Book Review: “I’m Fine: A Practical Guide to Managing Your Emotions,” by Rob Nugen

This is a book written for men, and written by a man describing his life experience.  It's a book that every man should read.  I know that sounds cliché; in fact one of the endorsements says "A must read for every man"

I liked how the book was structured.  Between the foreword and closing words, it's divided into five parts, which are broken into chapters and subdivided into small sections.  I was able to read just one section if I was lacking time, and then when I returned to it, I was able to get re-oriented easily.

I expected to read the first part, or a few chapters, and then post a preliminary review.  And that review would have consisted of what I just wrote previously, plus a comment on how easy it is to read and the lack of typos.  And then I'd read through the rest quickly before "Paying it Forward."

But then I started to identify with the author's life experiences.  This is what went through my head:

I'm not the only one who tried to please everyone.  I'm not the only one who did something foolish while driving my parents' car.  I'm not the only one who endured demeaning treatment from a high school girl.  I'm not the only one who thought "My life is over..." after hearing my partner say she's pregnant.  (Except in my case I said it out loud.)

I started therapy a few years ago.  At the beginning of each session, my therapist would ask, "So, how do you feel?"  And I'd reply, "I dunno, okay I guess."  Gradually I learned that the stomach pains I experienced prior to a meeting with the boss weren't caused by food; they evolved from a severe aversion to episodes of humiliation.  When I was laid off and finally walked out of the building, the weight of all that lifted.

The author's discussion of fear was my favorite part of the book.  As I wrote on my blog¹, fear can point you in the direction of growth.  But if you succumb to fear, it can hold you back.  So it was easy for me to accept the author's idea that other "emotions are messengers, not problems."²

The author encourages his readers to pass the book along to another man.  But I'm not sure I'm willing to give up my copy so quickly.

---

¹ https://square--peg.blogspot.com/2013/06/fear-as-ally.html
² https://www.robnugen.com/en/books/im-fine/

This review was posted to LibraryThing on 2026-02-11.
I received a free signed copy of this book in order to write this review.

Brush Your Teeth and Stay Awake

The typical bedtime routine is “brush your teeth and go to bed.”  Unfortunately, the act of brushing my teeth is too invigorating for me to do right before bedtime.  Sometimes I’d skip brushing my teeth at night because I felt it would ruin my sleep cycle.

At first I figured that the problem was with the mint flavor of the toothpaste.  So I bought and used bubblegum-flavored toothpaste.  Alas I still felt revived after using it.  And this was very disappointing because I spent a long time to find toothpaste that’s not minty.

Then I figured the effect was because the water was so cold.  The bathroom is located a bit far from the water heater, and I’m too impatient and too much of a cheapskate to keep the hot water valve open to purge the cold water in that line.  So then I decided to brush my teeth at the kitchen sink, which is right over the water heater and next to the dishwasher.  It was easy to get warm water to rinse my mouth out with.  But then I realized what the real problem is.

The real problem is that the sensation of the nylon bristles rubbing against my gums drives away stupor.  So even eliminating toothpaste and cold water doesn’t help.  The problem remains with the very act of brushing!

But I do wonder why we have an over abundance of mint-flavored toothpaste.  Is it to counteract a sense of nausea?  Or to ensure fresh breath?

Maybe I'm not the only adult that relies on children's toothpaste.  Could this be an untapped market?

The Magic of Suspenders

In December I made the switch from wearing a belt to wearing suspenders.

I had already bought pants with a larger waist to relieve the pressure on my abdomen.  But this meant that I had to wear a belt to keep the pants from falling down.  And a belt isn’t terribly effective if one’s waist greatly exceeds one’s hips.  So the new pants didn’t really change anything.  That’s when I decided to switch.

The first day that I replaced the belt with suspenders was magical.  I achieved the intended effect of relief around my waist.  But there were other improvements, too.

The first improvement was the illusion of becoming taller and slimmer.  With its two bold vertical lines replacing the single horizontal line of the belt, the suspenders had the same effect one gets by changing out of a sweater that sports horizontal stripes with another with vertical stripes.

The second improvement was that suspenders encouraged me stand more erect.  They reminded me that if I wanted to keep my pants in place, I shouldn’t slouch.  Better posture also made me taller and made me feel more confident.  And with the better posture, it was easier to suck in my gut.

