Here is my May 2016, installment of what I had done at 8:16 PM each night during the month. I also found it helpful writing down what happened during the day as a small journal/diary of what was good, bad, or interesting.

Little Background

I started keeping track of what I was doing at 20:16 (8:16 PM) every day for the last month 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) everyday.

May 2016 Events

May 1 – Reading articles about how to save money so I can retire by 30 years old while my MacBook updates a few things along with doing a back-up and transfer of Dropbox files. Managed to sleep in until close to 10 AM. After reading for a while headed to Wegmans in the rain to grab two breakfast of sausage, egg, and cheese sandwiches on croissants. While eating and shopping later used the iPhone and earbuds to listen to TED Radio Hour, which talks about TED talks in more detail. Once done stopped home to drop off groceries and then to St. Elmo’s for tea and sending out overdue e-mails along with a conversation with Roy and Big Dan. Left St Elmo’s to head to Boccato Lounge do more e-mailing along with working through old e-mails to myself with articles to read which were about food, places to eat, or how to retire in my 30’s or even 40’s. From Friday night until Sunday afternoon went to three different coffee shops for a total of six visits.

May 2 -Watching all the Jekyll videos to get a general idea of what and how to code in Jekyll.

May 3 – Was in Cabin John drinking beers that I brought it others had. The hit of the night was the Bourbon barrel raspberries stout that I bought. People wanted me to pick up a few beers at Wegmans for them this week. Had homemade pasta sauce with Al dentate pasta for dinner.

May 4 – I’m cashing out at Wegmans. After grabbing beers for Jeff and the Beer kids. Then had dinner. Went to Carmines for Neil’s last day. Did more work on making that SVG map or accessible.

May 5 – Sitting in the audience at Sixth and I listening to Chris Anderson talk about how to give a great Ted talk along with being interviewed by a guy arise from the Ted Radio Hour.

May 6 – Standing in line at Boccato Lounge waiting to order a hot chocolate after finishing a bowl of fatty brisket and raw round eye Pho at Pho 75. Continued updating the accessible SVG map with actual real data and the tables.

May 7 – Working on connecting my updated COMCAST TV video box. Had mixed the cables up at first so it would not set up. After switching them, the signal made the TV snowy. Looking to complete the setup and asked for my account number along with my phone number and gave me an error message. Then called COMCAST to work my way through this. After a bunch of signals sending and resetting the box remotely the customer service person had my enter my information again and still didn’t work. The person asked for my account number and informed me that I didn’t need the last digit which had a dash before it. It would have worked much better if that was in the instructions. Earlier in the day went to Courthouse Farmers Market to pick up a few things; then it was over to St. Elmo’s to meet with people and only one person showed up so worked on clearing out my e-mail. Once done there went to M. E. Swing Coffee Roasters to finish up on e-mail along with reading and taking notes on a bunch of articles/blog posts open in my browser. Left for home around 12:40 PM, to be home in time for the live streaming Jekyll Conference, which was free. Spent at about three or so hours listening to 30-minute talks and taking notes before taking a nap for a couple of hours. Once I woke up went to hear the last few talks.

May 8 – Continuing to read about setting goals and decluttering your life, which I have been taking notes about earlier today at St. Elmo’s and a bit at Wegmans. Managed to get up around 8 AM and went to Eastern Market to grab a brick (sausage patty, fried egg, cheese, and home fries on a great soft kaiser-type roll. After wondering around looking for more cast iron pigs. I managed to grab a cherry and apple strudel. After that headed over to the DuPont Circle Farmers Market to get some duck eggs, along with some mixed salad greens from Hans.

May 9 – Trying to figure out where to stay for Biz Bacon conf in Philly. Debating between one bedroom studio or an 1856 hotel. They’re both around the block from each other and less than a half mile from the conference. Also need to decide if I’m going to go and take Amtrak or drive. If I take Amtrak be harder to get to Reading Terminal market, and two S. Philly goes to Bruno’s in the lake but will save me having to deal with parts cars. Managed to finish importing all the data for the accessible SVG map prototype. Along with changing all the colors on the map.

May 10 – Walking back into my apartment/house after mowing the lawn which was a mess because of all the rain and the upstairs neighbor having someone only mow the part in front of her front door. Ended up getting in 15,000 steps for the day because I had to make multiple passes on the lawn to get all the grass that was close to a foot high or higher. Started doing a quick test of the updated OSHA Heat Index iOS application, which nearly crashes right after opening.

May 11 – ENTERED 05/16/2016 – Not sure what I was doing but it must have been exciting at the time that I didn’t write it down or type into Simple Note for my records. Was most likely doing some reading before watching “American Pickers”.

