Graham Sedam Writes

The R&D Workshop No.11

2019-06-13T10:45:00.000-05:00

The Office Introductory Post

I’ve talked about writing this post for what feels like months. It has likely only been about two months at the most. I am not writing this post as an explanation to justify my choice to rent an office—which is really just a room in an office building—or to portray myself in a way that doesn't reflect reality, or in order to gain favor with whatever your feelings are towards me. I write this post to share my thoughts about going into such an endeavor and to hint at what that general endeavor is. I write this, in part, because that is what this feature to my blog is about, and I’m excited about this change within my life. I’m hoping it’s a big step in the direction I want to go.

When it comes down to it, I am renting an office to have a place outside of my house to work in peace and quiet. I tried the library once, and it wasn’t as quiet or peaceful as I thought it would be. I don’t have any interest in hanging out at a coffee shop, as I don’t think that would provide me the environment that I would choose to work in. What these places also don’t provide is 24/7 access to a working space. The library we go to, the closest one to our house, isn’t actually open for very much of the day, and it’s also closed all day fairly often for a variety of reasons. Coffee shops and the like have a better window of hours than the library, but they require purchasing items to consume, and they are not places I can go to ANYTIME I WANT. And, taking into account the breadth of activities that I’m currently engaged in and those that I'm considering within this new office, a library and a coffee shop would not be conducive. An office also provides a certain level of privacy.

So, why not at home? Why did it stop working all of a sudden? Not everyone can have an office and need to make their home work, right? What about your poor wife? Well, it wasn’t all of a sudden. I understand that I’m “lucky” to be able to have an office, because, you know, working hard and making good decisions is “luck.” My wife supports the hell out of me as much as she can. She, of all people, knows my vision for the future in its greatest glory. She is actually embarking upon her own entrepreneurial journey in different ways than I, and I am doing my best to support the hell out of her.

Ironically, now that I have an office to go to, my wife has been able to be more productive at home with our office setup there. I had no idea, but she had always given me precedence to use the desk. I was and still am not a fan of how she keeps a desk, but it’s less of an issue now since she’s essentially the sole user of it. I know that it has made her happier to have that space to work in; I could sense it immediately. If I do use it, I generally only need enough space to put my Chromebook. Or, I could use my Chromebook on the kitchen table or in the living room on a TV tray. Our new situation has worked in ways that I didn’t foresee and for the better. One side effect that I’m especially happy about is less clutter on the kitchen counters. I know, right? How does that work? However, it’s because some of that now ends up (more appropriately) on the desk. C’est la vie! But, I’m straying...

One of the issues that I was trying to get away from is what I like to call the “Death By A Thousand Paper Cuts.” The basic idea is that one paper cut, aka distraction, is not a big deal. You pick back up where you left off. Then, the next one comes. Still not a big deal—move on. But, then, they keep coming, and they don’t stop. Your brain gets twisted and fried and you realize that you’ve not accomplished what you should have with the time you’ve spent working. Everyone has gone through that, and it is to be expected now and then, especially when you’re a part of a family unit. I was dying the “Death By A Thousand Paper Cuts,” and that’s no way to live. It’s not good for me or my family.

So far, I have worked more efficiently out of my office, thus allowing me to get more done. It also gives me more opportunities to spend time with my family, time that’s not distracted by the “other things” I need and want to do. I get to experience QUALITY of time in each facet of my life because I’ve compartmentalized them in a way that I can be present with what I intend to accomplish within that scheduled time frame. It allows me to be more realistic with what I can actually accomplish and helps me set my priorities. I will never be just one thing, but I can only be at my best when I’m one thing at a time. I’m only about a month in, and I can already see the benefits flowering and also where there are opportunities for improvements. Working smart and not hard is one common phrase that comes to my mind as it does apply to this situation, albeit slightly stretched. I will still work hard; To be me, I must.

I haven’t yet been able to spend as much time at the office as I would like, but it’s still just one of the places I frequent. My setup is still sparse and there’s nothing on the cold, white walls just yet. I have everything I need as of this point, and it’s only a matter of time before I start injecting my personality into the room, making it more warm and inviting. I didn’t want to go too big, too fast. Plus, it costs money. I also needed to make sure that I wanted to stay in the room for longer than a month or two. I see no reason to leave yet, so I’ve been thinking more about what I’d like to do. For now, I have the Ikea L-shaped sitting desk we had at home and could easily spare. I also brought two office chairs that weren’t getting used much anymore since our purchase of a standing desk to use at home last year. Beyond that, I have the simple knick-knacks and necessities that make an office a usable space. I have a closet with shelves in the office, so most of the small stuff is there.

Who can function without the internet these days? Sure, we all CAN, but do we? It seemed to me a waste of money to pay the monthly rate our “local” broadband internet provider would charge. Call me crazy, but I didn’t even look into it. What I did do is go to my local Boost store and set up my plan to allow me to use my phone as a hotspot. I only increased my phone bill from $30 to $50 a month to get 12 gigs of hotspot data. So far, so good. I KNOW I wouldn’t be able to get cable internet piped into my office for $20 a month. Can I download and watch movies all month? No, it has and will require sensible internet usage decisions for the office along the way. I didn’t get an office to watch YouTube. I have a home with wifi for that.

The internet data ceiling that I have will certainly curb prior practices. The benefits outweigh the costs, though. Besides, it can be exciting to take these opportunities to change things up and do them differently than in the past. Getting into ruts is not good either. While I do enjoy listening to music while doing other things such as writing, it can also be a distraction. The main reason I started listening to music with headphones at home was to drown out the noise of home-life. The office isn’t devoid of all noise, but there’s a huge difference. If I do decide to introduce music back into my writing or other appropriate working situations, I still have options that don’t involve streaming Pandora. I can actually have music ON my computer. I can load up my underused iPod. Or, I can bring in CDs and my nearly twenty-year-old boombox. There is always a way around, and that way can be fun and refreshing.

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If you’ve made it this far into the post, then you’re probably one of those people who have been the most interested in what my blog has always been about: My thoughts, my life, and my interests. You will likely also be one of those people who care about me most and will understand me well enough to know that I can be pretty ambitious, sometimes ridiculously so. I will not apologize for that, and I will not live any other way. However, I have learned to not reveal all of the secrets before their time is due.

What this office provides me, in addition to what I’ve already written, is a bit of legitimacy. Yes, a legitimacy to others but mostly and more importantly to myself. I am taking that leap. I am taking myself and my ambitions more seriously and at a REAL cost. It gives me less opportunity to make excuses and puts me in more of a position to perform. It puts me in the mind frame that I want to be in. It's living the life I want to live now—not "some day." Do it or don’t, Graham. To me, it’s a logical “next step” if I’m going to be serious about my ridiculously ambitious plans. Will I accomplish them all? I don’t know. Making plans to climb a mountain will at least get a person to its base. Before getting to the base, that person would have to buy the gear to climb, and so on. Every process, every triumph, every plan, every goal has steps along the way to its completion. No one can tell the future, and maybe 1/16th of my hopes and dreams will be enough for me in the end. I'll never know without taking thoughtful action.

I am not going to write much about the possibilities the future may hold. What I will tell you is what I HAVE been doing in the office and also try to presciently answer some of your questions in regards to the repertoire of activities that I've pursued in the past. Beyond what I reveal in this post, I may start using Official Secret Code Names to speak of the unspeakable. I don’t want to say too much, but I also want to be able to blog about what I’m doing and thinking. It’s a touchy place to be.

As I’ve stated in the past, I’m big into micromanaging my finances. Coming second to my family, I believe personal finance is the most important area of a person's life. It sets the stage for happiness and life fulfillment in a way many other things can't. I would say it’s a strength of mine, though, there are certainly people out there who have done better and are more knowledgeable than I. Managing one’s finances is not conducive to coffee shops and libraries. When given the choice, I would not choose to do this at home either. Having the office has made this facet of my life run much more smoothly. I cannot convey enough how much my quality of life has improved by performing this one, broad activity at the office.

Writing is probably the first thing that comes to people’s minds when they think about why I would get an office. It certainly IS one of the reasons, though, not by a much larger percentage than all of the other competing reasons. I do enjoy removing words from my brain to share with you all, and I certainly want to continue using Graham Sedam Writes and Notes.gs as the vehicles to do so. I believe in blogs and newsletters being whatever the writer chooses them to be, and I will continue down the path of shaping my blogs and their posts as I go.

I also have a storyteller inside of me. I can still remember parts to some of the stories that I wrote as a child. It’s a piece of me that has always been there, which evolved into lyric writing in my teen years, and then into blogging as I do now. If you asked my kids, they would tell you how much they like the stories that I've made up for them at bedtime. If you asked my wife, she would tell you how sore her eyes are from rolling them, because of the umpteenth tall tale I've told my kids about my past. I would like to revisit the ideas I have collected for fictional stories at some point in my life and make some type of progress towards their completion. It may take me thirty years to do so, but it will be about the enjoyment of the journey and the act of accomplishing the work. This type of writing is not even close to being a focus of mine right now but is something that I would like to be able to dabble in occasionally as the time and inspiration allows. I find being in the office to be interesting in the sense that inspiration could be taken from the diverse cast of people in the office building and the minor situations that have occurred since moving in.

Music has been a strange companion to me in my life. I don’t believe that I’ll ever abandon it, but I have also experienced some personal ups and A LOT of personal downs with it. After being involved with music through one form or another for over twenty-five years, it’s hard to have the same level of enthusiasm as I used to. I want my life to be about more than the musical pursuits I have engaged in. I want to pursue other things, ideas, interests as well. If I, at this point in my life, had been experiencing what I would call success with music, then I would likely see it differently. I do want music to continue being a part of my life. Working on music at home hasn't been terribly easy for the last six years. I don’t plan on pursuing music at the office, partly because of the noise clause in the contract, and certainly not in a way that I've become accustomed to in the past. However, I feel strongly that having the office will help me to find clarity on the subject of “doing music” in a way that I might not otherwise be able to.

What does that leave, you may wonder? Quite a bit, actually. Simple things like reading, casual or otherwise, and phone calls are perfect for a place like my office. One of my favorite, possible uses is my office being a place where I can contemplate my past, present, and future. I can do this anywhere, yes, and I do that everywhere. It’s why I spend my commutes in mostly silent thought. What I’m talking about is the more pointed contemplation that isn’t distracted by life or by driving a car. The focus that allows me to figure out what I want, what I need to do to take that next big step in life, or to make it successfully through that day or week. The focus that will allow me to be confident in the decisions that I have made and am making to move forward because I’ve put in the brain-work, the homework, and the work-work.

While all of the activities and reasons that I’ve already mentioned in this post got me into an office, I believe the reasons that I have NOT named are what are going to keep me in the office long term. These are the potential projects and businesses I don’t want to share with you yet. I want those ventures with not-yet-assigned Official Secret Code Names to mean something, and if they die, I don’t want them to die meaninglessly through social media. I don’t want their death to be due to a lack of work or care or focus but because they didn’t represent the best way forward for me and my family. I don’t want to talk them up with bravado and bluster and give others the impression that I’m blowing smoke up their backsides. I’m just a guy who wants to try doing new things, to give them a go and see what happens.

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Did you know that I also have a daily blog, Notes.gs?

THE NOT SO DAILY DUMP #19

2019-04-11T09:05:00.002-05:00

Ready Player One

For those of you familiar with my Notes, which I’ll get to in the next section, you’ll know that in the somewhat distant past, my family and I watched a movie called Ready Player One. We all, except The Toddler, really liked this flick. The Toddler had plenty of moments where he stared at the TV like the rest of us, but he can be a pain once he’s determined that he wants to watch something else. From start to finish, it took us three nights spread out over a week. That is NOT my ideal way of watching a movie, but hey, family life.

If you don’t already know, this film takes place in a fictional dystopian-like future where escapism into a virtual reality-style video game is the norm. Here, people would rather spend most of their lives as an avatar than to live their lives in the flesh. Things happen, bad people need to be stopped, and the good guys win.

Escapism comes in many forms in our world, and this film does a good job touching upon its benefits and its downfalls. I have been trying to become more aware of my involvement in escapism within my current and past life and to let that inform me about being more mindful of what I want and need from the present and future. If we’re happy and living our best life, we run to it and not away.

Ready Player One is a great flick, and I think you’ll like it. Check out the clip and see for yourself.

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Top Notes

I have another blog now. If you are connected to me on social you already know this. I won't go into the why, as that would be better done in a future Workshop post. Essentially, GSW is longform and Notes.gs is shortform and (is supposed to be) daily.

A part of what makes TNSDD tick is the idea of it being somewhat of an aggregator of everything else in my life, including things I post or share elsewhere on the internet or even with the GSW blog. A variety page, if you will, allowing me to put together things that may not otherwise go together within a longer cohesive post. I can try new things and still have other things around to entertain or inform the guests of my blog. Notes.gs, while similar, is not a replacement for TNSDD. Everything evolves as it should. In that spirit of evolution and trying new things, I bring you Top Notes.

Note 001
"Present Situation: Drinking caffeinated coffee to stay awake, though I should go to bed, and wondering if I'm actually going to go through with this "Notes" idea that's been brewing (see what I did there) in my head for sometime over a year. It started out as an idea for a page on my main site that I would update occasionally. I was very resistant to add it as another feature to my blog for many reasons. Also, I wanted it to be very clean and simple. So, here we are. What is included in each of these "Notes" will vary by day. I'd love to do one every day. I am crazy. I was thinking about waiting until the New Year to start doing this, but I've been getting antsy to JUST FUCKING GO AND DO IT. The posts on this site will be more raw and to the point and less polished than my blog—two different beasts. Speaking of RAW..."

Note 002
"Out About Town: We ran some errands this morning, which included Home Depot. We spotted Graham-ta Clause."

Note 003
"Feedly Tip: I'm all about promoting things I like and believe in. I was never a huge user of Google Reader, but other apps filled the void when that was shut down. Sometime earlier this year, I started using the free version of Feedly to follow sites/feeds. I love having one place to aggregate feeds of my choosing. You can follow my blog or these notes by entering the web address of either, separately, and then choosing to add the site's RSS."

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Not So New Posts To Consume

I haven't published a post for THE NOT SO DAILY DUMP since last autumn, so I'm a bit behind on this section. I haven't been writing a lot for GSW lately, so catching up soon-ish shouldn't be too hard. What purpose does this section serve? Well, things get lost in the giant world of the internet. I don't expect people to know about every post I publish, and I certainly don't expect people to spend hours on my blog reading post after post. This is one way to get posts in front of new eyeballs. You, my beautiful reader, can decide what you do from there.

She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy, But Not Really
This was an old post I set out to “refurbish” (aka revisit, spruce up a bit, and re-share for anyone new to my blog) and ended up adding on to. Doubling the post, actually. It's very clear what I've added. I felt like there was a part two that needed to be but didn't want to write another, separate post.

Ruminating Forty: The Becoming of an Iconic Age
This was a post that I had thought about doing for quite a while. I felt like the intersection of turning 40 and having a blog warranted it. I don't know how long I had thought about it, but I wouldn't be surprised if the idea came a year or more in advance. I didn't know exactly what I'd write until I started it last autumn, but it became what it is. I'm not sure if it conquered a lot of new territory, but I feel like it summed up a lot of bread crumbs that I've left in my other posts. Still, if it's the first post of mine you've read, it's a great introduction to me at age 40.

Got Resolve? 2018 Goals Revisited
Setting goals and sharing them with the world is great, but I think that gesture calls for a follow-up. Sure, you didn't ask for one, but maybe you forgot that this is MY blog? I've been on a march of some sort my whole life, but more recently, I've focused my mind on bettering myself and reaching my larger life goals once and for all, come hell or high water, with no one standing in my way to derail me. Are these goals that I share each year everything I'm shooting for? No. What I share is actually a small-but-still-important sample of the bigger picture. They help to keep me headed in what I consider to be the right direction and to be more and more results oriented. Success begets success, sucka.

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Shine That Spotlight, You Crazy Diamond

About a year ago, my wife, Christine, recorded herself singing for a composition by Eric Whitacre. She joined more than 8,000 voices that made up the vocal part of the musical piece. It was published on YouTube November 12, 2018. While you can't hear her specifically, I still think it's a cool thing to be a part of. Plus, space. Here is the description from YouTube:

“Eric Whitacre's "Deep Field: The Impossible Magnitude of our Universe" is a unique film and musical experience inspired by one of the most important scientific discoveries of all time: the Hubble Telescope's Deep Field image.”

Watch the video below or follow this link to the video on YouTube.

This year, Christine has become a brand ambassador for both Zyia and Nuun. Whether or not that means anything to you, she has been working hard to have opportunities like this, and I'm proud of her accomplishments.

If you'd like to find out more about her ambassadorship or follow her running, go to
ChristineSedam.com, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter

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Videos From The Treadmill

I had figured that my next video here would be from Impact Theory, but it's hard to pick just one video to share. I recently started following the Rich Roll Podcast (that's his name) on YouTube, and this episode really spoke to me. It's only the second episode that I've watched, so that helps with the picking issue. The book they talk about in the podcast, The Passion Paradox, may have to go on my long list of “someday, maybe” books. I found the episode to be informative and thoughtful. I love feeding and growing my brain while I'm running on the treadmill. I keep thinking that there has to be some added physical/mental resilience/strengthening benefit to using my brain and body simultaneously in this capacity.

Enjoy the video below now or bookmark it at YouTube for a later date.

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Thank you for your time!

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The R&D Workshop No.10

2019-01-23T14:49:00.000-06:00

I would like to get something out of the way here at the top of the post that pertains to the last Workshop post that I wrote—my morning writing routine. It started out going pretty well, but it didn’t last. I know I kept it going for at least a month, but it was difficult to write in the morning on days I had off from The Place That Pays Me and writing for 15-20 minutes in the morning before going to The Place That Pays Me wasn’t enough to sustain the forward progress I needed to make. If I were picked up by a giant claw from the sky and placed into a completely different life situation, it could work. This is by no means a complaint about my life, but a mere mature and responsible look at what works and what doesn’t and why. We survive, thrive, and succeed by being cognizant of reality and our abilities within it. It’s the only way to figure out how to move forward intelligently.

Where has this left me? While I did try to make this morning writing routine work, I didn’t want to push it. Whatever the routine is, there has to be a certain groove that it falls into. Effort will always need to be made, but if something is going to work, there can’t be that constant uphill battle type of feeling. To me, that’s a sign that something needs to change. Maybe it's the goal. Maybe it's the approach. Luckily, there are many ways to accomplish a task. One thing I know for sure is that reading in the morning before I went to The Place That Pays Me served me well, and I should get back to making that a priority. I'll either need to set more time aside on those mornings or other time during the day in general to accomplish my reading goal for 2019.

A picture taken on a 2009 family vacation in Black Hills, South Dakota. Go where the arrow points, I guess?

Gcal, Time Blocking, Batching—OH MY!

Early last year, I started reading more and watching videos about some different approaches to tackling things. My morning writing approach was, in a sense, me trying to get more writing done by having many mini morning sessions. I thought that this approach could work out and be more efficient for me—the potential was there. I also knew that it went against what some big-name people preach. The same people who are known for writing and researching how people spend time. Still, sometimes it’s good to give an approach a go or you’ll not know for yourself. There are always exceptions.

A couple of these big-name people are Tim Ferriss and Cal Newport. I will not be giving the material the same justice that those two men have. You are better off going straight to the source, if you are interested in the topic beyond this post. What I WILL do is provide some simple explanations of the subject matter and personalize them. Now, if I really want to tell this part of my tale correctly, I should start off with Google Calendar and how I was using it about a year ago.

For many years, I used my Google Calendar (or Gcal) as a reminder to set the garbage out each week and recycling biweekly. My wife and I had relied upon using a paper wall calendar since the time we had started living together. I also used a small paper planner to help me keep track of things and make notes. Ironically, I didn’t pay any attention to the actual days and weeks that it laid out. That system worked for us only because we had the ability to call, text, and send each other emails.

I felt that we would have a much easier time managing our lives if we scheduled things via an e-calendar—the kids are getting older, life is only getting more and more complicated for all of us. I decided then to make better use of the Gcal tool. I knew that it had the potential to transform my time management, productivity, and efficiency. It would be one universally accessible place to manage appointments. I didn’t know everything that it would teach me, but I knew it was a step in the right direction. My wife was somewhat resistant at first, but I think she now sees the value in it, even if she struggles to use it and keep it updated.

When I started dabbling with Gcal use, I only entered the “important things"—appointments, out of the ordinary get togethers, overtime that I was going to work, etc. During the last full week of April 2018, I started using my calendar in an even more purposeful way. I had been absorbing information from Cal Newport and Tim Ferriss about concepts of time management—Time Blocking and Batching, in particular. My Gcal has taken on a much bigger roll since.

Time Blocking is planning your day/week by blocking out time on your calendar for all tasks and activities. How you block and what you do in that block is up to you. You set your schedule while taking into consideration the immovable responsibilities you have. You will quickly start to see how you spend your day and what you prioritize. Blocking out longer sessions of time allows for greater productivity and therefore efficiency—you get more done in the long run and the quality is better. My calendar is literally and sensibly chopped into blocks from the time I wake up until the time I go to bed.

Batching is getting a lot of a similar type of work done in the appropriate block instead of at random times throughout the day/week. Some examples of how I utilize this are creating blocks for writing, music, financial planning and maintenance, errands, family time, exercise, and so on. If I don’t have time within that block to get a particular thing done, then I have to either 1) decide it's more important to attend to and reschedule the next block or 2) it doesn’t get done until the next available and appropriate time block. It does help light a fire under my ass to get things done, but it also plays into something I learned from Cal Newport. I must say that it was a lightbulb moment that I had technically already learned from experience.

Here it is: It takes a person 20 minutes to focus on a project. This is why it felt like I was just getting started on my mini writing sessions, and then I had to quit. This is why it would take me 15-20 minutes to get a good paragraph or two some days. I was spending a lot of time warming up. This also means that every distraction can cause a need to reset and a 20 minute warm up to resume. Get distracted by social media or kids or wife or anything? 20 minutes to reboot and focus. I have experienced this enough times to give this information merit, and it has changed how I approach things. It might not always take 20 minutes, but it depends on the distraction, how long is spent away with the distraction, and how ‘deep’ the work is to begin with. There will always be distractions but knowing that they exist and how to minimize them can produce better results.

It may seem obsessive, but Gcal runs my day. My wife feels more comfortable with it now, but it drove her nuts in the beginning. One of the reasons is because she saw what I was doing as being inflexible. I wasn’t unwilling to be flexible as much as trying to be clear on my objectives, and I felt that I was laying it all out on the calendar—no surprises. I also had every intention to follow through on what I had scheduled and wanted that to be respected. I have no problem with compromise, but I need to know my wife's plans for the week as well to do so. She looks at and uses the calendar sparingly. I use it as my day’s guide. It’s an easy way for her to peer into my future, even if she still chooses to ask me daily.

I’m in a good place with calendaring. It took me a while to become more efficient with it. There can be too much micromanaging. There can be too little guidance as well. I rely a lot on “recurring events,” which carries my schedule over from week to week. I then modify that schedule as necessary. Gcal lives to serve me and my unique life. It allows me to be more realistic with how much time I ACTUALLY have and what my PRIORITIES are in how I spend that time. I’ve learned how to plan and execute better. Those were two benefits that I knew would come along with the practice but didn’t expect to be so fruitful and eye-opening.