The third improvement was style.  Before, I’d choose between a brown belt for khakis or a black belt for grey, black or navy blue pants.  But suspenders come in a much greater variety of colors and patterns, such as blue, red, gold, green, and solid, plaid, striped, argyle, that you can bring out an accent color from a plaid or checkered shirt.  Plus, you can find novelty suspenders that can show off your favorite hobby, passion or line of work.  For example, you can find themes of flyfishing, golf, camouflage, clovers, American flag, and the one that I chose, circuit board.

If you decide to make the switch, I strongly advise you to practice lowering your pants a few times lest you find yourself “in urgent need of a haircut”¹ and get stymied trying to drop your drawers quickly.

---

¹A euphemism on Car Talk (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Car_Talk) for “desperately needing to go to the bathroom.”

A Mindfulness Diary for the Alzheimer's Patient

I’ve become increasingly concerned about the cognitive decline I’ve been experiencing. Could it be a symptom of sleep apnea or another sleep disorder? Is it related to depression? Am I getting Alzheimer's?

I decided to start tracking episodes of “mindlessness.” I thought to use a weekly planner as a medical journal. I envisioned a planner in which the user / patient could select a symptom and rate its severity. But I saw only regular planners in bookstores. So I searched online for “journal diary for alzheimers patients.” Amazingly nothing related to a downloadable diary showed up. So I decided to create my own.

I found a really nice weekly planner template written in Excel by SmartSheet. I downloaded it, saved it with LibreOffice Calc and modified it in two distinct ways.

First I improved the date calculations. Now the starting date for each week is derived from a global starting date and the sheet name. Thus a new week can be added just by copying an existing sheet to a new sheet and changing the sheet name. The original template contained only five weeks of content; it was necessary to edit the start date on each new worksheet. So adding new weeks was tedious without redesigning the date calculation.

Second, I changed the layout of the page to a two-column format and gave each day the same amount of space. The TASKS and NOTES sections have been moved to the bottom, and TASKS was repurposed into two sections: CATEGORY and SEVERITY. The content in these new sections comes from a non-calendar worksheet, called SourceLists, to allow for easy changes to the lists that appear on all weeks.

Cells A1 through A10 on SourceLists contain the ten categories of symptoms. You can change the text in them and/or blank a few out. The severities are 0 (for no problem), 9 for highest functioning, and -9 for lowest functioning. Originally, I had 0 through 9 to represent symptoms from lowest to highest. But then I realized that I’d like to record good episodes, and a positive number seemed appropriate to represent this condition.  The idea is to jot down a Severity/Category code followed by a brief note.  For example, yesterday I had "-1A: I momentarily forgot that I was driving JC home after I got gas."  The "-1A" code is short for a very slight / brief memory impairment.  Having codes like this can make it easy to use a statistics program (such as R) to chart trends and to correlate with other sets of data.

I found the original list of symptoms in the Alzheimer’s Symptom Diary. I tailored the list to my needs and limited the number to ten to fit the available space.

Here's a link to the PDF document that I'm currently using.  Let me know if you're interested in seeing the spreadsheet source document.  I'm not publishing it out of deference to SmartSheet.  Someone put a lot of effort into designing that template, and I don't wish to subvert their business model by publishing a derivative work.

Chanting for World Peace and Happiness

If you've ever thought about praying for world peace or happiness, today of all days would be a good day to start.

Below is a link to a page with videos that describe one Buddhist practice of chanting.

Please try it.  Or pray in your own way.  Everyone's contribution counts!

http://www.sgi-usa.org/memberresources/beginnersresources/howtochant.php

What's Your Life Purpose?

These are my answers to Mark Manson's slightly quirky "7 Strange Questions That Help You Find Your Life Purpose" which you can find at http://markmanson.net/life-purpose .

1. WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE FLAVOR OF SHIT SANDWICH AND DOES IT COME WITH AN OLIVE?
This question made no sense to me.  First of all, the wording is stupidly designed to grab one's attention rather than to provoke thought.  Perhaps you'll find it easier to answer this, "What miserable or tedious activity are you willing to endure in pursuit of your passion?"  Even worded this way, it's difficult to answer -- "one man's meat is another man's poison."  There are activities that I would dread (such an influencing someone to invest in something or purchase something) that others would relish.  And those others might assume that everyone enjoys those activities.  I'm sure there are activities that most normal people abhor that I don't mind.  But I don't know what those activities might be.  Nevertheless, the first thing I came up with is this: I'm willing to repeatedly work and rework something until it's perfect.

