Lately there has been some light internet chatter regarding the “perfect morning routine”. At the present I am not at all happy with my current morning routine, as it seems to run on a combination of obligation and anxiety. So I have given it some thought and present to you some alternatives I might consider working towards:
Actual/current
7:00am: Alarm goes off. Hit snooze until about 7:30. At which point in an attempt to wake up I put my glasses on.
7:50am: Finally drag self out of bed. Wake up computer. Go to bathroom. Pee, brush teeth, obsess over hair.
8:00-8:25am Check weather report and email. Alternately get dressed and have breakfast. Breakfast is usually a wheat english muffin and coffee.
8:30am: Leave for work—running late.
9:10am: Arrive to work late. Accompany others on coffee runs.
Ideal:
6:55am: wake up before alarm goes off at 7. Room is warm enough to brave taking off covers. Lie awake contemplating the day’s tasks.
7:15am: Wake up computer. Go to bathroom. Pee, brush teeth, obsess over hair.
7:25am: While checking email and weather report, write “morning pages”.*
7:45am: Get dressed.
8:00am: Eat breakfast.
8:10am: Leave for work
8:45am: Arrive on time for work.
Super Ideal
6:00am: Wake up before alarm goes off at 6:05. House is warm enough to brave taking off covers. Lie awake contemplating the day’s tasks.
6:15am: Wake up computer. Go to bathroom. Pee, brush teeth, obsess over hair.
6:25am: While checking email and weather report, write “morning pages”.
6:45am: Get dressed.
6:55am: Eat breakfast.
7:05am-8:05 am: While drinking coffee actually spend an entire hour working on something art related. The clarity of thought in the morning makes this completely effortless.
8:10am: Leave for work.
8:45am: Arrive on time for work.
Totally Awesome Ideal that I will realize someday!!!
Wake up naturally at 7am. Step out of house on to beach in the Galapagos Islands–naked. Eat fresh fruit for breakfast. Go for long walk, commune with animals while thinking about the art project I am working on. At around 9am inspired by the strange beauty of the islands I head back to my studio and begin work anew.
* Morning pages are a writing exercise that comes from the book The Artist’s Way. While the book is sort of embarrassingly hippie and uses phrases like “nurturing your inner artist child” (I know, I know), I find that most people do think the morning pages are a worthwhile endeavor. I have attempted to do them a couple times but clearly as evidenced above I cannot seem to get out of bed in time to brush my teeth.
According to this article the Hadron particle accelerator failed this summer due to “a single, badly soldered electrical connection”.
This is awesome. And while I suspect the problem is a little more complex than what is described, it is still a completely relatable issue. Anyone who has ever used a soldering iron, or enjoyed the frustration of fixing older Christmas tree lights can empathize. I myself have witnessed and experienced the complete annoyance of going over an entire circuit board with one’s dinky voltmeter trying to locate that stupid failed connection under the pressure of having to present the work in short order. I can only begin to imagine the tedium of having to comb through the electronic innards of a particle accelerator. Yech.
A colleague of mine emailed me this article from the New Yorker: “Late Bloomers:Why do we equate genius with precocity?” by Malcolm Gladwell. Briefly, it challenges the notion that genius or artistic zenith only happens when one is young. As an artist in her late 20’s I can honestly say that I do fret over the idea that I should be at my artistic peak. Especially when one considers how the art market typically seems to devour its “emerging artists” young.
Funnily enough the descriptions of late bloomer art process seems remarkably similar to mine:
But late bloomers, Galenson says, tend to work the other way around. Their approach is experimental. “Their goals are imprecise, so their procedure is tentative and incremental,” Galenson writes in “Old Masters and Young Geniuses,” and he goes on:
The imprecision of their goals means that these artists rarely feel they have succeeded (emphasis mine—ha!), and their careers are consequently often dominated by the pursuit of a single objective. These artists repeat themselves, painting the same subject many times, and gradually changing its treatment in an experimental process of trial and error. Each work leads to the next, and none is generally privileged over others, so experimental painters rarely make specific preparatory sketches or plans for a painting. They consider the production of a painting as a process of searching, in which they aim to discover the image in the course of making it; they typically believe that learning is a more important goal than making finished paintings. Experimental artists build their skills gradually over the course of their careers, improving their work slowly over long periods. These artists are perfectionists and are typically plagued by frustration at their inability to achieve their goal.
There is hope yet.
Filed under: ecuador
My brother sent me an indignant email regarding this article: LINK
Overall I do think Mexico and Mexican culture does tend to be the face of Latin America in the US and it is something I’ve found sort of both amusing and mildly off-putting. Back in my undergraduate days, I made a good faith effort to join the campus Latino group. But I soon realized that Mexican culture dominated all of the meetings and events. I have nothing against that, but it’s not something I identify with. I knew I was going to quit when I found myself sitting in a smoky sage filled room for some Dia de Los Muertos ceremony and thinking “My Abuelos are freaking borderline atheists. This is ridiculous and not really my culture based in an urban Latin American city.”
So I quit going to meetings despite the excellent take-out and started writing a bitter column under the name “Token Latina” for a college paper.
I find inter-latino struggles kind of pointless really. I mean really can’t we all admit that we love pupusas and pan de yucca and call it a day? Not too long ago I had a totally ridiculous/antagonistic run-in with a Peruvian at a local art opening.* I was surprised it happened at all really. Ironically his friend, also a Peruvian, ended up asking me out.
Anyways I leave you with my brother’s response to all you squabbling Mexicans and Other Central American Countries:
In other words you all have it all wrong anyways…
“Un straw es SORBETE not pajia o popote
Un belt es CORREA not cincho o cinto
Popcorn isn’t palomitas it’s CANGUIL
Corn isn’t maiz it’s CHOCLO”
I’ll throw in my own: Pork is not cerdo, or puerco its CHANCHO!! (and it’s delicious!)
*To those not in the know: Peruvians and Ecuadorians are not supposed to get along due to border disputes that have gone on forever.