"If you don’t have time, you don’t have priorities." —Tim Ferriss

One more thing that this experience has shown me is how powerful the right focus can be. There is always a better or best time to do something. It may be different for everyone, and it may change over time for any one person. Once that appropriate schedule locks into place, it’s likely to make you happier, more productive, and more purposeful in the ways that give your life greater meaning. If and when that changes, notice this and change with it. Life is never stagnant. When is the best time to check emails, to write, to drum, to run, to eat, to do anything? Is it your priority to spend time on social media throughout the day or to tackle a larger project that has greater consequence and reward? It’s up to YOU to decide, but YOU must own that decision. No whining. No excuses.

I have my yearly goals among many other accomplishments that I want to achieve along the way. I know that I’m in more control of my time and my life by the way I’ve chosen to move forward. If you are not deliberate with your time, you may feel as though you have none at all—where did it go? I know where my day, my week, and my year has gone, and I’m proud of how I spent it. Can you say that?

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The R&D Workshop is a recurring feature where I talk candidly about my works of passion and associated things.

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Join me on Facebook!
I've recently started a page for THIS blog, Graham Sedam Writes, where I will be sharing all of my writing related endeavors and stuff.

Thank you for your time!

Did you know that I also have a daily blog, Notes.gs?

Resolutions = Revolutions: 2019 Goals

2019-01-10T08:40:00.001-06:00

I feel like I had a pretty good 2018. I set goals. I experimented with them. I accomplished much. Now that it’s the beginning of 2019, I feel as though I have a clean slate. I have the opportunity to build, maintain, and reframe what’s important to me and where I see the gaps in my ambitions are. Of course, every day is an uphill battle. I am not wealthy nor without the need to work a “day job.” I have a wife and kids, and they have their own needs and desires, which often conflict with my own. Every day requires effort. That’s not to say that some days don’t happen to work out and go smoothly. For the most part, there is no natural smoothness. It takes energy, effort, and a clear understanding of objectives and priorities.

Even though I feel I have a clean slate, I still want to carry over goals or aspects of goals to 2019. I’ll surely re-evaluate as I go, but I need a direction to start in. I learned plenty from last year, some of which I go into in the wrap-up post for my 2018 goals, Got Resolve? 2018 Goals Revisited. As successful as I was last year, I believe that I can make 2X the progress this year. Could I be setting myself up for failure with that thinking? Perhaps, but consider this: I started off purposefully small in January in comparison to where I left off in December 2018. By maintaining my goals starting out in January of 2019, I’ve already increased my potential output for the new year in comparison to last year. I have no intentions at this point to change the 2019 goals I outline below. I’ll let the year inform me.

I want to get to my goals for the year, but first, I wanted to comment on this post’s title. I have never had the intention to reflect a theme for the year within any of my goal post titles, but in a sense, they take on a personality for me. I don’t look to them as a guiding principle or focus, but they do keep in my mind an aspect to the journey I’m on at this point in my life.

I don’t really think of what I do as resolutions, but it’s a popular word that’s used a lot this time of year. A dictionary definition of resolution is “a firm decision to do or not to do something.” Yes, it applies to what I do, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. I think people get wrapped up in the idea of what they think a resolution is supposed to mean rather than doing some self-reflection and making meaningful changes in their lives. I choose to name them my goals. They are things that I want to do already but need a little push and self-accountability to accomplish. The fact that I broadcast these goals to the world reinforces that accountability, and hopefully, provides some support.

A dictionary definition for revolution is “a forcible overthrow of a government or social order, in favor of a new system.” While I’m not in the midst of overthrowing a government, I HAVE been overthrowing a different version of me. We all have the choice to be as we want. Sometimes, those choices are easy and seamless; you may not even notice them. Other times, they are difficult and they may or may not be directed by you. In choosing to do or not do something, you shape your life, and those perpetual choices shape your character and your life’s path. Do I hate the “old me?” Absolutely not. Do I want to be “more” than I have been in the past? Bad habits I want to lessen or end? Are there things I want to accomplish? Things I want to learn? Do I want to be wiser, healthier, stronger, better? I could go on with many, many more examples, but the answer will remain absolutely YES. Resolutions = Revolutions

“To think is easy. To act is hard. But the hardest thing in the world is to act in accordance with your thinking.” ― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

2019 Goals

I’ve divided up my goals here to make it easier to follow what I’m trying to accomplish and how I’m tracking them. Trackability is key, as I’ve written in the past. Some of my goals this year changed from daily to weekly goals. After plenty of thought throughout last year, the conclusion I came to was that trying to accomplish a list of things EVERY DAY isn’t terribly easy. I’ve adapted some of my goals because of this.

Fitbit

My Fitbit and Fitbit App are great at helping me achieve some of my goals. I won’t be tracking these particular goals in Google Keep like I did last year.

I am continuing my goal of at least 30,000 steps per day.

I am also keeping my ultimate goal of 96 ounces of water per day (half of my bodyweight in ounces). During the summer, I crush this water goal easily. During the winter, it’s a little harder to get 96 ounces in due to my thirst not being quite as strong. I know it’s still important to drink 96 ounces of water during the winter, but I also want to give myself realistic improvements to make. Whereas I started last year with the goal of 48 ounces per day, I am starting out this year with 64 ounces per day being my minimum. I have been hitting 64 ounces or more every day so far this year.

Other Physical Goals

Stretching daily has been a great change in my life. I’ve increased my daily stretching minimum to 15 minutes per day. This will not only motivate me to do the normal stretches I do but also to try new ones. I have yet to find myself doing too much stretching. More flexibility, no injury, and no soreness is the end goal.

I am maintaining my karate goal from last year and didn’t feel the need to increase it. In fact, I’ve decreased it. This goal has become a weekly goal to do karate for at least 30 minutes per week. The 40 minute class my son and I take pretty much covers this goal, except the fact that I’ve built up a time debt from last year. I don’t practice outside of class as much as I started out doing last year but enough to keep my memory fresh on what moves we are learning and building upon each week. Throw in the fact that my son is likely to NOT do karate during the summer again, and you’ll see that I still need to put in time outside of class to achieve my goal—just not as much as last year.

I am starting a dedicated exercise goal of 30 minutes per week on upper body. When I set my exercise goal last year, I had no idea what it would turn into. I just knew that I wanted to move more for my health and well-being. While I did continue exercising my whole body when I could through the year, my legs definitely got more of the focus because of my stepping and running. This goal is to remind myself to not forget my upper body. Drumming and other things that I do contribute to my upper body movement, but I’d like to get more traditional exercise incorporated.

Running. I have a run streak (a mile or more a day) that I started on June 18, 2018, and I want to continue that for as long as I can physically run or care to. I’m also on a team with my wife for Run The Year. The idea behind that is to accomplish the year in miles. The goal itself can be different for everyone involved. For some people, 2,019 miles in steps for the year is the accomplishment. My wife and I are splitting those miles and are setting out to achieve them through running. So, my minimum total running miles goal for the year is 1,009.5 miles. We are tracking these through the official Run The Year tracker online.

Music

One area I don’t spend as much time in as I used to and would like to is music. My goal of drumming for 5 minutes daily turned into 10 minutes mid-year and mostly went well. By the end of the year, I had built up some time debt. My drum goal this year is clearing up my time debt from last year. However, I do have a specific yet vague goal to replace it with. My other music goal is to spend time in my studio doing anything musically related for 60 minutes a week. It can be to play drums but only if there is no drum-time debt to be repaid. I loved playing more drums last year as a consequence of my goal, but it was growing ever more present in my mind that I wasn’t doing much else musically. I want to change that this year. The goal as a whole is lofty, I’ll admit.

Reading

I set myself a goal last year to read for 30 minutes a day. I hadn’t thought very deeply about how much or often I read and from exactly what. I knew that I wanted to read from actual books more, but I included any reading within my goal. Going forward, I don’t foresee reading any less from the sources I currently read from. However, I have set myself a fairly ambitious and very clear reading goal to finish 4 books in 2019—an average of one book every three months. I am including the book that I started last autumn, as I didn’t get terribly far into it last year. I have 3 books set aside that I want to read for this goal, and the page number total combined is 621 pages. I have not chosen the 4th book yet.

Writing

The point to my writing goal last year was to encourage me to write daily and to prevent myself from getting Graham Sedam Writes posts done “last minute.” I don’t think the goal really helped a lot with the latter, but it did encourage me to attempt to write more often. I’m taking a different approach with my writing goal this year, if you can even call it a goal in the same sense. I still want to write when I have time and inspiration has struck me, but I can’t expect those micro-moments to carry me through the ambitious schedule I’ve laid out for myself.

Some variables in my writing practices have changed. The introduction in December of my short-form daily blog, Notes.gs, made the idea of writing for 15 minutes a day a non-issue. I don’t want to chisel in stone that I WILL write a post for Notes.gs daily, but that is certainly the aim. I also would like to stick to the schedule I’ve been following for Graham Sedam Writes, my long-form biweekly blog, alternating between sharing new and old (refurbished) posts the majority of the year. All of that will require much effort and is a goal and an accomplishment in itself. I will be writing more on this subject in an upcoming "R&D Workshop" post.
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I hope you found my post on my 2019 goals worthwhile, and maybe, it has even inspired you to try something different or to take another look at things in your life. What have you got to lose by attempting one small change?

I’ll be writing more about my 2019 goals throughout the year, but if you’d like to read some more posts directly related to resolutions and goals that I’ve written in the past, I have linked them below.

Not So New Resolutions For The New Year

Got Resolve? A New Year's Beginning

Got Resolve? 2018 Goals Dissected This post explains my system a little more, including what is and how I handle "time debt."

Got Resolve? 2018 Goals Revisited Year end wrap-up.

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Got Resolve? 2018 Goals Revisited

2018-12-13T08:28:00.000-06:00

I’ve been thinking about this post off and on throughout the year, and considering how late in the year it is, I figured that I should get to writing one if it was going to happen at all. Of course, I'm talking about an official revisit to my 2018 goals, the ones I discussed at the beginning of the year in the post, “Got Resolve? 2018 Goals Dissected.” I’m glad that I waited to write up a draft. Looking at the notes I made throughout the year is great, and some may sneak their way into this post, but many of them feel incomplete. Now that I've gone almost a full year working to achieve these goals, I feel like I have a much better handle on what I've gained, what they taught me, and how I can build upon that next year.

Did I achieve my goals? Yes—absolutely. Although, there needs to be an asterisk added to that “yes” for the aid of a footnote. I was doing really well tackling my goals as of June, and I had gotten into a great routine to foster that momentum. However, a few things happened that caused the second half of the year to become quite a different beast than the first half. 1) My wife challenged herself to run a marathon after winning an entry. 2) My son did track during the summer instead of karate, which basically gave me less motivation or incentive to keep up with the practice. 3) I modified my original goals by increasing some of their minimum daily times and by adding more goals.

Why would I make my goals harder to achieve by adding more goals let alone increasing the minimum daily times? Well, quite frankly, I felt that if I were easily achieving my goals, then they should be harder. If I wasn't challenging myself, what was the point? How would I know my limits or what was an actual priority in the first place? That's not to say that at their core the goals were meaningless because I could actually accomplish them. Quite the opposite: They were meaningful enough to push further on with them. But, that was this year, next year may be different. I don't want to feel like I can't modify and evolve throughout the year and that I'm stuck in November with what I decided on in January. That’s not helpful to the big picture. I’m not going to be the same person six months later. I don’t necessarily want to be.

I do want to be flexible and allow myself to capitalize on the growth that I've had. I think that growth can easily be seen this year with the daily goals I've set in regards to physical health, which were: 5 minutes of stretching, 5 minutes of karate, 5 minutes of traditional exercise, 5 minutes of drumming, and 48 ounces of water. While some of those goals played a role more than for the sake of physical fitness, one can't deny that they all contribute to physical health by the mere nature of the activity. There's no doubt that drumming and karate are skills in and of themselves and that I wanted to learn a new skill in karate (with my eldest son) and to push myself further in an old skill, drumming.

At the midway point in the year, I increased all of those goals I just mentioned—except karate—to 10 minutes daily. I kept karate at 5 minutes because that is what the teacher wants the kids to do daily, and if I had to choose one, that is the goal that would get cut. I did get behind and grow a time deficit for karate, but I’m slowly making that up as my son and I are attending weekday classes again. I doubt the time debt that I’ve built up for karate will be worked down to zero by the end of the year, but that is certainly the goal if it becomes more doable.

The rest of those physical health goals were increased to 10 minutes daily because that was more in line with what I was achieving. I was actually doing better than 10 minutes for each of those goals before June, but I didn’t want to make it impossible or too difficult either. I still had/have the mind frame that I want to make it so easy that it motivates me to do them in the first place, not intimidate me, especially when I get behind. I am a little behind on drumming. Among other reasons, it’s in part due to not being able to do that activity anywhere—I need my kit. I’m not going to make excuses, but there is still an explanation. On the other hand, running has become a priority since I’ve started a run streak. To count as an official run streak, it has to be a mile or more, so that is easily at least an average of 10 minutes per day when one considers I run more than a mile some days.

While all of these daily goals contribute to my overall well-being, and they do work together to have maximum gain, stretching and water intake have probably been the most noticeable improvements. Though I have noticed improvements in all of the areas my goals cover, stretching and water gets to the core of everyday well-being. I won't go on in length about the benefits and whys, but I can tell if my water intake has been lower over a period of time, or if I didn't stretch for a day or two. Keep in mind that I've been great about water consumption and stretching daily, but it can be easy to let the day(s) get away from me now and then. In the past, I would put up with aches and tightness and maybe medicate with ibuprofen. Now, I recognize it as not stretching enough. Same with water intake—I can sense the signs that I need to drink much more easily.

The last two official goals from my start in January of 2018 are reading and writing. I never changed the daily minimum times for these two goals because what they were seemed pretty reasonable. I toyed with what they actually meant throughout the year, maybe more of a premonition of how I could redefine or give more detail to them next year, but for the most part, I stuck to the basics.

Reading anything throughout the day for a minimum of 30 minutes was easy. There are a lot of various subjects and mediums to purvey. And, no, scrolling Facebook doesn’t count. However, my reading goal felt very rudderless and that has bothered me. I’ve read out of books, blogs, newsletters, articles, etc. I don’t have a problem with that, but I do want to feel like I’m tackling a deficiency in my life when I set myself a goal. I will read from those various sources regardless of whether I have a minimum time to fill; I wasn't challenging myself. So, next year, I will have a reading goal, and it will be approached differently.

Writing for 15 minutes daily wasn't as easy as I thought it'd be, and I've tried different approaches to help achieve that goal. It's not for the lack of inspiration or outlets, but mostly that it's hard to only write for 15 minutes or feel like starting is even worth the effort. Sometimes it takes that long to get the brain-machine loosened up and chugging in a state of flow. If you take into consideration the outside distractions I may run up against every single day, it makes the process even harder. Like I wrote in a prior post, I bought a laptop and backpack to make my writing more mobile without needing to do it on a phone. That has helped, but it’s not always convenient or possible to just go off and write as I wish. So, I've found that it is just plain easier (and much more efficient) to work with larger chunks of time. This should give you a hint about how the writing goal/practice will evolve next year.

I’ve recently started a new site called Notes.gs, and that will certainly help me achieve some type of daily writing minimum. I also journal occasionally, not as much as I’d like, and that counts toward my time as well. I will talk about my journaling in another post that is more appropriate, but the idea is that it’s things I write down for me and not for other people to read. It's not terribly deep and personal, it just has a different purpose. I’m also a long-time lyricist, though, it’s been a while since I've flexed that particular muscle. When/if that need or inspiration arises, lyrics are another outlet for my writing. My blog, Graham Sedam Writes, does take the largest chunk of my writing time. I’d love to expand my writing into other areas, but that’s pie-in-the-sky thinking as of now. Needless to say, I’ve got ample excuses to write. How I shape my goal and execute it will determine how fruitful the outcome is.

I mentioned adding goals in the middle of the year, but what are those? After I started using a Fitbit, I added the goal of 30,000 steps minimum per day. Soon after, I started my run streak, so that meant running at least 1 mile each day. Even though I've already made reflecting upon what I'm grateful for a habit, though not daily, I added it to my daily checklist to reinforce the habit. I had a similar thought process when I added writing in my "journal." I may not add an entry daily, but I have created a reminder.
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Other than the more obvious benefits I gained this year, what other dividends did I yield?

One thing leads to another, as they say. This was certainly the case with my goals. An arbitrary and vague goal of 5 minutes of exercise a day lead me to becoming a 5k runner with a run streak. Every one of my goals has helped me ask myself general questions such as: Can I do better? What more can I do? What’s important to me? What’s realistic? This general thinking gives rise to more detailed thinking and has leaked into other areas of my life.

I have achieved a greater sense of being able to accomplish just about anything if I have the focus and drive to do it. I could've replaced any goal on my list with something else equivalent, and my success rate would've been the same so long as it was something I was motivated to do. That's incredibly inspiring. It’s a confidence builder, and that can drastically change one’s attitude, perspective, and relationships.

Whenever I got behind on time or thought about how I wasn’t where I wanted to be, it was helpful to remind myself about what I had accomplished thus far and where I was at a year prior. Moments like those kept me going and still do. Forward progress is all one can realistically ask for. Every day, every year is a chance at moving in the direction that I want to.

Soon, it will be a new year and along with it a refreshed outlook on my goals. I can only imagine the transformative essence it holds.

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THE NOT SO DAILY DUMP #18

2018-11-29T08:45:00.001-06:00

Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse, Betel…

Almost a month ago, last night if you take into consideration when I wrote this particular section of 'The Dump,' my family and I watched the movie, Beetlejuice. It was one of the Halloween gifts we gave to our kids, and being only a few days after Halloween, we felt it was appropriate to watch sooner as opposed to later. I had seen the movie many years ago when I was a kid, but it had been so long that I was basically watching it for the first time. It was so fresh to me that I'm still debating whether I actually had seen it before or not.

My first thought after finishing the movie was that I had remembered the character, Beetlejuice, being in more of the movie. The beginning of the movie was completely foreign. It's amazing how much we forget. I thought the idea of the Maitlands having to stay in the house for 125 years was odd. Why 125 years? It seemed meaningless; maybe I missed something. I also ended up having a lot of questions, not necessarily of the events within the film itself, but about what would happen after those events. Surely, the Maitlands would outlast the Deetzes, or would the house stay in the family and would Lydia then raise a family there?

According to the internet, a Beetlejuice 2 movie has been something that everyone involved with the first one has been trying to make happen for almost three decades. The idea behind it has changed a lot, too. The most recent idea is a “where are they now 25 years later” type of movie. Maybe that would answer some of my questions. Would the Maitlands age or would that not be included? If they don't, how will they explain that? So many questions! ANGUISH

My wife mentioned that she's surprised that Beetlejuice hasn't been remade. Considering the way Hollywood has been operating, I suppose I am, too. However, maybe the movie isn't old enough yet, and it'll be redone sometime within the next twenty years; this year is the movie's 30th anniversary, by the way. Maybe, it has to do with the idea that there has been this long-awaited sequel and a remake would just muck things up. The people involved with putting on the original have been quoted about the movie, and they seem pretty straight forward on their opinions of being wary of NOT doing a sequel properly. After all, Beetlejuice is a much beloved classic. Also, the film has kept with the times really well and didn't feel dated to me—it's such an odd mixing of culture and aesthetics already—why remake it?

Last thing, I should mention this to the parents out there: PG in the 80s is not the same as it is now. No nudity, a little “language,” and maybe some awkwardness (sexually or otherwise) included.

Relive your youth or something you watched this Halloween, perhaps, or acquaint yourself with a classic. I hope you enjoy "9 Things You (Probably) Didn't Know About Beetlejuice!" (Hey! Would you rather just go to YouTube? Here you go, buddy, click this link.)

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New Posts To Consume

Draze Force: Analog Meets 8-Bit
This post was the first of its kind for my blog. It's not a review or a meandering thought cloud. What it seems to be is a bit of a biography, though not a complete one, on Draze Force, the musical moniker for Nick Morris. The post is also part interview, part reflection on my experience with Draze Force, and part promotion of his newest release, III. The post is sure to interest any music lover or relate with any musician.

The Black River Players
This post was part review, part rambling about related things as all of my book posts tend to be. But, once I get the post rolling, I hammer out the aspects of the book that really stood out to me and that I felt shined. I encourage you to give the post a read and let me convince you that J. Thomas Richards’ book, The Black River Players, is the next one you should read. If not you, would someone you know love it as a gift?

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All Aboard! Next Stop, Halloween

My family and I tried something new this year—a fall color train ride. What the heck is that? Good question. Basically, it's a train ride through a wooded area during the autumn when leaves are turning. The price wasn't too bad, and it was an experience we all enjoyed. I can perceive us doing it again in the future, although, I can also see us looking around at different trains to change up the experience a bit. The Toddler is more into trains than ANYONE I've ever known. Heck, he’s into anything with wheels but especially trains.

When we initially got on, we had to find seats in the passenger car. Being our first fall color train ride, we thought we were settling in for the ninety-minute ride, looking out of the windows surrounding us the whole way. Maybe other train rides are like that, but this one allowed us to wander from car to car, which was an experience in itself. We were able to stand and look out from the end of the train and see the back of the burly engine as we chugged out forty-five minutes into the future. We were able to watch as the engine uncoupled, switched tracks, and went by as it traveled to recouple up to the other side of the train to take us back to our starting point for another forty-five minutes. This left the view at the end of the last car unobstructed, and we spent most of the ride back looking from this point.

One man in particular who worked for the attraction was incredibly knowledgeable and would tell us all kinds of interesting facts and stories related to the train and its history; the cars were old. That was how our fall color ride started out, actually, with him addressing the whole group in the passenger car. Do I remember any of it? Can’t say I do, but it was interesting. During the ride, he helped keep my two oldest kids occupied with riddles and facts and magic tricks. I imagine the amount of kids that come through the attraction and the likelihood that he has grandkids helped him to be so entertaining. The scenery was enjoyable to look at, but it wasn’t breathtaking or out of the ordinary for what we’re used to seeing, but then again, it wasn’t a very colorful autumn. The train itself was the best part.

There were many great photos taken by Christine Sedam. It was hard to choose which ones to share.
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Also, it should be noted that our theme this year for Halloween was Hometown Heroes. We dressed up as actual people we know, friends and neighbors.

I went as sewer and drain specialist, Ben Smith, from Marvel Sewer and Drain. Ben's wife was in on it from the start and sneakily swiped a shirt from Ben's work wardrobe. We already had their signature orange stocking cap. It's kind of funny that Ben gave me that cap on Halloween in 2017, and as we walked home that night, my wife suggested I dress up as Ben the following Halloween. Queue montage.

My wife, Christine, went as our neighbor, Perry the Postal Worker. He even loaned her one of his uniforms and a postal bag. The bag came in handy with the large cache of candy we accumulated. It was terrible for her shoulder, though. Yes, her facial hair is make-up, but so is mine.

My daughter went as her teacher, mimicking the teacher's style as best she could. My sons went as firefighters, depicting a neighbor and an ex-teacher of my wife's. Our red, plastic wagon was converted into a fire truck—with working lights—by my wife.

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Shine That Spotlight, You Crazy Diamond

I have published at least a few posts regarding the books of Tim Kress, but I have yet to share them with you in a Spotlight. So, here we are. Tim has two books under his proverbial belt, both fiction. Rather than reinvent the wheel, here’s what I wrote about them in a previous post:

Early Mourning is a hero's journey about a man going through perils and loss only to rise above and triumph. The world and realities he is introduced to become more and more surreal and foreign to anything he's ever known. A natural, intellectual, science-driven form of magic literally opens doors to these worlds and drives the story. Great characters. Great story. Intelligent read. You won't look at the world the same way.