2. WHAT IS TRUE ABOUT YOU TODAY THAT WOULD MAKE YOUR 8-YEAR-OLD SELF CRY?
My 8-year-old self had absolutely no empathy toward people.  He would've cried if his cracker broke while he was buttering it, or if he got stung by a bee, or if the fast food joint put tomato on his burger even after he told them not to.  But he wouldn't cry over his future self.  Still, I'm sure he'd be disappointed that, as an engineer, I haven't invented anything cool like a space probe, rocket ship or killo-zap ray gun.

3. WHAT MAKES YOU FORGET TO EAT AND POOP?
Art and coding, and especially Artful Coding.  Figuring stuff out, like how to perform calculus with batch files.

4. HOW CAN YOU BETTER EMBARRASS YOURSELF?
This is another nonsensical question.  What it's really asking is, "What's something you'd really like to do but you have refrained from only because you think you'd look silly doing it or people would laugh at you?"  For me, there's nothing worthwhile to be done that I consider silly.  Become a rock musician?  Sure, why not?  Go on an autumn bike tour in Vermont?  I'm there, even though my legs sometimes don't work too well.
The closest I can get is perhaps publishing a very personal, revealing, intimate autobiography (one that would include even all my erotic fantasies) prior to the deaths of all my immediate family members and myself.

5. HOW ARE YOU GOING TO SAVE THE WORLD?
Yeah, right?  Like anyone's going to listen to me?  The world will have to fend for itself.  I'm done thinking about what's wrong with it.  I can't even convince Google to provide an option to turn off Autosave or implement Copy-Drag in its online editors, which is why I'm writing this in a word processing program rather than the default Blogger post editor.
Well, still, on my own small personal scale, I am doing all I can to lower my ecological footprint.  I didn't install the air conditioner in the kitchen this year - it wasn't oppressively hot enough.  I'm a hypermiler, but I'd prefer to walk or bike everywhere if I could.  I'd like to go solar and live off the grid.  I wear clothes until they're threadbare - even the thrift stores don't want my old clothes.  I'm willing to forage more, especially if I can safely identify edible invasive plants that can be eaten raw or steamed.  I fix broken appliances rather than throw them out to make room for new ones.  I've started to find uses for ordinary twigs in home repairs and crafts.

6. GUN TO YOUR HEAD, IF YOU HAD TO LEAVE THE HOUSE ALL DAY, EVERY DAY, WHERE WOULD YOU GO AND WHAT WOULD YOU DO?
Easy.  I would go into a large forested watershed that's blazed with hiking trails, bringing my camera, a hearty snack or two and lots of water, and hike all day.  And you don't need a gun to make that happen.
What's with the gun thing, anyway?  Is this written for Millennials who stereotypically stay indoors in front of their computers all day?

7. IF YOU KNEW YOU WERE GOING TO DIE ONE YEAR FROM TODAY, WHAT WOULD YOU DO AND HOW WOULD YOU WANT TO BE REMEMBERED?
Within one year, I might frame my best cat photos and exhibit them at the library, and I could also use the exhibit as a platform for a fundraiser for our favorite cat shelter.

So what does all this mean?  Is my purpose to do Artful Coding for a Cat Shelter that's located in an off-grid cabin close to a woodland stream?  If you leave out the detail about the Cat Shelter, it could make me out to be like Ted Kaczynski.


What are your answers?  I want to know.

Staycation Planning

My employer shuts down its production line for two weeks every summer.  Ordinarily I continue to do my design work during this time, and I sell back my unused vacation time. The money I get from unused vacation helps pay semiannual bills such as home, auto and life insurance.  Besides I don't have air conditioning at home, so I prefer to work in the office during this hot and humid period. Finally, it's quiet at work during "shutdown," so I can concentrate on my most difficult work assignments without worrying about interruptions.

Unfortunately this year my boss insisted that I take my vacation during shutdown.  Taking a trip somewhere is out-of-the-question.  First, there's the cost.  Second, our daughter is signed up for a day camp during the shutdown.  Third, the animals will need pet sitters, which will cost additional money.  So I've decided on a Staycation.  I'm in the midst of thinking of activities that could bring in the lost income, or at least DIY projects that I can tackle to avoid paying someone else to do them.  The second class of activity would also include taking classes that could lead to better job opportunities.

So here's what I've come up with...

