Tag Archives: Life

Happy Anniversary to Me

 

So far, February has been a completely unforgettable month. I’ve been stretched and squeezed and confronted with many more situations in the last twenty-five days that I am literally trying to catch my breath to catch up.

On the second, as you can see above, Automatic reminded and congratulated me for the six year anniversary of this blog. Since I was already thinking about some major changes, I decided to make them as part of completing the Blogging University Blogging Fundamentals course. So, I enrolled.

Of course, my timing could have been a little better, since we were also preparing to move to a new apartment.

So here I was, packing and preparing to move to a new apartment, getting ready for the daily assignments for the Blogging Fundamentals course to start filling my inbox, and generally just doing all the other things that constitute living life – then I got sick. I thought it was the flu, but turned out it was just a minor cold, that didn’t go away, and didn’t go away, and then put me in the hospital.

I spent five days in the hospital getting well enough to come home to the new place. I came home and after a few days I started trying to get back to all the plans for updating this blog and completing the course I earnestly wanted to do. And that’s where I am now.

Rather than completing the assignments from the course on a daily basis like I would have had I not gotten ill, I intend to spend the next week or so combining assignments and making the changes that I want for this blog. So that’s whats coming up next.

2018 – Time For Some New Year’s Resolutions

Okay, here we go. The new year is upon us and it is time to do what many, many, many people do – make my New Year’s Resolutions. As I was searching for an image to use for this post, instead I found this article from lifehack.org – 50 New Year’s Resolution Ideas And How To Achieve Each Of Them. Nearly all the items I thought of for my resolutions are on this list. The only one that isn’t is my number one resolution. So here is my list of resolutions for 2018. Like most people, the odds are against me sticking with all of them, but I’m going to try harder this year than I have in the past.

  1. Publish at least once a week on this blog: Yes, this is my number one resolution and it’s the only one not on the lifehack list, although it kind of is. Number 49 on the list is Start writing a book/journal. No, this blog isn’t a book nor does it qualify as my journal, but the idea of either is to write, which is what this blog is about and what I intend to do. This is post number one, so it’s a good start.
  2. Get healthier: For my second resolution, I’m combining several different ones from the list. As you can tell by the graphic above, my blood sugar averages for December are awful. This is important to me because I’m a diabetic. If you’re not, the chart probably doesn’t mean much to you, but for a diabetic it can mean life or death. Reigning in my blood sugar is part of my overall resolution to get healthier by healthier eating, more exercise, more and better sleep, and giving up cigarettes. For many people, it’s not easy to do any of these regularly, but again, I am determined to do better in 2018.
  3. Watch less TV and read more: For this item on my resolution list, I combined a couple of resolutions that were listed separately on the lifehack list. Like many people, I watch a lot of TV – in fact I watch too much. I used to be a very avid reader that more often that not had my face buried in a book. Over the years, that changed, and in my opinion, for the worse. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with watching TV, but it should be in moderation. In my case, 8 to 10 hours a day was entirely too much. So, I’m going back to the life I used to lead – the life of a voracious reader. Because I own a Kindle, and because there are thousands of books that can be downloaded for free, I am currently reading a collection of Sherlock Holmes novels by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
  4. Learn more about art, music, culture etc.: I’m fortunate in that I have a pretty decent education. Over the years I’ve taken classes and read and studied many subjects on my own, so I feel pretty knowledgeable about a lot of things. One of my biggest shortcomings though is what many of us consider “cultural” works. For example, I’ve never been to the opera or the ballet. I don’t understand a lot about art. These are the things that I intend to start experiencing in 2018, and I’m busy searching for the first one to attend this month.
  5. Earn more money: Like most people, I can always use more money. I am retired now, so I can’t get a pay raise or a bonus at work. I’m not looking for a job, either. My extra money is going to come from working from home in a couple of different endeavors, but those are for later posts or posts in another web site or blog I am working on.

So there you have it. These are my five resolutions for 2018. I hope you made yours as well and I wish you much success in achieving them.

One More for 2017

Goodness! The end of the year is fast approaching and 2018 is just around the corner. For me, among other things, that means my annual payment for this blog’s plan is due soon. For that reason, and no other reason right now, I’m writing and publishing something else before then. I’m not sure what this is going to be about – I might just write a bunch of unrelated ramblings or I might just compose a well thought out essay about people who write bunches of unrelated ramblings. Or I might not.

One thing I’ve noticed as I look back over the years I’ve been writing here is that every year I’ve written a post explaining or trying to justify my failure to write anything on a consistent basis. I can do that again here, but I’m not. It’s been said, over and over, so no point in repeating it.

Despite the fact that I am in my sixties now – my age, not my IQ, for all you comedians out there – I still am interested in a lot of things. For example, I still watch college football every year, almost religiously. It’s been awesome the last few years. See, I am a Clemson Tiger fan. I grew up just a few miles from Clemson, SC so it’s just a natural thing and once again the Tigers are headed to the college football playoffs.

I also like to learn. In fact, I try to make it a point to learn something new every day. It’s not hard to do with the technology we have available to us these days. Although much of what I learn on a daily basis just comes from reading or seeing something new while browsing the internet, I still take time to participate in some formal learning . Much of what I’ve done in the last year has been some online classes at Saylor Academy. In addition to Saylor, I am planning on enrolling in some new courses at Coursera in 2018.

Of course, I still have an undying love and interst in music, and I think that’s what’s going to wrap up this post. While I am interested in all types of music, I love rock and roll and bluegrass. But, there’s something of a caveat here. Rock and roll to me pretty much means what is now considered “Classic Rock.” I suppose that some new music fits the definition of rock and roll, I just don’t think it measures up to the bands that recorded music in the 60”s, 70’s, and 80’s – the exceptions being the artists that started then that are still releasing new music today. The best example I can give is John Mellencamp, who is my favorite musician of all time. So I think that’s what I’m going to end with, a song from Mellencamp. It’s appropriate, given my age and my ailment wracked body. Hope you enjoy it.