And the official back-of-the-book description:

"After losing his job as a librarian under mysterious circumstances, Early's life takes a turn for the strange. A friend he hasn't seen for over a decade shows up at Early's girlfriend's apartment, with a mute giant in tow, and proceeds to show Early and his girlfriend magical wonders. Soon Early's girlfriend is missing, and he must follow his odd friend on a journey of discovery and dread that will show him shadowed roads, ancient secrets and new worlds."

The Wurly Burly Boy Has A Boring Day is a children's book about a boy trying to find ways to relieve his boredom. What he doesn't realize is that his day is actually spent doing a lot of wonderful things. Intricate, vivid, and unique illustrations by the author accompany the story throughout, adding greatly to the experience of this book.

And the official back-of-the-book description:

"The Wurly Burly Boy Has A Boring Day is a whimsical tale about a lonely little boy doing his best to put an end to his chronic boredom. Filled with vivid illustrations of flying saucers, megadogs and strange storytelling bugs, this book is a great read for the child in us all."

Go to Tim's website, TimKressFiction.Blogspot.com, to find additional information about his books, where you can find him on the web, and his visual arts. While you're there, you can check out his blog. You can also go to Tim's author page at Amazon!

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Videos From The Treadmill

For those who know me most, it will come as no surprise for me to say that I love space and science. I’ve spent plenty of time in the past reading and watching programing on tv about space, science, and well, the science of space (think quantum physics, astrophysics, etc). There was once a time where I’m pretty sure there wasn’t a single program that ANY channel had broadcast within ten years that I hadn’t watched at least once. It’s been awhile since I’ve indulged in this obsession as I once did, but the interest is still there. I’ve turned to passions elsewhere and being a part of a young family makes a person have to be very choosy with how they spend their time.

This short video is essentially a commercial for NASA, but I enjoyed watching it. Yes, that’s Mike Rowe narrating, and thank you, Tim Kress, for the share. (Direct link)

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Ruminating Forty: The Becoming Of An Iconic Age

2018-11-08T08:27:00.002-06:00

This year, this month actually, I'm turning forty. I'll try to spare you the clichés and trappings of a post about turning forty, but chances are I'll fail at that. Why? Because there's something universal to stereotypes and clichés. There's a truth to them that we may not want to admit. There's a reason they exist. Turning forty and our feelings about it are no exception.

I could also go on at great lengths talking about a lot of different things related to my life up until turning forty and where I’m at in life now and where I see myself going. Instead, I felt it best to highlight a few different things that I’ve thought about most in regards to this decade milestone. How has age influenced my decisions and my outlook the most?

I don't believe that I went through or am going through a midlife crisis. To some extent, I feel like I've already gone through plenty of internal life crises. In the least, we all have micro life crises along the way, some are bigger and more impactful. We mostly recover from them. However, I do feel as though a certain momentum has taken over and accelerated throughout my thirties. It is not a panic or overblown worry but a very real realization that I've probably hit the halfway mark if I'm lucky enough to live until eighty.

So, here I sit looking back at the first half of my life and forward to the second half. How could this not have a profound meaning to and an effect upon an individual? Why shouldn't it be an important time to do the ultimate “gut check.” How do I think my life has gone so far? How can I use that information for a better present and future? What will I want to be thinking when I'm at the end, and what will I have wished that I would have or would not have done? I know how the first forty years went. What do I want the next forty to look like?

I feel as though I have more choice and ability to pursue how I want to live the second forty. Part of that is due to the increased opportunities that have come along with technology and the changes in culture. Do I want to release music, a book, a blog, a vlog, a podcast or pursue any, many other things? Our world now allows for so much more opportunity than was available when I was twenty. It’s incredibly unreal how different it is now. Sure, maybe you don’t want to do any of those things that I listed, but their equivalents are out there within the things you like to do. Opportunity is out there for the taking. It’s more about how much drive and hard work you are willing to put into your life than it was twenty or forty years ago. It will always be about hard work and talent, but the world of now has so many advantages that once never existed. It certainly overwhelms me at times, but excites me nonetheless!

As unfocused as I may feel at times due to all of the things that I want to accomplish, I ultimately know what I want out of life—the direction, its destination, and the gooey middle—and I understand the hard work and perseverance it takes to get “there.” I know that if the journey itself is not exciting and fulfilling, then the end result will be unhappiness and wasted opportunity. I have to love the work. I understand the slow roll of time and the importance of patience in the long run. I understand that every day must be lived to the fullest with great intent in order to let that patience stretch out and have legs. Patience does not equal inactivity. I spent plenty but not all of my first forty inactive and not creating opportunity; I was along for the ride, mostly. I don’t live with regret in those regards as much as I now have a different mind frame going into my second forty. I am making the choice to live with more purpose.

Regardless of my current life circumstances, I would be thinking these thoughts. In fact, I'm not the type of person who needs to turn forty to think about these things. Forty merely amplifies them for me. I'm sure that fifty will have a similar impact, though probably not identical. These thoughts have slowly increased, a little bit at twenty, a little more at thirty, and then so on exponentially through my thirties up until now. I mentioned in another post that I liken my life right now to a GPS—always recalculating. So, really, I’ve been doing that all along.

I’m the type of person that has always been more introverted than extroverted. I believe that the introverted personality type is more likely to take stock of themselves regularly, methodically, deeply. Being deep in thought in the quiet of a space is comforting to me but also necessary for me to refuel and survive the outside world. Us introverts NEED time to ourselves no matter what that alone-time activity is. This blog is many things to me, but the mere fact that I’m sitting here typing out my thoughts only drives my point home by its example.
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As I've said many times, getting married and having kids greatly changed my life, as it should. My family situation no doubt plays a large part within my plans and the ability I have to execute those plans. My family IS a part of those plans. Of course, a family adds to the difficulties of life in general. But, that difficulty in itself is a chance to rise and be better, and once that challenge is tackled, you're better able to handle other challenges that come along. Deciding to make the change to become a part of a family unit has made me better in every way. To live and suffer and strive for my family is to be a part of something extremely meaningful to me, something bigger than myself. I was in my mid-thirties when I got married and became a step-dad. I consider that a part of my transition to the second half of my life, my second forty. They will be with me and be my family until I die.

I don't just want to be better for my family, though. Yes, they are definitely my number one priority, but I'm also striving in this life for me, and there's nothing wrong with that. I've been trying to get better and excel at things that are both good for my mind and body, for the things I want to pursue professionally, hobby-ally, AND for my family. It may be learning new things, getting better at how I use my time, adding skills, establishing habits, and more. A “book” to write, surely, but those words will likely find their way into other blog posts eventually, if not here.

What it comes down to is this: In what direction do I want to go, because that is in the direction I need to grow. Who do I want to be, because that is the me I need to perceive. Rhymes are good for remembering things, and they sound more profound.

I have a wife and children who need and deserve me to be the best that I can be. It is my job to help them to become their best selves. I want to be someone they look up to and admire, someone that influences them for the better, someone that leaves a beautiful mark upon their lives, not a scar. Health is one way that I am better because of my family, but also because of my looking forward beyond forty and wanting to achieve my view of personal success along the way.

I used to be a smoker. It makes me incredibly happy and proud to be able to call myself a former smoker. Starting was certainly one of the biggest mistakes of my life, but it also taught me a lot along the way; it might as well, right? My wife and kids were the catalyst I needed to quit for good. I had “tried” for years. Despite what you may think, my wife didn't give me an ultimatum. The moment we started dating, I stopped. I didn't want it to be something that prevented a relationship with her. I didn't want to make it acceptable within the family I was joining. I didn't want to set that example. I didn't want to smoke anymore and the act of smoking was starting to take a greater toll upon my body. I was more than ready to be done.

Five years later, present day, my wife and I run every day and run races. I started a run streak this summer and am still going strong. I stretch daily and go to a chiropractor; it turns out my alignment was bad, which would explain years of soreness and some of those headaches. I try to play drums and strength train as much as I can. I do karate with my eldest son. I drink A LOT of water. I went from not drinking water to drinking half of my body weight in ounces or more each day. Food has been the toughest to overcome, but every year is a little better.

My life has changed a lot in the last five years and a lot in this year alone. I went from being a smoker who was out of breath walking a flight of stairs to running a mile at minimum every day. I want to be an old man that's in shape, running races, and kicking ass in every way. I can say with complete certainty that I will never smoke a cigarette again, ever. Besides, I have developed a strong disgust of cigarette smoke, and it makes me feel sick.
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Turning forty has been a “line in the sand” type of marker for another aspect of my wife and my decision making—family planning. Ever since we got married, I've told her that my stance was that I wanted to be done with creating new life at forty. Simple math will tell you that a forty-year-old will be fifty-eight when that child is eighteen, roughly speaking. More so, I would like my kids to be out of high school when I turn sixty. So, forty was and is our “do it or don't” timeframe.

We are currently working on the “do it” part. We've been delayed due to my wife's marathon training and race. She never planned on running a marathon this year, but she won the entry. She's been in her best running shape this year—maybe the best shape in her life, ever—and being pregnant and having a kid would certainly set her back a bit. This was logically a marathon year for my wife. We decided to “reconvene” after her marathon, and we will continue to try for another kid beyond the day I turn forty, if necessary, but how much longer I'm not sure. If for whatever reason my wife doesn't get pregnant before I turn forty-one, we'll revisit our plan. We'd love to balance our family out with another girl—our first together.

When the kids DO get out of high school, what do I want those Golden Years to look like? In a lot of ways, though not completely, forty is the starting point to how that time in my life will manifest itself. I could wake up on my sixtieth birthday and decide to be healthy and in shape—better late than never, I suppose—but starting down the path of better health at forty will make a much bigger difference with much bigger gains. I’d much rather feel and capitalize on the benefits of health now and onward.

Retirement is another aspect of turning sixty. Sure, I don’t necessarily plan to be retired at sixty, but whatever that age ends up being will at least be much closer. Thinking about my hopes for that period of time now, and then setting events into motion along the way, will help me to achieve the future life that I want. And, as good as the job that I have now is, I don’t really want to work there until I can’t work anymore.

I have ideas for specific businesses, ventures, and freelance type stuff that I would love to entertain, pursue, and dabble in before it’s too late. I don’t want to regret not trying or have to think about what could have been. I have no doubts that there will be more failures to come and that I’ll have to continue to prioritize what gets my attention. Maybe that prioritization will mean that some or all of those ideas are abandoned without pursuit. As long as I know that I’ve made the effort and that I’ve done the best that I could do in life, I’ll have no choice but to accept the outcome. Regardless of my achievements and successes, my life will be and will have been better than otherwise because of the effort, because I tried. Very much on purpose, the lives of my wife and kids will be better as well.

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The Black River Players

2018-10-24T08:57:00.000-05:00

I'll admit that when I first started reading J. Thomas Richard's noir-style novel, The Black River Players, my brain was a little resistant. That notion sounds worse than it was, but that seems to be the best way for me to describe it. With a little more explanation, maybe you'll understand. It's a great book, so don't stop reading here, and please, buy a copy and support a talented writer who is self-published.

What you must first understand is that I was coming out of reading an entirely different book in every sense of the word “entirely.” The book I had finished reading, Justinian's Flea: Plague, Empire, and the Birth of Europe, is a text based upon gathered information that is then laid out and explained in a comprehensive way. I enjoyed that book for the knowledge that I gained, and I wrote a post about my experience with it. That book contributed to an even greater understanding I now have of the human race’s historical background. The text in Justinian's Flea and the way in which it was delivered is VERY different than in The Black River Players. My brain had to adjust.

Luckily, my adjustment period only took about a chapter or so before I was immersed within the tale weaved by Mr. Richards. Also, when I started reading this book, I was starting to use my treadmill more and thought it was a good idea to read and walk at the same time. Maybe that contributed to the difficulty in transitioning. It wasn't a bad idea, as I do pace at times when I read, but ultimately, I decided combining these two activities, walking on a treadmill and reading from books, wasn't for me. From there, I proceeded to read The Black River Players in the morning before I went to work.

So, what do I have to say about the book beyond liking it?

It felt very modern and very real. The whole story felt like it could have been an account from a town next door, albeit dramatized for the sake of a good story, considering the meth plague is a current issue throughout the country—Small Town, USA is no exception. The characters were well thought out, diverse in many ways, and complete in their individual personalities. The character development alone should compel you to read this book. Is the story driven by the characters or vice versa? It can be hard to tell which drove which, and I think that speaks volumes about Richards’ creativity and natural ability to tell a compelling story.

While some characters are harder than others to give the benefit of doubt to or feel sympathy for, I thoroughly enjoyed how J (or James as I know him) made nearly all of the inhabitants of his book all the more real by making their lives, their decisions more complex than another author might have. It’s easy to overlook how someone came to who they are now or to what drives them daily. We like to label someone who does “Activity X” as bad and someone who has “Job Y” as good. If only life were that simple. We are a mix of good and bad. What are the motives behind what we do? What lines are we tip-toeing upon? To tell this story is to tell a story of angst, of want, but also one of hope. Within The Black River Players, there always seemed to be enough backstory, enough details present to get a good feel of the characters and to understand their choices.

I found the book to flow really well. The words were easy to digest as they came, and I found myself moving through the book faster than I had previously imagined I would. I actually finished reading it in June of this year (2018) despite publishing a post about it in October. My schedule and how I fit reading books into that schedule is the only reason why it took me until June to read. However, don’t get me wrong. It’s not elementary at all. Its language and subject matter alone are for the more mature. What I’m saying is that, regardless of whether you are an avid reader or a casual one, it’s a book that will leave you intellectually satisfied, yet not overwhelmed.

The voice of the book has a noir-type feel but also has a gritty, seedy vibe to it, which lends well to the details of the story laid out. I fully accept that I may be reading into the voice of the book a bit. Sometimes when I read a book, the voice in my head is me reading the words plainly but with some inflection. Sometimes, it is more theatrical. When I read to my kids, I essentially make unique voices for each character and give them personality, even the narrator has some flair at times. When I read The Black River Players, I did so in a gritty, noir-style speak. I have the pleasure of knowing the author, so it was the sound of his voice that I used as a starting point to then layer the grit and the noir.

I like the way that the book is laid out. There are three main parts to the book and chapters within those. Within each chapter, the scenes are broken up with clear, visual breaks in text. I liked how that affected my relationship with the story. Maybe it's all in my head, but I felt like it helped to move the story along at a more excited-but-not-frantic pace. I think I can best relate this technique of storytelling with methods used in film (television/movies).

In film, the director makes decisions that ultimately decide how an audience digests and, therefore, perceives a story. Decisions on how the scenes are spliced together along with their respective lengths and other stimuli like music choice can have a great impact upon how the end product feels or the mood it produces within a person. Everyone is different and results won’t always be the exact same. Such is art. Of course, books are not that different from film in that they have similar elements. They both tell a story. However, film and books are quite different in HOW they are able to tell a story.

With The Black River Players, I felt that James introduced some of the same feel and puppeteering as can be achieved with film. I liked that. To me, it felt more easily adaptable to film, as if he wrote out what he was watching in his mind’s eye, splicing scenes in a particular order to give the overall effect that he wanted, to tell the story in the most riveting way that he could.

I love how the story feels both complete and buttoned up while also leaving plenty of open-ended questions. It could be an opening for a sequel, and I would understand the desire to reopen the lives of these players. However, I think many great stories and their authors know that some things are best left unknown or wondered about. It is this wandering of the imagination that keeps a good story alive long after the last scene or page is completed; It's definitely one of the reasons why LOST continues to be my all-time favorite TV show. If Mr. Richards decided to write a sequel, I wouldn't complain. In fact, I’d be very interested to see how he went about it. What new players would come to the table? What events would the old players be caught up in to warrant their return?

I’m not one who rereads books. I’m always ready to move on to the next one. There are so many I haven't read, and let’s be honest, I don’t get through them terribly quickly. So keep this in mind: I can see myself reading The Black River Players again.

You can find J. Thomas Richards on Twitter @loosemeatnoose.

Whether it's a paperback or the Kindle version, you can purchase the book at Amazon. Please write a review! From the book description:

"Homicide detective William Wolfe thought Black River, Iowa, was in his rearview mirror when he tossed his suitcase in his trunk and headed out onto Route 13. Now, after more than a decade, Wolfe returns to help care for his ailing mother, but the road back has some dangerous curves. He soon discovers his birthplace dying from the meth plague. The bucolic ideal and old friends have been nightmarishly transformed. Not immune from his own addictions, he confronts the violent forces bringing disease, death, and disorder to those caught in the middle."

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THE NOT SO DAILY DUMP #17

2018-10-11T08:15:00.001-05:00

Arrested, Again

In TNSDD #8, I featured the show, Arrested Development. I wrote up a very small bit about my feelings on Season 4. I included a video, of course. In this issue, I’ve decided to bring this show up again as my wife and I watched Season 5 in the latter half of this past summer.

To start off with, in general, I liked Season 5 more than I liked 4. It felt more akin to the first three seasons. I know that there were issues getting the whole cast together to film during Season 4, and that seemed to have had a greater affect on how the show turned out, greater than they probably expected. Maybe it was in part due to writing that didn’t live up to prior seasons. I’m sure it’s an all-of-the-above type of explanation. Season 4 was still good but as in the same way that there’s no such thing as bad pizza, as the saying goes. Having Arrested Development is better than NOT having it, mostly.

I would’ve liked to have watched Season 5 more binge-fully. Now that most people, including my wife and I, are used to being able to consume seasons of shows more quickly, it’s harder to enjoy a show when waiting a week or more to see the next episode. Not all shows are like this but many are. I believe part of the reasoning for that phenomena comes from the ability to have a show’s details at the forefront of one’s mind—the fresher the better. I don’t think it’s an instant gratification thing as much as someone else might make it out to be. I’m sure in some instances it is. Normally, in the past, my wife and I would work on a show throughout the week. As has been the case more so lately, we were able to watch an episode a week at best for the first half of the season. The show felt somewhat foreign each time we started up a new episode. Too much time between episodes interrupted our flow. Towards the end, we stayed up a little later than we would have preferred to be able to finish the season more quickly.

A little over a month ago, a friend told me about an alternate way to watch Season 4 called Arrested Development Season 4 Remix: Fateful Consequences. The point was to make the season better, more enjoyable. I’ve looked into it a little and, while the original cut of Season 4 is findable on Netflix, it is buried a bit. I’m not going to say much more about the remix, as you can find many articles posted about it, but from what I have read, the reaction to it has been mixed. The remix took fifteen episodes and turned them into twenty-two shorter episodes that are more chronologically sensible and has some new Ron Howard narration. Will I watch it? That’s not very likely as I HAVE already seen Season 4 and, quite frankly, there’s plenty of other shit to watch. Maybe someday.

Here’s a snippet from Season 5 that’s well worth the watch. Is it a spoiler? I suppose any clip would be, but this one not so much. (If you need a route to the video on YouTube, give this link a shot.)

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New Posts To Consume

R&D No.7 | R&D No.8 | R&D No.9

Since my last ‘New Posts’ update, I have written and published three instances of The R&D Workshop. These three posts are a shift in my approach to this blog feature. What does that mean, exactly? Well, the best way to understand would be to familiarize yourself with my progress from No.1 onward. The subject matter is similar, though not exact, but the approach is quite different—from my perspective, at least. I explain myself better and with more detail in No.7.

So far, I’ve mostly written about my work in blogging/writing. I hope to expand this to other areas once I’m able to work on those other areas beyond blogging, like music or secret projects with cool code names that I could at least mention from time to time. At the end of these new Workshop posts and with those going forward, I’ve added a line that gives a quick explanation of the feature's purpose: “The R&D Workshop is a recurring feature where I talk candidly about my works of passion and associated things.”

Interesting little tidbit: The R&D Workshop No.9 was my blogs' 100th post!

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Recently, On Social

Here’s a new section to TNSDD that I’ve thought about doing for a while now. The title should be read with the same voice and inflection as one who would say a similar thing before the start to a TV show, you know, when the show is trying to get you back up to speed for the episode you're about to watch. This is how I am. This is my brain. Welcome.

I’ve been having more fun on Instagram lately. You can follow me @grrrahamalot. Though, I have been thinking about changing my @... But, that could possibly be a part of a larger shift in my @’s across other social channels. Pointless thoughts, I’m sure. WE SHALL SEE.

Go to my Instagram if you don’t understand how or why this picture came about. There's a succession of photos that built up to it. Will there be more? Probably. Nothing is really planned out. They come randomly and sporadically. Here's the caption I wrote for the picture.

"I told them that their "grotto party" was NOT going to work out. It's too cold, too cloudy. They went ahead with their big plans anyway and no guests showed up. Maybe next time they'll listen to me."

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Shine That Spotlight, You Crazy Diamond

Once again, I’m sharing with you someone that I’ve already Spotlighted in TNSDD #8 and #12. With good reason, though! Brian Gallagher has a book, his first, that was published last month. The full title is Doing Time in Hollywood: The Chronicles of a Movie Journalist by Day, Screenwriter by Night and His Quest for a Happy Medium in the Age of Outrage.

I was going to strongly suggest that you go and read the meaty book description on Amazon, the same that engulfs the back of the book, and then I was going to write up a short synopsis about my impression of the book here. Considering I’ve just begun reading it, how much do I even know? Well, I do know that Brian tells a good story, and I do have experience reading what he has written in the past. I’m truly enjoying the book so far. But back to that meaty description…

“With every Hollywood endeavor, whether it be a big-budget blockbuster, or an up and coming indie, there are hundreds of people involved that help bring it to life… but no one is treated worse than the writer. Just kidding… the only people treated worse are the journalists and critics assigned to cover it all. Kidding aside, there aren’t many who are crazy/stupid enough to try and do both at the same time. Except for Brian Gallagher.

For the past 10 years, he has lived in Los Angeles (by way of Minnesota), covering all facets of the entertainment world by day, while then turning around and trying to write his own screenplays and TV pilots by night. While the “day job” often included unglamorous tasks such as writing daily news stories at a breakneck pace, it could also include interviews with actors and filmmakers, attending red carpet premieres and other industry events, and even being flown around the world to visit movie sets.

While trying to navigate the ins and outs and ups and downs of the press world, he also tried to carve out a path as a screenwriter, with only three (horrible) scripts to his name before arriving in Los Angeles back in January 2008. Within the following pages, through a unique and innovative “present/past” hybrid format, you’ll explore his decade in Hollywood, through both the stories he covered within the industry, and the stories he crafted to try and break into said industry. In the past 10 years, he has written over 43,000 stories as a journalist (seriously… there is proof!), plus 19 screenplays (11 features, three half-hour pilots, three one-hour pilots, two TV specs), all while sometimes drinking too much, playing retro video games, practicing card-throwing and rooting for the L.A Kings. And sleeping… sometimes.

On top of all that, you’ll get whiskey-fueled stories from the Hollywood bar scene and his eclectic group of neighbors, along with the reason why Dwayne Johnson is the best celebrity he’s ever met, some tips on how to sneak into a Playboy Mansion party, how he almost got his big screenwriting break through Twitter, and how to survive in L.A. on a budget that’s just a step above being homeless.”

And, an additional blurb taken from Amazon.

“Plus, the e-book will include links to some of his favorite interviews including an impromptu chat with James Cameron at Comic-Con, Kevin Pollak revealing the most amazing story about how one of his movies came together, Kirk Douglas explaining why he hired Dalton Trumbo for Spartacus, thus ending the McCarthy-era Hollywood blacklist, and, you know, so much more!”

You can buy the paperback or the Kindle version at Amazon.

BrianGallagherWriter.net

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Videos From The Treadmill

As many of you know, I take advantage of my treadmill time by watching YouTube videos. I look forward to it, actually. (Trust me. I know most of you hardcore runners out there are cringing at the idea of enjoying time on a treadmill as opposed to running outside in ANY weather. I do run outside but mostly to train for upcoming races. I'll get into that in another, more appropriate post.) I’m not opposed to enjoying any form of video entertainment while running/walking, but I gravitate most to things that educate and motivate me. One of the channels that I’m subscribed to on YouTube is The James Altucher Show; it’s essentially the video version of his podcast, though not all of his podcasts come in video form.