May 12 – Watching the season finale of “The Big Bang Theory”. Made adjustments to the accessible SVG map per the request of the stakeholder.

May 13 – At Boccato Lounge drinking Cherry and Fig tea that they let steep too long, so it was bitter while starting a blog post about mobile resources because of two Twitter DM’s I got from two different people the day before. Did more screen reader testing on the accessible SVG map and changed the working of the earning disparity TABLEs summary statements so they would read better, along with removing the SVG DESC tag and text because it made JAWS a bit too verbose while reading with a couple of different browsers.

May 14 – Laying on my bed in my spare bedroom catching up on Twitter, which is mostly about Eurovision. Which is a song and dance spectacle from one see year that lasts about four hours and has the participation of 30+ countries around Europe along with Australia for some reason? Slept until close to 930 this morning but most that were because I was awake from about 4:00 AM till 5:30 AM. Then went to Saint Elmo’s going to some friends grabbed some stuff from the Delray farmers market. After that when to M. E. Swing coffee roasters to work on creating a blog post about mobile resources after two different people the other day DM me for information. Figured it was better to publish this is a blog post so I could just give people link in the future. Once I was done there went to Union market and grabbed Rabbit Ragu with Tagliatelle pasta along with some French pastries for later. I came home and read a bit and napped for a couple of hours.

May 15 – Reading the year of hustle emails from Amy Hoy and Alex Hillman on my laptop in my spare bedroom. I was a few emails behind and had to catch up. Had been waiting to do the first one because I needed to do some writing I want to have the proper amount of time to do so. Sleep until around ten even though I was awake from like 6 to 730. Then attempted to go to swing coffee roasters but they don’t start their Sunday hours until June 5th. Ended up over at Saint Elmo’s for a bagel and some tea for going for an hour massage. After the massage, I went to Pho 75 for lunch. Next went to the Boccato Lounge to have some tea finish up checking my links on my mobile resources blog post along with getting my what I was doing at 8:15 PM post for a ball done as well. After that went home and did some reading.

May 16 – Reading through the Year of Hustle “Slay Your Schedule” PDF from Amy Hoy/Alex Hillman. Looking at ways to free up my time to be able to spend more time on creating my new web based application. Actually, will have to do more prep work first to make sure I’m building the right thing even though from the people I talked to said it’s a cool/great idea. Need to find out if it’s application that people will pay money for on a monthly, quarterly, or yearly basis. The larger chunks of time  (quarterly, every six months, annually) people pay for, the less money is lost to fees to companies like Stipe, PayPal, etc.

May 17 – Sitting in Cabin John drinking Cabernet’s and zinfandels all eating pasta with homemade sauce with friends. A few of them moved back from Richmond for the summer for internships. Spent more time today working on the map along with creating a test plan. Did another DHS Trusted Tester review after making changes to the code to correct some of the issues we found.

May 18 – At Blackboard giving my accessibility talk on GAAD (Global Accessibility Awareness Day). This was our most well-attended event since starting back a little over a year ago.

May 19 – At Agency chief listening to Matt Kemp give his UX talk. Where he’s talking about Marshall, make she will, and media would be cool to Kaitlyn from a literate nation to a tribe and nation.

May 20 – Finishing up dinner at Wegmans and heading to get a shopping ca
LOCATION // 115 and 117 East Church Street and do some grocery shopping. Mostly picked up fruits and vegetables some cured meats cheese oh yeah and like 130+ dollars worth of beer.

May 21 – Sitting on the first floor of the Artomatic building in Frederick, MD, talking to a guy named Don that was painting with water colors and he let me try watercolors for the first time. Worked on paying my bills, then met up with friends after which went to create June’s Accessibility DC event on EventBrite. Once done headed to Frederick, MD, to get my beard cleaned up before Biz Bacon Conf in Philly next week. I had some time to kill before my beard trimming so stopped at Gravel and Grind for a hot chocolate and creating the Meetup event for Accessibility DC. Got my beard trimmed and then headed over to Artomatic to check out the first floor. Went to Lucky Corner for Vietnamese and then back to see the art I missed earlier.

May 22 – Updating both my iPhone and my MacBook Pro. I managed to have a little slow leave the morning of reading. Finally left the house after 11 AM and went to Wegmans to grab breakfast along with check out their coin return the machine and some cookies. Came home and took a nap along with some cleaning off of the top of my dresser along with gathering up all my change. I then went back to Wegmans to turn in $300+  worth of change. Wegmans takes 10.9% of the total value of your change which is which left me with $283.91.

