all over my face and head to cool myself down and avoid more scratching. So I stayed up and tried to do some work, until about 9 and then I fell asleep again and woke up at 3 PM!
After a good breakfast I went to watch District 9 at the movie theater in Silver Spring. What’s up with me and critically acclaimed movies lately? I haven’t enjoyed this one either! I mean, it was a good concept and all, and the CGI was definitely smoothly integrated into the movie; the whole idea of shooting it as a mockumentary was great and the whole thing being in South Africa was definitely original and gave it a whole different (historical and political) perspective. But, I can’t say why, I didn’t really enjoy it as much as I expected I would.
By the way, saving a couple of bucks by going to a matinee was a great idea, I’ll try to do the same next time I go to the theater!
3 months agoSunday lazy Sunday, not much to tell.
I’m pretty satisfied with how my workout routine is going. I’m at the end of week 2 of the 100 push ups program, as well as the 200 sit-ups and 200 squats ones, although I’ll have to take a break next week due to water polo practice on Wednesday and a (hopefully) challenging introductory parkour class on Friday.
I just finished watching what might be my most favorite Van Damme movie, JCVD. A guy in it reminded me of John Cazale, maybe the director casted him on purpose (or at least, styled his hair in that particular way on purpose).
Today I had the longest phone call with my parents than I probably ever had… over an hour! I was happy I got the chance to talk a lot with my father, he usually hastily hands over the phone to my mom so I don’t have the opportunity to know what’s up with him or tell him what’s up with me. Also, I’m glad my parents are both on the same page that I am on my job search, I don’t feel any pressure anymore from them, other than the one I already put on myself (which is not a lot, but it’s not little either… a mid-sized healthy pressure, let’s say). They understand and support me in looking for a job that suits me better and they respect that I decided to look for it here. They’re no longer concerned as they used to be about the fact that I’m not finding anything: they know now how much effort I’m putting in my search and they agree with the way I’m going about it. And my dad echoed my thoughts when he said to me today that sometimes it’s just a matter of luck. That’s the way I see it… preparation, hard work, persistence, capacity, but ultimately a lot of luck! I hope luck shows up before I leave from here.
:-)
3 months agoI’ll keep this brief, since watching El laberinto del fauno took me 3 hours instead of the movie’s expected duration of 120 minutes. The reason for such extended viewing is the usual one: when I watch a movie and I don’t like it, I simply start browsing the Web while I’m watching it, and if I happen to find something more interesting than the movie itself, I actually pause the video until I’m done with that something and I’m ready to start playing it again. When that happens for too many times in a row, I call it quits and stop the video altogether. And this is what happened this time as well: I guess I’ll never know what those last 30 minutes look like, and quite frankly I don’t care! Just like in Pennac’s The Rights of the Reader, as a movie-watcher I reserve myself the right to stop watching any movie that I’m not enjoying, no matter how good everybody else says it is (although I usually give it a chance to show me what it’s all about… I try not to quit in the first half an hour or so).
Speaking of reading, I enjoyed today taking the time to focus on one book only. I rarely do that, I feel pressured into reading and finishing soon all the 10-20 books I’ve checked out from the library, and I never take the time to concentrate on one of them only and get the most out of it. Today I did it, with good results!
To conclude with, a few highlights from my evening at home:
That’s all folks, goodnight!
3 months agoAnother good day, in a different way!
I woke up with my roommate frantically knocking on the door of our apartment; she had forgotten to take the keys with her and, being her last day of work, I can see now how she had already planned to come back home pretty late (she isn’t in yet - oh, wait, there she is actually) and needed the keys to get in without me opening the door for her.
As I went back to bed, I found myself laughing at the thought that I was dreaming about Angela Lansbury, then I realized my dream was also about my father taking care of the garden we had at home and it led me to wonder whether my father would end up alright if he no longer had a job at 55 - but who am I to tell, I’ve been unemployed for over a year! Then I didn’t fall asleep again so I decided I’ll catch up on sleep by going to bed earlier tonight, and so my day started.
Today I was considering a career in philosophy. I got an email back from a professor who taught a class in philosophy of science when I was back at TU Delft (a class I loved!), advising me to enroll in a study program and pursue an academic career, if I was really interested in the field. I also read an interesting statement by the American Philosophical Association on what is a philosophy major all about. I told myself that if I had a chance to live again I would probably study philosophy or go to a liberal arts college. And, well, since it’s never too late for anything, I’m going to study philosophy anyway, probably by myself at first and then hopefully getting a break sometime in my career to enroll in a good study program. After all, I’m the right type for philosophy and, sooner or later, I feel like I will actually need to address the philosophical foundations of whatever I will do as a career, before moving forward with it.
My job search today resulted in a funny encounter: a nonprofit organization called Per Serving, whose mission is to “encourage food editors for newspapers, syndicates, magazines, food websites, and cookbooks to analyze all the recipes they publish and include the “per serving” nutrition facts for each one”. This must be the most glaring sign of the health of the nonprofit sector in this country, that I have ever stumbled upon.
On a more serious side, I applied for one more organization, although it’s less likely for me to get this job than it is for me to get the one I applied to the other day. But you know… you never know. I was proud of having applied another one of the principles I learned lately in my career development endeavors: action first, reflection second. I usually tend to reflect (a lot) first and, if ever, act second - which often leads to procrastination of many of my most daunting tasks. Tomorrow I will take the time to reflect: what am I doing in my job search that could be improved? Are my resumes and cover letters attractive enough? What other ways are there for me to better sell myself to a prospective employer?
Today’s baby step in a new direction was timing one of my fixed daily routines: washing dishes. I have the impression that washing dishes, along with cooking and getting ready in the mornings, are tasks I’m really slow at - I could definitely use to cut a few corners and save half an hour or so every day, by simply being more efficient and quick in what I do. It turns out I spend 20-30 minutes washing dishes every day. I can definitely turn that into 15-20 if I want to, with great benefits for my perception of my daily schedule, not to mention the environment! Tomorrow and in the next days I’ll time how much it takes me to prepare meals and get ready in the morning (shower, shave and get dressed, usually).
Oh, and I tried cottage cheese for the first time tonight (the small curd, low fat kind): I wasn’t really satisfied by the taste, I guess I’ll have to come up with some recipe that combines its incredible nutritional value (low fat, low carbs, high protein!) with some other food that actually tastes like food.
Well, time’s up… no movie/tv, no book. Just sleep! Goodnight.
3 months ago