Here’s the most recent episode that I finished: 21 LESSONS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY with Yuval Noah Harari. (Direct link) Yesterday, I started an episode where James interviews Neil deGrasse Tyson.

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The R&D Workshop No.9

2018-09-27T08:29:00.001-05:00

Welcome to another edition of The R&D Workshop. I wish I could say that the type of post I'm going to put out each week is more planned, for the newly published ones that is, but lately it has been a game of which one is done first? Which one seems the most relevant this particular week? What’s on my mind?

If you haven't been following my blog by way of social media, in particular Facebook or Twitter, then you might not be privy to the fact that I've been re-posting older posts every other week. I call them “refurbished” because that's what I basically do to them. I have been moving sequentially with those, going from when I restarted my blog to the present day. I don’t plan on sharing any Electric Feast posts, so that’s an archive search for you, reader, if you’re up for it. (I do make it easy in the menu...) More on my refurbishing in the last section of this post.

I hate to sound like a broken record, but it has been getting particularly tough to move forward with my works of passion. Not for the lack of drive or ideas, but for the abundance of everything clamoring for my time. I do love the overtime I get at work so that I can provide for my family, give us a comfortable life, and achieve my financial goals, but it does wear on my soul. I was really hopeful for September considering the start of the school year, but I quickly realized in August that September had magically turned into an even greater obstacle course than it previously was. The rest of the year has slowly turned into that as well with pockets of hope in between. I’m not going to plan on things working out in my favor, even though I feel there is some promise in those pockets.

I want to have more time to write for my blog and post some more of those standalone, long-form posts that dive into the meat of a subject—they tend to take more time to write. I want to be able to work on music, sparingly at the very least, and get a few projects done on/to the studio itself before the hells of winter settle in. I want to make some real progress experimenting with things in other areas that I'd love to tell you about, but I think it would be silly to say a word about them until I feel like those things are actually going somewhere. Let's just say, I've got a lot I want to do, a lot I want to accomplish. I want to try doing new things, to give them a go. Trust me—I've been working on squeezing more time out of the day, especially this year. More on that 'squeezing' in a future post.

A picturesque view in South Dakota or Wyoming from a family vacation. (2009)

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Morning Routine UPDATE!

I’ve mentioned plenty in the past that I like to read in the morning when my mind is fresh. I’ve also commented that I like to write in the morning for the same reason. Two sides of the same coin, really. The lack of satisfaction I’ve had with my writing progress for the last few months and what I can foresee ahead has lead me to decide on changing up my morning routine. My focus when I get up now, Monday through Sunday, will be writing. Sure, maybe I sleep in one day and that goes out the window. That’s okay. It’s about the cumulative time. Actually, it’s always about the cumulative time—no matter what you do.

As some of you readers know, I have read out of a book in the morning before work on the days that I go to the-place-that-pays-me-to-show-up. Now, I will write, so I’ll have to figure out how to tackle the book reading; I read plenty on my phone. On my non-work days, my previous morning routine was to stretch, drum, strength train, and then run. I would actually knock out quite a lot of my daily goals. My wife admits that she WAS getting jealous of my productivity and that caused some arguments about my morning routine, even if she encouraged me in the beginning. (Wives, sigh, am I right?) However, her marathon training trumped the morning routine that I had set into motion and was thriving at. It made sense for her to start long runs early in the morning before it started getting too warm, so I tried to not complain too much as long as she stuck to the schedule she set. It made me incredibly happy to be knocking out my goals daily, and it was, admittedly, a bit of a blow to my optimism and drive.

I often view my life right now as being akin to a GPS. I have a route plan, but there are plenty of wrong turns, unforeseen construction, and random roadside attractions that draw my attention. Essentially, I’m constantly recalculating. So, why make a plan? Well, it’s still a solid practice, and that route still leads to where I want to go. I’m still recalculating with the same end in sight, it just takes a little longer to get there some days. I’ve taken the aimless and semi-aimless routes before. Ultimately, it doesn’t work for me, and I’m not happy.

To be honest, I’m not terribly sad now about my morning routine changing. All good things must change, eventually. Plus, routines get stale if one doesn’t “mix it up.” I think those other things that I did (stretching, drumming, strength training, running) are just as easily done, if not better served, at other times of the day. I have to think about and experiment with when the best time to do something is—for my mind or body—not just whether I have the time. Sometimes, it WILL simply come down to when I have the time. I’ve been writing in the morning this week before work, because I have a lot of overtime to work this week and next, and I want to keep moving forward on writing posts. My good experiences with morning writing, the blissful quiet of the house before anyone else wakes up, and my fresh-minded productivity have been catalysts for this change. I have to justify my Chromebook purchase to myself now, but I still see its usefulness. Besides, $250 for a laptop is nothing.

I’m excited about this change.

Three steps that I made for the cat to get to the small window in the basement. This picture was taken before I put new carpet on them after The Flood of 2016. We changed the basement carpet from tan to gray. The carpet on these steps didn't get wet or damaged. It was merely a cosmetic "it doesn't match" kind of thing. (2017)

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The One Dollar Question

I've been questioned a couple of times as to why I refurbish and re-share posts. It’s a fair question. I’m certainly not offended—good luck with that. To me, it makes perfect sense. So, let me explain.

1) It's an opportunity for me to improve upon past posts. I'm better now than I was a year ago and that includes my writing and abilities to put together a good post. If you’ve been following along, you’ll see that I’ve been adding pictures to my picture-less posts. Grammatical mistakes, whether missed the first time around or based upon new knowledge acquired since, are corrected. Do I like how I phrase every sentence? Maybe not a year later. Have I made changes in how I format my posts, including the footer I add to each one? Yes. Update.

Note: I don’t touch my Electric Feast posts. I consider those my blog's time capsules. The posts I have refurbished and re-shared are from my blog’s reboot onward (2016 to present). At some point, I can see myself resetting that time capsule parameter to include more posts. Or, maybe I'll just refurbish and re-share the ones I find to be more timeless. Always recalculating.

2) Why should I let those older posts sit lonely in the abyss of the forgotten internet? Sure, they still slowly accumulate hits, but why not give them a bit of a boost? They are still stories, experiences, thoughts, and such from my life. Having been published a year ago may not be terribly relevant to their relevance. I work hard on my blog and my posts, despite what you may think. Why should I work on them, publish, and then let them be forgotten, mostly, from there on? I don't think that most people will or would go through my blog post archives post by post. Which leads into my next point…

3) Not everyone has read them. I understand that not all of my social media friends are going to be dedicated readers of my blog. However, was I even friends with a particular person when I first published the post? Were they even present on social media that week? Did they happen to miss it? Are they more interested in reading it now than they were then? What about all of the people that I’m not friends with that come across my blog or social media profiles? There is plenty of reading material on the internet that is older than the current week and still has value. I’ve read incredibly relevant posts/articles that are years old. When I’ve had as many hits on a post as there are people on the planet, I’ll gladly stop sharing those particular posts.

4) It’s a good practice, a good reminder for my mind and soul. It’s very interesting to see how far I’ve come with my blog. Does it improve? I hope so. I guess that’s a matter of opinion. Maybe seeing my old posts will give you a better perspective? It does for me.

Would I like to publish a new post every week? Yes! In a perfect world, I would have one or two new posts and a refurbished (repeat) one to share. Maybe that’s overboard? Since that is highly unlikely given the current circumstances, the schedule and process I'm executing now will continue, and it works. I have much that I need to do and even more that I want to do. Because, even in the best circumstances, I would be doing so many other things with my time, too.

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The R&D Workshop is a recurring feature where I talk candidly about my works of passion and associated things.

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THE NOT SO DAILY DUMP #16

2018-09-13T08:25:00.000-05:00

Trollhunters

Last year, my family and I got into a show called Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia. It's a Netflix show by Guillermo del Toro. I have gotten the impression that his name means something, so maybe that alone would sway you into checking it out? (Among many others, he did write, direct, and produce Pan’s Labyrinth—a great movie, if you ask me.) If you don't have kids, I could certainly see this NOT being on your bucket list. Maybe I'm wrong. If you have kids, I think this is a fun show to watch together; it was a great way for my wife and I to connect/share an interest with the kids.

We watched season three shortly after it came out this past spring/summer, and it didn't disappoint. However, with the way the story was progressing, it did leave me wondering what fuel they would have left for the story afterward. I got my answer after finding out there would be only three seasons—makes sense. It made me wonder how much of the show's length was intended and how much was due to circumstances. The show handled the real death of the person who voices the main character very well, but regardless, I'm sure the end was predetermined. His death came about mid-season.

Trollhunters presents an age-old story in a modern, otherworldly light. The story’s larger arc has plenty of time to develop over its seemingly short three seasons. My family and I are hoping that another chapter in the saga picks up at some point. They certainly left that door wide open with how they ended it. In fact, where they left Trollhunters open to is another potential age-old story. I'm thinking along the lines of Homer’s The Odyssey. We wait patiently, Guillermo. For NOW.

I looked around YouTube for something other than the trailer, but alas, I decided the trailer was the best to share. (And here’s a direct route to the video in case it’s missing below.)

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Linkage For Thinkage

The Ten Commandments of Success

I love this. I absolutely love this. Did I mention that I love this? What is it, you ask? It's a post from a site that I've taken an interest in lately, The Art of Manliness. The post is basically taken from a book, The Business of Life, (1916) by Frank Crane. There was some shortening of the text done, but by and large, it's what the author of the book wrote. In fact, the phrasing of the words is a sign that it wasn't written in more modern times. Despite this, the truths the writing covers are pretty universal, and therefore, timeless.

I've spoken about this subject matter, success, in past posts. I have always tried to convey that I was never strictly talking about the kind of success most people probably attribute to the word. Success means a lot of things and it means something a little different to everyone. It should always be that way to a certain extent. Our lives are all different and we all have different strengths and wants. However, at the core, within all of that, there is a binding continuity that runs through us all. We all strive for better, for success. What this article/book excerpt covers can be summarized as the success of self, the success of satisfaction.

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Doing The Golf

I recently went golfing. I can easily count on one hand the amount of times that I've went golfing in the last five years, not coincidentally, the same amount of time that I've been married.

During the few years prior to getting married, also prior to meeting my wife, I golfed very often. It was a new hobby at the time, and I jumped in with a mild obsession. While I did enjoy the act of golfing and having something to get better at, I also enjoyed the opportunity to get outside, get away from my all-too-mundane life, and spend time with a friend.

Many things changed after my wife and I started our life together, after casually talking to each other for months at work. It wasn't just the acts of buying a house or getting married or taking on the role of dad to my step-kids. Over this time and starting beforehand, I was changing and the people around me were changing, too, and not all of them for the better. My priorities had changed and golf didn't seem quite as important as it had. Besides, I knew that I could go again in the future, whenever that would be.

Here I am years later, still changing, adapting, and searching out life. I have found that I don't really miss playing golf all that much, but it's still something that I really do enjoy. I had a great time on my recent trip! But, it's hard for me to consistently justify squeezing the time out of my day or week to golf knowing there's a list of other things I'd like to get done, whether they be my works of passion or chores around the house. Maybe it's good for me to golf anyway, to force myself to partake in an activity that I don't necessarily see as a means to an end. I'm certainly not trying to get on the golfing pro circuit.

One thing I am pretty excited about is the driving range that's going to be opening by my house. From what I've seen, it looks like a pretty hip place and has three levels to hit from. From what I've heard, it's going to be a somewhat swanky place that will have a bar and restaurant and party rooms that can be rented out. I'm looking forward to having a fun, new place close-by to visit. The establishment is called Topgolf.

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Shine That Spotlight, You Crazy Diamond

I published a post a short while ago about Draze Force. I also Spotlighted Draze Force/Nick Morris, in TNSDD #7 & #12. Then why am I mentioning him again here? Because, I can. Plus, I want to make sure that those of you who missed the previously mentioned post get a chance to know that Nick/Draze has a new 5-song EP, III, that you should give a listen to.

Here’s the post, which includes a bunch of informational nuggets, links, interview stuff, background… an explosion of goodness!
Draze Force: Analog Meets 8-Bit

And here’s his website, where you can listen to his brand new EP, III, along with finding ways to connect and buy.
DrazeForce.com

There’s also a Twitch channel that he started. You can watch along and chat as he writes, records, and mixes music.
Twitch.TV/DrazeForce

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Stardelay: Thoughts & Words

I've enjoyed this song now and then over the last year. Well, not quite a year, but close enough. It's a peaceful and relaxing tune. I've started to branch out a bit, and I've found some of his other songs, some of which are instrumental. I have yet to be disappointed.

Taken from the bio on the Stardelay Last.FM page:

"Stardelay is German-born multi-instrumentalist Carsten Mentzel. Carsten's specialty is the Fender Rhodes and the Fender Telecaster. His home is trip-hop, ambient-lounge, slow-funk, electro-pop, fusion jazz and nu jazz. Bitter-sweet emotionality and melancholy full of relish are created by dreamy guitars, sounds of sitars, mellow walls of keyboards and archaic bass. Beside his mastership on these instruments Carsten fosters his vocals with more than three octaves."

Give this sweet tune a watch and a listen. (Direct link.)

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The R&D Workshop No.8

2018-08-30T08:33:00.003-05:00

Here we are again, taking another stab at a new approach to this part of my blog called The R&D Workshop. As I stated in the last update, No.7, I don't plan on doing this weekly, though it would be nice to do so. I have plenty that I want to write beyond these Workshop updates, and sometimes time and consequence determine what we humans work on. That's not always bad, as there ARE other interests of mine. Plus, having a young family creates its own balance of rewards and challenges. Make lemonade with tomatoes, I say. This post focuses on some upgrades, improvements, and whatnot related to my writing and beyond.

First! I started a Facebook page dedicated to my writing. You can find me at Facebook.com/Graham.Sedam.Writes—come join me!

Second! Yes, I did change up this place a little. The new site is "responsive," much more mobile friendly, and I think it looks so fetch. Plus, it's nice to change things up.

Here's a picture I took on a recent, early morning at the-place-that-pays-me-to-show-up. I thought it was picture worthy. I loves it with my heart. (2018)

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Upgrading The Workshop Furniture

A few weeks ago, we purchased and assembled a sit/stand desk from Ikea. Circa 2016, even before I started being a Fitbit-er this past May, I was growing tired of all of the sitting I was doing. I was starting to see the world as a place that was slowly designing lifestyles in a way that would make legs no longer necessary—evolution would take over from there. I could be exaggerating, but I don't think I'm completely off the mark. I decided to start taking more opportunities to stand and would do so unless I needed to sit. My resolve only grew stronger when I got a hand-me-down Fitbit from my wife in May. Rather than just stand, I step. It's even more healthy.

My wife and I started computing at the kitchen counter. It's a two level counter that allows for stools. The higher portion works great as a stand desk. However, it often gets in the way for its intended, kitchen related use. Throughout each week, our all-in-one computers would move back and forth between the counter and the sit desk. We both couldn't stand and compute, so it would generally end up being me doing so, as I need to use a computer more consistently. I was getting tired of the set up, but it was driving my wife nuts. So, we finally got a sit/stand desk. I'm hoping that it will help us be more productive, and it will help us to continue in our healthier, more active lifestyle.

Side note: We had to go back to Ikea later that night, because they gave us the wrong parts for the legs. Their website was not working correctly and, long story short, they pulled us the wrong part. It was the right kind of leg but with measurements for the smaller desk. Then, as we were leaving the second time, my daughter noticed that they gave us white legs, not black. Remember to double check their work! It made for a very long day.

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Chromebook, Backpack… Check

For a while, how long is incredibly difficult to discern, I've felt a need to be more ‘mobile.’ Phones are awesome for all of the things they can do, and I continue to utilize mine more and more, but there are limitations, and sometimes the task at hand is not suited as well for a phone. I bought an iMac a couple of years ago for that reason. It works great, but still, not quite mobile.

I have recognized that I am heavy with the Google computing. I learned from having several phones and a few computers that the cloud is my friend. I'm sure this will doom mankind someday, but for now, game on. Because I do so much work with Google software in my Google account, I thought that I seemed to be the perfect candidate for a Chromebook. Besides, they are super cheap. I can’t believe how much power I was able to get for two-hundred-and-fifty dollars. Am I showing my age?

So far, I'm liking it, even though I have used it only twice. The first time is when I first got it and plugged it in to charge it fully and then explore. The second time was to work on a post that I finished recently, Draze Force: Analog Meets 8-Bit. That second time, I was at my local library, on the WiFi, punching out the keys. And that's the point, really. As much as I'd love to work at home, it can be very difficult to accomplish much with a large chunk of time. The interruptions and general noise/chaos level, while innocent and not malevolent, are ever present. I refuse to try and hobble along with a phone in this capacity, as I want it to be the device of last resort when it comes to writing, and that is still a reality often enough. Also, I want a laptop for those times when it's convenient to meet with someone for scheming any upcoming top-secret projects. Shhh…

In addition, I bought a backpack that I am currently loving. It's meant for laptops, tablets, chords, adapters, among many other things. It's pimped out with pockets and multiple spaces and more places than I know what to currently do with. I feel like I have a mobile office and that I'm ready to work almost anywhere. It's a good feeling.

So, when it's difficult to work at home, and I get the chance to go somewhere else, my biggest question is whether to go to the library or a coffee shop. So far, the library wins out, because I don't have to buy anything.

Apparently, apple trees can be grown using the same method as one would with a grape vine. I might have to try this. I apologize for the blurry picture. The photographer has since been sacked. (2018)

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Wrap it up, buddy.

Here we are at the end, for now. Perhaps I'll have another edition of THE NOT SO DAILY DUMP or one of my standalone posts completed. I feel like the feature title, “My Thoughts. My Life.,” doesn't fit anymore. When I think about that area of my blog, the words longform and standalone come to mind. Maybe, I'm on to something bigger. I suppose it's nothing important enough to drive me crazy, but it will, slowly—be sure of that. I hope to have many new things to share with you soon.

The R&D Workshop is a recurring feature where I talk candidly about my works of passion and associated things.

* * *

Join me on Facebook!
I've recently started a page for THIS blog, Graham Sedam Writes, where I will be sharing all of my writing related endeavors and stuff.

Thank you for your time!

Did you know that I also have a daily blog, Notes.gs?

Draze Force: Analog Meets 8-Bit

2018-08-16T08:17:00.001-05:00

For what now seems like a long time ago, I had the opportunity to receive a digital copy of Draze Force’s new EP, III, along with its accompanying cover art. Nick Morris, Draze Force's sole mastermind, graciously sent it to me back in May before its June 8th release. I've been mulling over a write-up on the blog ever since, taking stabs at a post along the way. It hasn't been until recently that I was able to start tightening things up to publish this post. As I wrote, Nick humored me by answering some questions.

I could make the attempt of breaking down each song descriptively and relaying that to you readers here, but this is not that type of post. I feel that music is a far too personal experience; it’s an art to be heard, not read. What I do here is merely a supplement to what YOUR ears tell YOU.

If I had to give you a simple description, how would I describe the music of Draze Force? The first word that pops into my mind is electronic. Realizing that description is an extremely vague one in a genre filled with a plethora of niches, I thought it best to get an answer from III’s creator and inquire as to what Nick considers his style of music.

"I'm not entirely sure what my genre is called. I've heard it called synthwave, retrowave, and outrun. I stick with synthwave, mainly because I don't know what else to call it, but it certainly has a rock influence in the drums. That's also a part of why I made III—I got tired of the EDM-bro fist-pumping scene. I missed rock music and love the sounds of 80's synths.”

Nick continued by adding that some similar artists to Draze Force are Daniel Deluxe, Tonebox, Mitch Murder, Arcade High, Dance with the Dead, VHS Dreams, and Sub Morphine.

For the record, the pronunciation is like adding the letter “d” to the word “raise.” I had never known until recently when I asked Nick. I always gave it a more exotic pronunciation, saying drahhh-zay. He set me straight and told me that he actually yells it in the first track, III. I hadn't remembered that part. I do listen critically, but when I AM able to listen to music, I'm generally knocking out another task as well, such as writing. I suppose it got missed within that, regardless of my incessant spins. Though, in my defense, alongside him yelling 'Draze Force' is a deep frequency, not-exactly-human voice saying the same thing. It's clear when you know. I'm sure that there are others who picked it up right away.

Being someone who has a tendency to come up with a lot of names for a variety of projects, songs, and whatnot, I’m always curious as to a person’s inspiration or practical thinking when deciding upon giving something a title. I then inquired where the name Draze Force originated.

“I think the story of how I came to Draze Force is kind of stupid. When I was a kid, I was really into dragons and music. I thought it would be awesome to start a band with my best friends called Dragon Force. There were two problems with that: 1. Nobody wanted to be in a band with me. 2. There already was a band named Dragon Force. So, I made up a word similar to Dragon and came up with Draze, and the name Draze Force stuck ever since.”

Continuing on with my name-creation investigation, I asked Nick why he named the EP III (pronounced 3), since it was only the second release of his that I knew of. He told me that he named it III because it had been three years since his previous release, Digital Ocean. He had intended to release the EP a year earlier, but life’s circumstances got in the way. I jokingly asked Nick if he would have named it II had he released it a year prior.

“III could have possibly been called II if it came out a year earlier. It might have been called something different. There was an EP in line ahead of III I was calling Waveform Hearts. I was never satisfied with it, so now it sits on my hard drive. I think I'm at a benefit by not releasing Waveform Hearts, yet. I was able to work longer on shaping my sound and collect my analog gear.”

Digging a little deeper into the creativity that went into the EP, I asked Nick what inspirations, if any, drove the project. I learned that the tracks III and Power Outage were heavily inspired by the Netflix show, Stranger Things, and that those were the first songs he wrote for III. Those two songs were originally a part of a different EP that he was putting together. Nick really liked the synthwave sound he had used on those songs, so he wrote three more.

While inspired by experiences and a variety of other stimuli, Nick admits that his music is mostly the result of experimentation with his gear and plugins and trying to draw out a specific mood with them. For instance, he explains that “III and Power Outage are supposed to have an aggressive feeling, while the songs Portal and The Replicant are supposed to be more uplifting.”

III is Nick’s first release while living in Colorado, having released his debut, Digital Ocean, in his native Minnesota. I wondered if Colorado’s beautiful vistas and general change of scenery from Minnesota had any affect upon his music. He hasn’t noticed any differences directly related to the change in atmosphere, but he says that his acquisition of a bunch of analog synths definitely has influenced him since the move.

“With this EP, I’ve never had real synths before and I wanted to take advantage of that. It’s been a very fun and rewarding learning experience. Usually, I write my music all in the box with no clear direction of where I want go or what I want to do. Each song has a different approach in getting formed. Some songs started with a drum pattern, with a bass line, and others started with the chorus section lead.”

I didn’t really know all of the circumstances surrounding Nick’s move to Colorado. I knew he had moved to work at a music company. Nick expanded my knowledge and told me that he had started working at a company called MakeMusic right out of college. The company was based in Eden Prairie, Minnesota at the time, but during his second day on the job, they announced that they were moving to Boulder, Colorado. Nick made the move and is still working with them.

Throughout my time talking to Nick and interacting with him on social media, it’s hard to not notice how much the technological side of music drives him. I interrogated Nick a little bit deeper about that aspect of his work. Along with this, he told me that III was the first project where he did everything himself, including mastering and the album art.

Nick’s music software of choice is Logic Pro X, and as of late, his favorite piece of gear has become the Dreadbox NYX; he loves the sound of its oscillator and filter. However, he finds that his most useful piece of gear is his MOTU 128 Express, immediately stating, “I literally could not have done this EP without it.”

