#Squirrel Brain

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I often user the phrase "Squirrel Brain" when I am trying to multi-task too many tasks, so I find myself jumping back and forth between them all getting nothing done – sort of like a squirrel running around without any real focus.

I also just learned that "squirrel brain" has many other definitions.

"The appearance of a male’s scrotum when he squeezes his testicles so the skin is taught."

"When you push all your foreskin in a bunch and it looks like s squirrel brain, looks very nasty."

"alternative name for the testicles"

Apparently only programmers use Squirrel Brain as I do. And they use a hashtag – so excuse me for a moment while I go add a hashtag to the title of this.

Ok, I’m back.

Why do I feel like I’m demonstrating how my brain is working today? I start out writing a post about all of the things I’m jumping around doing today at work – getting nothing done. Then I’m off googling "squirrel brain" only to find out it is a euphemism for so many scrotum and foreskin related things. And of course I have to share this finding. I will say it is for educational purposes but really – if I cannot unlearn something, the best thing to do is share it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaghVWhqXHQ

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaghVWhqXHQ)

This seems appropriate in too many ways. And I only know of that video because that is how 3 of us spent 10 minutes on Wednesday after most of the team left for the day. For the record, my boss made us watch that one.

For my leadership class, I have to read like 26 books. I have one done and have started the next one. This one is called "The Leadership Moment: Nine Trust Stories of Triumph and Disaster and Their Lessons for Us All." First story was about the CEO of Merck who decided to give away a drug to huge groups of Africans who were infected with a parasite that would leave them all blind aka River Blindness. It was uplifting and showed how the risk had some unexpected company consequences (positive ones). Cool.

The second story? About the leader of a fire jump crew who lost 13 men when a fire overcame them. He and two men were saved after he made a split second decision – a trick it turns out that the native americans used during fast moving plains fires. Why didn’t it save all of the men? They panicked, didn’t trust him, and ultimately continued to try to outrun an un-run-able fire. Not so uplifting.

Yeah back to my process diagram.

Which I worked on for three minutes before switching to email for a while – then back to researching something else on the internet. Then I wrote myself a note of all of the unfinished things I am doing so that after lunch when I go "hmmm, what should I do" I know my path of destruction.

Oh, I guess I have to stand up now – my watch is telling me to.

I really need a standing desk again. This sitting shit is fucking with my lower back. Though trying to fall off a chair while hanging art likely didn’t help that.

But back to my watch….

So a few years ago, I backed a kickstarter (pre-apple watch days) for a Pebble Smart Watch. It was perfect. Didn’t do too much – just enough. Allowed me to keep my phone in my pocket without worrying I would miss an important call or text. When I was at the ocean, it would even tell me when low and high tide was. Neat stuff.

They got bought by Fitbit in November (I think) and Fitbit decided to not continue the watch or brand. They just wanted to intellectual property and the people. The day the news of the sale went out, I got a note saying no more watch OS updates.

Within six months, apps on my watch stopped working. I thought it was an odd coincidence, but believe now it was because developers pulled their apps. I finally realized I needed to give it a proper burial and figure something out.

Enter G and his rugby connection. While I was contemplating doing the Apple Watch route, he learned someone could get him one for a VERY good discount. So he bought it for me. I know have an apple watch. It’s a bit weird but mainly because I want to push the buttons like I did on my Pebble and have it do the same things. But one of the apps I am coming to like is their Activity app. It sets targets for 3 things – calories burned each day, number of times you stand vs sit, and exercise. And when it thinks you are sitting too much, it buzzes me. Funny how such a simple device is training me to move more at work.

The other app I like is a "breathe" app. It basically suggests for 1 min about twice a day that you stop, focus on breathing, and breath with the app. Then it tells you your heart rate. Things I’ve learned: 1. Pain affects heart rate more than I realized. 2. Taking that moment to breath has refocused me on crazy days, and 3. Forcing the body to stop and relax really brings the heart rate down.

So weird that with all of the features of this watch, these are the two I find most intriguing.

Though I wouldn’t be a proper geek if I didn’t say there is something fun about listening to vmail through my watch. I think I can make a call too. Part communicator – part Dick Tracy watch.

Shuffling in iTunes is failing me today. It is shuffling through the same four songs. WTF, iTunes. Bastards.

Like I said – Squirrel Brain, I mean #Squirrel Brain.

Ok, I need food – and to find some focus somewhere.

Oh look, it’s 31 in my home town, 64 in Vegas and 48 in Astoria.

Lord help me from myself……

What do you think?

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