So, What Have You Been Doing With Your Life?
Well, I have the two sites thing happening. Olympics, March Madness. I've seen The Post, Black Panther, and The Greatest Showman. I've had family holidays, 3 busted cars (one twice), the great winter plague and SAD to deal with as well as a huge fight between my pharmacy, PCP, and insurance company.
Not to mention broken pipes, frozen toilets, and 3 or 4 Northeasters. How was your winter?
One thing I took the time to do was get down to D.C. and attend #MarchForOurLives. I have it on good authority that between 800,000 and 1 Million attended (the estimate for the Women's March has been raised to 2 Million btw). It was fun and I was happy to be a part of it. I stayed with my cousin and she brought her two kids. After the March we went to Comet Ping Pong.
The pizzas are personal size so you can get what you want (anchovy and bacon for me, yumm) and I was only able to finish half. The kidlings really dug the whole ping pong concept and they have a big monitor TV so you can leave them alone to be kids while you chat with the adults in your booth. A very nice place, I highly recommend it. Wait time was an hour.
I also got a chance to stop at Waffle House (scattered, smothered, covered, capped, and country) which always brightens my day since I get in range of one about once every 3 years on average. Only the indicator Cherry Tree was blossoming so we just did monuments, FDR is stunning and very reminiscent of Campobello where I have eaten snails (burgers in Canada are all well done, order steak instead).
In May I have another round of doctors (of course I have them, I'm 120+ years old) but then I shall travel as is my custom and the Tubz will hardly be the focus of attention, though I'll try and keep up.
So I'm not at all the same man doing what I did when I was writing twice a day and running 5 franchises on dK, contending for Top Commenter by volume (or at least better than Elise). I'm much more mellow. I have been writing every day since April 2005, DocuDharma was founded in September of 2007 and The Stars Hollow Gazette in June of 2010.
I like to keep contact with my friends though and many are here in one guise or another. Not dead yet so you can save your poking sticks for later. I contribute sporadically when I see an opportunity and have something I think is relevant. I read when I get a chance. I could do more but I'm glad I don't have to.
Otherwise every day is a blank canvas. I'm not particularly fond of sunflowers. They're complicated. But it's not that I lack Chromium Yellow or can't paint them.
There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a keyboard and bleed.
I think this one might have legs!
I am almost frantically travelling the world while I can walk, lift, climb, see, hear, and connect what I am seeing with what I read or studied about that place when I was young.
I look at my country from the perspective of the country I am visiting.
I compare what they do right to what we do wrong.
In my spare time, not a lot of that since I work every day, I care for my brother who has cancer.
I live in a community of only a few hundred people.
I spend a great deal of time getting hugs from everyone in the grocery store, or post office, or tire store.
I rescue animals, presently, a tiny o'possum at my law office.
And I cook, share the food, and I tip generously.
And I avoid partisan politics, try to be the person my parents raised me to be.
I do not write essays on blogs.
I spend my life in public. If anyone appreciates my example, I am glad.
I'm not sure a life lived well gets any better that that.
@Pluto's Republic I have to go to a store a 100 miles from home not to run into a client or judge or cop I cross examined.
I have very little privacy, and I try to stay out of sight until I walk into the courtroom.
My parents used to come to my jury trials. They were so proud.
I act like they are in the courtroom. Every single thing I say is in their honor.
I try to be the person my dawgs think I am, but some days I fall short ... but they love me anyway. And they should during the winter when it's freezing outside and I take them for their walk anyway.
#3.1 I have to go to a store a 100 miles from home not to run into a client or judge or cop I cross examined.
I hope I don't forget that and consider it when I read a comment from you. I didn't know anything about that. Why? Did I miss it? Did you put it in your profile? I think I didn't realize that my memory is spiraling downwards much faster and more profoundly than I thought before.
That's definitely something I respect the most. It seems to be rare among Americans, or may be I am just prejudiced against Americans.
Oh, now I remember I ran into you with something I hadn't understood. I don't remember anymore with what it was. I think it had something to do with gender discrimination.
You said in another comment that I don't have to announce my good-byes, because here we are not at dkos. I think we are both polite persons, I like to say my good-byes and you like to hold the door open to make leaving a bit more comfortable. The bad think is for me that it seems to be a revolving door.
I feel I have to apologize for anything I said here and didn't know it showed my ignorance. I am sorry for that.
people said I have done everything wrong in my life and am to blame for the mess I made out of it.
I refuse to accept it and think that all people who say that are up to destroy my life and they do.
So, who made the mess, me or them?
Should I make that a poll question for the 99 percenters here?
and not rely on the approval of others.
I once read a story about someone who was learning to draw being taught by a Zen Master.
They were very disappointed in their work and took it to the Master and said- "I can't draw. This picture looks nothing like that tree."
The Master said, "Oh? Show me where."
"Why don't you change it?"