1. Get a job consulting.  This would be ideal, especially if I can charge at least as much as my gross full time salary, and perform the work in the cool comfort of the client's office.  But it's unlikely that I could find the right client(s) with a simple-enough assignment that could be completed in two weeks.
2. Home maintenance and repair.  Merely getting someone like a plumber to enter your home and tell you that you need a new washer for the faucet used to cost over $100 fifteen years ago.  By now I imagine it's much more, and the transaction might even require an attorney to act as a fiduciary.  So one can save a huge amount of money with "DIY" if one knows how.  Here are the projects I have in mind:
1. Interior painting, walls & ceilings, especially the bathroom ceiling.  (But if it's too hot and humid, it shouldn't be done.)
2. Roof repair.  I have some shingles that are starting to curl, and nails have popped up in a few spots.  I would hammer down the nails, staking them with RTV.  But how crazy do you have to be to go onto a black asphalt roof in Summer?  I think the soles of my sneakers would melt!
3. Repair / replace the car speaker.  One of the rear speakers in my car is buzzing quite loudly, and I think it's blown.  I'm hoping I can just patch it with special glue and cardboard.  If not, I might just disconnect it.  Right now, I have the fader adjusted so that only the front speakers play, and the system sounds weak.  Having just one rear speaker playing would be better than neither one playing.
4. Gardening / Landscaping.
1. We pay to have our lawn mowed each week.  If I were to buy and use a cheap push mower just for the smaller front yard, I might get the guys to  skip our place every other week, and I'd get some exercise.
2. Growing our own vegetables would save us from buying them.
3. Install a drip irrigation system for the vegetable garden.  One reason the vegetables haven't been planted yet is because I don't think I'll be able to water them.  So I don't want to spend time and effort to produce dead vegetables.  A drip irrigation system would make it easy to water the garden, so I'd be more willing to plant it.
4. The shrubs are blocking the entrance to our home, so they need pruning for good Feng Shui.
5. I'm guessing there might be a law against this: Grow and sell tobacco.  Tobacco is in high demand and would grow well here.  I don't smoke, but if I could sell it legally, it would be a most lucrative crop.  Selling stuff on which the state imposes a "sin tax" and prohibits minors from buying, probably is not legal.
6. Install rain barrels.  These are essentially 55 gallon drums that you position under the downspouts of the home's gutter system in order to collect the water for later use.  Right now we use our well water for watering the garden, and the cost is the electricity that's needed to run the well pump.
3. Buy groceries that are incorrectly priced specifically in order to take advantage of Connecticut's "Get One Free Law".  I always pay attention to the prices that appear when the cashier scans our items.  I've gotten a few things for free.  The latest was a 12oz bag of gourmet, ground Arabica coffee.  Of course I don't know beforehand whether the scanner will proffer the incorrect price, so this is more miss than hit.  Still, I once saw a one-pound package of butter that was obviously mis-marked.  The price was $3.98 but the unit price was only $1.98 per pound.  So I pounced on it like a seasoned flea market shopper on a genuine Tiffany lamp. When I was charged the $3.98, I complained that it should be only $1.98, according to the unit price, and I did get it for free.
4. Volunteer.  Well, this won't offset the loss of vacation income, but it might get me into an air conditioned environment.  And according to the Dalai Lama, the path to true happiness is through service to others, so it will bring me happiness.  A really cool idea would be a "VolunteerCation" in which you take a vacation (or sabbatical) in order to travel to some place where volunteers are needed.  I'm not sure, but I'm guessing travel expenses may be tax deductible under such an arrangement.  If you can get an organization to transport you somewhere, that would be even better.
5. Hang out at the local Maker Space.  Nothing's guaranteed with this idea.  But I imagine if I went to the Maker Space, I might meet some interesting artists, craftspersons or inventors and learn something by watching them.  I might even offer my own expertise to them or collaborate on something with them.  And I'm pretty sure the place is air conditioned. 
6. Hype my affiliates' products.  In particular, the Blood Type Diet products and the iHerb referral code bring in "coffee money."  But I don't advertise very much.
7. Hype my online storage accounts.  For example..
1. Join Dropbox for free using this link, and we'll both receive an additional 500MB of storage space.
2. Join Copy for free using this link, and we'll both receive an additional 5GB of storage space.
3. Join Box....  Well, you can join, but I don't use it, and I forgot my login credentials, so I can't promote it right now.
8. Cat Dentistry.  The plaque build-up on our first cat's teeth makes it seem as though barnacles live along his gums.  The vet quoted us a cost of over $300 to have his (the cat's) teeth cleaned.  The vet's procedure would involve putting the cat under anesthesia, a lot of stress, and possible exposure to an infectious organism.  Would I actually attempt to clean the cat's teeth myself?  Yes.  And it's not as far-fetched as it seems.  Of course, I wouldn't be fooling around with anesthesia.  But the cat sleeps so soundly that I can poke my fingers into and around his mouth without bothering him.  Nor do I plan to use any kind of abrasive or motorized tool.  I might not need to.  One day, I actually used my fingernail to pick a barnacle off his teeth.
9. Learn stuff.  How to write Android Apps, Working with Linux, Programming with Ruby are all great topics for career growth.
10. Get all my medical checkups done.  The eye doctor, dentist, primary care physician (PCP) and Naturopathic Doctor are all overdo for a visit.  Those visits would take place in an air conditioned environment, but at the expense of a few co-pays.
11. Cat Photo Exhibit.  This falls under the category of volunteering because the Cat Photo Exhibit would promote our favorite cat shelter.  If I were to sell any framed photos, I'd forward the proceeds to the shelter.  So I wouldn't made any profits, but I could recoup the expense of the frames I already bought.  The only additional expense would be to have the 8 x 10 prints made and perhaps business cards printed.
12. Write really clever blog posts, provide a PayPal Donate Button, and watch the money pour in!  (I can't belief I managed to write that with a straight face.)  No, but seriously folks, I don't want to subject you to a "Beg Button."

