Another month’s worth of what I have been doing at 8:15 PM every night. Doing this has become a great way to see what I’ve been up to on a particular day along with what else I add in about my day. It’s become a regular habit of what I’m doing and what has happened that day and a wonderful little one paragraph diary/journal of my actions and thoughts.

A Little Background on This Post

I started keeping track of what I was doing at 20:15 (8:15 PM) every day for the last few months after reading Kitt Hodson’s Pastry Box article from Jan 1, 2015. Which was about how a year earlier she read Erica Douglass’s article about writing down what she did at 11:11 AM and 20:14 (8:14 PM) every day.

I thought this was a great idea to see if I could find any patterns in my nights. So far, I tend to watch TV Monday, Thursday, and Sunday nights when I’m home. Also on the weekends I tend to be leaving or coming back from dinner, sometimes even eating dinner.

Here is my post on what I’ve been doing at 20:15 (8:15 PM) in January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, and October.

November

Nov 1 – ENTERED 11/02/2015 – Watching TV at home while reading Twitter and waiting for the newest episode of Anthony Bourdain’s “Parts Unknown” to air on CNN. He was headed back to Borneo to make good on a promise to the chief he made ten years ago. The only problem was the chief died a year ago. Went to the DuPont Circle Farmers Market then over to the market near the Big Bear Cafe, where I got myself a large pot of peach blossom tea. After that drove around DC and ended up at the Georgetown Flea Market where I bought something, but Simple Note lost the rest of the text or never finished writing the sentence.

Nov 2 – Reading Wendell Pierce’s book in my living room while sitting in my leather chair.

Nov 3 – Sitting in Cabin John having amazing sweet potato Gnocchi with salad, sticky toffee pudding and three awesome Zinfandel and a Cabernet from my buddy Evan.

Nov 4 – Sitting in National Geographic employee conference room listening to Jon Long talks about setting a process to move code to other environment using JavaScript and other tools.

Nov 5 – Talking with Pratik on my sofa after dinner and shopping at Wegmans. Was home sick today, but feeling much better after sleeping and rest most of the afternoon.

Nov 6 – Sitting in Bangkok Golden with Eric, Sam, and Pratik to have some Loa food for the three week in a row. We ordered a bunch of different foods from two veggie crunchy rice salad, spicy duck lamb, roasted pork shoulder, and beef drunken noodles.

Nov 7 – Listening to the best man and brides made tell stories about the bride and groom or watching everyone on the dance floor, because I missed the time because I was having a good time. The best food at the event I had to be the chocolate cake which part of he larger wedding cake made by the bride’s sister who is a master baker from San Fransisco.

Nov 8 – Talking with three accessibility friends at Four Sisters restaurant for Vietnamese food. We had a flavorful vegetarian green papaya salad, along with clay pot tofu and a clay pot chicken. The other two dishes were first a ginger curry chicken with onions and red peppers and the second was pepper steak wraps that you made with noodles, greens, basil, pickled veggies, and cucumbers. Pratik and I went to Big Bear Cafe for tea, which I had a pot of peach blossom and he had spicy golden tea, and then we went to the Royal Restaurant for brunch. Never did manage a nap because of the of co-workers brunch e-mail and having to create an Accessibility DC event and invite on EventBrite, along with some reading.

Nov 9 – Sitting at my desk in my spare bedroom watching episode 2 of “The Farm” on  Google Prime. Not quite sure if I like this food show or not since it’s only one person talking to the camera and cooking until the end where all the food he cooked goes on the table for the family to eat, but no one else talks about what they like or don’t like. Time to give it another episode or two before moving on to something else.

Nov 10 – In Cabin John tasting beer while having conversations with wine friends and eating a great pasta dish made by my Tony with sausage, beans, garlic, etc.

Nov 11 – Sitting in front of the TV with a few pounds of salad and beans from Whole Foods as my dinner watching last week’s “American Pickers” episode. Ended up getting a bit too much sleep yesterday on my day off for Veterans Day. Met with Russell H. and Mike G. at Caphe Bahn Mi for lunch. Ended up dropping Mike back at his office (WDG) so Russell could see it and ended up talking to Mike’s boss about accessibility for a project they are looking to bid on.

Nov 12 – Watching “Big Bang Theory” which I haven’t seen much of the last year or so. Once it was over headed to South China to grab some takeout, since I wasn’t in the mood to cook again for what seems like the third month now. Not that long but it sounds like a funny number of months to say. Worked most of today updating accessibility related wiki pages. Not sure who wrote some of the original text, but, at least, they kept spelling/typing the same words wrong the same way over many pages.

