In the midst of unemployment, I've been trying to take the time to do entirely random things that couldn't be done at any other time in my life. In the same vein, there is a very sad orchid plant that hasn't been repotted or cared for very well by my good friend, and we were at a bit of a loss since it's still alive... just never bloomed in the past 5 years. So we went to a "Orchids for Beginners" class in the Boerner Botanical Gardens, half an hour south of the city. Naturally, we were the youngest attendees of this seminar hosted by a member of the Wisconsin Orchid Society. And after an hour and half of realizing how little I knew of gardening, I was handed a "P667 The Mistress 'Candy Shop'" plant and was sent home with it. 

• Don't overwater the plant, give it a quarter cup of water and then wait for it to almost dry out before watering again. If in doubt of how dry the plant is, take a #2 pencil and stick in the soil; if the pencil wood is moist, you can wait a little longer.
• Don't fertilize the plant immediately otherwise the dry roots can get burned by the chemicals... and I still need to do more research on what food to get it.

It appears that blogging has become an annual type of thing for me. It's been a helluva year, and I'm not even sure where to begin. Last time I checked in, I was moving out to Maryland for my first job out of college. Since then, I have moved three times to three different cities, and somehow ended up back in Milwaukee. In a nutshell, I quit my job. Just wasn't for me. I had passions elsewhere, and now I'm getting ready to follow them! Unfortunately, my interviews have all been just off, and I really can't afford to have another short-term job experience. This one's got to be a keeper. And ain't committment a bitch?

But to keep up with things, here's a review of my summer:

1. Quit my first job
2. Road trip: Washington DC, Niagara Falls/Canada, Michigan, Milwaukee
3. True Life: HGTV; how to live in the smallest apartment ever
4. the QUEST for perfection & how I rejected five job offers
5. sanity restoration through volunteer work: VA, Habitat, Vulture Space
6. David and Goliath
7. experienced my first Wisconsin summer that was under 90 degrees

it's been a nice summer, kind of. even without the whole disposable income thing, I got money in the bank for now. it's not fun being unemployed, but I'm certainly getting involved with some things I've always wanted to do. I'm almost overloading myself, but it's just mentally degrading to sit at home and wait for the phone to ring or a recruiting email to pop up.

hey milwaukee, engineer for hire, pronto.

Alas it has been quite the busy summer for me. Apologies to those who have pestered me about continuing my blog posts. But I guess I can record these moments of my summer for now:

1. Traveled to Finland, Estonia, Sweden, and Czech Republic within 2.5 weeks, involving visits to prison, strip clubs, and karaoke bars
2. Worked at Health Department through Peacemaking Fellowship
3. Swore allegiance to the great U.S. of A 

Everytime I want to blog, I look at my desktop and see this:

A little late, I realize, but I did want to jot down some of my post-Easter thoughts to follow up with my proactivity lenten resolution. 

I remember one day, a particularly productive day of spinning, homeworking, and designing circuits, I had a very revealing AHA! moment. Perhaps it didn't occur to me during my bitter hate rants against school, but now after having a clear mind and ready-to-go attitude, I realize now that the thing that truly drives productivity is brain chemicals. As a huge biology nerd, this makes me very happy, as it validates my theory that you can truly assess someone in every aspect of their life by looking at their physical well-being. But going back to brain chemicals. You do what gets you the feel-goods, whether its working out, eating, sleeping, etc. and you keep doing it because you get the ultimate endorphine boost from it. 

An addendum to this is realizing what will make you unhappy. Like homework, sitting in class, being hungry, etc. So how do you alleviate these things? With your brain chemicals. Obviously, if you're hungry, you fix that by eating. But what about those unhappy irritating things that you have to suck up and do? My solution: You literally have to force the endorphines to come out in these cases. Make it fun, make it engaging, make it whatever you need to. Make it interesting and get through it. And once you're through it, remember how you made it interesting and habituate that feeling until it's an addiction.

So essentially, get addicted to being productive. It's all about baby steps too. Too many times this year has my brain gone on overload just thinking about everything at once. The irony of productivity is if you try to do everything at once, you accomplish nothing. But by taking it step by step, piece by piece, making everything little thing count, the details will lend themselves into something great. 

I recently heard a speaker give out this challenge to his audience:  "I challenge you to find out one interesting thing about a new person everyday. I promise you if you try this, you will have less hate in your heart." He had been talking about the shooting at the Sikh Temple in Oak Creek, but I also take this as another sign that life can only be approached one person, one problem, and one step at a time. To be productive, to be successful, to not waste away your own wild and crazy life, the key seems to be to slow down and focus on what's in front of you. 

Credit: http://www.1designperday.com/2011/11/16/35-most-creative-tea-infusers/