This winter has been pretty amazing from a knowledge and development standpoint.
I created a framework and ruleset for Disc Dog Flatwork (the movement between the catches). 13 Laws that communicate, clearly and simply, team movement and that resolve many positional and team movement problems.
A little more than a month ago a buddy of mine suggested that we do some topical, focused, online classes.
That's changed, and I just wrapped up initial shooting and creation of a new class, Sequence Building, and it's kind of interesting.
I finally pulled the trigger on graphic novel instruction, I have about 75 pages in the Sequence Building class, and while it's not quite a stand alone instructional piece without the video, it is helpful for putting people into the game and highlighting the communication and dialogue between dog and handler.
This Sequence Building class is the first of 10 classes I have lined up with the same basic format. These classes will included pet dog training as soon as we get our methods and practices down in the disc dog classes.
We're looking for a literary agent, illustrator, and publisher on this project.
I'm also trying to move from Google and Facebook. Having got the shaft from Google on the monetization front, YT is dead to me as a content host.
I've moved "everything" over to our FB page, kind of using it as a mooring point before we cast off. I touch 30% of my global demographic, personally, on FB, so we're pushing all content there and instagram for the time being until I can figure out where to bounce to.
I think all you guys should get on Steemit. I'm quite excited about the STEEM ecosystem. The Smart Media Token idea is pretty friggin' amazing.
I also bit the bullet and upgraded to Vimeo Pro for the enhanced benefits that I will need to do video instruction properly.
I have so often wondered what exactly you were up to. Such a perceptive guy, and low key at the same time. I figured you had a handle on something transformative.
I have a good feeling about all of this. I especially like the graphic novel. That's a good idea that serves many different purposes.
Trying not to go mad from cabin fever.
We finally got sunshine and hit 50 degrees today. I actually went outside without a coat. The sun and warmth lack of cold felt wonderful. Every year around March, I find myself suffering from interminable winter and cabin fever. Netflix and the Firestick become inadequate to the task of keeping me placated and patiently waiting for summer. I start complaining and moaning bitterly about winter, snow, cold, ice and being shut in, and I start looking for somewhere warm to move. I think I've narrowed it down from someplace on the equator to Laguna Beach or SW Florida. My husband loves our beach house up north so it makes moving kind of complicated.
I got dual Italian citizenship last summer for me, my daughter, and her 3 sons. So this August we are planning a trip to Italy and Sweden. Italy to see the homeland, and Sweden to visit my eldest grandson. About a year ago, he did an internship at the Swedish Environmental Institute for his Master's degree, was offered a job, and moved to Stockholm . I told him he couldn't live there because it was more than 15 degrees north or south of the equator, and it would screw up my travel plans. June thru October is spring, summer, and fall up north, and the only good time to actually be there.
The euchre deck is still handy.
Don't know if I'll be in the flat lands soon.
Depends on funerals unfortunately. This summer is the Maritimes and I think it will be a blast.
Still, I picked up a wonderful set of bridge sized full plastic cards that you could float in the hot tub if the jets didn't keep moving them around.
Very much enjoyed reading everyone's stories.
@mimi I would say, don't think about it in terms of "screwing up your life." But the fact is for most of us here probably is that life didn't turn out like we expected it to when we were young. It's important for the young to view life with hope and expectations though. But in the end, 2 + 2 doesn't really equal 4. There are too many variables we don't personally control. Dumb luck is a powerful force. So is bad luck.
"The Power of Now" dude, Eckhart Tolle, is my go to guy (and a few others) when I need to put memories in a box on the shelf and open my eyes to beauty and light around me. And also to become unafraid of uncertainty . . . because there is nothing we can do about it after all.
now that the Peace vigil is no longer active. I have considered trying to do it solo but wonder if it would be worth it.
I am retired so I no longer work. Every day, I try to walk at least four miles or more, weather permitting. I have a walking partner so that makes things easier. But she and her husband have been on vacation for over the last week and will not return until Thursday. That means walking alone for two weeks and it is not nearly as easy as doing it with another person. We have one route that includes a very steep climb up what I call the mountain. We have been doing the mountain once a week for over a year and I still nearly die every time. I have tried to do it twice since she has been gone but it never gets any easier.
We are in the midst of more remodeling of our house (ongoing for 12 years now). This time it is the master bedroom and bath. And it is the remodel I have been dreading because the bedroom is covered in wall paper. This house is older and the entire house was covered in wall paper when we bought it. Every time I removed some, there was a surprise underneath. I am afraid that the walls in the bedroom were sized which means we will have to try to sand the sizing off before painting the walls. Removing sizing is an almost impossible job. That is assuming there is no damage to the walls other than sizing. I am not optimistic based upon previous surprises after removing wall paper. On the positive side, we are replacing the old single pane windows with double paned ones and that will hopefully make the room much warmer in cold weather.