Pushing Pause

Yep, I have had to push pause for just a bit for the blog. Took some days off. Why? Cause usually my work for my courses, helps provide content. Really, one of the primary reasons I've been so prolific on the blog is that I needed a place to store the content I write to support my classes. 

In most of my earlier classes, I had to write not just papers, reports, and critiques, most of which you've read on this blog. But I've also had to write "reflective blog posts" that are posted on the class discussion board. Usually, we have to write three to five posts a week for several weeks. Where do I put those? Save them on OneNote? Save them in a Word Doc? What's the best place?

Pushing Pause

Yep, I have had to push pause for just a bit for the blog. Took some days off. Why? Cause usually my work for my courses, helps provide content. Really, one of the primary reasons I've been so prolific on the blog is that I needed a place to store the content I write to support my classes. 

In most of my earlier classes, I had to write not just papers, reports, and critiques, most of which you've read on this blog. But I've also had to write "reflective blog posts" that are posted on the class discussion board. Usually, we have to write three to five posts a week for several weeks. Where do I put those? Save them on OneNote? Save them in a Word Doc? What's the best place?

This blog provides a great place to store the posts and papers and other homework, allows it to be searchable, and gives my team at work a peak into some adult learning theory that might help them in their own projects. 

The problem is that the last few classes have not included reflective posts! 

Without that content, there hasn't been as much to post. Plus these last few classes have been exceedingly difficult for me. Statistics? YIKES! Qualitative Research? BLECH! Now Experimental Design? These have kept me busy. 

As a part of my next class, I had to write a summary of all the classes I've taken thus far. I did the same exercise exactly two years ago when I took my first class, Adult Learning, and Motivation. At that time I had to write, "This is my first class." Now I had to create a list of 12 or so classes. It's an impressive list! It took that list for me to realize how much I've done these past two years. Still have two years to go, but man, it's a lot of work and I'm glad I'm still going. 

So for anyone who has been a bit upset by the pause, don't worry . . . Adult Learning and Adult Development is on the way. I'm hoping there are reflective posts as a part of that class! Stay tuned!

Been a While Since the Last Evershade

I know, I know . . . it's been a while (a LONG while) since I posted any poetry or anything regarding these Evershades (see HERE). I've been working on a new series, Everyday Sox (see HERE). 

BUT! I came across another couple and I just couldn't help myself in posting them and adding to this little series. 

The first, is a part of that image. Isn't it a wonderful quote. I've heard it stated as "love is composed of two bodies inhabiting one soul" which is just as poignant, but I thought that little image up there was pretty good too. 

Retirement?

I love to think about retirement. What will I do (write), where will I be (????), what else will I do? 

I love watching what other people do when they retire. Hell I love watching how other people live and thinking about how I might be able to live like that.  

Last week I saw a post on Twitter from a guy who rolls around in a trailer/RV all year every year. He goes to RV parks and other camping spots sets up, and stays there for months. He homeschools his kids, he works (as a software developer), he takes his calls via zoom via wifi at the site. He feels he is blessed, and I agree. 

Lately, I've been thinking about where I might end up. Twitter guy has a good idea. Get the kids out of this house, get a PhD, set up a consulting business in Instructional Design and Training, and boom I'm outta here. I'm in the trailer or camper and I'm all over the place. Actually, it's a bit more nuanced than that. 

Will there be a camper? Maybe. Maybe for a few months I'll give it a go. but I foresee a bunch of leases and Air B&B's. How cool would it be to lease a place in the Carolinas, and enjoy that area for 6 months, then boom, off to the pan handle of Florida living on the beach for a 6 months. Then boom, try a camper in Minnesota or Michigan for 6 months, then BOOM! Over to Oregon and live on a bay and watch the sunsets for a half year. 

Here's one too . . . (these pics I've been posting). Costa Rica, off the grid living for six months. This might be the home base where I lease it out and when it's not leased for six months or longer we come back and live there until we find another long-term lease. 

I look at these pics and you know what I see? I see places to write. I see novels I can write. I see solitude and silence and the ability to focus. Ahhhhhh! Sounds wonderful!  I see kiddos coming for vacay, and I see friends coming for adventure. How awesome does that sound?