He went on further after I prompted him to comment on his mixing process.

“I like to keep my mixing chains pretty clean and minimal. I automate channel volume the most. For me, if the track is not playing, it should be at -∞. I mainly only use EQ to cut a lot and boost a little bit.”

My earliest memory of Nick’s existence is when my wife mentioned knowing someone who had also went to the same music college as me, the now defunct McNally Smith College of Music. This is where he expanded his skills and earned a Bachelor's of Science in Music. At the time, he was also a sound engineer running the board at a nearby church.

Sometime later, once again through my wife, I learned that Nick had released an album, Digital Ocean. I was interested in hearing it, because I like to seek out the creative works of people I know or the people I know, know. Besides, he was a fellow college alum, and I was curious. I was pleasantly surprised by Digital Ocean. It's mostly an instrumental endeavor, but there are a couple of tracks with guest vocalists.

While cut from a similar cloth, I can hear the growth Nick has attained from Digital Ocean to III. It's hard for me to define it exactly, but one could guess that there is some maturation in songwriting and engineering. Maybe it’s all of that new gear? Maybe it’s from working in the music industry? Nick spends countless hours around gear, and his job is to actually produce and design sounds. Throw all of that on top of him creating and experimenting in his “off hours” and why wouldn't anyone see such growth in their craft? I asked Nick to comment on Digital Ocean, and in particular, how working on it during college had an influence.

“Digital Ocean is not an album I like to talk about too often. It was my college senior project and my first album done entirely in Logic Pro. (So long, Pro Tools) I was originally recording a band for this project, but things ended up falling through, so I decided to make my own project. I worked on this album (writing/programming, editing, and mixing) for the duration of my senior year at school. Part of the reason why I don't like talking about Digital Ocean is because of how the school influenced the album. I just felt rushed with writing it and even more rushed with mixing. I ended up taking it down from digital streaming sites because I wasn't happy with it. We may see a revised version of Digital Ocean in the future, but I don't know when.”

In addition to working at MakeMusic, experimenting with gear and songwriting, and enjoying the Colorado life, Nick has branched out a bit, too. Back in 2017, he had an article published on MakeMusic’s website called "Using Garritan Sounds in Ableton Live 9."

Recently, he has created a remix of the song Forefront by the band Prep Rally. I asked him how this opportunity came about and if he had any more of these side projects lined up.

“I'm good friends with Prep Rally's vocalist, Tatum. She had approached me and asked if I'd remix one of their songs. I really enjoy Forefront, so I decided to do that one. I pretty much worked on the remix in an airport and on the plane. It was a great way to pass the time. There are no other remixes lined up at this time, but I'm always open to the idea.”

Two days ago, I saw that a musician, Markie The Hero, just released a track on Soundcloud for free download called Game Over. Draze Force is featured on the track. I asked Nick what exactly that meant.

"I sent him a few loops I made and added some effects to the vocals and guitars. The song is really his vision and I got to be a small part of it."

Just last night, Nick did his first stream on Twitch. You can check it out here on the Draze Force channel. This post will be finished before I have a chance to watch... I'm sure it will be great!

Everyone and everything has an origin story, and so I asked Nick to briefly tell me how he started out in music and why he chose the path that he has. Nick has clearly found and has been able to make a living doing something that he loves, something that drives him.

“I took piano lessons when I was a child and hated it. I really wanted to be a drummer in a rock band, so my parents signed me up for drum lessons. Eventually, I discovered the world of samplers, sequencers, and synthesizers, and it was game over.”

As we approach this post’s “game over” status, I asked Nick one more question: What kind of advice would he give to a musician starting out?

“To a musician starting out, I would say always be experimenting with sounds and try the crazy ideas. Deadmau5 says in his master class 'experimentation over inspiration.' I have that written on my studio screen as a reminder to never stop experimenting. Be curious!”

I think that's some solid advice. Even if one isn't active as a maker in the arts, it can still be applied. Godspeed, Nick.

You can find Draze Force music at Spotify, iTunes, Bandcamp, and pretty much anywhere else music is sold or streamed. My favorite option is Bandcamp. Not only do artists retain the majority of the profits, but it is incredibly artist and fan friendly!

Curious about the beginnings of III? Watch this video.

Visit the Draze Force website, where you can listen to III, find ways to connect on social, and more!

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I've recently started a page for THIS blog, Graham Sedam Writes, where I will be sharing all of my writing related endeavors and stuff.

Thank you for your time!

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The R&D Workshop No.7

2018-08-02T09:26:00.003-05:00

A Renewed Sense Of Purpose?

In a larger, macro sense, I DO understand what I'm trying to accomplish with The R&D Workshop, but in a smaller, micro sense, it's been tough for me to find a groove that seems fitting to me. When I say “smaller, micro sense,” I essentially mean the content that makes up each Workshop update. I like the overarching concept, which is basically updates on my works of passion and their related business, but it has felt like I've been missing something that I could never really wrap my mind around. Everything is a work in progress—some more than others. I do like the progress I've made from No.1 to No.6, however.

One thing that has inspired me lately to take another look at how I approach The R&D Workshop is the concept of weeknotes. For those of you more hip to the vibrations flowing through the internet, this is not a new concept as I have read that this idea, or way of blogging, has been around since 2009. Many bloggers/newsletter writers have been essentially doing this for years in one form or another. My own posts exhibit these tendencies. Heck, what I've written so far in this post is in that vein.

Weeknotes are essentially online diaries or a place to track how the week has gone for your experiments, if you're a scientist, for example. It could also be a newsletter that expresses how your prior week has gone, what you've accomplished, what's ahead, and the cool things you've found along the way. There are many forms that weeknotes can take, but they are very much different than an article or what most blogs have become. If anything, they have a personal quality that those "puppy mill," advertising laden articles can't match. Maybe you can learn something or find an answer with the standard internet fare of today, and they do serve a purpose—unless it's clickbait bullshit—but the concept of weeknotes seems to take blogging back to its roots.

With a weeknotes concept, you actually get to know someone. You can connect more personally to the content, to a person. You may gain insights into your own life, your own works of passion, and the like. That's my take on it, and I've read a handful of posts recently to inform me as much. Maybe I've missed the mark. Maybe I’m an idiot and know nothing. You know nothing, Graham Snow! Here’s the first post I read on it by someone who probably knows more about it than me. The Why of Weeknotes

How will this change The R&D Workshop? I'm not exactly sure. Will this become a weekly endeavor, considering the “weeknotes” inspiration? I'm not exactly sure, but not likely. I still have all of the same responsibilities, and other general time-taking activities that I want and/or need to move forward with. The same stuff that I'm sure most of you readers can relate to. However, it does make me think that more of these updates are likely to come out. Perhaps there will be moments when two posts are published in a week, each from/for a different blog feature. Time will tell. I, for now, cannot. I am sure that I’m getting ahead of myself. I’m a real pro at that. Big dreams require big plans and more hard work than I have been able to conjure the time for.

Downtown Minneapolis after the Torchlight 5k I ran in, during the parade. (2018)

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The Blog

Keeping in spirit with this renewed approach, let's get into what's going on with the blog.

July has been a crap month for writing and publishing, not for all bad reasons, though. My parents recently visited for a week. I've gotten some extra work around the house done. Overtime at the-place-that-pays-me has kept the money flowing in the right direction. There are more reasons, but that's what's coming out without too much mental force. Those are the big things. I suppose it's good to take breaks from things, but I wasn't in a place where I felt like I needed a break. I feel like I have a TON of things inside of me to write. It doesn't mean that any of it is good, but it still wants to come out, regardless.

One of the things that I've been chewing on mega-recently has been this new approach to the Workshop. So, it's been nice to get THAT out of my head. Another THE NOT SO DAILY DUMP is just a matter of sitting down and pulling words from experiences, inspirations, or just the general things that I want to share with people. I have plenty of partially written “long form” posts that I could work on, but I also have one in particular that I really want to put my time into and birth to the world. It's a piece on the release of a friend's EP. Don't worry, buddy, I'm still working on it!

Over the last few weeks, I've also asked my friends on Facebook for feedback to some questions I have been mulling over. I didn't get a lot of feedback, but what I did get was very valuable. It was very much appreciated. In those regards, I will be likely making some small changes. The changes are as follows:

1) I will be creating a Facebook page for my blog. The tricky part is that I want to give my blog a name first, but not another abstract name like I would for a music project. I want it to be straight to the point. I have plenty of ideas, I just can’t decide on one name to go with. It’s technically called blog.grahamsedam.com right now… Perhaps I stick with that? I really have two criteria: 1) It has to be obvious that it’s a blog and 2) my name has to be in it.

2) I had someone email me and ask if they could write a guest article on my blog. After an email or two back and forth, I decided that this is not the route I want to take right now. I am BIG into sharing with my readers how awesome other people are, but I also think that the posts on my blog should be from me. It just doesn't feel right to do it otherwise. However, this doesn't mean that I won't include bits of writing, pictures, whatever, as time goes on. Completely two different approaches, they are. I don't really want to muddy things and make it more complicated than it already is. I realize that this is not a change, but an affirmation or declaration going forward.

3) I want to try out the idea of letting people know how long it takes to read a post. I'm not sure if there's an official word-per-minute standard, but it also wouldn't surprise me in the least. I've thought about reading at a reasonably slow pace and then rounding up. This may go bye-bye if it scares people away. I have no clue when this will start.

4) I've decided that I will no longer include "Updates:" in past Workshop posts. These posts are meant to be in-the-moment snippets of what's going on. If you care enough to know how something progresses, read on to the next post. Pretty simple. HOWEVER, I will continue to refurbish old posts as I go along, in the order as I published them.

I suppose those aren't a lot of changes, but they go beyond the standard hub-bub, or something. No matter what one does, there's a bit of administrative work that comes with it. Generally, that gets hired out when one can afford it. I am not one who can afford it, so here I am, administering.

The men's bathroom at Fat Lorenzo's in Minneapolis. (2018)

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Goodbye, For Now

I have plenty more to say, but I want to make sure that I'm going about it in a fashion that is conducive to the bigger picture. Confused? Me too, often enough. I'm probably selling myself short. There's more to come in the future. I just don't want to get the wires too tangled. More confused? Let's just leave it there.

Until next time, friends.

* * *

Join me on Facebook!
I've recently started a page for THIS blog, Graham Sedam Writes, where I will be sharing all of my writing related endeavors and stuff.

Thank you for your time!

Did you know that I also have a daily blog, Notes.gs?

THE NOT SO DAILY DUMP #15

2018-06-28T08:31:00.001-05:00

Coco

I have a very short list of TV shows and movies that I keep for future inspiration in this spot. I never feel obliged to pull from this list, but it can serve as a great launching point if one of them happens to tickle the meat in my skull. Perhaps I'll feel inspired to share one of those with you because it's something I think you should watch. Maybe there's something I find amusing or it has a greater meaning in my life. Maybe what applies today will not apply tomorrow. That is highly unlikely, though.

I was hesitant to share this movie, Coco, here. My wife will vouch for that. I do think it's a good movie and our whole family enjoyed it. The movie even did a good job of throwing us all off on one important detail. (My wife did ponder the possibility out loud, but I’m not sure if it was a case of confusion or sleuthing.) I'm usually pretty good at seeing through most twists, considering most movies and TV shows have twists nowadays, so I'm always on the lookout. Sure, nothing is 100% unpredictable, but there are some important plot points, while easy to see now, that we figured would go the easy route. Not so much. Kids movies aren't as predictable as they once were. Probably because adults are half of the audience—on the first watch or two, anyway.

Oh, yes, my hesitation. Coco, as far as I can tell, has been a fairly popular movie. I generally like to share with you the “underdogs” in TV and film. The less hyped, less known about gems buried within the media/entertainment noise. (I fully understand that I also contribute to this noise with all of my website/data/music/writing/etc stuff. Come at me, brah.) So, why did I decide to include this movie anyway? Well, we liked it. Maybe you haven't seen it. And, we watched it pretty recently.

Rather than give you a clip or a trailer for Coco, I went with sharing an amusing video entitled, "Everything Wrong With Coco In 14 Minutes Or Less." SPOILERS! (This is where you click if the video doesn't show or you'd like to get to this video’s home at YouTube.)

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Linkage For Thinkage

In this issue of TNSDD, I bring back a section I rolled out for the first time in TNSDD #12. This time around, I present to you three links related to music.

Ringing the Chords of the Universe: How Music Influenced Science
For many years, especially when I watched as many programs as I possible could about quantum physics and similar science related stuff, I have thought about and wondered how intertwined music and the universe are. The strings in string theory, after all, vibrate and sound is nothing more than vibrations. (Trust me. I have a degree.) It’s a tad more complicated, but there’s no need to get into that here. If the essence of all the universe down to its most basic part vibrates and thus the whole of the universe is vibrating—perhaps in unison (look up Einstein’s Spooky Action At A Distance, it’s a real thing)—does this mean that music/sound is deeply linked to the universe in some mystical or mathematical way? Do we connect on a deep level to the basic essence of the universe through the sound that we as a human species create to express our emotions to ourselves and others? Are we expressing the emotions of the universe? Does this enormous, vibrating, dimensional, cosmic simulation speak through us? Is it really us or are we a vessel? Am I getting too deep, dude?

People Who Deeply Grasp Pain or Happiness of Others, Process Music Differently in Brain
I don't think this finding should be terribly difficult to believe. It seems pretty plausible to me that people who are more empathetic would process music differently and perhaps more deeply. Music is emotion, pure and simple. Go ahead. Disagree with me. I’ll be waiting to rage or cry or laugh or do other emotions—maybe all at once.

This Music Theory Cheat Sheet is All You’ll Ever Need
I have always simultaneously both wanted to learn more about music theory and not learn more about music theory. Honestly, I’ve been “flying by the seat of my pants” ever since I started on my musical journey many, many moons ago. I should definitely learn more, and it would probably make my musical life a little easier, but I always have the urge to just pick up an instrument, go, and figure it out, whatever that means. My “just go” philosophy has actually worked pretty well for me so far, and it has also helped me to create some pretty different, unconventional tunes. But, hey! Having a cheat sheet is a great way to bypass “the learning.” Maybe I’ll pick up a few more things that’ll permanently lodge themselves in my brain-space.

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Let's Go Streaking!

I have become a bit intrigued by the idea of a “run streak.” I’m friends with a couple of people on Fitbit (and now on other social media) that live in the UK that have started and have continued run streaks in the last couple of years. The premise is that a person runs one mile or more every day to count towards the streak. If a person misses a day, the streak starts over.

I wish I had known about the “one mile or more” rule. There’s an actual legit association that has decreed this. I would have been able to add a whole seven days more to my current streak had I known. I proudly told my wife on a Sunday night that I had run for seven days straight and that I ran about ¾ of a mile to save time in the morning before work. She said that she thought it had to be a mile or more to count. To which I replied with a snicker, “It’s not like there’s a Grand Council of Running or something that decides something as silly as that. I DID run each day.” Apparently, I was wrong. And, I will follow the rules, because that is what is fair or something. I don’t want to be a phony. So, the next day, I started the run streak that I’m currently in. As of the day this post is published, I have a streak of eleven days. I’m curious how long I can go.

Credit and link to comic: F Minus, May 26, 2018

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Shine That Spotlight, You Crazy Diamond

This time around on THE NOT SO DAILY DUMP, I share with you a man named Joseph Graham. Around ten years ago, after reaching out to Joseph, I sent him a couple of CDs and some information about them. My bandmate and I were doing our best to market those CDs and part of that was to try and get reviews and plays anywhere we could. I’m glad that we came across his podcast, Razor Blade Dance Floor, and he graciously indulged us by sharing a tune from each of those CDs with his listeners. I have been his friend on Facebook ever since, and although we don’t actually speak to each other much, it has been a true joy to get to know him as a person through his posts and to read his thoughts on music and the industry.

Saying that Joseph loves music is quite the understatement. To say that he lives and breathes music, while closer, still seems to miss the mark and not go far enough. To say that he IS music just seems ridiculous. Joseph buys and listens to A LOT of music, and as he has gotten older, he has broken down the walls of what he’s "supposed" to like and has expanded his territory. I feel a kinship with him in these regards as I can tell a similar story about my relationship with music. What makes Joseph even more special is that he loves talking about music, promoting it, and being immersed within the culture and artist circles.

What has Joseph gotten in return for all of this work and dedication? I would imagine he was paid something to write those countless articles for a variety of publications, but everything else, the podcasts, the shows, the engagement with people, was done purely out of love. And, he continues to find new ways to reach people, to share his love for music with them. His most recent project is called HexadAmore.

While the Razor Blade Dance Floor podcast focused mainly on machine rock, or industrial music, HexadAmore is genre-less. In fact, he describes it as “music without boundaries.” I love this, as I have come to a similar place in my life with my own music, blurring the lines of genre more and more. I know this isn’t exactly what he’s talking about, but in a way it is. We as a people in general get so wrapped up in genre sometimes that we forget to see what else is out there, or that it’s okay to like something not accepted by our peers.

Joseph has some big plans for the HexadAmore site as far as I can tell from the little he’s written on it. I know he’s busy, as I can understand from trying myself to juggle life along with multiple projects. He states on his site that, “HexadAmore will be a music related web site that will feature blogs that have unique personal views on a range of topics, podcasts dedicated to promoting music without regard to genre boundaries, and reviews of music related releases. It is not ready yet, so be patient. Good things are coming!” I look forward to it.

Find out more, bookmark, and follow!

HexadAmore.com | Facebook.com/HexadAmore | Twitter.com/HexadAmore

Razor Blade Dance Floor | Facebook.com/RazorBladeDanceFloor

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A Little Tool Down Under

While running on my treadmill recently, I came across this video. I’ve switched gears a bit over the last two weeks and have been listening to/watching music videos instead of informational videos. It’s good to change things up. Plus, running IS a little more enjoyable with music. I’m sure those informational videos will creep back in at some point.

While this video is of a Tool cover, I don’t think one needs to be a Tool fan to appreciate what this man does. The first line of the description on YouTube reads, “Here we have Sam Westphalen performing Tool's "Lateralus" for our new "Busking Sessions" series filmed in Hoiser Lane Melbourne.” Check out Sam playing rhythms and melodies on his acoustic guitar. The place the video was shot is pretty interesting visually as well. I felt the random tourists unknowingly walking in on a video shoot was a nice and humorous touch. (Direct link to video.)

* * *

Join me on Facebook!
I've recently started a page for THIS blog, Graham Sedam Writes, where I will be sharing all of my writing related endeavors and stuff.

Thank you for your time!

Did you know that I also have a daily blog, Notes.gs?

THE NOT SO DAILY DUMP #14

2018-06-14T08:36:00.001-05:00

Temple Grandin

About a couple of months ago, the subject of autism came up between my wife and kids and me. It reminded me of an HBO movie, Temple Grandin, I had watched several years prior. The movie came out in 2010, so it was around then that I saw it. I thought this movie was well done, and it also introduced me to autism in a way that I had never experienced. That I knew of, I had never known or had been around an autistic person. The best part about this movie is that its main character and story are based upon a real person with autism who has accomplished great things. The movie is both informative and inspiring. We watched it that same afternoon, not terribly long after our discussion began.

About a month later, my daughter, age nine, asked if she could watch TV. She stated that she'd like to watch Temple Grandin. I don't know that I would have let her watch any TV at that time, but her mentioning she was interested in watching Temple Grandin certainly made me more at ease with it. Before I knew it, her brothers were in the living room with their faces glued to the TV. She wasn't able to finish the movie that night—we had dinner and kids’ activities or “whatever” going on as families tend to have—but she continued to watch the movie piece by piece throughout the week. And, for the most part, there her brothers were sitting and watching along.

All told, I don't know how many times she/they watched it. It made me smile that I was not only able to introduce them to something they enjoyed but also something that was educational beyond facts and figures. They were experiencing another way of being human, understanding the larger world and its inhabitants. Maybe, they were growing within their own compassion and empathy for others, to be more accepting and helpful and loving. Or, it's just a good movie. Time will tell. I doubt the two-year-old got any of that. I'm sure he just liked the cows.

Check out this trailer for the movie. (And clickety-clickety here if you want to go to the page where I got this video. Or, if the video player isn't showing. You know the drill.)

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New Posts To Consume

Kiss My Grass, Part 4: Let The Children Play
It should be easy to tell that this recent post is the fourth installment in the "Kiss My Grass" series. How many of these parts will there be? Good question. Maybe, infinity? I have ideas so far for a couple more, but I haven't gotten very far on them yet. Inspiration generally drives what I work on and what I get finished, but I make sure I'm writing SOMETHING regularly, regardless. Must. Keep. Moving. Read this post for insight on what we've done for the wee ones in the back yard since we moved into our home. wee ones = children

Don’t Call Me A Runner
This year is the first year in many years that I've gotten fired up about physical fitness. It started small just to get me headed in a direction, and it's blossomed ever since then. It really doesn't take much to get started, and one is only limited by the barriers they place before them. Doing five minutes of anything I could consider exercise each day has lead to me literally moving as much as I can each day. Going to the chiro regularly since February has been an unexpected necessity as well. My misaligned body had made exercising undesirable over the years. I can thank my wife for setting me up that first appointment without warning. Read more about how my year has developed in this unintended update to the physical fitness aspect of my 2018 goals. (Don't tell my wife that I probably AM a bit of a runner now.)

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Bulls On Parade

This year, just last week, my son and I participated in our first parade. My wife, daughter, and toddler son have been marching with the Girl Scouts since my daughter became a scout. Actually, my toddler son has never attended our city's parade without being in it, whether my wife was pregnant with him or he was being towed along. My older son and I, however, didn't really have a group to join in the parade, so we'd just sit and wave and collect any goodies that came our way.

Our friends over at Marvel Sewer and Drain, Ben and Emily, decided to be in the parade again this year after taking a year off. They put out the call to friends and family to see who would want to support them and march in the parade. I was intrigued at the prospect of being in a parade for the first time, and I wanted to throw my support behind Marvel. I did need to convince my older son, only a little bit, because he gets more out of watching the parade than I do. And when I say "gets more," I mostly mean candy and swag. This WAS the first thing he brought up (as did my daughter), and luckily for me, I had already thought about it. I told them that if we all were in the parade, we would buy our own bag of candy and that we could pick whatever we wanted. We didn't have to accept whatever was thrown at us. They liked this idea; so did my wife.

It was a fun experience. And even though there was a lot of waiting for the parade to begin, and the route lasted an hour and a half, and we spent a little time with the Marvel crew afterward, the time went fast. It was amazing how easy it was to fall back in the parade line-up when I was passing out temporary tattoos, crayons, a coloring page, and letting the parade goers know about Marvel’s drawing on their Facebook page. Throw all of that in with me knowing people along the route and saying a quick “hello” to them as we went, and there was hardly time to soak up the experience. I just had to make sure I stayed in front of the dang inflatable mosquito.

In the past, I never really “got out” much and kept to myself for the most part. There was a period of time where I paid a lot of attention to politics but more so on the national level and not so much at the local level. Since my wife and kids have come along and I've both physically and mentally established roots in the city I live in, I've become more aware and invested with my city, the people in it, and the businesses calling it home. If I weren't marching with Marvel, I could just as easily have marched with the Girl Scouts, too, or even with SLP Chiropractic. It was nice having a chance to talk to Dr. Dave on our way to Marvel’s spot in the parade line-up.

In the bigger picture, it's very interesting to see how much my life is different now than it was six years ago. However, my life didn't change by mistake or happenstance, even if most of the details couldn't have been foreseen. It's all been in a direction that I've been steering towards—a metaphorical call to the void and then the void answered back. I called out to be more involved and interactive; the void answered with a parade. I decided mere weeks ago to wave at everyone in my neighborhood, even if I didn't know them, because that's the kind of ‘hood I want to live in. Guess what? They all wave back.