May 23 – Walking to the spare bedroom to do a bit of reading on the computer along with listening to a podcast or two while taking notes. By taking notes, it can take two to three times longer since you stop the talk nad then type what you can and then go over it to make sure you wrote it down correctly. Spent the day making some adjustments to the accessible SVG map page, along with attending my every morning standup at 10:00 AM.

May 24 – Drinking “Right Proper Brewing Company” beers along with a hearty would bourbon barrel’s raspberry stout in Cabin John, MD, with a few friends talking politics and what not.

May 25 – Ona north bound Amtrak train headed to Philly to attend Bacon Biz Conf Thursday and Friday while reading Amy Hoy’s “Lesson – Backwards Plan, a Twisted Fairy Tale.”

May 26 – Sitting outside in the courtyard of Frankford Hall Beer Garden talking with other people that are bootstrapping their startups or lower info products or the like. Was a very enlightening day learning about all the ways of processing email and all that from all the speakers at Bacon Biz Conf in Philly.

May 27 – So busy talking with different people at the Bacon Biz Conf after party at the Freckle headquarters in Old City Philly. The after party was a great way to get to spend more time talking with others about their current jobs, products, apps, etc. or what their idea was for a new or additional business opportunities. Great conference to learn what I need to do and what to avoid when starting out. The tacos for lunch by Chef Patterson and the dim sum with soup dumplings were awesome.

May 28 – I was doing a bit a TV watching to unwind after three plus days in Philly for  Bacon Biz Conf. Went to bed Friday night by 11:00 PM or so since I was tired from the whole week of waking before 6:00 AM. Did some catch-up reading of Twitter and then went to the Menagerie coffee shop to register for a bunch of the speakers newsletters. When I got there a few of them were there so, I sat with them and attempted not to bug them too much but pipe in now and an again with their conversations before leaving to walk over to the Reading Terminal Market to wander around. I managed to order three sandwiches while there. I order the roast pork with aged Provolone and the meatball sub with aged Provolone from DiNic’s cut into thirds which I then ate a third of each before heading to Becky’s Cajun Cafe to order a Train Wreck. Once done walked the mile or so back to the AirBnB. Along the way, I ran into Allan and his family who were heading back to Freckle to return the fake money bag he tried to fool his son with from his wish after finding a four-leaf clover. After parting ways with them stopped back at Menagerie for a cold drink and to check my e-mail, etc. I ran into Kern again and talked with him before heading to AirBnb to relax and have some of my Train Wreck before heading over to 30th Street Station to get my Amtrak train back to DC. Once I got there, my train was delayed about 25 minutes. While there ran into another Bacon Biz attendee, who was taking the train back to Boston. Finally, my train left, and I read more on the train to pass the time instead of napping. I ended up getting home about 30 to 45 minutes later than planned because of the delayed train and issues with the DC metro trains too.

May 29 – Sitting in my leather chair in my living room reading Aaron Draplin’s new book “Pretty Much Everything”. Went to bed early last night so I was awake at 6 AM and couldn’t get back to sleep, so I left for Shen-Valley Flea Market at 7:30 AM in the morning. Which ended up being a good thing since it got so hot I was able to finish that flea market in the Front Royal, VA. Didn’t manage to buy anything while there even though I saw a few I wanted but didn’t need.

May 30 – Reading over the “Marketing Content ebombs” by Amy Hoy and Alex Hillman along with taking notes from the different videos that are part of the 30 x 500 lessons they gave me as part of the “Year of Hustle” e-mail course. Again attempted to sleep in, but was awake before 6:00 AM. Stayed in bed and read a bit of Twitter along with other things then went back to sleep from about 8:00 AM to 9:30 AM where I showered. I got ready to go to St. Elmo’s to see who might be there. Ran into Susan and talked with her for over three-plus hours about stuff from the conference I attended to food, some of our common friends, and more. After leaving, I went to Pho 75 for a small bowl of raw round eye and fatty brisket with extra noodles. Once done there went to Baccotto Lounge for some tea and making the June 15th Accessibility DC event live on both EventBrite and Meetup. It would be so much easier to do if EventBrite removed all the people that unsubscribed, along with adding the new people from last month to one of my two lists. Once that was done spent some time before leaving to catch up on Twitter. After getting home started reading the “Year of Hustle” and processing other Bacon Biz Conf information. I still need to work through a bunch of e-mails from attendees that I signed up for their e-mail newsletters for free books as part of the conference.

May 31 – in Cabin John doing a beer tasting with the usual suspects along with a few other friends we haven’t seen in a long time. We ended up having a great time along with having some slow cooked pork mashed potatoes Brussel sprouts to dive for dinner.

Conclusion

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 entry to see what you have done or can accomplish over the course of a year.

If you want to meet up to do something exciting at 8:16 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.