New Book Club

Started a new little book club and the first book is one of my faves. Agatha Christie novels are always among my favorites, but Death on the Nile holds a particular place in my heart. I think it was the first Agatha Christie novel that I ever saw, then read. 

Rule of 3 Pics

I got a chance to spend some time at the bay this weekend. Super fun. For the whole family but also for me. Got to start a new Agatha Christie which was awesome, and got to hang out and do Bay things. 

I know in the past I’ve written about orange and blue in movie posters. Although I can’t find it. Go look up orange and blue movie posters and you’ll find yourself stunned by how many movie posters use orange and blue as their primary color schemes. You’ll never see movie marketing the same. 

I was talking to our designer about this the other day. He is a great designer. I was surprised that he had never heard about this orange and blue prevalence. I know, I know, they’re complimentary, but other complimentary colors aren’t used as much as orange and blue. I took some time to show him and he was blown away . . . Natch. 

I also remember reading about photography and the rule of threes. Use the view finder to ensure you have a middle and two sides to every picture, and that there is a foreground, mid, and background in the picture as well. Then merge the two so that the three frames that make up the picture and the foreground, mid and background are all working together. 

I took these three pics while at the bay. I like them. I tried to use those principles in my pics and I think I pulled it off. I’m quite pleased with them. I think it’s interesting that when you know these principles and start using them that pictures that use the principles come naturally. You start moving the view-finder to make these aspects appear and work together. The pic of the dock was the first I took of that series. The pic of the sunset was the last, and it was the one where I got down lower. The pic of the balcony and doc was the second. The first was portrait mode, this one is landscape. 

I think compared to my designer, they’re not bad. What day you guys think?

Media-lish

Yeah, sorry, I tried to merge “media” and “english” in the title, and I don’t think it worked. Won’t try that again. But, I’m all riled up about the media and the way they use the language. 

My neighbor gets riled up constantly. And truthfully, she’s better about getting riled than I am. Eventually I get to a logical dissonance and just give up on the argument. I think she burns with a long hot raging fire. This makes it fun to rail against the world along side her, but often she goes off on tangents without help and often times it’s fun to watch her go off like a rocket. 

Today it was me who got in the first hit. I saw a meme. I’m not going to go into details, but basically, it was a screenshot of a Snopes fact check. When I read it I didn’t believe it was real. There, in this meme, was the Snopes fact check next to a video of the event that Snopes said was false actually happening. It was straight out of 1984!!! Newspeak! Snopes wrote, “This is False! This person may have said this but they didn’t mean it so it’s False.”

Completely unreal. So for me, today was the day I kicked things off!

First, it was riots that were called “Fiery, but mostly peaceful protests.” Then it was a riot that turned into an “insurrection” . . . Hardly meets the standard. Then there was this just last week. A small riot in LA that was decried as “overly enthusiastic celebrators” and the truckers in Canada who haven’t hurt anyone and who have been a bit of a pain, are nevertheless classified as “terrorists.”

I don’t know what to do! As a lover of the English language I can’t stand the high jacking of the language for political purposes and obfuscation. I can’t wait for the next rant and rile with the neighb!

Crazy Bosses

 Bosses are crazy arn't they? I know . . . I am one. 

I have had a ton of experience with unfufillable demands or projects that can't be completed in the given timeframe. Hell, not only have I been on the receiving end of those projects, but I've delivered them. Ranger School, RIP, Battalion, Pre-Scuba, they're filled with missions that you aren't supposed to be able to complete. 

SEAL PT, where I was an instructor, we constantly gave our clients workouts that we knew they couldn't complete. "Run to the end of the parking lot, get wet and sandy, run back as a group, and form up right here in two minutes." There was no way they could do it in two minutes, much less four. But we did it to see how they would respond, or how they perform. 

