Hey, it's me again. Yup, after another absence of a few weeks. Time really does fly. However, I've been busy working on a personal project that became more than what was originally intended. In the IT circles, this is called "scope creep", and at work it's something I loathe with every fiber of my being. But, when it comes to a personal project of mine, eh, it ain't so bad. The "decimal" part of this story begins with a blog post from a fellow Listed.to blogger called "Anklebuster". Great blog,...

Today is Father's Day, 2021. And to all the father's out there, may you enjoy a blessed and peaceful Father's Day. This year is quite a bit different than most years, and I think it'll help if I write down my thoughts and feelings on a day like today. This will be raw and uncensored, and is just one man's view of life and the world. I'd mentioned earlier on that life is good, and it truly is. But I also said it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows. Well, today is neither sunshine nor rainbows, but ...

Coming back to Listed has been very refreshing these past few days. I noticed quite the aesthetic refresh for our Listed blogs, and it looks great. The default theme is still very light and loads very fast. I can't say enough about Listed and Standard Notes. I'd like to highlight the efforts of Mo Bitar who's the founder and creator of Listed and Standard Notes. He's created a killer app that puts privacy and security first, while also making intentional choices around his product. Listed is a...

The rumors around my demise have been greatly exaggerated. I'm here, I'm alive, and still doing fantastically after leaving that toxic Hellhole. I took an extended break because without the burden of all that unhealthy existence, my mental, physical, and emotion load was freed. It hasn't all been sunshine and rainbows, obviously with a pandemic and all. But I'd like to come back and share with you what I've been up to, what I'm doing these days, and how my experiences post-Hellhole have continu...

It's been an interesting couple of weeks to say the least. Seems like a whirlwind of good fortune has smiled upon me. And yes, this means the end of the suffering that is my current job. My offer came through today, after an easy 3 interviews. I'm beyond excited, and humbled, too. Turns out my former manager, who's departure from this company I'd lamented for weeks, even months, was looking for someone to fill a spot on his team. I made it known that I was interested, and that with no suppositi...

Working for a large company, and having done so for most of my life, I've noticed that the quest of any organization's IT group is to find the magic suite of products that give you a "single pane of glass". Usually that means several products bundled together, and managed via one centralized interface. So, if you want to insure everyone's getting anti-virus, but also full disk encryption, you'd buy a suite from a single vendor that would bundle those both and allow you to manage the entire orga...

I came across an article in the Wall Street Journal, and it completely articulates to the masses what I've been saying just about forever. It essentially asks managers to get out of their people's way. BOOM. Simple. And yet, the article points out that this is probably one of the hardest things for most managers to do. And after reading some more, I think I know why. Ego. See, a lot of managers think they're where they are because they're WAY better than anyone else on their team. That belies ...

Lately at work, I'm finding myself in a lot of unfamiliar territory. It's mostly around the new products my employer purchases and then expects those of us on my team to become instant experts as whatever this new (to us) product is. Naturally some catch on quicker than others. In many cases, I do, but not all. And that seems to be the case with a certain product I'm struggling to get configured correctly. At one point it was working fine, but then another team blew it all away, requiring us to...

And here I am. Back to the world of the living. Well, I was living during this latest absence, just not living online or writing much. Last month was my birthday, a milestone year, so my wife and I took a trip out of state to visit some very good friends and celebrate. The trip was fantastic, and very refreshing. On my last day of work before leaving, of course some drama unfolded just an hour before I was set to log off for nearly two weeks. It's been relatively quiet at work for weeks on end,...

I know it's been a while since I last wrote. I'm in a much better place since the last time I wrote. This does happen from time to time, I'll slip into a mild depression and all the trappings that come with it (anger, guilt, frustration, etc.), then it's gone for a while. However, since the last time I wrote, something positive did happen. I was able to land my first paying writing client. So far it's been everything I'd hoped it would be. I was able to get the client's vision of what the conte...

It was bound to happen, right? I mean, you're putting along in your own space, not bothering anybody, and then something in the universe has to throw a pile of shit your way. I'm feeling that way with work right now. I've made a very conscious attempt to not let things at work bother me, this way I can have less stress while embracing a Stoic philosophy. Now, in that conscious effort, I've been choking down a fair amount of shit. But, trying the let it roll off, making that effort to not let t...

Well, I'm making it official. I'm declaring my 100 Day writing challenge a failure. In my last post I mentioned that I'd make 100 posts, but not in a row. Then, I didn't make any posts after that. Now, if I missed a day or two then posted, it would be one thing. But, in the way I approached this challenge, I didn't take it on as it was meant, and therefore missed out on the potential of growth from it. So why continue the charade? It didn't work, and that's ok. Because in the time I haven't bee...

Quick announcement: I'm dropping the weekly accountability as a regular feature. Mostly because I'm not moving forward with my goals at an agressive pace. So, each week, even though I'm doing things I enjoy and even don't enjoy for the sake of work, I just see goals every week that don't move forward. I thought that by writing down my goals, I'd be compelled to rush toward them because they're out in the open. Turns out, that's not really how I operate. So, experiment tried and failed. On to t...

