Category: The Unfulfilled Life Page 1 of 2

What the Now

On July 10, 2020

Hmm, a year has passed since my last post. A good indicator of my productivity of late, I suppose. I did start a Covid-19 post a few months back. I was among the first to go into quarantine since I worked alongside the first person to bring Corona to the islands. He had attended this fateful megachurch meeting and brought Covid-19 back to the Faroe Islands. A story for another time, perhaps.

So, what’s been happening? I don’t know, a gazillion things have changed and nothing at all has changed. I’ve gone full Springsteen and begun working construction while taking care of my family as best as I can. This is fine for now, although my brain is screaming at me that this is not what I’m supposed to be doing. Ah, brain brain brain… we should do this more often. Not that I don’t agree. I just have a truckload of fatigue, stress, anxiety and depression to sift through before I can reclaim my rightful place in the universe or whatever. Just kidding, there’s no fixed point in the universe. Life is a journey and so forth. Meanwhile, I’m getting loads of fresh air, exercise and great colleagues, which isn’t bad.

Saying Goodbye to My Smartphone

By Nic

On February 3, 2018

In Home, News, Retro stuff, The Unfulfilled Life

The Nokia 216

Saying goodbye to my smartphone.

And now for a bit of phone minimalism. My trusty readers (and that means positively no one) know that I have a penchant for lifehacking from time to time. This time I decided to ditch my Samsung S7 smartphone for a dirt cheap Nokia.

As a family man with three kids (one teenager with autism, a toddler and a 3-month old) it’s all about gaining a bit of time, something which has rapidly become a priceless commodity in my life. Also, I’m fed up with getting lost reading pointless facebook arguments, forgotten in a week, and why is it that about half of my facebook “friends” feel compelled to photograph and post every sunrise or sunset they see?

Enter the Nokia 216. I’ve tried it out for a few days and it seems well suited for me. Obviously, it does phone calls better than any smartphone (dedicated buttons, baby) and I’m not much of a text guy so that’s fine. The phone does have facebook and twitter apps, but they’re very limited, courtesy of the slow internet connection. Also, there are no notifications and the (non-touch) screen is tiny, so I’m only tempted to use those functions if I truly need to communicate on those particular platforms… and that need has not occurred yet.

Other good stuff. Battery life. The thing has been running for days and I haven’t charged it yet. Also, it has the option to add a micro sd card so I did and loaded it up with some Jethro Tull and audiobooks. Hello comfortable long walks (which I still don’t have time for, but let me dream, will you?). Also, I tried streaming some audio to my bluetooth speaker (yes, this dirt cheap thing has bluetooth) and was amazed to hear that the connection is even better and more steady than from my Samsung S7.

The only feature I might miss is a good camera, but I do have a nice DSLR at the ready for those Kodak moments. Also, with everyone documenting everything these days, there isn’t that much point in me doing the same. Ever get lost in the 10.000+ digital photos you’ve managed to amass throughout your lifetime? Yeah, me too. Perhaps some automatization software would be in order? Yep, there’s another idea which I won’t pursue and which someone probably is working on as we speak. Anyway, it seems I’ve managed to convince my minimalist self that a basic phone is the way to go for me. I’ll try to remember to report back in two months or so.

Bubble Boy Days 12 -22

By Nic

On September 13, 2016

In The Unfulfilled Life

Day 12 Monday

– – –

Day 13 Tuesday

Well, things are progressing fairly well today. Always a tonnes of stuff to do, will write more later.

Day 14 Wednesday

Well, the ‘later’ from Tuesday turned out to be today.

Day 15 Thursday – Day 22 Thursday

It’s becoming evident that I have too much to do. Will write more tomorrow.

Bubble Boy Days 5 to 11

By Nic

On September 5, 2016

In The Unfulfilled Life

Translation: "Why did you kiss the wall?" - "The wall kissed me first."

Bathroom stall at ‘Perlan’

Monday Day 5

Today was my first real day off in ages. Rarely have I been as busy as in the last four days. I did have one appointment for work today, but it got cancelled. So what have I been doing? Well, feeling a bit lopsided due to all my activities during the weekend. Apart from that, I spent most of the morning evernoting a tonnes of old documents which I most likely won’t be needing, but have to hang on to just in case. Also did some electric work which I haven’t done much of before. Easy peasy. Fun times. Other than that, maintenance stuff.

As I presumed I’m not really going out of my way to do anything creative, so I’ll start setting some habits to do every morning (unless I have to work early morning shifts). Not quite sure but it’ll most likely be something akin to jamming some music, writing 100 words (starting small) and working on a current creative project (till done). Yup, I’ll figure it out by tomorrow.

Oh, and I haven’t played any video games, or browsed the internet needlessly (only for very specific todos) nor watched any TV or movies for 5 days. I don’t miss it at all, so hey.

