Year: 2017

This week’s long run

Started out way too early in the afternoon. Despite hat, sunglasses, sunscreen and water, this was a tough one — but I’m glad I ran it. Bathing season is now in full swing in Tel Aviv, and the holiday weekend meant that the beaches were packed.


Dog beach, where dogs are allowed to romp in the sand and water. In the background you can see the seperate beach, humming with people. 


Getting things ready for the traithlon on Saturday meant that running in the Tel Aviv port was a bit of a challenge.


Everything ready for tomorrow’s triathlon.


The sea scouts were out and about, rowing and sailing on the Yarkon.


Gratuitous photo of the sailing boats against the Tel Aviv skyline. 


Rose-ringed parakeet (called drara parrot here) on a Eucalyptus tree. Both are invasive species, but the parakeets, though delightful to see and hear, have done much more damage to the local birds.



Hopoe, digging away for insects.


Tel Aviv’s beaches have been decorated for the pride parade, and there was a DJ that played some pretty decent dance music also out for the occasion.


10K run, done and done. Glad that I did it, though for next week’s run, I’ll probably start either early in the morning or later in the evening. 

Streaks vs. Plans

I was in a bit of a writing slump over the past two months or so, and I tried to solve it by trying to get as long a streak as possible of writing every day.

I managed to go three days in a row, and then failed.

Now I’m using a writing plan that I drew up for myself, and I’ve gone 7 days in a row with more words written each day than I planned, and I’ve written more each day than I did during my short-lived streak. Why is that?

Streaks are something that we think helps us move forward, create habits, but I think they only give us the illusion of being helpful. Yes, if you’re on a streak, you really don’t want to break it — especially if it’s a long one. But streaks don’t motivate you to finish your daily goal early, or go beyond the goals. Streaks let you postpone things to the last minute — after all, you only miss your goal when the day has passed. They are inflexible — you set the same goal for each and every day, no matter what.

Plans allow you to do just that — plan your daily goal to accomodate your life. Busy day? Set a smaller goal. You have the day off? Set a more ambitious goal. They also don’t set you back to zero if you fail, and encourage you to try for at least a partial success, because not everything is lost if life happened and you didn’t meet your goal. There’s also less of a pressure with a well made plan to “keep extra words for tomorrow”. If you have something to write, write it. 

Just like athletes use training plans and not training streaks to prepare for a race, writers should use writing plans and not streaks to get their daily words in. 

This week’s recommendations

Podcast: Download. Jason Snell, with Stephen Hackett as a editor and a rotating pair of guests talk technology in what is the most charming, informative and polished of tech podcasts. Worth listening to if only to hear the “story you might have missed” segment.

Book: World War Z, by Max Brooks. Forget the movie (it has nothing to do with the book), and forget that this book is “about zombies,” because it isn’t really. It’s an “oral history,” very well written and researched, of a plague of the kind that exposes our humanity to the very core — all the good, all the bad, laid bare. A facinating and disturbing read precisely because it is so very realistic.

Tea: Lately it has been nothing but Yorkshire Tea, in dependable teabags, brewed stronger than you would believe possible and taken with milk-and-sugar. My aunt died last week, and at times like this I look for “comfort tea,” simple and soothing in its familiarity.

Also this week: Nasturtiums are hanging in there, despite the hot weather.

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Busy, full day ahead

But at least I got my run in. Felt as if I was running with weights tied to my legs for most of the way, because I haven’t fully recovered from Sunday’s speed workout, but I made it, and I’m glad that I ran. 

Staring at the blank page…

Starting to write is like starting to run. Your brain starts playing tricks on you from step one. 

“I’m too tired to run”.

“It’s too hot today — it’s dangerous to run outside”.

“My feet hurt, my head hurts, my throat hurts — let’s not go out today”.

“10k? That’s too much. Let’s run less. You can’t possibly do it”.

Sound familiar?

I sat down to write yesterday, and it was difficult, very difficult to start. My mind started wandering, suggesting that I read my twitter feed, or the NYT, or do anything, just anything but write. It’s like that almost every time I sit down and write, and the only way I found to overcome it is to map out reasonable daily goals and force myself to start anyway. Usually when I start writing I can push myself well enough to the finish, sometimes even a bit farther. The same thing happens when I run — the first 2-3k are a pain, but then I get into the rhythm, and start enjoying myself. 

There’s never been a run that I’ve regretted.

There’s never been a writing session that I’ve regretted.

I just need to remember that when the tiny little coward in my brain decided to protest. 

Every. Single. Time.

Tabletop Day

Tabletop Day was a huge hit today – we were 9 people gathered in my brother’s apartment, and we played:

  • Sushi Go (twice)
  • Tsuro
  • 7 Wonders
  • Resistance (twice with the regular rules and once with the expansion, which made it much better).
  • Hanabi
  • Sheriff of Nottingham

Not bad for 8 hours, including a lunch break 🙂

I hope that you had a great Tabletop Day. Play more games!