I remember when I first got genuinely and truly frustrated about this side of business life. My CEO at the organization I had worked at asked for the moon, and usually, I delivered, but after a while, I started to see what he was asking was unreasonable. In some cases, it was that I didn't have enough people. In other situations, the problem came about because I have a hard time thinking more strategically for the organization. I have an easy time thinking strategically for a department or even several departments, but for an organization? That's where I run into problems.

Now I am the boss who asks too much of my direct reports. I had trouble before thinking strategically for my department, now I'm coaching others to do it. I had trouble with all of the multiple demands, now I'm the one giving them. 

I am an independent sort. I've mentioned that before on this blog. I like working alone much more than in groups. If I see the need to hire someone, I find the right person and hire them. I don't wait for permission. Now, I have to not only ask for permission but I have to justify and defend before asking. It's killing me, but I get it. 

It's hard being a boss, not because of the people you lead, rarely is it the people . . . usually it's the demands. I've done it to the bosses under me, and my boss does it to me. The trick is realizing that your boss who is giving you impossible to accomplish projects is being given his own extensive list of impossible to accomplish projects himself. 

Fender Bender (Or Bumper Basher)

I bought a new car when I got out of the Army. Well . . . the last year I was in the Army. That was the last new car I've ever bought. I've had five or six since. All used. All workhorses.  I was a Jeep Wrangler. Loved that car. So fun. Patriot blue. Rag top. Chrome wheels. Offroad tires. Standard transmission. Fun, fun, fun. 

I broke down and bought a new car again . . . last month. My vehicle clunked out on the road. The transmission just stopped working. That's a pretty big warning sign. So I got it working enough to get it to a car dealer and bought what they had on hand. Thought I had a good deal too. Loved my new, new car. 

Well, had a bit of a fender bender today. I wasn't driving. I was teaching someone to drive and I might have pushed him into something he wasn't ready for. That being said, there were external circumstances that lead to the chain reaction that resulted in the wreck. A guy, a pedestrian, was walking toward the road and the car in front of us had to come to a screeching, sudden halt. I know my driver tried to stop in time, but instead, WHAM!

Both airbags deployed. Crumple zones in the car we hit crumpled, and our hood got smashed up something terrible. 

I feel bad for the driver of my new car. He's taking it hard. He feels really bad that he knows I loved that new car. Less than 4 thousand miles on it and now,  . . . I'm hoping it's not totaled. The wrecker guy AND the auto body repair shop thought it probably was.

I think in my next novel, I'm going to write a lot more feeling into the car wreck. No, not sunset perfect. The one about the gal in the mountains at the B&B. Chapter 1, she's in a car wreck. Now, I'll have a bit better perspective. 

As for my student/driver . . . well, hopefully, he's gotten it out of his system and he'll be a better driver because of it. 

Workouts 2022 Edition

So I finished P-90X2. My review: it's not bad. It's not as engaging as the first P-90X, but the work on core muscles is actually pretty fun. 

Those of you who follow this blog will remember that I had a goal of doing P90X (see HERE) then P-90X2 (see HERE) then P-90X3 as my newest workout goal. I'm two-thirds through.

This all started with reading a tweet from a former NFL lineman who rode his bike everyday for 100 days. I tried it too. Sadly, a trip to Alaska ruined that streak. I think I was twenty-something days in. 

Then I tried to run everyday for 100 days (see HERE). That one I completed. The next was to lift weights for 100 days. That one failed. Shoulder surgery side-lined me. But this P-90X one is going well so far.  

As much as I hated the core work, which was extensive . . . I do feel as though my core strength is substantially stronger. 

Additionally, I'll say that the upper body workout and lower body workouts were some of the best there were when you take out the stretches in the middle and you throw in some extra strength training. The other thing I didn't care for about this workout? Was that you had to buy so much equipment to support the moves. Also, there were very few "old guy" modifidiations. They were doing some tough moves and they were just,  . . . keep up. No moves for the old. Of course I also added in jogs just about everyday, but all in all I recommend it highly. 

So, why not go straight into P-90X3? Well, because I think I jacked up my shoulder. I was able to knock out 10-12 pullups at a shot in the first series. Now in the second, I'm barely getting three at a time. So, I'm giving the shoulder a break.