Nov 13 – ENTERED 11/16/2015 – After waking up from a short nap, I headed over Whole Foods to grab some snacks from the kitchen before I started watching TV.

Nov 14 – ENTERED 11/16/2015 – Was eating the second third of my four meat grinder from Stachowski’s while flipping between college football and car building shows. Earlier in the day went to St. Elmo’s to talk with friends to see how everyone did after the wedding last weekend. Once that was done, I headed to the post office to mail bills and send my friends external hard drive that he let at my place to him. Then I was off to DC to get cupcakes at Baked and Wired, which was followed by a stop at Stachowski for their four meat grinder to be cut in thirds it’s so easier to eat. I had the first third while watching Notre Dame beat Wake Forest 28 – 7. Once I was done with all that and my second helping of sub I watched a bunch of different TV shows to keep myself distracted for no particular reason.

Nov 15 – ENTERED 11/16/2015 – Was eating the final third of the Stachowski four meat grinder that the roll had gotten soggy because of all the fresh veggies letting out their liquid.  I also finished the meal off with my Doom (chocolate cupcake with dark chocolate frosting) cupcake. Ended napping/sleeping for about three hours this afternoon after having all-you-can-eat brunch at Masa 14 with old co-workers and their significant others and one baby. We all ate way too much because it was so good or, at least, most of them said that so we didn’t feel so bad eating everything that didn’t move.

Nov 16 – Watching a video on YouTube on how to use the 53 Paper pencil. I’ve been using 53’s Paper for almost two months to do digital wine bottle drawings instead of painting. I started dong this when I went on my nearly two-week road trip to the south while driving to Austin to attend An Event Apart in Austin, TX. It’s been great to use, but I need to learn more about how best to use it to improve my drawings along with making it easier and quicker to do them. It takes about 20 – 30 minutes to do a drawing while it only takes 10 -15 minutes to do a painting depending on the size of the canvas.

Nov 17 – Checking my phone for messages at Blackboard after our Accessibility DC talk with Aina Irbe’s talk on accessible eLearning. After Accessibility DC was over, I walked over to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library to meet Justin Thorp after the DC Tech meetup. He was standing outside with a few other people and the two of us headed over to the old 918 F ST (LivingSocial event space) to meet others for drinks. We ran into two friends I hadn’t seen in a long time. The one it had probably been three to four years and the other was about a year or more. The second one had been busy raising money for his start-up, which recently raised $12 million, which was great to see a DC company raise that kind of money to help prove you don’t have to be in Silicon Valley to do so. After meeting them and having a drink Justin and I went to Shake Shack to get a double patty burger for me and some ice cream item for him. It’s nice to be to meet-up with friends you haven’t seen in a while and had some time to talk quietly.

Nov 18 – Watching last weeks ‘American Pickers’ and a few other things. Spent my day doing Android TalkBack testing of the new ILAB ‘Sweat and Toil’ native application.

Nov 19 – Listening to Nick Whitmoyer talks about ‘Slicing Pizza’ at the new Viget office in Falls Church, which was about what’s the process for making pizza and how it’s similar to doing design related projects. Looks like I’m going to DHS Trusted Tester training sometime in December.

Nov 20 – Reading Twitter while watching re-runs of “2 Broke Girls” on a Friday night. Don’t I know how to live it up? It’s time to decide what and possibly where to get dinner. Reviewed the new ILAB ‘Sweat & Toil’ Android application on the second device with alimony, all the same, issues except those that dealt with font size.

Nov 21 – Watching Notre Dame football game against Boston College at Fenway Park in Boston. The first football game at Fenway Park since 1968. My morning was spent at St. Elmo’s talking about another friend that seems to have gotten married again after such a short time. Came home and took an hour and a half nap before heading to Good Fortune for roasted pork, then to Home Depot for air conditioning filters, and finally went to DC Bahn Mi Sandwiches to grab six BBQ roast sandwiches. Two each for two buddies of mine that I dropped off on my way home.

Nov 22 – Reading Cap Watkins article titled ‘Stop Worrying and Love Your Impostor Syndrome,’ along with watching re-runs of ‘The Big Bang Theory.’ Didn’t get to sleep until 4:00 AM and then got up at 9:30 AM. Headed over to Wegmans to grab a breakfast sandwich and do some shopping for cured meats before heading to Hoffman 22 AMC Theatres to watch the new James Bond movie ‘Spectre’. After the movie, I came home and read a bit and then took a two and a half hour nap.