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Shine That Spotlight, You Crazy Diamond

In this issue, I shine the Spotlight on a fellow blogger. While she does more than blog (visual artist, for example), I would like to introduce you to that part of her sphere of being. Jessica Silver is a huge anime fan and she likes to write about it. She has thoroughly immersed herself within the culture as much as she can. One such example is her attendance at cons, where she not only enjoys the event dressed up in character or in her favorite Lolita-style fashion, but she also speaks on panels as well. At her blog, she reviews as many anime shows as she possibly can, while also giving a little taste of her life, process, and larger views. She self-describes her blog as an “anime-and-more blog.” I would agree.

Oh, and I love her blog’s name, Season 1, Episode 1.

About Jessica | About her website | S1E1.com

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Mantra

I almost put another motivational/educational video in this spot of THE NOT SO DAILY DUMP, but I decided to break it up so as not to show too many of those in a row, from issue to issue. I like to keep this feature fresh and not TOO predictable. Do expect some more of those videos in the future, though.

In this particular issue, I thought you might be interested in experiencing this video I found a couple of weeks ago. Maybe you knew it existed, but I didn't. I like this instrumental tune, and I like the musicians that came together to make it. Regardless of what you think about them personally or of their individual music releases, these three men are each top-of-class creatives, and I've enjoyed their work together, here and elsewhere, and also as separate artists. The song is called Mantra and was created for the movie, Sound City, by Dave Grohl, Josh Homme, and Trent Reznor.

Without further blabbery-bloop, give the video a play. Click. Look. Listen. (Direct link to video.)

* * *

Join me on Facebook!
I've recently started a page for THIS blog, Graham Sedam Writes, where I will be sharing all of my writing related endeavors and stuff.

Thank you for your time!

Did you know that I also have a daily blog, Notes.gs?

Don't Call Me A Runner

2018-05-31T08:30:00.000-05:00

Because, I'm not. I'll admit that, from a distance, it looks like I am. But, I am not. With the launch of my 2018 goals this year, there have been intended-though-not-intentional repercussions. Confusing? Let me explain. I wanted to make changes, and I knew those changes were going to cause other changes. However, I never knew what those changes would be. One minute, I give myself a goal to "exercise 5 minutes a day," the next minute, I'm running a 5k on the treadmill. Well, not literally the next minute. One thing leads to another, as they say.

I initially started walking briskly on the treadmill immediately after using my Total Gym in the morning. I enjoy watching videos I've put in my “watch later” list on YouTube while I'm on the treadmill. They're generally educational or motivational, but it's a mis-mosh of whatever I've saved for later. This helps the time go by more quickly and efficiently, and it can be easy to forget how long I've been on the treadmill. Me being me, I pushed myself a little more for the mere challenge. It wasn't too long after when I started running more regularly on the treadmill and actually looking forward to it. Then, one morning out of the blue, I decided to run a 5k. All of this lead to an actual 5k that I ran on May 21st, 2018.

My wife has been running seriously for a few years now. (You can read her blog about it, or follow her running page on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.) She has run this particular 5k, The SBM Fire Department Fit2Fight 5k, for all three years of her running career. It actually was her first 5k, and I guess it’s now mine, too. She has asked me if I wanted to or would consider running more races. I'm not opposed to it, but I also don't want to take running away from her. She is much more committed to the idea of running races than I am. I don't want to get in the way of her “thing.” I have plenty of “things” already. Actually, I have so many “things” that I am often found curled up in the corner sobbing, because I just don't know which "thing" I should do. Despite that, I think I could get behind running a 5k now and then as long as it doesn't prevent her from following that passion. Though, I would like to keep it to 5ks for the foreseeable future.

Off and on for the few weeks leading up to the race, my wife had casually asked if I'd be interested in running it. I can be a bit of a hem and haw-er sometimes, and I did such with this. (I had said I wasn't going to run races a month prior and now my wife will never let me forget I said that.) On the one hand, it might be fun and a proud accomplishment. On the other hand, it could be hot and uncomfortable. Was I really going to commit to a distance that in practice I had only done twice? I knew I could sign up same-day for the 5k, so I would always just move on with my day and forget about it. I always knew that I could walk it in the least, and I was going to be pushing my two-year-old in the jogging stroller if I did join the race. (The older two kids had supervision at the firehouse. I wasn't going to push all three in a jogging stroller. I just had a vision of that. Nope. Not going to do that, ever.) I’m certainly not going to expect my wife to push the jogging stroller so that I can run without. Like I said, it’s her "thing."

It came down to the day of the race and my wife, toddler, and I were running errands and shopping that morning. She asked me again, and the idea of walking it if I really wanted to won out, and I said, “Sure.” She asked what I was going to wear, and I realized that I really didn't have warm weather running clothes. So, we bought me a pair of shorts and a shirt for running that wicks away moisture. Activewear. Check me out in my ACTIVEWEAR. I figured my six-year-old Adidas soccer shoes would work for my feet, though probably not the most ideal. I was all set.

On an average day, I’m done running by 8 am. This race was at 6:30 pm, so that was different. Also, my wife got a new, fancier Fitbit that looks like an Apple Watch, and I’ve been using her “older” one, an Alta 101. I had been using the Fitbit for a couple of weeks at that point, and so I had been “getting my steps in” all day to hit my step goal. Usually, it’s the other way around. And, by the way, I should mention that I’ve really taken to the Fitbit. I had given my wife a hard time about it in playful jest ever since she started using it in 2013, but I get it. I don’t think it’s for everyone. One MUST be motivated and/or competitive for the Fitbit to have an impact. Luckily, I’m both. Also, it gamifies health, and I love making life into a game. Let’s just say that I’ve been kicking some butt in step competitions. Also, I’ve doubled my minimum daily water intake from 48 ounces to 96. It’s been effective.

After we signed ourselves in at the Fit2Fight 5k, we walked around and stretched a bit. Not a lot of people were stretching, but it didn’t bother me. Maybe, it’s because I’m a newbie, and I stood out. Maybe, they’re too cool for school. I don’t care. It’s my body, and I know what I need to do. Plus, I had been getting a bunch of steps in all day, and that gets a person's muscles tight. Stretch4Life, YO! Maybe that should be my handle. My wife gave me a quick tutorial on how to use the jogging stroller, and soon enough, it was time to go to the starting line for some quick instruction from the events organizer, a firefighter at the station.

I still wasn’t sure what I was going to do in the race. I didn’t want to walk the whole thing. I felt like I had to do more than walk to satisfy my ego, but I also didn’t feel any pressure to do so. When the race started, I had to quickly get acclimated to running with a jogging stroller for the first time. Also, people were bunched together, slowly spreading out as they found their pace and place in the race. Once we left the station’s parking lot, we were on a sidewalk. It was a good time for me to think about what I wanted to do, now that I was actually running. The weird thing about running that non-runners won’t understand (I’m still not a runner.) is that starting out kind of sucks some days. You start asking yourself, “Why am I doing this?” But, then, you find your groove and after a few minutes—or just before a mile for me—it actually starts to feel good. This is caused by the body's natural drugs, aka runner's high, and why people actually get addicted to running. It can feel pretty damn amazing, actually.

While running on the sidewalk, I realized that I didn’t want to go at the pace I was going. I wanted to go faster. Not a lot faster, but I felt claustrophobic. I like having space to feel like I'm running MY race, not someone else's. I needed to reposition, and so I did when I had the chance once we hit a street and turned right. I passed about ten people to get in front of them. This next stretch had a slight uphill, and I wondered if I had made the right decision. I decided that I would make sure it was the right decision and pushed onwards.

I slowed to a brisk walk a few times throughout the race, the first time being about a third of the way in, but not necessarily because I was pushing myself too hard. It was in part because I didn’t want to push myself to the point of no return, black out, and have my toddler sitting on the side of the road. It was also in part because I wanted to give my body a chance to catch up on the oxygen and whatnot that my legs and company needed to keep competing at my highest level. I wanted to finish strong, just a little catch-up to go the long distance. I was happy with my breathing, taking big, deep breaths in and out the whole way. The sweat was glistening off of my big, beautiful, bald head.

I AM glad that I had a slower start. I think it’s a good way to warm-up and feel out how your body is reacting, because one doesn’t know until in the moment. Often times on the treadmill, I’ll go at a nice comfortable pace for a while, and then something inside of me just wants to GO, and so I increase the speed and go how fast my legs want to. So, I personally see this as learning how I work best, and then using it to my advantage. If I had started out at the pace I finished with, I think I would have walked much more of the race, or at least, I wouldn’t have had the strong finish I wanted.

Rather than go through every step of the race, I will say a few more things about it. 1) There was a seven-year-old girl that didn’t want me to pass her, so that was, um, interesting. She kept positioning herself so I couldn't pass her. Dick move, really. When I did finally push hard to pass her, we had transitioned to a sidewalk and the front wheel of the jogging stroller caught on the grass. I pushed through that as well, and I knew I wasn’t going to tip over or crash, but it did scare the girl into slowing down and moving enough so that I could pass her. I wasn’t going to do what she did, but I also wasn’t going to let HER pass me. 2) Throughout most of the race, I paced myself based on two people. There was an older lady behind me and a mom with a jogging stroller in front of me. I didn’t want the older lady passing me, and I had to keep up with the mom in front. Focus can conquer the world. 3) One of the things motivating me was my wife. About halfway in, I could see her in the distance, maybe about three-hundred feet ahead of me. I knew I wasn’t going to catch up to her, nor was I going to try that nonsense, but it made me feel like I was doing well. It helped push me forward.

The last two-hundred feet of the 5k is a pretty great memory. My wife had finished moments prior, and she was making her way back to get the stroller from me so that I could finish without any restrictions. Once she did so, I felt as though a great weight had been lifted from me, and I could run faster and as intended by my body’s design. I rounded the short corner and faced the finish line, people were cheering, and my eyes zeroed in on the clock. I never thought that I would have finished with a sub-30 time, but I did, 29:45. Damn, maybe I CAN do this, I thought. My wife kept going on about how she expected to have to go back farther in the pack to find me and that I was not far behind her. Having a proud and happy wife is pretty great, too.

Three days later, my wife, toddler, and I found ourselves out shopping while my car was in for normal preventive maintenance work. We were in an area we aren’t in a lot, and so we took advantage of the area's stores. One of the places we stopped at was The Running Room. The Running Room is a specialized store selling shoes to runners. It’s pretty important for people who run a lot to have the right shoes. And so, I gave my story to the expert, and he gave me his recommendation.

I’ve taken to running on the treadmill barefoot, and it doesn’t bother me. Also, I don’t usually have new shoes or shoes with great arch support. Let’s just say, my feet have never been pampered. This is more of a problem for some people. I wonder if it’s good foot genes, I've just toughened my feet over the years, or a higher tolerance for discomfort. All three probably. Anyway, because of all of this, he recommended Altra Escalante Zero-Drop shoes. Basically, they are made to feel like you’re running barefoot. There’s no lift in the heel like there is in essentially all shoes sold. They look a little different but not too much. Ironically, there's more cushion in them than I'm used to. They feel "normal" when I'm running, but when I'm walking, it feels like the front of my feet are higher than my heels.

The Running Room has an awesome policy that you can use purchased shoes for 30 days and return them if they're not working out for your feet. So far, I’ve run with them on the treadmill several times. Other than the initial getting used to running with them on, they feel great. I have a feeling I’ll be sticking with them for now, though, I do still need to test them running outside.

That’s where I’m at right now; committing myself to "5 minutes of exercise a day" was the catalyst. It makes me think about all of the things I can or could accomplish. Unfortunately, the days are short and the list is long, but with the right attitude and focus, maybe I CAN do it all. You and I will see.

And, don’t think I’ve been sitting down writing this post, I’ve been stepping and listening to the band Mogwai (mostly) among other random tunes. I’ve got some Brits with large weekly step averages to beat. I’m looking at you Running Beardo! Thanks again to The Wigan Runner for adding my wife and me to his challenge this week! It's been... motivating!

Oh, and don’t call me a runner.

* * *

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THE NOT SO DAILY DUMP #13

2018-05-17T08:20:00.000-05:00

The League

I haven't watched this show since its Season 7/Series Finale in 2015, but it's been on my mind more as of late. I think if a show, or any art for that matter, can imprint itself in the memory so well that you can't view life the same as before it, then you've got something that's really special, even if it's only special to you. Things change people. Or, at least, they should. I know I continue to change, and I believe for the better.

I had two different friends (who do not know each other and who have different general interests) recommend this to me within only a few months. I took this as a sign, and my wife and I began watching it shortly thereafter. We actually started Season 1 sometime in 2015 and finished Season 6 only weeks before Season 7 aired. Are we fans of the show? You betcha, gosh darnit.

If you'd like a bit of information about this show before you go all in, I will tell you this: It's about a group of adult friends who grew up together and have always played fantasy sports, namely football. In fact, every season of the show coincides with an NFL season. I know, I know. You're thinking, “But I don't really care for sports, let alone ‘fantasy’ sports.” I agree with you. I'm not a huge sports fan, and I've never had any bit of me interested in pretending to create my own team. (If that's your jam, good for you!) You're in luck, though, because what I just described is just a backdrop to the show's hilarious characters, their palm-to-the-face shenanigans, and their never-ceasing ball busting. If this show doesn't have you laughing, then there may be no hope for you.

By the way, don’t Google "ball busting..." I'm referring to it as a phrase described as general "male" banter meant to demean and taunt friends. Oh, and there's a woman in this group of friends, and she's just as bad as the men.

Get a taste of what I'm talking about (The League, not Google's search of "ball busting") with this video from YouTube. I'll be the first to admit that this clip might not be the best this show has to offer, but it was really hard to pick only one, and one that incapsulates the show as a whole. Also, there are a lot of clips that are even less safe for work or children than this one. The clip is from Season 1, Episode 1. (Here's a direct link, in case where you're viewing this does not support embedded players.)

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Randomness, Yo

Here's another new section idea for the 'Dump.’ It shouldn't need any explanation, but what fun would that be? Basically, the section consists of random micro-thoughts that I don't go into length talking about. Pretty basic. Will this be the last time it appears? Tune in to all future posts to find out. I repeat, ALL future posts.

For whatever reason, my brain has evolved or devolved to the point where I can't think of the theme song for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles without hearing it in my mind sung in a voice that sounds like a dramatized impersonation of Richard Nixon.

I can do a pretty good rendition of Sméagol/Gollum. So good that I creeps out and bothers my wifes's's withs it. On the most recent trip to my parents, my toddler son was being difficult for me as I tried to change his diaper. So, I went into a little impromptu skit that had my wife, my son, and my dad laughing hard. I was pretty proud of myself. (The precious was the poops.)

Have you ever had someone say to you, "How are you doing today?" Or, another common greeting, “What's up?" Sure, you have. There are many variations, and you and I have probably heard them all. However, what really greases my goose is when the person asking doesn't actually want to hear your response to the question they've posed. Well, don't ask. If a simple 'hello' suffices, just say hello. No need to act like you care if in fact you don't. And really, most people don't.

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Waxing, Both On AND Off

I have started participating in my son's karate class. When he started karate last September (2017), the teacher made it clear that any parent could join the class for no extra charge. Since then, I have been watching the class and practicing at home. At first, it was to make sure my son was practicing correctly. Then, I started to like the idea that we were learning something together and that whatever belt level he moved into, I would technically be at that level, too. I don't have a uniform or a belt to show my ranking, nor do I have a ranking within that organization’s database. All the same, it's been fun learning a martial art and doing more physical activity as a byproduct.

Since last September, especially after I made “5 Minutes Of Karate A Day” a goal at the start of the New Year, my wife had encouraged me to participate in class. I have to admit that I was a little unsure about being out there on the floor. Those not in the class sit in folding chairs against three of the four walls in the room, watching. During the second session, when my son advanced from the beginner’s classes to the returning classes, I saw that more parents were joining in. I had some extra encouragement from a fellow karate parent who also partakes in the class with her daughter. And, after I joined in at the beginning of my son's fourth session, even more parents started to as well.

I'm glad I started participating in the class for at least a few different reasons. I think my son focuses better and seems to be more inclined to practice. It's easier for me to remember the moves we learn in class to replicate later, you know, 5 Minutes A Day. And lastly, even if it only took a small amount of courage, I decided to put myself out there, on the floor, and join in with the class.

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Shine That Spotlight, You Crazy Diamond

It's not always easy to pick just one person to Spotlight in each issue. During this go-around, I've decided to share a friend of mine with you who is all-around talented in the arts. He is a visual artist, a musician/songwriter, and an author. One of the reasons I thought about sharing him with you now is that I'm currently reading his debut book, The Black River Players. I should probably mention who I'm talking about. His name is J. Thomas Richards, but I've always known him as James. I’m not quite done reading the book yet, but I would be surprised if it didn’t continue to keep me absorbed into the pages of its tale.

You can find James on Twitter @loosemeatnoose.
Learn more about and purchase the book at Amazon.

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From Small To Big

This video is about the power of small changes, regardless of how much you think you are capable of, regardless of how smart you think you are. My life has been heading in a direction like this a lot this year—taking small steps to reach bigger goals. Well, it has been for years, considering very little happens on a whim in anyone's life. We are the accumulation of many small choices compounded over time. BUT, this year especially, I've been tweaking more small things with GREAT purpose.

I think one of the biggest aspects that has accelerated these changes this year has to be the goals I set. Of course, these goals were in turn accelerated by other factors before them. Where I'm headed, or rather the direction I'm aiming for, is down a path that may be humanly impossible. Maybe it just seems impossible right now, but I am keeping the mindset that it is possible—I just haven't figured out how to accomplish it, yet. I don't want to “vaguebook” or speak in riddles, but I also don't want to get ahead of myself, so this is what you get. I have big plans and it all starts with small, calculated steps. Even if I don't fulfill this self-designed prophecy, I'll still be better off and happier for the effort and what I do achieve along the way. Love the process and the outcome will be amazing.

The video below is a little longer than the ones I tend to share, but if I didn't think it was worth the watch, I wouldn't share it. (Here's a direct link for those that want to open it up at YouTube.)

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Kiss My Grass, Part 4: Let The Children Play

2018-05-03T08:22:00.001-05:00

If you'd like to catch up in this series, please read the following posts.
Kiss My Grass, Part 1: The Beginning
Kiss My Grass, Part 2: Speak To The Trees
Kiss My Grass, Part 3: The Trees Have Eyes

When we gutted our newly purchased back yard in the spring/summer of 2013, we also tore down and got rid of a broken, tetanus-giving, rickety old swing set. (I think that's a sufficient amount of adjectives.) Our back yard is mostly sloped, although a mostly gradual slope, and the swing set was positioned at the top of said slope, so it leaned as well. If one were to swing or use the slide, the direction of travel would be downhill. Nothing about this swing set gave us any sense of safety for our children.

The kids, numbering only two at the time, weren't happy about us removing the swing set, but they also didn't know we were planning on putting a new one in at some point. We knew the replacement swing set would get a lot of use, and if we took care of it, the swing set could potentially entertain grandkids. Wishful thinking, perhaps, but possible. I have a feeling that repairs to the swing set will be needed before grandkids come, and I've also dreamed up some modifications to take it to the next level. American Ninja Warrior, anyone? NOT JOKING. Seriously, not joking. (This is the best picture I have of the old swing set. Click on the picture to make it larger.)

In the autumn of that year, 2013, we purchased a 95% wooden swing set for half-off the original price and hid it in the garage until Christmas, which was easy because it was in three, thin-but-long boxes full of pieces. We were excited to give the kids this present, but we knew that it was a bit of a bummer that they wouldn't get to enjoy it until warm weather returned. Also, we had to put it together. One thing that the kids liked about the old swing set was the boat wheel and spyglass—pirate regalia! We decided to purchase those two items and then add them to the swing set once we built it. It was the boat wheel, the spyglass, and a photo of the swing set that the kids opened on Christmas Eve with slightly confused faces. Needless to say, but I will say it anyway, they were excited once they found out what their present meant.

We wanted to create a section in the yard dedicated to the kids. Plus, we wanted to do something for them that showed our appreciation for all of the busy-ness and chaos they went through at such a young age in 2013: buying a house and then moving two different houses into one, making improvements to the new house, all on top of planning and preparing for our backyard wedding. (And, we made a couple of road trips during that time! We're HARDCORE.) If 2013 was crazy for my wife and me, just imagine how much fun it was for the kids. We also wanted to draw the kids to the back yard and not the front yard as much as possible. They had grown accustomed to not being in the back yard most of the time they were outside, in part because of the work being done. Also, bike riding and the like is more difficult to do in grass. The point being, they were naturally drawn to the front yard.

My wife and I talked about Project: Play Area over the winter. We decided to place the swing set in an already (mostly) flat area of our back yard because that made sense and required less work in the making of a flat area. Also, the area we chose had adequate shade for all but the middle of the day; we knew we were going to keep these trees. The other trees helping to create this shade were from the neighbors on two sides of that back corner of the yard. We could have constructed the swing set and have been done with it. Instead, we put as much thought into the finished project as we could. Did we go overboard? That's subjective. We have our reasons and I don't regret any of it.

So, what did we do the following spring?

Our first step was to modify where our sump pump hose drained. Where the hose ended was in a horrible place to begin with, popping up in what seemed like a random part of the yard. It was an understandable place for water to exit when one takes into consideration that there was a barren garden in that area when we moved in. Considering there was no longer a garden there and we were putting in a play area, it became a not-so-desirable place for the hose to drain. I extended the plastic tubing roughly twenty feet to the back corner of our lot and dug a trench for it to continue to that point. I reused as much of the sod as I could and used Scott's PatchMaster to fill in the rest. It wasn't difficult, but it WAS one more job to add to the bigger project.

Rather than have the inevitable dirt spots under the swings and so forth, we created an area filled with rubber mulch and then bordered that area with thick, rubber edging. No need to mow in and around the swing set. The kids can use the play area after it rains, because it will drain and won't be muddy. Rubber mulch is more forgiving to falls. It looks nice. All of these reasons went into the decision to purchase 4,000 pounds of rubber mulch. However, before we installed the rubber border and filled the area in with rubber mulch or constructed the swing set, we prepared the ground.

The three trees in our yard adjacent to the eventual play area did a really good job of keeping the ground directly below them shaded. This was not good for the grass as there was not enough sun and there was too much moisture. We solved this in part in 2016 by trimming those trees and letting more light in. In late 2017, our neighbor to the south removed two trees, so that should help starting in 2018. Unfortunately, he planted three trees in their place. It will be quite a while before they create a lot of shade, and I suspect there will be a new neighbor living there by that time. Unless, and I don't doubt the possibility, that crotchety old man starts setting records for longevity.

In the spring of 2014, about a year after we had sod laid, the grass had become thin and mostly dead underneath the three trees adjacent to the play area. It would seem to not make sense to put more grass there, but that's what we did with the grass from the play area, and it has worked out. I have spread lime over the area about once a year to help counteract the fact that it's in the vicinity of that southern neighbor’s pine trees. It's not close enough to be a lost cause, and it's worth it to help keep it from becoming a muddy, decaying, smelly swamp. In addition, being mindful to not water the grass unless it clearly needs it and giving it food helps to keep the grass on the healthy side of living. Brawndo—it's got what plants crave.

After we dug the grass out and transplanted it, we leveled off the area and got to work on constructing the swing set. We had directions for it, and we did follow those directions, but there were a lot of parts and none of them came with any assembly whatsoever. It ended up taking us a few days to get it assembled, and even then, we weren't able to finish the job until we were ready to actually place it into the play area. My wife worked on a few parts in the garage to hopefully make the final assembly more speedy. The day that we completed the swing set portion of the project, I mixed cement and poured it into the ground so that it hardened around the metal stakes connected to the swing set.

