And I am back!

I made a rule for myself last week to save myself from spending all the time on the blog. I am happy that I followed it. I had a very strong urge to write on Monday and Thursday. It happens when I feel a very strong urge to talk to someone. But instead of writing, I started doing other things that were important for the day. One day I cooked myself a happy meal, and the other day I kept working on a presentation that I had to deliver the next day. This is precisely why I allowed only one exception every two weeks, so that I use it only when this is the best thing I can do.

Okay, now that we are talking on this topic, let’s continue. Apart from blogging, I also made some other rules for myself recently. These rules are to help me become consistent and to help me succeed in daily life again and again. Now I go to bed early and wake up early. This gives me almost half an hour in the morning to either read or exercise.

When I was at home after master’s, at some point I started reading in the morning every day. I would read for atleast 30 minutes. It felt so good. It’s a thing that I have been doing for many years on-and-off, but now I am becoming much more conscious about its benefits. When I was in Delhi for my bachelor’s, I would wake up early in the morning and sit on the roof alone for about half an hour and quiet my mind. That calmed me down and gave me strength. Often I used to lie down at that spot at night and stare at the stars. It was so peaceful. I enjoy such moments. I also used to do this when I was in Mumbai. I would wake up early and just stare out of the window. We had some trees besides our building and they were the home of many parrots. At night, I used to go to the seashore, often alone. I would sit or lie down on the stones and stare at the ocean, the stars, marine drive, the buildings. It was almost always windy on the sea shore. The cool breeze on my face, the sound of the crashing waves (if it was a high tide), a very peaceful sight of the ocean or the sky, and a private sea shore was soooooo gooooooood! I enjoyed those moments. Sometimes I would sit there by myself for hours, lost in my own thoughts.

I did someting similar a few weeks ago. It was nice weather that day, so I took a chair and sat outside my house. I live in a very beautiful neighbourhood. Tall trees, quiet street, ground floor. My door opens on the street, so it’s very accessible. That evening, I sat outside and felt the cool breeze on my face. I stared at the start. I listened to the whistle of the trees. It was so peaceful. The stars reminded me of my moments from the roof of my house in Delhi and the seashore of TIFR. The trees reminded me of my uncle’s (mom’s brother) house. When I was small, I used to go to my uncle’s house in the holidays. They live in a village. At night, we used to sleep outside in the open, and there was a huge tree (Neem) by the wall in the neighbour’s house. I remember that I would lie in the chaarpai (the bed), and just stare at that tree when its leaves moved in the wind. Oftentimes it was a peaceful sight, but sometimes they would move too much in the Monsoon season and I was afraid the tree would fall down as we sleep. :D

Well, anyway, it’s clear that I enjoy lying under an open sky, and I miss it here in the Netherlands because it’s either too cold, too wet, or too awkward to do that.

Moving on….

That was one rule. I make time for reading or exercise in the mornings. Some rules are specific to my work. Working efficiently, avoiding distractions, having a time limit, dealing with people, and all that jazz. I come back home on time so that I finish the tasks at home (doing dishes, cooking, …) and I can go to bed around 9. Then I read or sometimes write in my diary for some time and go to sleep.

I started doing this maybe two or three weeks ago. I am trying to keep it up. Today I wanted to sign up for a swimming course but it was at 9 pm on Thursdays. I really want to get better at swimming but I didn’t sign up because it was going to make it hard for me to stick to my schedule. I signed up for Hip hop instead. It would be at a better time. I am excited about Hip hop. Last time I couldn’t do it because of my knee. This time I will take one step towards becoming the next MJ!

Some other things I have been doing.

Now I am using my airfryer quite often. I prepared chicken wings a few more times and now I have a better understanding of the settings for the wings. I prepared fries in that two times. The first time they were a little soft. Today I tried again and got them better than the last time. Today they were a little crunchy as well.

I am doing sports more often. I really like kick fit. I aim to go to for sports two to three times a week. I try to divide the time between kickfit and gym. I am enjoying going to the gym for the first time in my life. I want to keep going. I did not sign up for the football course this time. My knee hasn’t healed properly yet. For this reason, I am also not considering picking up my skates anytime soon. That’s why I was looking for the swimming course. But anyway, I will just start swimming free laps. I can do that anytime I want. I need to go to Decathlon to buy some swim gear. I really really want to go swimming.

Hmm what else?

Aah, I did not go to the live jazz event last weekend. The person I was going with cancelled and I also had things to do because I mismanaged my time before that. I had an impulsive desire to go anyway but then I followed my new rules and did not go.

I also did not go to the tulip fields this weekend, but that’s becuase the tickets are sold out. Otherwise, I would have gone. Today I bought a ticket for 7th of May at 12:00 h. Until yesterday I didn’t know that I have to reserve it beforehand.

I am just looking around my apartment to see if I have something else to report. :D

Well, my plants are doing fine. They are alive! I bought my first plant in January. After a few weeks, I gave it too much water. So the plant is in a plastic pot, and the plastic pot goes inside a ceramic pot. I didn’t know why they put these pots like this. Well, now I know. It is so thay if we give the plant too much water, the excess collects in the ceramic pot and we can drain that easily. First. of all, I didn’t realise that I gave it too much water, but even when I realised that, I didn’t know that I could drain the excess like that. By the time I found out that I could drain the excess water, my plant, which requires watering once every one or two weeks, had been sitting in a pond of water for two months! I looked miserable! So then I took the plant even out of its plastic pot so that the excess water evaporates from the soil. It’s been sitting like that for one week. It’s getting better.

That was my first plant, but then I collected some more from my colleagues. They are also doing well. I take care of them. I could just google what their needs are but I am not doing that. I am trying different things and see how they respond. I found that some of them like to be in a lot of light and some don’t. But there’s one problem. Some of the opposites are in the same pot. I didn’t have many pots so I planted them in the same pot. I will do something about that but for now they are okay.

mmmmm what else?

Oh, and I looked at one of the sites I have listed on msaharan.com. It’s John Baez’s stuff. Actually, I found it accidently. I was searching about the relation between the length scale and the energy (compton wavelength; I realised later) and found a website. I scrolled up and down and realised it’s his website. The I stalked him a little more on his website and found out that he writes about physics topics multiple times a week, and that I like what he writes. It’s interesting. In fact, I can stop writing right now and have a quick look at his website.

Alright, buenas noches!

Oh, and I realised from my old posts from 2020 that I can show the publish time on these posts. Now you can see that I published this post at 22:36 h. I am late today. Well, I will still wake up at 6 tomorrow.

I looked at the pictures on John’s website and realised that I forgot to say I am having second thoughts about using Instagram to display images on this website. I feel that it can cause problems down the line. I could restore all the old posts from 2020 in an instant because I had all the data at one place. I feel that having a service like Instagram manage my media is good for the short term but not good for long term. I write so that I can look back after a few years to see how I evolved. Instagram might not be a good long term solution. Hmm…. I am thinking about this.