Tuesday Day 6

Worked at my second job (office/computer work for the elderly) and played boardgames with friends in the evening. City of Horror. Good times.

Wednesday Day 7

Morning shift at my regular job, then a birthday in the afternoon and choir rehearsal in the evening.

Thursday Day 8

12 hour shift at work. Completely wasted.

Friday Day 9

I had every intention of bursting my bubble and sleeping in this morning due to my fairly grueling last days, but I woke up at 5 a.m. and wasn’t able to go back to sleep, so everything is on track.

I was groggy for most of the morning and then did a bunch of maintenance work before going to work in the afternoon.

Other than that the Bubble is working out just fine and the no TV, no gaming and no mindless surfing rules are freeing up a lot of my time. However, time has been a very scarce commodity of late but in the next few days I’ll finally start doing something constructive rather than just not doing something deconstructive.

Here’s what I’ll commit to doing on a daily basis:

Write (fiction)
Jam
Work on current creative project.

Day 10 Saturday

Lots of family maintenance but also began writing, jamming and project work. Felt good.
Day 11 Sunday

A similar day to yesterday. Having fun writing and whatnot. Will provide more details when I find the time.

Bubble Boy Day 1 to 4 – Aaaand we’re off.

By Nic

On September 1, 2016

In Bubble Boy, The Reverends, The Unfulfilled Life

Day 1 Thursday

Got up at 6:30 a.m. and did my morning routine. Arrived at work at 7 a.m. (my job is 5 minutes away) and worked till 3 p.m. Went home, took care of a few errands and ate an early dinner. Rehearsed with The Reverends from 5 to 7.30 p.m (we have a biker gig on Saturday). Came home, ate, looked after Olivia who was throwing fits left and right. I think she’s going through a difficult period. After the kids had gone to bed, Annvør and I chose photos for this large 21 picture photo frame we want in our living room. With the luxury of choosing 21 photos we thought we had an easy task ahead of us. Ehm, no. But we got there in the end. Hopefully, our various relatives won’t feel too slighted by our choice of pictures or by being left out. Oh, what tangled webs and all that.

As previously stated, I haven’t committed to any specific tasks yet and have only made a list of what I’m allowed to and not allowed to do, just to see if anything productive will develop naturally. I don’t have any high hopes of that happening, so by next week I’ll start demanding a bit more from myself. The weekend is full of birthday preparations, gigs and work. I’ll update this post as the days go by. Thirty individual daily posts would just be annoying.

What else? Kris Kristoffersen is in town. I’ve seen him in concert before and haven’t really had time to go this time around. The man is 80 and making the rounds all over the islands. With a cold, even. We’re all mightily impressed down here. Gotta love the guy.

Day 2 Friday

Ári sprained his ankle a few days ago and could barely walk this morning so he’s definitely going seeing a doctor.

…

…and for some reason it’s been next to impossible to get a doctor’s appointment lately (I’m looking at you, Miðlon) so Ári won’t see a doctor till Monday.

What else? I made brownies, bought stuff for my birthday, rehearsed for three hours with The Reverends and did a whole bunch of maintenance stuff. Long day.

Day 3 Saturday

My birthday. Annvør and I spent the whole morning preparing and then we had our closest relatives over for brunch at 11 a.m. I always prefer a small party over a large gathering where I don’t have time to talk to everyone. So definitely cozy time. Afterwards I went down for a sound check and subsequent gig with The Reverends. Went great and we had fun. I might get a hold of a few photos later.

Day 4 Sunday

Slightly hung over when I woke up, since I had a few beers last night. It passed quickly and Annvør and I had breakfast and played with Olivia. Had a shift from 12 – 8 p.m. Devilishly tired when I got home and am now heading for bed at 10 p.m. since I’m getting up at 6.30 tomorrow.

Week 7

By Nic

On August 20, 2016

In The Unfulfilled Life

MoMA

Well, I skipped a week. Didn’t even write a to do list. I was ill for the first three days and then regular work and family life flooded me. Can’t win them all, but I’m concocting an interesting challenge for September. I’ll explain later. Here are my intentions for Week 7:

Apply for re-enrollment into the University of Copenhagen. (Goal #96)
Define BB project and take steps to My september challenge.
Work on goal #88 or #89 (creativity).

That’s it for now.

Week 5 – with update

By Nic

On August 1, 2016

In The Reverends, The Unfulfilled Life

This week will mostly be spent on rehearsals and a subsequent gig with The Reverends at the Summer Festival in Klaksvík. We have extra backup singers, a violinist, a pianist and more so that’ll be fun. Great people.

Hence, I won’t be overly focused on my regular goals, however playing a gig and rehearsing is most certainly part of the plan.

