I’ve eaten breakfast and I’m drinking my coffee and starting writing before noon, I’m ahead of the game. Yesterday’s adventure was not my Donut Walk™ but the even better Coffee & Donut Walk™. That does mean I ordered a coffee and donut someplace. First I made my usual walk to Krispy Kreme but then continued on to Marie’s Coffee and Gifts for my usual three pounds of their espresso whole bean coffee. Three pounds lasts me just about two months. There is no better coffee for the money than Marie’s on Arthur Avenue. When I started going there I thought of it as a long way off. The stop at Krispy Kreme made me realize it wasn’t .The round trip was 4.58 miles, instead of the usual 3.3 miles. I never should have taken the bus unless the weather was poor, or I was pressed for time.
As per current best practice I no longer wear a mask outdoors. Did this change my perception of others? I used to notice how many people were unmasked, now I notice how many people wear masks. It felt like people were finally getting the hang of mask wearing after it was no longer necessary. I said felt, as I didn’t count. I’ve done that in the past. You can’t trust your judgment on what fraction of people have a characteristic. There is no way to prevent biases from kicking in. What you notice is not the same as what’s out there. I’m always afraid that people will think that I’m criticizing them when I say things like that, but I’m not. You can’t trust your judgment because it’s beyond human capabilities. It’s no more a criticism than saying that you can’t lift 1000 lbs. The difference of course is that people know they can’t lift 1000 lbs but it feels like you can trust yourself. It took most of history before people learned that; it is the essence of science.
I had to make a tough decision; Alan offered me a ticket to tonight’s Met game. It’s the second Tuesday of the month so I have responsibilities at John Platt’s On Your Radar. I am not sure how important those are on game day. I know what I do in publicizing it, but since we went virtual I have duties during the show. The question is I’m not there does it put too much of a burden on Rob? He runs the show behind the scenes. Think of him being the director, John the star, producer, and writer. I am the beautiful assistant. That’s Rob’s term for me. It was on short notice, so I turned down the game. I will have to think this through to prepare in the future if I have to miss one. I need a substitute me to run the social media during the show and heckle my friends when they perform.
The second Tuesday of the month is On Your Radar, every Tuesday is Gord’s Gold. I’ve gotten good at getting ahead of the game preparing the show. Most weeks I record it on the previous Thursday or Friday. What I am not good at is doing the social media preparations for the show, the things I do routinely for On Your Radar. Every week I need to record a preview video which involves creating a slide show and recording a narration. I also have to make a collage to act as the cover for the Mixcloud archive of the show. For On Your Radar, I make a preview video, an intro video, and a collage as a preview for the next show. These are all “due” by Tuesday. As of yesterday, I had done none of them. I didn’t get the OYR preview collage until this morning. It’s not a big deal, but I wish I had remembered it yesterday. I still haven’t made the Mixcloud collage yet or zipped the show into one continuous mp3. I could have done that on Saturday. Don’t worry I’m not beating myself up. I’m just dissecting the onion layer by layer.
I better get moving. I have to finish what I need for the Mixcloud and go on my Donut Walk™. I’d like to Aldi too, but I’m not sure if I’ll have time for that. I won’ let myself miss the walk.
Wise Madness 