Well, it's been another busy week, but all in all I don't mind. Mostly because it's been "busy enough" without being crazy or chaotic. So that makes me wonder, is it because it's really not, or because I'm coping better? This week I've had sit downs with two people that know my story and my struggle. One thing I was able to share with both of them is this profound sense of contentment I'm feeling these days. I attribute it mostly to my adopting some of the Stoic principles, and it's been refres...

Ok, I'm back. Took a few days off as a mini-sabatical, mostly to take care of work and home projects, as well as consolidate my email accounts. I'd been wanting to consolidate for a very long time, but I found that over the years, I'd spread my emails across several different services. Some I'd paid for, others not so much. I don't mind paying for email, but some of my earlier accounts were purchased based on their usefulness and not so much their privacy as well as security. So, having become ...

I actually started this post yesterday, intending to also post it yesterday. However, I found myself staring at a blinking cursor throughout the day. I guess it could be that I had nothing to say or share. If anybody knows me, they'd know that to be a very rare occasion. But, there I was, sitting and staring at a blinking cursor, with my mind blank. I was going to write down some of my frustrations about work. But after reading article after article about shitty bosses and toxic leadership styl...

Dammit, it happened again. I missed another day of posting. I knew I was putting off writing for "later" as I was involved in work and doing some research for my own intentions. Next thing I know, my wife and I are heading to bed to rest up for a very busy Tuesday. Someone who I admire very much suggested I write first thing in the morning, so that I'm not scrambling to get my thoughts down before bed. That is really, really good advice. Advice I should take, but yesterday I didn't. So, I'm w...

Well, looks like I’m not going be able to write much tonight. I’ll write more tomorrow. Have a good night. ...

This is going to be real quick as it's been a pretty full day. Took my wife out to an early dinner at one of her favorite restaurants. While we were eating, we decided that we'd go to the grocery store for a "few things". After buying $300 worth of groceries, I think we've covered all the basics. After we came home, went back to relaxation mode where I worked on getting my media servers updated and media organized. Since my media servers are Linux based, I was able to roll up my sleeves and get...

Well, it happened. I missed a day by not posting yesterday. The thing is, I didn't even realize until I was already in bed ready to go to sleep. I'd actually considered getting up and going to post at least something. But, I wanted to avoid an argument with my wife before it even started, so I settled in and went fast to sleep. Today required me to really think about what missing a day of posting meant. First, it meant not keeping my word to myself and to anyone who may be reading these posts. ...

Today was my first day back after a very welcomed 5-day weekend. I didn't dread coming back like I usually would, mostly because I'm in a rhythm at work. Not a lot of weird surprises, and just enough people are resisting the necessary changes I'm bringing on them, that this project is dragging out several months past the original deadline. No fault of mine, well documented via email and weekly status updates, so I'm feeling pretty good about all this. And honestly, I tend to wonder if any proje...

Great day, today. Slept in again to enjoy my last day of an extra long weekend. Celebrated our wedding anniversary today with a big breakfast we helped each other make. Chilled out and just relaxed. Nowhere to be, nothing to have to do. Back to work tomorrow, but also back to exploring thoughts, feelings, and realizations. For now, I’ve enjoyed this extended period of relaxation. It’s helped clear my mind and give my spirit a really nice break. See you tomorrow. ...

Today was another pretty easy day. I did get a sort of a workout in as my wife and I went to her parents house so I could help my father-in-law remove a busted fridge from their house. It wasn't their main one, it was an overflow fridge elsewhere in the house, and it was older than my marriage. Taking it out was fairly easy, but they had a spare one in their garage that they wanted to move into the old one's spot. We tried to bring it in, but it was too big to fit where the other one was, so w...

Just spent the day relaxing and spent some quality time with the wife. We also spent a good part of the day doing our own projects around the house. Then we watched a movie, which just ended, and now I might watch one more before heading to bed. Overall, it as just aother lazy day of several in a row with no stress, no worries. Not hatin' it. Not hatin' it one bit. Good night. ...

Let's see... last night I stayed up and slept in big time. Got up around 10:30am. That's living the good life in my book. I need to keep a notepad by my bedside because everytime I wake up, I've got ideas in my head that I want to explore. But, by the time I sit down to write, the ideas have escaped me. So, yeah, I need to either write down, or better yet, use Standard Notes on my mobile phone and capture my thoughts as soon as I wake up. Today was great because even though I slept in late, t...

Today was a pretty good day overall. As luck would have it, I got a call from my team at work this morning. It was at least late enough in the morning that I was already up after sleeping in. So, about 30 minutes of work today to put out the fire at work, then resumed my rest and relaxation. My wife was supposed to leave early today, but instead, drama erupted at her work and she ended up leaving an hour later than her usual time. It's almost like there a force out there that senses the energy...

I made it. I got through the short week, and today was by far the busiest day I've had in months. So much to do today to insure a guilt-free 5 days off, but it all got done. Well, there's always a chance I missed something, but since I don't know what that is, it's guilt-free because I won't know until I got back to work next Wednesday. It was a huge relief to be done for the day. Usually, the day before a vacation or a holiday weekend, people cut out a little early to get a head start on thei...