It will be fun to review my Staycation Activities in a subsequent post.  Stay tuned!  In the meantime, do you have any suggestions about what I should do on my staycation?

What to do When You're Always Tired

People often ask "Why am I so tired?" Of course they're really asking, "What can I do about feeling so tired?"

When someone asks "Why am I so tired?" on the diet-related forums I visit, folks usually respond with food-related advice, such as, "Cut back on your carbs," or "Eat more raw vegetables," or "Eat more iron-rich food."

Diet is only a small piece of the vitality puzzle, so I usually glaze over while reading the repetitive (and sometimes contradictory) dietary responses.  Then I weigh in with the other basics: water, sleep, exercise, and especially breathing.  This is how I reply:

Water
Drinking plenty of water will make it easier for your body to rid itself of toxins.  A secondary effect is that the cool sensation of water on your lips, in your mouth and penetrating more deeply, provides a brief refreshing break from whatever hypnotizing monotony happens to be dragging you down.  Personally, I follow some experts' rule of thumb of dividing my body weight (in pounds) in half and then drinking that many ounces of water.  Since I weigh about 160lbs, I plan to drink about 80 ounces of water every day.  Turns out that I get about 30% of that before I leave for work in the morning.

Sleep
Well, lack of sleep is the obvious answer to being tired.  Does anyone out there not feel a bit weaker and sluggish the day after going to bed a few hours later the night before?  But even if you've been going to bed and getting up at the same time every day, you might be getting less sleep than usual.  Foods and beverages that contain caffeine or alcohol can alter sleep patterns, reducing quality of sleep.  Sleeping with a light on can prevent your body from achieving the most deep levels of sleep.  (I highly recommend reading "Lights Out: Sleep, Sugar, and Survival" and "Good Night: The Sleep Doctor's 4-Week Program to Better Sleep...")  Finally, a condition called Sleep Apnea, in which your airway is partially obstructed during deep sleep, can rouse you several times each night -- not enough to make you fully wake up, but just enough to restore muscle tone to your airway so that you can resume breathing. I wrote about the sleep study that I experienced as well as the solution I adopted.

Exercise
Yes, I know, the last thing you want to do is exercise when you're tired.  But the exhilaration you get from a single bout of exercise can last for hours.  Your body produces wonderful chemicals that course through your body when you exercise, and these chemicals linger.  Blood flow improves, too, bringing mental clarity.

Breathing
My Water, Sleep and Exercise advice all have one thing in common -- improving breathing.  Of course, during exercise your rate of breathing will increase, as well as how deeply you breathe.  When you sleep, breathing slows down and your breaths become shallow.  And if you have Sleep Apnea, breathing stops.  But what about water?  You might not think drinking water is related to breathing.  But imagine drinking, not sipping, a several gulps of water at once.  It's almost like diving into a deep pool.  You breathe in deeply as you bring the tumbler to your lips, hold it while gulping the water, and gasp after you're done.

Breathing is the most important part of survival.  Humans can survive for days without eating or drinking.  But survival time is measured in minutes when breathing is involved.