ToDo for week 5:

Have fun rehearsing and playing at the Summer Festival in Klaksvík.
Work on goal #89 (create track in home studio) if possible.
Work on goal #91 by moving our savings together and figuring out how much we need per month (been using YNAB for several years so this should be easy).

– UPDATE –

~~Have fun rehearsing and playing at the Summer Festival in Klaksvík. (done!).~~
Work on goal #89 (create track in home studio) if possible. (didn’t find the time).
~~Work on goal #91 by moving our savings together and figuring out how much we need per month (been using YNAB for several years so this should be easy) (done!).~~

Well, I got 2 out of 3, which is quite ok considering the amount of rehearsals we had. We had a great time playing playing at the Summer Festival. I’ll see if I can post a few pics if I get permission from the photographers. This sunday I spent maybe 2 hours on figuring out our finances and everything taken into account it looks like we’ll be purchasing a home here in Tórshavn—or perhaps in Velbastað or Hvítanes— in about 18 months or so, so that’s quite exciting.

Well, onwards onwards onwards. Week 6 coming up.

Tidbits the Elder

By Nic

On July 28, 2016

In Gallery, Games, The Faroe Islands, The Unfulfilled Life

I won’t be including this week in my efforts to reawaken myself as I’ve been McJobbing my days away and ‘Ólavssøka’, the Faroese national holiday, begins today. I might be donning a national costume tomorrow, time will tell. My girlfriend has an insanely beautiful costume. I have to try to keep up.

We played Reiner Knizia’s Lord of the Rings board game for the first time earlier this week at this location:

One of the smallest houses in the Faroe Islands, I’m sure. My childhood friend, Gudmund, rents it. He’s a filmmaker and finished a music video just a few days ago. Check it out here.

Week 4 Review

By Nic

On July 26, 2016

In The Unfulfilled Life

I fared a little better this week despite continuing illness. My intentions last week were:
* Create – Cubasis Song or Home Studio: Two pieces with at least two instruments in each (value 50%). RESULT: Done, although it was a bit too “jammy” so it will require more work, so I’ll give it 40%. Feels good to making music again although I have an army of neurotic worries built up. Oh well, the brick walls are supposed to be there. I need to find out if I want it enough.

* Consider writing. (Value 15%). RESULT: I did. I mulled it over and decided that I want build up a habit of writing on a daily basis. I’ve entertained such a habit before, but when depression showed its beautiful face again it went down the drain along with many other things. So I’ve written a minimum of a 100 words per day lately. This is just to get me to sit down and get started and I usually write a bit more than that. No particular story yet, but I am actually having fun.

* Habits: Good Effort, Read, Move, Sleep, No Junk. (value 35%). I got approximately 21%. Read, Move and Sleep all well. The other two not so.

FINAL SCORE: 76% – Quite acceptable compared to last week. I’m still trying to find a better way of doing this and in the future I’ll focus more on goals than habits.

Week 3 Review – Medic, please.

By Nic

On July 18, 2016

In The Unfulfilled Life

Well, this week went great. Or not. In fact this was my worst week yet. I became sick on monday and I currently (It’s Friday, TG) have a fever, sore throat, I’m sweating like a pig and have absolutely no energy. The remainder of the week I’ll spend on helping my girlfriend prepare her 30th birthday, something I do gladly but it won’t leave much time to work on my stuff. On a positive note, I’m still reading fiction every day and my sleep habit is going well. My productive goals, not at all. Oh well, there’s next week, but “next week” won’t be there forever.

My illness gave me time for reflection, though, so I’ll be making some changes to this whole goal tracking thing. Simplification is in order.

Two good things happening in the very near future: Scrivener is finally coming to iOS and a new Star Trek movie will see the light of day. I much prefer the more cerebral television series which truly expanded my horizons as a teenager, but a bit of hollywood action painted in Trek is occasionally enjoyable.

My intentions for Week 3 were these:

Wellbeing – Sleep – Go to bed early enough for a potential 7-8 hours of sleep every night. (Success – managed it 6 out of 7 evenings)
Create – Make a good effort on a daily basis, using what time I have (habit) (No).
Create – Cubasis Song: Two pieces with at least two instruments in each. (No)
Wellbeing – Run twice this week (Certainly Not).
Wellbeing – Become a reader again II – Read some fiction every day (Success. Still reading).

So, my poorest week yet due to illness. I’ll give it approximately 20%. All I can do is try to do better.

Update: It’s now Monday and I’m still sick which means I’ll be doing things the light way this week.

Week 4:

Create – Cubasis Song or Home Studio: Two pieces with at least two instruments in each (value 50%)
Consider writing. Start now (schedule when? how often?). (Value 15%)
Habits: Good Effort, Read, Move, Sleep, No Junk. (value 35%)

Mkay, let’s see if I can make it to 100% this week.