It's hard to remember timelines now, years later, but mere days after all of the previously stated work was completed, we received the truck shipment of rubber mulch and borders. Since we were a residential delivery, the truck had a lift gate, thankfully, but it didn't make it any easier to push the heavy pallets, numbering two, into the slightly not-sloped-to-our-advantage driveway. Like I stated earlier—4,000 pounds of rubber.

I moved every bag of rubber mulch (and the borders) to the back yard by wheelbarrow, three bags at a time. My wife would rip open a bag and dump it, and then my two kids would help her spread the mulch out. It felt like it took a lot longer to get that part of the job done, but it actually only took a few hours. I do remember it being late in the day when we finished and all of us being very hungry. If I remember correctly, that evening was capped with a delivery or a fast food run. My wife and I weren't going to make dinner—hell no.

You might be saying to yourself, “What play area is complete without a sandbox?” My answer to that question is, “No, it would not be complete.” If I had to do it ALL over again, there's a good chance I'd do what another family I know did. They have a dedicated play area with an impressive swing set, and the area is bordered off from the yard by using wooden boards. Where I filled this area in with rubber mulch, they filled it in with sand. It makes for a large sandbox that checks off all the same boxes on my list of reasons for filling in a play area. Except one, and I'll get to that very shortly.

My original idea was to build a sandbox myself and keep it as simple as possible. My wife convinced me to buy one so that I could focus my time on other projects. I did end up making a lid for the sandbox. The exception I previously mentioned is that my wife wanted a lid to prevent nature from getting into the sandbox and mucking it up and to prevent cats from turning it into a litter box. I didn't disagree with her assessment, so I built a simple lid out of plywood and 2x2s. I don't regret the decision to buy a sandbox (or make a lid). I did buy a cheap one, and it started falling apart in 2017, and now, I'm back to thinking about building a new one. However, what that all entails has changed since 2014…

AMERICAN NINJA WARRIOR

To be continued?

This is a picture taken right after we were done.

I had not stained the sandbox to match the swing set yet,

and I had not made the sandbox cover.

* * *

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THE NOT SO DAILY DUMP #12

2018-04-12T07:59:00.001-05:00

Haters Back Off!

This is a show that I've been wanting to share with you for a while. My wife and I started watching this Netflix Original, Haters Back Off!, sometime towards the end of last year. I fell in love pretty much immediately. We only watched the first season before we took a break and got lost in the return of network shows that we follow. Finally, we returned and finished off Haters' second and most recent season in the past week or so. I suspect a third season to come at some point, but as is often the case with shows of this nature, it seemed like they buttoned things up in a way that would be fitting of a show not getting the 'go ahead' from corporate. One just never knows, so why not do right by the fans just in case? However, Netflix doesn't seem to have the same constraints as network or even cable TV, and this show isn't a big budget type of shindig. I await its return. No, wait. I just checked the internet. Apparently, there won't be a season three. RAGE

What do I like about this show? Well, there's nothing I don't like about this show and it's funny. At least, I think so. The characters are absurd. The situations are ridiculous. One thing I find interesting about this show is that it originated from an ongoing (and still going) comedic stunt pulled by comedian, actress, singer etc Colleen Ballinger. Without giving everything away, I will say that the show centers around a character named Miranda, and she's working to become a world-class superstar by way of YouTube, if only the world would just come to its senses. In much of the same way the HBO show, Flight of the Conchords, made me a little self-conscious, Haters Back Off! makes me wonder if I come off the same way that they all do—pathetic and laughable. Either way, we all gotta do what our hearts tell us to. No ragrets.

As you may guess, here's a video for Haters Back Off! I don't necessarily like to share trailers, but I felt that this was a pretty decent one to give you a preview of what would come, if you chose to watch the first episode. Here's a link in case the embedded video doesn't show up. (I'm staring at you, email people. But then again, you can always jump to my site from the email... whatever works for you!)

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Linkage For Thinkage

I get ideas. Sure, maybe they aren't ALL great ideas, but regardless, I thrive as a human being by letting my mind wander and think of the 'what-ifs' in life. I don't ever want to feel like I'm stuck doing the same things or being the same person. Life is too long (if all goes well) to not try to be all that one can be—something to that effect. With that in mind, once in a while, I will come up with different ideas for sections to THE NOT SO DAILY DUMP. I've decided to try this one out now.

What this essentially boils down to is that I read stuff on the internet, and I want to share some of it. This section will have links to things, and those things will be related in some way. Maybe next time those links will all be related to UFOs and cow abductions. Maybe the time after that, they will all loosely be related to lawn care. Who knows? I barely do.

This time around, the links are all related to how crazy (or interesting) humanity can be.

Tech Bro Guru: Inside The Sedona Cult Of Bentinho Massaro
I couldn't finish this article. It gets pretty long, but I read enough of it to get a really good picture of who this guy is and what he's really doing. How do people fall for this type of crazy time and again? It takes a certain kind of brain to manipulate and a certain kind of brain to fall for it. There are plenty of examples out in the world. The person who wrote this article, Be Scofield, infiltrated the cult to get the firsthand knowledge about it. There are plenty of videos included to experience for yourself who Mr. Massaro is—a psychopath.

Cow Fisting 80-Year-Old Banned From Every Farm In England
What more can be said about this? Not much, but this short article does a good job filling in some details in a light-hearted way. For example, he's a repeat offender. One cow doesn't get you banned...

I Made My Shed The Top Rated Restaurant On TripAdvisor
Imagine a world where an Icelandic man used to write fake reviews on TripAdvisor as a job and then decides to start writing fake reviews for a restaurant that doesn't even exist. Guess what? You're living in that world. And then, what happens when you get to the point where your tall tale has gone so far and so well that people are begging and demanding to be served at your exclusive restaurant, and TripAdvisor is bound to catch on any day? Read the article to find out.

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Outings With The Relations

A couple of interesting things my family did recently are going to an art show at a community college and spending an afternoon at The Science Museum of Minnesota.

The art show included two pieces that my neighbor and friend, Elisha (or should I say Felicia), created. This was an exclusive event where the art had to be selected to be included. I didn't take a picture of any of her work, because I'm a horrible person (though you could go to her site to see), but I DID take a picture of this gem. Behold! Potato people with real human teeth. I just knew this would be something that Tim would enjoy. This piece wasn't even in the show; it was in the window by the entrance to the faculty offices.

My wife ran a 10 miler for Goldy's Run this past Sunday. I expect she'll write a post about it soonish at her blog. This required me to take a vacation day since she had a race to run that morning. What to do with a rare weekend afternoon spent with the WHOLE family? We headed to The Science Museum, of which we are members, and took advantage of what was new.

We saw Dream Big, a film about engineering, in the Omnitheater. We checked out the temporary exhibit, Towers of Tomorrow with LEGO Bricks, saw the impressive creations, and built some of our own. We browsed through parts of the rest of the museum as we had time, but being we have seen these permanent exhibits more than once, we did so with little urgency.

I was expecting there to be more people at the museum than there was. I was happy it wasn't nearly as crowded as it can be on a weekend day.

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Shine That Spotlight, You Crazy Diamond

The next issue of THE NOT SO DAILY DUMP will go back to a one Spotlight format. For now, here's a continuation of the latest round of recaps.

TNSDD #7
I shared Nick Morris with you in this Spotlight. If you didn't get a chance to read that issue of TNSDD, you might have missed out on an article he had published, "Using Garritan Sounds in Ableton Live 9." While Nick is a fellow drummer, he focuses much of his time on synths and electronic music production. You can see his elaborate set-ups on the social pages for his musical moniker, Draze Force, as well as listen to snippets of what he's working on in that moment. Somewhat recently, his debut album, Digital Ocean, was uploaded to Spotify, and last November, Nick hinted that his EP, III, was on the way. Adding to the options I linked in the initial Spotlight (and that Spotify link), you can listen to some new tracks on Soundcloud.

TNSDD #8
Next, we have Brian Gallagher, a Minnesota native who's been living in Los Angeles, California for about the last ten years. Like I mentioned previously, Brian writes reviews and does interviews for MovieWeb and TVweb. He gets to preview films, interview celebrities, and interact with creatives in the entertainment industry; pretty cool job, if you ask me. In addition to this, Brian works on his own scripts designed for television and movies. From the way his updates sound on social media, he works pretty regularly on these scripts and has written some new drafts, first and otherwise, since I initially put Brian in a Spotlight last November. For the most up-to-date information on Brian's writing, go to his website. I found this handy page that lists all of the articles he's written for MovieWeb. And, the same thing here for TVweb.

TNSDD #9
Carissa Nielsen was recognized in Spotlight #9 for her photography skills. Her business, Photograph Minnesota, does great work. I can attest to this as my wife and I have had multiple sessions with her: wedding, engagement, and family pictures. She's got a creative eye and is a pleasure to be around—how can you beat that? If you are interested in having Carissa capture your images, you better act. Her spring calendar is filling up! However, she works in the Chisago Lakes area of Minnesota, so if you don't live near there, you should start packing your bags for a road trip. A TBI survivor since 2014, Carissa started an organization called Still On that helped others with traumatic brain injury. She has since redirected her focus by going back to college for teaching and is currently working as an SPED ParaProfessional in her local school district. Carissa brings joy to everything she does, and I have no doubt she'll continue to do that with whatever endeavor she chooses to pursue! Check out Photograph Minnesota on Facebook and Instagram.

* * *

Join me on Facebook!
I've recently started a page for THIS blog, Graham Sedam Writes, where I will be sharing all of my writing related endeavors and stuff.

Thank you for your time!

Did you know that I also have a daily blog, Notes.gs?

THE NOT SO DAILY DUMP #11

2018-03-27T08:10:00.000-05:00

Virtual Insanity

I’ve noticed that the videos I have included in THE NOT SO DAILY DUMP have been primarily related to movies, TV shows, and TED Talks. While you should expect plenty more of those in the future, and there are still plenty of those that I COULD share with you, I decided to go a bit off of the beaten path in this issue and share a music video.

My wife and I were watching TV one night months ago and something reminded me of this video. If you were the right age in the ‘90s and you had access to music videos, then this artist, song, and video may not be new to you. My wife was not familiar with the artist, song, or video, so I played it for her. Is it groundbreaking? Monumental? I doubt it. Who am I to say? It’s just one of those things in pop culture from the time frame I grew up in. It’s one of those “things” I remember and reference from time to time.

Without further delay, here's a music video from Jamiroquai for the song, Virtual Insanity. Do you think the lyrics to the song are more relevant to life today than they were back when it was written? Give it a watch below, or emailers, give this a tap.

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New Posts To Consume

Justinian’s Flea And Related Musings
Here’s a post I wrote about a book I read last year. As should come with no surprise, I meander a bit in thought, mention the book I started reading after Justinian’s Flea, and talk of my reading habits in general and as of late last year. I do talk plenty about the book itself, in my opinion, but it’s not just about the book, hence, the ‘related musings.’

The R&D Workshop No.6
This post follows the path laid by past Workshop updates and informs readers of a couple things I built late last year, how I’m doing with my 2018 goals in relation to drumming, where I’m at with the music-making (mostly concerning my music computer), and a little guidance on what the way forward is looking like right now. While this post isn’t a thoroughly comprehensive look into these topics, it does provide more answers to those of you who may be curious or are wondering, “What’s this guy DOing?”

* * *

Mail A Penny, Take A Penny

Have you ever received mail that includes coins? These are the kind of mailers trying to get you to donate to a cause. It’s the price one pays when they’ve donated to any cause. One particular plea that I’ve seen more often over the last few years is organizations sending people coins and asking them to send it back. What they really want you to do is to send them a check for more than what they sent, obviously. I’ve found this practice to be odd.

I’ve joked with my wife that I should return the money to them. Is it a jerk thing to do? Maybe, but I would be doing what they asked. Would I be the first to do this? Someone has had to have done it, right? They are already paying someone for my information, paper, printing, postage etc just to get their message and request to me, and now they’ve added five to ten cents to the cost. I often wonder if getting money or free stuff (like calendars) from charities actually gets people to donate. They must do it because it works. I’m sure there’s a percentage of people that it appeals to, and it must work if charities do it repeatedly.

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Observations

The Law of Flat Surfaces

Where there is a flat surface, "things" will accumulate. This has been a bit of a peeve of mine for as long as I can remember in my adult life. Sure, some flat surfaces should have things on them. Where else are we to put things? Surely, bumpy or otherwise non-flat surfaces aren't usually the best to place things, but sometimes those horizontally challenged surfaces are probably more appropriate. My problem comes when every flat surface is covered with these things and there's no place or not enough of a place to temporarily put things or to do things, because there are things already and always there in what seems to be a permanent state. Some surfaces need to breathe and live in the moment and not always be under the weight of random stuff. Some surfaces should be kept bare for the majority of time.

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Shine That Spotlight, You Crazy Diamond

Carrying on from where I left off in TNSDD #10, here are the next three Spotlights recapped.

TNSDD #4
Douglas Ferrie is a cousin of mine, and in the previous Spotlight, I told you about how he was a featured artist for a show called "Savor" presented by RAW Minneapolis and that he works for a company called House of Kolor. I’d like to update you a bit with information about his latest endeavor. He has a page on Facebook now to showcase his artistry. His moniker and page name is Doodle Monster with a handle of @TheTrueDoodleMonster. What you’ll find is a collection of ‘doodles’ ranging from portraits to a reoccurring comic strip. Feed your eyeballs and follow his page.

TNSDD #5
I recognized Ben and Emily Smith previously for running a great business with amazing customer service. My wife and I will no doubt give them any business we can, whether it’s for our own home’s sewer and drain needs or as a referral to anyone who will listen. It seems like they are continuing to catch people’s attention and have been featured in Cleaner Magazine. Not only was an article written about them and their company, but they were on the cover! How awesome! Follow Marvel Sewer and Drain on Facebook or visit their website.

TNSDD #6
Jessi Gurr is a woman on a mission. I went a little overboard (perhaps, not?) with links to different things she’s done and is doing in the Spotlight I featured her in. In this issue, where I’m trying to keep things a little more streamlined and to the point, I will just remind you of her website development and hosting company, Iceberg Web Design. With a work environment that would make any employee envious, Iceberg churns out top-notch work regularly. I look forward to the day that I can give them my web design and hosting business. Go to their website and see what they do and have done. Follow them on Facebook!

* * *

Join me on Facebook!
I've recently started a page for THIS blog, Graham Sedam Writes, where I will be sharing all of my writing related endeavors and stuff.

Thank you for your time!

Did you know that I also have a daily blog, Notes.gs?

The R&D Workshop No.6

2018-03-06T10:04:00.000-06:00

✤ Intro

Last October I wrote a couple of these updates, No.4 and No.5. I attempted to get you, the reader, up-to-date on projects in general, and then I specifically outlined my hopes for the winter music season. Here I am to tell you about some more things that have or have not happened since then.

✤ Little Drummer Man

Have you read my posts on the resolutions I've made this year? I've linked the post that goes most in depth about my 2018 goals here. One of those resolutions is playing drums daily. I've done a pretty decent job of following through with this goal so far with plenty of room for improvement. While I'm already experiencing the benefits of the (progressively) daily discipline, I expect to see much bigger gains when next autumn comes.

One big issue I’ve had with accomplishing these goals recently is that I came down with the flu. That really screwed up my ability and my motivation to accomplish my goals. I’ve been gradually feeling better and hope to be tiptop by the time I hit the two-week mark since I came down with the sickness. When I initially got sick, I was pushing myself a lot, and I’ve been reluctant to do so again until I’m back to normal.

I was really starting to enjoy and look forward to my new daily habits. I had plenty to improve upon and figure out, but it was nice to feel the pride that came with shaping a ‘new me.’ I felt better from the effort and in the making of the effort itself. Getting off track and behind has been a big disappointment, and it has really shown me how much I want to accomplish my goals. Sure, it’s nice to feel the accomplishment, but the byproducts of the accomplishments are the real prize.

✤ Let There Be Shelving

Although I didn't complete all of the studio upgrades I would have liked to complete last autumn, one thing I did get done—perhaps the most pertinent item on the list—was to build storage shelves. One of the perks to shelves is taking advantage of vertical space, and I badly needed to take advantage of that perk. While not all of my studio things fit on this shelving, it made a huge difference in fitting everything into that corner of the room.

Whenever I make changes to my studio, I always think about how it will influence the sound within the room. Where two flat surfaces come together to form a corner, undesirable things happen in relation to sound. With a shelf in that corner, I will be introducing a little diffusion and a little absorption. Reflections won't change a whole lot due to the nature of the stuff on the shelves, but diffusion helps with that. Still, it's better than it was in these regards, and I've got some shelves to use.

One of the rules I gave myself was to only use wood that I already had. I usually have a fair amount of wood sitting in the garage at any given time, and I felt that I could reasonably accomplish the self-directed directive. I felt that it would also give me a bit of a challenge to figure out how I was going to build it. Plus, who doesn't like to save money. I did end up buying ‘L’ brackets to attach the top and bottom halves together once I had them in the basement.

There are two reasons I built it in two halves. One, I wanted it to easily be moved to the basement. I didn't want it to weigh so much or be too big that my wife and I couldn't easily handle it. Two, it worked out that way because of the materials I had to choose from. I primed and painted it to match the other furniture that I've built for the studio. It also matches the general color scheme and decor of the rooms in the basement. (I secured it to the wall, in case you were wondering.)

✤ Video Killed The Mojo Machine (Or So I Thought)

It seems that this music season isn't going according to plan at all so far. When do things ever go according to plan, I guess? I did have a hard time believing I would achieve everything I wanted to, but I also thought I would have gotten a better jump on it in December or January. December was too busy, but I did start playing drums regularly—that's a plus I'm not complaining about! And then, there's January.

I thought I was having issues with my video card. I did have to replace it years ago, and since I wasn’t getting a signal to my video monitors, it seemed plausible. I contacted the company I bought my music computer tower from, ADK, and I asked them what video card they recommended with my system. I bought this tower in 2008 and decided to put Windows XP on it. I don't regret it considering the alternatives at the time. Windows XP is and was a fine program. However, since then, XP is no longer supported by Microsoft and therefore one could conclude that parts would be harder to come by. So, considering I’m not as savvy as some, I asked which card would be a good bet. I bought the one they recommended and installed it.

The same problem persisted, so I brought the computer to the Best Buy Geek Squad. The first guy’s attitude and salesmanship wasn’t very good, but I left the computer tower anyway because I needed to know what the way forward was going to be. (The guy I dealt with next two times was much better, and I will try to work with again in the future.) What it comes down to is that the diagnostics came back with nothing being wrong with my hardware. Actually, it was stated that for a computer of ten years of age that it was in a great condition. My operating system was messed up, corrupt, or something. After some discussion with the Geek Squad-er (the good one), we came to the conclusion that the best way forward was to install Windows 10 and they did. I’m of course giving you the sped-up version of the story. Trust me. It’s better this way.

What now?

Well, I replaced the video card in January and visited the Geek Squad in early February. I would have liked this section of the post to end with me saying that the computer is running full, head on. However, I still need to update the driver for the new video card, figure out how to use Windows 10, and who knows what else. It feels like it’s been longer than it has since I’ve last turned it on. I need to purchase new music recording/editing software (Cubase) and install it, since the version I have isn’t compatible with the new operating software. I’m sure there’s plenty more to work through and accomplish before I’m “ready to rock.”

I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with computers. I just want them to work. I don’t have any interest in the “getting them to work” part. I’ve had plenty else keeping me busy, though, and what I need right now is a day on the calendar I can clear (or keep clear) to make my computer a priority from the start. If I can accomplish other things after, great, because that means I’ve made progress.

✤ Let There Be MORE Shelving

Another shelving project I completed last fall is in the utility room of the basement. It’s an area that was grossly underutilized but had unique constraints. The sump pit is on the floor below the shelving and the water outflow runs along the wall. Because of this, I made three triangular shaped shelves. I was able to attach one side to the inner-house wall due to the 2x4 wall supports being exposed. On the other side, one of the triangle’s points is attached to a 2x6 that is free standing, but it fits very snuggly against the outside cement block wall.

Like my studio shelving, I gave myself the task to complete the project with only materials I already had. Maybe I bought some more screws, I don’t remember, but the idea was to use up my wood cache. It’s easy to just buy more wood, but then pieces of this and that accumulate over time. Shelves are one of the easiest ways to take advantage of this “issue.”

I’m still in the process of trying to figure out where to permanently store most of the items on the shelves as the utility room isn’t the best place for them...

✤ In Closing

I’m moving forward on many fronts, most of which only a very small amount of people have any knowledge about. Someday, I suppose. For now, I talk about the music, the blogging, and the home improvement stuff. I tend to keep a lot of soups on the stove. Too many, perhaps, but keeping my idea machine running full-tilt has been showing dividends. I may not be where I want to be with some of those, but one task’s loss is another’s gain. I think that makes sense. Much has been achieved this year so far, no matter how inglorious the tasks, and they ultimately lead me towards the place I want to be. I will be somewhere regardless. I might as well try and make it into somewhere worth being.

The quote I ended No.4 with still feels incredibly relevant. Maybe it always will.

"That which hinders your task IS your task." -Sanford Meisner

* * *

Join me on Facebook!
I've recently started a page for THIS blog, Graham Sedam Writes, where I will be sharing all of my writing related endeavors and stuff.

Thank you for your time!

Did you know that I also have a daily blog, Notes.gs?

THE NOT SO DAILY DUMP #10

2018-02-22T08:07:00.001-06:00

New Posts To Consume

Got Resolve? A New Year's Beginning

Got Resolve? 2018 Goals Dissected

I've published a few new posts so far this year, including the two linked above. They are related to resolutions and my commitment to both making and following through on them this year. I actually have never made New Year's Resolutions before that I can remember, at least like this, where I'm resolving to DO something as opposed to NOT doing something. Sure, I've made vague resolutions in the past that were as easily forgotten as they were made. Not this year. Maybe, perhaps, these goals are more meaningful, more accomplishable?

One of my goals, and you'll have to read the second post for more information on it, is doing five minutes of karate daily. As far back as last fall, my wife and I thought it might be fun to watch The Karate Kid with our children. While watching a YouTube video that I was thinking about hyperlinking (and actually did) in the post mentioned above, I immediately noticed there was a lot of swearing. I didn't remember that part. Is the rest of the movie like this? I don't know if this will prevent us watching it with them, but maybe it will delay it a little longer.

Here's the clip I hyperlinked. I thought it may be an enjoyable addition to this issue of THE NOT SO DAILY DUMP and was appropriate to pair with this section. Enjoy! And, if the video isn't showing up (emailers), give this blue line of text a try. You know, click it.

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Cool Things

I have only brought this up once ever, and I did so in one of the posts I mentioned above, the one involving goal dissection. I started using Google Keep sometime last autumn and have been finding more reasons to use it ever since. I don't think Google needs my help promoting its software, and that's not why I'm bringing it up here. I'm telling you about it because I think it's a "cool thing" that I am recently getting a lot of value out of and want to share that with you, reader. That's all.

I use Google Keep to make lists. I use the list function, although not necessarily as functionally intended, to track my daily goals and to keep track of things I need to accomplish weekly. Grocery lists work great with Keep's list option. It makes checking off items easy as you shop. Also, when you're ready to make another list, those past items can be added back by unchecking them.