Most people never learn to breath properly.  They fail to use the full capacity of their lungs.  A proper breath first starts with expelling all the air from the deepest recesses of your lungs.  Then draw breath in deeply into your belly through the nose before allowing your chest to expand.  A beginner's yoga instructor might tell her students to lie on their backs and place their hands on their belly buttons and then tell them to breathe so that their hands rise into the air.  She would also tell her students to exhale fully, pressing the small of the back (lumbar) into the floor.

So try working on these four aspects of basic living to improve your vitality.

Choosing a Career

When I was in high school I took a personality test that was designed to help me figure out what college to go to and what to major in.  The results suggested that I might enjoy going to a college in Oregon to study forestry.  I recall that I responded that I like the outdoors, hiking, trees and solitude, plus I was good in math and science.

But I did not follow the advice.  First, it sounded ludicrous.  Second, I didn't want to move from home.   Yet today, if I woke with a new life studying trees, I probably wouldn't mind.

Two of the books that I'm "currently reading" show up on the side bar of this blog.  They are really for my daughter, who is expected to graduate high school in about two and a half years.

• "What Color Is Your Parachute? 2009: A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers"
• "Refuse to Choose!: Use All of Your Interests, Passions, and Hobbies to Create the Life and Career of Your Dreams"

They're more for job hunters and career changers -- folks who are burned out and need to try something different. "What Color Is Your Parachute?..." in particular contains a great deal of information about job hunting -- writing resumes and cover letters, networking, that sort of thing.  But I thought they would be helpful in choosing a first career.  The 8-pedalled rose chapter in "What Color Is Your Parachute?..." alone is worth the price of the book to those who need career guidance.

One other resource mentioned in "What Color Is Your Parachute?..." is the "Self-Directed Search," or SDS.  This is an online assessment tool that helps you figure out what your Holland Code is.  The SDS is not free; the test and report cost $9.95.

There's also a free test that you can take here: http://personality-testing.info/tests/RIASEC.php. In fact, I just took this test before I cleaned up the previous paragraph.  My results show that my Holland Code is IAS, meaning Thinking (I), Creating (A), Helper (S).  I got a little bar graph, too:

Knowing one's self is the first step in choosing a rewarding career.  I hope this information is helpful!

Music Therapy -- Music For Living

When music is used to improve brain function in a clinical setting, it is called Music Therapy. Music Therapy is beneficial because it can improve memory, motor skills, social/interpersonal development, cognitive development, mood and self-awareness. It can even help ease muscle tension, lower blood pressure and boost immunity.

The type of music that's used depends on what effect is desired. For example, baroque classical music is very good for information retention, while loud or chaotic music can be disruptive. On the other hand, music with a strong beat can stimulate brainwaves that are in sync with the beat. The faster the beat the better the concentration.

I bought my first CD player along with a few classical music CDs back in the mid 1980s, specifically for the Calculus course I was taking part time.  It was easier for me to recall music than derivations, and somehow I was able to link them together.  When taking a test, I could replay the music in my head, and I could easily imagine myself back in my room studying.

Today I listen to music for different reasons.  I bring ear buds with me to the library just in case it gets noisy, in which case I fire up my "Operatic Metal" Pandora station.  Who would think that libraries would be noisy?  We were brought up to never talk in a library unless you needed to speak with a librarian, in which case you'd whisper.  But the librarians here seem to be hard of hearing, and so they speak louder than the typical DJ at a wedding reception.  And they occasionally talk to each other about anything, from the slow computers to the weather, in addition to speaking with patrons.

The right music helps me tolerate my drive to work.  The many red traffic lights bother me, so the music can help temper my mood.  But I must make sure the music isn't too emotional or intellectual otherwise I'll be lost in a daydream.  And when I daydream, I don't see what's in front of me!

Silence is best for writing, though.  I need to hear my internal dialog.  When I write, I actually speak in my head and then transcribe what I hear.  That can be tricky with music going on in the background.

How does music fit in with your life?

Exercises For Your Brain

As an engineer, I rely on my brain just as much as Aretha Franklin relies on her voice.  So it behooves me to not only keep my brain in good shape, but also to improve it if I can.

That's why I signed up for Lumosity.  The games on Lumosity are actually exercises designed to stimulate and improve one's brain.  To paraphrase from their website, the games on Lumosity "improve key abilities such as working memory, visual attention, and executive function in people of different ages and from different backgrounds."

Here are screenshots of my "Brain Performance Index" and "Training History"...