A barbecue, water cleanup, and explorations of the mind

Barbecue

This afternoon I went to the park to see my coworkers for the first time in a very long time in person. The event was noted as BYOB so I brought some Mike's pineapple lemonade. I did feel a little like I had a hard time engaging in conversation -- looks like I still have a lot of work to do on my social skills.

But it was nice.

Attic and rain

With some difficulty I was able to get my ladder up into the attic area, and also swept the insulation off of the long section of walkable boards so that I could make sure it actually was walkable.

I was able to find two wet spots, and the source for one. Now that I have the ladder there, I might just wait for it to rain hard again and climb up there. But if it's a while before it rains again, I'll take the ladder down, stick it in my basement, and put it back up when it starts raining.

I've been trying to dry out my basement, which had a bunch of water in it (as usual.) Luckily I am on the top of a hill so there wasn't much standing water outside.

Explorations of the mind

I came across some articles about memory recall and the process of memory errors. I read through it a bunch and decided I'd finally start listening to

I'm only partway through (about an hour in), but I don't know if I'll finish it. It sort of feels like if I listen all the way through I might somehow make myself more susceptible to it, but I can't see any particular way for that to be true, so I'll keep giving it a listen until I get uncomfortable.

I did read some interesting things about how environment, emotions, gender, and so on affected the process of memory recording and recall, as well as the things that can disrupt the recall of information from the short-term memory. Drug use can severely impair the functioning of long-term memory storage and retrieval; use of cannabis will impair it significantly during the duration of usage (and possibly over time with frequent usage? I didn't look into that as much -- I don't use any kind of illegal or recreational drugs nor have I ever, and I don't want to.)

For a person who feels like, even at 25, they're fighting a battle against time, it's a bit unsettling but I feel like if I sharpen my mental acuity through research and study that I may have a better fighting chance at keeping my edge as I grow older.

NIghttime photos

I took these photos in the inky black of night. Somehow, my phone was able to discover the colors and details through long exposure. It's a little strange to see how the lights interplay with the long exposure -- see the light cast on the garage on the left, and my neighbor's light in their window across the fenceline.

Motivation

I'm glad that I got a blog entry done today. Today felt a little bit like a waste and writing a decent-length blog entry has helped me feel like I've redeemed the day. I'm really thankful for the friend who's been helping me with motivation and other things over the past few weeks. <3