You can use Google Keep to set reminders and make general notes as well. One disadvantage I've found with past note-taking software I've used is that it's always been native to my phone. So, when I saw Google Keep, I was immediately intrigued by the ability to access it anywhere and that it wasn't dependent upon my phone working or not being traded in. And, I'm not terribly worried about making too many notes due to the ability to sort them by the labels I create.

I started using Keep to write posts, since I stopped using the Blogger app. I posted about this in TNSDD #9 in more detail. Basically, I had issues with the app on my phone and the Blogger program in the cloud communicating properly. I decided to try out writing post drafts in Keep and still am for now. The only big drawback is the amount of HTML data that needs to be erased after pasting the post into Blogger. But, it seems, no matter what I use for drafts, there will be some HTML to remove. There IS a lot carried over from Keep, though; more than a Google Doc, I believe. So, that may be where I go in the future.

An amusing story (to me) I have to tell you is about the first time I used Keep as a grocery list. Normally, I would write a list on paper, because I don't go grocery shopping without a list. As I'm walking through the store wondering about who was scoffing in their mind-space that I couldn't "get off my phone long enough to shop," I saw another fellow, who looked to be close enough to my age, using his phone as his list. As I passed him to my right, I felt modern and hip, and then I looked over to my left as I passed an older woman who was holding a paper list. The first thought that came to my mind when I saw her was, "Neanderthal!" The voice in my head was in a bitchy tone, even though I was in a good mood. I cracked myself up as I continued walking through the aisle. I can't wait to tell this story to my wife, I thought.

This is how it happens. Someday, despite my sincerest attempts, I will be a neanderthal, too.

Here's an article that talks about Google Keep in more depth, if you're interested. Not Just Another Notes App: Why You Should Use Google Keep

Enough of all that.

* * *

Picture This

In TNSDD #9, I included a picture I had drawn many months prior. I had also stated that there was another one I had done that I was planning on including in a future issue. Like I said in the introduction to that horrible picture, I feel like this addition of THE NOT SO DAILY DUMP feature to my blog has given me a space on my blog to experiment more and be more random at times. I can do what I want with my blog, but it has to make sense to me. I am who I am. You can go to that issue if you want a more thorough explanation.

The other picture was scanned, cropped, and placed into the post. For this one, I agreed with my wife that it needed color. However, I did not want to color the original picture directly nor color it completely. So, I traced it in pen, scanned it, and my wife colored it in Photoshop. I wasn't expecting the last part, but she offered, and I happily accepted that offer.

This picture may make you feel nothing, but chances are it will evoke some type of internal response. Good. Feel something, whatever that is.

Here is Horrible (but better because of my wife) Picture #2 entitled, "We Ain't Got No Tree Problem: A Lesson In Futility." Click on the image to make it bigger.

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Shine That Spotlight, You Crazy Diamond

I had an idea recently that in every tenth issue I could recap the previous nine. I liked that idea so much that I started working on it. But, I almost got about halfway there and felt that it probably makes more sense to do that every five issues or this section will certainly get quite long. Part of the point to THE NOT SO DAILY DUMP feature is to have multiple fairly short sections that, even though they may be related, are about different things. And then after writing up three, along with a lot of—mostly consensual—internal dialogue, I decided on a different approach. I will start the recapping process after each set of nine new 'Spotlights' and each recap will only consist of three past 'Spotlights.' Make sense? It will take three issues to do a full recap, so every twelve issues is like a set. Now you know how much I suffer with the brain I have. Why do I have to be so complicated, Avril?

So, here is a recap of the first three 'Spotlights.'

TNSDD#1
Christine Sedam, my wife, is many things. One of those things is a runner, and she has a blog about her races and some of the struggles that come with it. She's been training this winter to go even further and farther than she already has. She ran her first half-marathon last year and caught the bug. She'll be running three half-marathons (at this point) this year amongst 5 and 10ks and other variations of calculating distance. Read about her journey at ChristineSedam.com. You can also follow her fitness fury on her Facebook page as well at Facebook.com/RunningOnEmptyBlog.

TNSDD#2
Elisha Johnson is an incredibly talented photographer and graphic designer. She has coded her own website where she highlights some of the work she has already accomplished for her clients as well as her favorite school projects. She'll be graduating from college soon, and she is well on her way to a successful career. See her work and learn how to connect with her on social media by going to her website Elisha-Johnson.com. You can also follow her daring designs at Facebook.com/ElishaJohnsonDesign.

TNSDD#3
Stephanie Dehnel is a musician and a longtime vlogger. In issue #3, I focused on her vlogging and am reminding you of that here. Steph has been doubling-down on her vlog lately and seems to be releasing more content. She has been giving her vlog's web presence a general freshening and has done the same for her opening roll etc. If you're a voyeur at heart or I've peaked your curiosity, you can watch Steph's venturous videos at her YouTube channel, StephanieDTV. And, since I seem to be giving out Facebook pages, here is her vlog page at Facebook.com/StephanieDTV.

* * *

Join me on Facebook!
I've recently started a page for THIS blog, Graham Sedam Writes, where I will be sharing all of my writing related endeavors and stuff.

Thank you for your time!

Did you know that I also have a daily blog, Notes.gs?

Justinian's Flea And Related Musings

2018-02-08T09:25:00.002-06:00

I did it. And, I did it sooner than I had expected. I wanted to finish the book I had been reading, Justinian's Flea, by the end of the year (2017). I finished it before Thanksgiving. This post isn't the first time I've mentioned this book, so read "Books, Life, and Punchlines" to get a little bit bigger of a picture about the book and my thoughts on it.

*It took you all year to read this book?*

Pretty much. If this is the first post of mine that you're reading and/or you haven't heard me mentioning this, here it goes. I actually read quite a bit. I just don't devour books. I'd love to be the kind of person that does, but I just never have been. Maybe someday. It's something I at least think about doing more of. So, in the meantime, I choose a book and then read it when I can. For the last two years or so, that time has been in the wee early hours of the morning before I head to my place of work. It's quiet, my family isn't up, and my mind is fresh and ready to be a sponge. I'll leave it at that. If you want to know more, then you should familiarize yourself with the rest of my posts. Maybe, you'd like to read a post I wrote about two other books entitled, "Exit Music, Enter Early?"

*Since you've finished the book, what have you spent your time doing? Did you start another book?*

Excellent question!

Well, I wrote this post for one. I had a harder time keeping pace with one post a week last year, unlike in 2016 after I restarted my blog. I don't feel that one new post per week is necessary, but I also don't want to fall into a trap of not posting regularly or there's always the chance I won't post very often or at all. Not doing something is often the path of least resistance. Wait. It IS the path of least resistance, literally. So, yeah. I usually feel that I have plenty to write about, but the time to do so is not so plenty. There seems to be too many things I want to do. Unfortunately, my brain needs breaks, too. ANYWAY. What I meant to say was that I wrote a little more, and I also spent extra time laying in bed trying to wake up by looking at the social blackhole on my phone.

As I've mentioned before in the past, the next book I'm reading is one a friend of mine, J. Thomas Richards, has written. It was my goal to purchase it in December, and I'm happy to say that I accomplished that goal and am now a few chapters in. I suppose I should tell you a little about this book, eh? It's called The Black River Players, and it's a modern noir-style story that is set in an area near where he and I both grew up. Please take an opportunity to learn more about this book and consider buying it on Amazon.

...And now back to Justinian's Flea, but first...

I generally lounge with a book as opposed to devouring it, as I partially mentioned the devouring part earlier. This isn't always the case, but I'm not afraid to meander through a page only to go back and meander through it again. Maybe, I want to absorb as much information as I can and there happened to be a lot on that page. Maybe, there was a paragraph or sentence that I really liked and I wanted to soak in, roll around in, and enjoy its brilliance. Maybe, my brain was too sleepy to comprehend what I read and I had somehow managed to go through multiple sentences without grasping context. Maybe, I drifted off into a daydream and forgot where I was physically at. All of those reasons are valid at some point in time. Plus, when I watch or read anything, I don't plan to ever visit it again. There's SO much media out there to consume! I'm going to make the most of the experience by absorbing as much of its information and essence as I can.

One of the reasons I liked Justinian's Flea, compared to most other books I've read, is that there were many times I looked for more information beyond the book. That takes extra time, too, and that, in turn, makes the consumption take longer. While the book does go into great detail with its subject matter, a book can never give all of the information available. Sometimes, it was a matter of looking up Latin words to capture the full meaning of the author's explanation. Other times, it was to look up maps of late antiquity's ever-changing territory boundaries, city locations, paths of military campaigns, and the like—things that a map can show a person. There were occasions where I sought out more detail about a particular historical figure or event or piece of architecture, like the Hagia Sophia.

One aspect that I really enjoyed about the book was the stories that humanized the people of late antiquity. Maybe it's just me, but the further back one goes in time, the more mythical people seem to become. It doesn't help that fictional character's personalities, ticks, and whatnot are often presented more thoroughly in books than most factual persons from reality—biographies being the most likely exceptions. The more a book can connect the reader to the humanity of its characters, its story, the more real and impactful it can become to the reader. While this book isn't necessarily a golden example of showing historical figures' personalities, it does cut through some of the numbness that the facts of history can emanate. The book does humanize these historical characters, even if it's not always in obvious ways, and on occasion, it shares anecdotes. Also, any book that talks of plague is going to humanize it a bit. Death is very real.

Here's an anecdote from page 103 about a practical joke:

"Mirrors fascinated Anthemius his entire life. Years after the completion of the Hagia Sophia, the architect—now a wealthy and famous citizen of Constantinople—was the loser in a lawsuit brought by his upstairs neighbor, the equally famous orator Zeno. He took his revenge like a proper engineer, first simulating an earthquake with a steam line that he surreptitiously ran into Zeno's apartment, then exploding noisemakers to mimic the sound of a thunderstorm. Finally, he put his geometric talents to practical use—or, at least, practical-joke use—employing a pivoting parabolic reflector to shine light at all hours into Zeno's sleeping chamber. When Zeno asked Justinian to intervene, the emperor declined to punish his architect, writing that even he 'cannot intervene against Zeus the Thunderer and Poseidon the Earth-Shaker.'"

One thing you may not know that adds to the overall story is that Justinian was a devout Christian, not a pagan. Therefore, his response was a joke as well.

Here's a little tidbit from page 141 that I found amusing:

"The Vandal king's Moorish hosts were not as accustomed to civilization as his own people, and Gelimer, a man of some musical and literary pretension, actually spent part of the siege composing an ode bemoaning his lack of a sponge. When he finally surrendered, he evidently did so believing that it was preferable to be a clean slave of Justinian than an unwashed king of the Vandals."

History is also filled with much irony. One such irony this book discusses on page 212 is that Alexandria, Egypt was the "port of embarkation for both disease and doctor." The plague is thought to have originated from Pelusium, Egypt, but Alexandria—being a major (and local) port of antiquity—was where the rat-flea-plague team had its greatest opportunity to spread throughout Europe. Alexandria was also an educational center of this region, in fact, it was THE place to study for physicians. So, when the plague struck, the world's best doctors were called upon. Hence, both doctors and disease embarked from the same place.

I love the title to this chapter. Perhaps I'll use it as a title to a song or album.

When I decided to start reading this book, I knew that it was going to be giving a lesson in history. What I didn't expect was to get a lesson in science, specifically biology, and a surprisingly long, in depth one as well. The author, William Rosen, explains the different aspects of this particular plague, such as how the bacterium, the flea, and the rat function biologically—both separately and then together—and how in turn it effects the human body. I'll give you a bit of a hint if you could call it that, the flea and rat are very good teammates to the plague bacterium, Y. Pestis. Ole YP, however, is kind of a jerk.

Plagues have come and gone throughout history. Some of the strains do make return visits over a short period of time as is the case with the time-frame covered in the book. The author also explains why it happened when it did. There are many different reasons and factors that determine how disease can be dormant for hundreds if not thousands of years and then "awaken" and terrorize populations for decades if not centuries. Many people have researched plagues in general and this one in particular. There's too much detail in the book to properly convey it in a post that's really just trying to give an overview of that book and highlight particular things that I found especially interesting. You're better off reading a book or piece dedicated to plague.

Justinian's Flea goes to great lengths to explain the effects of the plague, even though it's not hard to understand what effects a plague would have. The author does try and argue throughout the book that the plague wasn't the only variable at play but did help transform, if not speed up, the "known world" into something more recognizable today. To say that the plague was THE reason that finally ended Rome's reign of the Mediterranean would be to brush aside its many enemies and the cultural changes and economics already playing throughout the region. However, that's not to say that Rome wouldn't have survived longer and stronger without the plague. It certainly weakened Rome but also its enemies. There is no one, correct, easy answer.

I enjoyed the book, but while I was looking around online for some reason, I came across a common complaint with it. Some people have felt the title is misleading. I can't say I disagree, but I also appreciate what the author was trying to accomplish. Yes, the title implies it is only about Justinian and the plague. However, me being me, I enjoyed all of the extra information, and I felt it gave the reader a better and clearer understanding of Justinian's reign and the plague.

Let's say I gave you a watch. You like this watch, but you aren't terribly concerned with it. It's a simple, cheap watch. Then, you later learn through a mutual friend that I had saved my money for a month to buy this watch. Everything extra I had went into it. This new information should make this watch more important, more special. You may be more grateful. I could have easily NOT saved my money and spent it on you. I didn't have to sacrifice, but I did. More information changes perceptions.

William Rosen didn't have to go to such great lengths to write a book, but he did. I appreciate all of the extras that went into it so that I could understand Justinian and his flea in the best way possible.

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Got Resolve? 2018 Goals Dissected

2018-01-25T08:53:00.001-06:00

I stated in the post "Got Resolve? A New Year's Beginning" that I would be explaining the goals I outlined in more detail. If you want a little more background on my musing about goals, New Year's Resolutions, and the like, you can start with the post linked above. Or, you can start with a post I wrote in early 2017 entitled, "Not So New Resolutions For The New Year." I'm going to try and keep this post more focused and answer nonexistent questions, to explain my rationale for setting the goals up the way I did. This post, no doubt, will still be plenty long.

I've established some rules because having goals isn't enough, right? *Sarcasm* In this case, I felt rules were necessary to ultimately gain what I hope to get out of this project. It's more than saying, "I want to do this, and look, it's done." I'm not only trying to accomplish the particular item on the list, but also trying to change my brain and daily habits moving forward. I don't mean to sound arrogant, but I've learned that I have to be smart about out-smarting my brain. I have to try and cover any gaps that I may find.
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Rule #1
If I get behind, I can make up the time, but I can't work ahead.

If I'm busy or am just having a hard time accomplishing one of my goals on a particular day, I have the opportunity to make up for that time. Do I HAVE to make it up the next day? No. But, the more I delay making it up, the more behind I become and the more I can see myself getting behind. I'd rather be caught up, or always working towards being caught up, with the ultimate goal of just completing all of the goals daily. If I don't allow myself to develop a debt and catch up, then missing a day will have no consequence and would only reinforce the path of least resistance—doing nothing.

However, I DO NOT want to have the option of working ahead. If I have that option, I might tend to do things in batches and then coast until I need to start doing that activity again. The point is to make these DAILY habits, not weekly habits. I don't want to give myself an excuse to not do something when I have the time and capability to do it. This will help reinforce that I need to figure out how to change my habits to accomplish my goals.

Rule #2
No double dipping. Each item must be done separately.

Yes, technically playing drums or practicing karate is exercise. Yes, when writing, there's a fair amount of reading. But, one can't count for two or more or there's really no point in having separate goals. Why not then cut out reading or exercise? Each goal has to be done deliberately to satisfy that particular goal's purpose, and there is a purpose. No double dipping.

In certain cases, it is allowable to do two tasks together. If I'm stretching, why can't I also read? That makes sense. I'm getting the benefits of both activities. I'm doing two distinct activities, not counting one for two.

Rule #3
Do the goals daily. Track the goals daily. Evaluate progress. Repeat.

The only way this will work is if my daily goals are on my mind daily. Sure, they're important, but like you, I get tired and have other things to do. We are forgetful. We lose sight of things. Other than wanting to do these goals, I remind myself daily by tracking them. Every morning I add the time I need to spend that day, and as I accomplish the goal, I take time away. I start the morning in the negative, and the best I can do is get to zero, never ending in a positive. Hence, I can never work ahead. Reference Rule #1.

Evaluating my progress is more of a mental exercise. I'm figuring out how to solve the puzzle. I'm seeing road blocks and wondering if I should wait in traffic or go off the beaten path. Some of the time, as I already have, I will jot down notes. These notes and future thoughts will probably end up in another post that serves as an update on my year's goals. A "where is he now" VH1-type special. Dreadful, yes. The story writes itself... When that comes out is anyone's guess. I DO want to continue to keep THIS post more focused, so I'll try to avoid any current findings for now. But, expect a revisit down the line.
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Why did I choose the targets I chose?

For starters, I have to give myself a minimum. Otherwise, I could do a push-up, for example, and count that as my exercise for the day. If I set some lofty goal of thirty minutes for exercise, then I will already be intimidated and start thinking about how I'm too busy to accomplish it that day. And, you should be able to see how fast the missed time would add up if and when I miss days. It seems to me a losing proposition in the long run.

When I set up the parameters for my goals, I went off of what I know I can reasonably accomplish each day. My past and present experience and habits served as a starting point. Another concept that works well with these parameters is the idea that I can convince myself to do something with a small time commitment. Five minutes for exercise is really doable, and it's also a long enough amount of time to actually make an impact. And, if I can convince myself to do five minutes, I'm actually more likely to do fifteen to twenty instead. Starting is always the hardest part. But, if I only do five minutes, I'm not going to beat myself up over it. Five minutes is the goal.

Without getting into what I want to write about for each goal, I will mention one more thing. The writing and reading goals are longer than five minutes, because I'm already doing these things often. I do read everyday, and I do write a little most days. The water is a category all its own, and I'll hold off on that.
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So, let's break down those goals.

5 Minutes of Exercise
I get physical activity throughout my day. How much from day-to-day or season-to-season varies. Besides, not all physical activity is equal in the ways of health. Hammering a nail is better than sitting still on a couch but pales in comparison to using a push mower on a half acre of grass. What this goal aims to do is to make sure I get a minimum amount of traditional exercise. It doesn't matter what form that it comes in. It could be using my treadmill or my (late 90's) Total Gym or taking a walk or going old school with some push-ups and sit-ups. The point is to push myself, to strengthen muscle, to get my heart pumping, and to make physical fitness a higher priority in my life. Oh, and burning some calories is a nice byproduct.

5 Minutes of Stretching
I get tight muscles. Sometimes, this causes discomfort and headaches. Stretching helps out a lot. Getting enough sleep daily would help a lot, but we won't go there right now. If I'm going to exercise, drum, do karate, or be alive, my muscles will tighten from those activities. In addition, I want to increase my flexibility, not just counter the physical activity. Stretching is simple and has a big impact on well-being. It's good stuff. I don't want to wait until I have discomfort to remember that.

5 Minutes of Karate
Why karate? Long story short, my elder son started a karate class at the end of September in 2017. He enjoys the class and looks forward to going, but practicing at home isn't something he's usually excited about doing. I always take him to class, and that has caused me to learn karate along the way. Someone has to make sure he's practicing and doing it correctly, and that someone has become me. It has turned into something we can do and learn together. His teacher expects all of the students to practice for five minutes every day. They learn something new every week, and they get tested on what they know periodically, which earns them ribbons. If he doesn't do it correctly, he doesn't earn a ribbon.

There are plenty of things for my son to learn from karate. For me, other than sharing in an activity with him, it's about learning something new that I would have never considered doing on my own. Karate also requires strength, flexibility, coordination, and balance, all of which I could stand to get better at. If my son chooses to quit karate at some point, I have no doubt that I'll stop doing it as well. Maybe not. Time will tell. For now, wax on/wax off.

5 Minutes of Drumming
More than listening to music, I love playing instruments and creating moods and manipulating sounds. Without going into too much detail of my musical life in this post, I want to become a better drummer than I am. The only way to become a better drummer is to drum. Rather than playing for one to three hours once every week or every other week or with gaps of months at a time over the summer, playing for at least five minutes every day will produce better results.

An unforeseen byproduct of playing every day has been my desire to branch out more with playing styles. When I play less often, the act of drumming serves as more of an outlet to get the urge to drum out of my system. Yes, I want to get better and I do enjoy drumming, but doing so daily makes doing the same things over and over less interesting. This has reinforced the reason why I want to commit to drumming at least five minutes daily.

15 Minutes of Writing
I wrote a post called "7 Reasons Why I Blog." I'll avoid getting into those reasons the best I'm able. You can read that post for an explanation. The title could have almost as easily been 7 Reasons Why I Write. In short, I've written for one reason or another for pretty much my whole life. Most people have, realistically, but I have also done so since my childhood for the simple reason of having the desire to.

I enjoy writing for my blog. I think about my blog often. It's something I do regularly and giving myself a daily goal will help me to incorporate it better into my daily routine. As much as I would have liked to write daily in the past, and not that I didn't at all, I would tend to get more done by waiting until I had larger pockets of time. While better than nothing, it only got me so far.

Now when I sit down (or stand) to write, I'm trying to put myself in the best situation I can with the hopes of writing for more than fifteen minutes. Making the attempt daily and achieving the goal of fifteen minutes is better than not writing at all, even if it's accomplished a few minutes or more at a time. My hope is that this habit will help me with my blog and song lyrics but also for other outlets of writing creatively that I'm curious about pursuing.

30 Minutes of Reading
I know I read daily. I know I read a fair amount from day-to-day, some days more and some days less. What I read changes little from day-to-day and some things prove to be more worth my time than others. I'm sure that describes a lot of people's experiences with reading.

This goal is meant to focus on certain things that I read but not necessarily to get me to read more of those. In those regards, it's more about gathering data to analyze what I spend my time reading. What I count towards this goal is reading articles (or article-like-things like blog posts), newsletters, and books. And, there are things I want to learn more about. I hope to start incorporating the learning of those things by reading about them.

I'm not going to count reading a menu at a restaurant. I'm not going to scroll through social media and count that. If I see an article that draws me in while scrolling, yes, I'll count it. I can see this goal evolving if I choose to do something like it again next year. Who knows, maybe I'll make it more strict by year's end.

48 Ounces of Water
A few years ago (or a tad less), I had heard from more than one source that the optimal amount of water for a person to drink daily was half of their body weight in ounces. My weight has been about 200 pounds for the last four years. What I would need to drink under these guidelines is 100 ounces per day. I actually did that for about a week or two and I felt great. I could really feel the difference in my legs.

I have a 24 ounce/750 milliliter water bottle. I needed to drink four of those everyday, which isn't the hardest thing to do. However, it was also not something I was used to doing and is also just as easy not to do. Since then, I have drank water more regularly. In the past, I strived to drink more than one water bottle a day, but one was usually all the further I would get, and some days, I'd forget and not even drink one. I've since been better and have drank 24 ounces/one water bottle every day for about the past year. When I decided on the goal of drinking 48 ounces of water per day, I knew that I could reasonably double my average and that would help me move even closer towards my larger goal.

I'm not sure if I'll ever drink four water bottles a day, but if I lose weight, I would adjust down the total ounces needed in the formula. However, if I'm being physically active regularly and stay my current weight because I've replaced fat with muscle, then 100 ounces isn't out of the question. The future will inform me.
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The Wrap Up

I'm curious to see how these goals shape my year and what I'll have to say about them at mid-year and year-end. I'm hopeful they will produce the results I'm looking for. I'm excited about the potential of this year and how it may influence next year.

To the right is a screen shot of my tracking at 2 pm on Wednesday, 01/24/18. As you can see, I've gotten a little behind. I've done a pretty good job of staying caught up, though, all-in-all. I've been using Google Keep for more things lately, including my Daily Goal tracking.

* * *

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Thank you for your time!

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