Scott Stilson

An elaborated 1 John 2:15-16 with some eye toward Ecclesiastes 11:9: Have desires of the flesh, but do not love those desires. Have desires of the eyes, but do not love those desires. Possess things, but do not love the pride of possession or estate.

Have desires of the flesh. Have desires of the eyes. Possess things. But do so lightly. Instead of loving them, love YHWH your god, and love your neighbor as yourself. 🧘‍♂️

Note to self: Discretize everything. It will maximize concentration, keep you from hurrying, and keep you from losing sight of God. 🧘‍♂️

Circumvent Google’s default search results page—including its new, unwelcome AI results—and return to a simple list of blue links. 💻

I stand with carbohydrates. 🍞

Regarding my overpopulated social calendar, I have two directives for myself:

• I will view it with gratitude. I get to have all these friends.
• I will grant Carla, Sullivan, and Éa priority, meaning I will throttle my planning to allow for lots of uncalendared time.

Give and receive. Don’t take.

“You almost have to give your happiness up to accomplish your goals” (Mike Tyson).

Welp, that settles it: A single game of Civilization VI on its fastest speed (other than battle turns) took me 10.5 hours. I will never play it again.

Do what you’re doing. Don’t worry about the rest.

The first chapter of Judges is all about how most of the tribes of Israel failed to drive out the Canaanites and other non-Israelite peoples from their inherited land. It’s just like yesterday and Civilization VI.

Just be grateful.

You said it was a long-term plan. So why start now?

— Éa

Do not talk about your hard feelings after 9 PM. Maybe not even after 8 PM.

For the joy!

By which I mean to answer questions such as: Why do anything? Why work? Why make music?

Resolved: One creative goal at a time. Current goal: Legalize backyard hens in College Township.

Step one in any anti-racist agenda: Refuse to speak in terms of race. Skin color? Pigment? Melanin? Yes. But “‘[r]ace’ itself is just a restatement and retrenchment of the problem” (Ta-Nehisi Coates).

Remember the Milk is an aide-memoire, not a governor./

Air: the original social medium.

Living unanxiously mindful of your own certain death is probably salutary. Living unanxiously mindful of the certain death of those you love might be even more so.

Become love plankton.

You only have so much time left with your kids in the house. Prioritize spending time with them. Make music with Éa!

I’m living my life against the grain my heart. I’m hoping this realization is God answering my prayer that I do only what I see Him doing, that that’s all I want to do.

Overall, I’m spending too much time at my “helm,” that is, my computer workstation, thinking that the key to well-lived life resides somewhere in Remember the Milk, and not enough time resting and relating.

In my crosshairs as I turn toward changing my life are:

• counting beans (i.e., doing the monthly accounting),
• exercising on days when I climb, and
• time in my office in front of my computer doing things other than DiamondBack work.

Along those lines, here is what I propose:

1. I spend no more than one hour attempting to accomplish private, at-my-workstation tasks. I set a timer to facilitate keeping to that limit.
2. For exercise, I think all that I’m going to try for now is to (1) do my RDLs and perhaps squats at Climb Nittany when I have the opportunity and (2) be willing to shorten the routine on those same days.
3. Carla and I do the monthly accounting together.

“With.”

— God, in answer to another round of “What should I do?” or “How to decide what to do?”

Resolved: a solo screen sabbath from sundown Saturday through sundown Sunday.

Resolved: No weekend DiamondBack work unless it is explicitly required by logistics or by my supervisors.