Nov 23 – Happened to be scrolling through Facebook on my once every few weeks times I logged in to check some post by a friend or family member and was looking at an item from my youngest brother. Spent my day reviewing GitHub issues for new ILAB Android ‘Sweat and Toil’ application and closing out about 20% of the issues I opened. Now we wait for the rest of the necessary updates.

Nov 24 – Sitting in Cabin John talking and drinking a 2006 Ridge “Monte Bello” Santa Cruz Mountains Cabernet Sauvignon. Worked on getting registered to DHS Trusted Tester classes the first full week of December.

Nov 25 – Eating turkey, mashed potatoes, and stuffing covered with gravy while watching ‘American Pickers’. The government sent us home two hours early the day before Thanksgiving so I ended taking a two plus hour nap. Once I got up, I headed to “Unwined” to pick up some Pinot Noir and Syrah. I was greeted by the owner even though they had closed about 15 minutes earlier. They offered me some of the wine they had been tasting earlier in the day. The owner was tasting a Bourbon that someone brought in and offered me some if hers. TheBourbon and trying five reds was a bit much after waking up 20 minutes before and had not eaten anything in six hours. Ended up purchasing two bottles of private label Pinot Noir by Lanny from California, along with two bottles of 2003 J. J. Prum Riesling.

Nov 26 – Sitting at a small round kitchen table with friends and others invited to their house for a late Thanksgiving dinner. First reason dinner was late was because their eldest daughter had to work at the Army hospital as a nurse for the day, along with a few of her co-workers that came along too. The other reason was the main stoves oven decided not to work. We had a great time talking about a bunch different things, and we managed not talk politics or religion. My contribution to the meal was a nice bottle of Lanny Pinot Noir and a bottle of Shiraz from Two Hands winery.

Nov 27 – Eating turkey, mashed potatoes, and stuffing from Whole Foods while watching ‘American Pickers’. Met friends at St. Elmo’s then came home and did about 35 minutes f leaf raking before heading to Pho 75 for a small bowl of fatty brisket and sirloin with extra noodles for a late lunch. Once den headed to National Zoo to get about an hour or so of walking around while checking out the otters, elephants, bison, etc., along with all the people heading home for the night.

Nov 28 – Watching Notre Dame lose to Standford at the last moment on Notre Dame’s last game before the playoffs. Notre Dame needed to win big and gave a few other teams to lose so they can make the top four ranked teams in the NCAA. My day was spent at St. Elmo’s talking with friends, then home to rake leaves. After that picked up a buddy of mine to grab a small bowl fatty brisket beef based Pho broth with extra noodles. Next it was a walk to the other end of Eden Center to Good Fortune grocery for some roasted pork. Before dropping my buddy home, we stopped for BBQ pork Bahn Mi sandwiches and two egg rolls to eat while watching college football. Once home finished raking the last part of the yard before the, it started to sprinkle.

Nov 29 – Watching Anthony Bourdain’s “Parts Unknown” New Jersey episode. Slept in until about 10:30 after working up early reading for an hour before going back to sleep. Around 11:45 AM went to Pho Viet to grab a bowl of Pho and summer rolls, which took forever for some reason. Came home and took a nap after a bit of reading. The nap was only about an hour and a half, but couldn’t get to sleep until close to 2:30 AM.

Nov 30 – Attempting to get to Christopher Schmidt’s Twitter feed to watch a talk by John Cleese on creativity. For some reason, every time I typed “chris” into the Twitter search box and attempted to click on his name Twitter kept giving me all the results for “Christmas”. Got excepted into the DHS Trusted Tester training and attempted to request the first prerequisite class. For some reason, it took a while ad then even longer to give me an account on another website so I could take the class.

Conclusion

In the future, I plan to post this information once a month at the beginning of the following month once I’m caught up.

Hopefully, this has been helpful to you and gets you to keep track of what you do a particular time of the day, along with a short daily diary.

If you want to meet up to do something exciting at 8:15 PM some evening, please leave a comment. Or a suggestion of something that is not part of my ordinary life you think I should do.

P.S. Need to go back through these 8:15 PM posts and add any links or photos that are relevant to make them more appealing.What I’ve Been Doing at 20:15 (8:15 PM) – October 2015