Not sure what I want to reflect on today. A pretty uneventful day, and believe me, I'll take it over a chaotic one any day. Was able to get my most difficult meeting of the day out of the way pretty early. Not first thing once I log in (which I can't stand), but a good hour and a half after starting work. That works great so that I can read my emails from the night before, and settle into my day. After the meeting, I had nothing else on my calendar, so I was able to complete a majority of my w...

Not sure this one will blow anyone's socks off, but an overall good day. Was busy with work projects the first half of the day, then was done with my work by lunchtime. So, I spent the afternoon reading up on ideas for soundproofing my home office and TV room. Found some semi-affordable options that are already done for me, or I can DIY them myself and save some money. Thing is, I don't really have any tools (except computer repair tools), I'm not very handy, and I don't really like doing that ...

Aaaand, I'm back. Yesterday was not the best day for me to write. Mostly because I got so engulfed in working on mailbox encryption and decryption for all my devices, and spent some time working on my eventual writing business. Next thing I know, dinner's ready, and right after that, Game of Thrones. My wife and I were pretty happy with the final ending of the show, and it sort of redeemed itself for so many missed opportunities to tell a much more powerful story in the previous couple of episo...

This one will truly be short. Watched Game of Thrones finale, quite a few things to process. More tomorrow. Good night. ...

Just a quick reflection of the day before I settle into a movie or something. Been working on my desktop computer all day today. I got some new entry level studio monitors for it, and a DAC (digital audio converter) a couple of weeks ago. I had set them up when I got them, and enjoyed some tunes, but after that day, I was mostly using my laptop. Today, I spent the day on my desktop listening to tunes on the new speakers and DAC, and just soaking it all in. Wrote some emails, did some online res...

Ok, 10 days straight, and today I'm pushing to write this. Mostly because it's been another busy day of getting shit done. Making progress on my work projects, so enjoying the busy right now. I've gone over 25 days in a row my April challenge to post every day for the month, and missed my full goal by two different days when I didn't write. However, I wrote for a total of 27 days for that month. WOW. For someone who used to make writing an "event", it's now a daily thing. Sure, the quality wil...

Another busy day, but again, it was a good busy. I'm enjoying a lull in the action right now, but things could pick up at any moment. It's a really nice day today so I drove my roadster to work. When I leave the office, the top is going down and stereo volume is going up! Since I haven't had a chance to enjoy my little sports car in a while, I'm glad I get to drive it today. This morning as I was getting ready for work I was thinking about a couple of instances where I thought I knew someone, a...

Just a quick post to keep my commitment, but to also reflect a bit on my day. Coffee with my buddy this morning was great, it's always good to catch up with him. Work was busy again today, but once again, it was a good busy. Slight frustration over people who just refuse to do what they're supposed to do. All it does is force me to raise these issues with my manager, who raises it with their managers, and they end up having to do what I originally asked them to do in the first place. But not ...

Busy day today... probably the busiest in a while. But, it was a good busy, not a chaotic busy. I was able to make some good progress with my project team, and my focus was sharp today. Met up with my wife after dinner at her favorite Mexican restaurant, and while they're always pretty good, they were ON POINT today. We like to meet up after work sometimes and just have a date. I fasted since Sunday night, and dinner was my first meal since then. I wasn't ravenous when we sat down, but once we...

Not much to share today, but I did spend most of the day learning more about Git and how to use GitHub and GitLab more for my daily tasks. I've also been reading more on how to use Git's version control for writing projects, and I think this is going to be pretty cool. The more I learn the more excited I get. I only had one meeting during normal hours today, and it felt great. Allowed me time to work on my work projects as well as my personal ones, too. I do have a meeting this evening with ou...

Today is Mother's Day, and my wife and I celebrated with her parents. We went to eat, got there early, right as they opened, and before hardly anyone showed up. By the time we were done eating, the restaurant was full, and there were people inside and outside the restaurant waiting for a table. We planned the timing and we do this every year. We've learned how to adjust our schedules to try to avoid the crowds and chaos that comes with them. It's sad, actually, that we have to adjust our schedu...

It seems that whenever I stumble onto something 'new', it's not really all that new. Which means that more times than not, I'm late to the party of the whatever I discover to be cool. Sometimes months late, but sometimes, decades late. Some examples include, but aren't limited to: Linux Minimalism Stoicism Outsourcing Rockabilly (fashion and music) Intermittent Fasting Internet Privacy and Security Inbox Zero Dynamic websites while sticking to MS Front Page, then using dynamic websites like W...

Well, it looks like the Universe isn't without a sense of irony. I just got word that the position I was a candidate for, and so conflicted about, is a no-go. It could have been a number of things. My salary requirements were too high for their liking, I came off as a know-it-all which may have scared them off, all or none of the above. This has truly been an up and down roller coaster, but, as I was good with it before, I'm still good with it now, although quite a bit of time was invested with...

I'm kind of an asshole. Well, not kind of, I am a full on asshole, especially when people who know they're wrong continue to push the issue as if they'll somehow be right, when the evidence is clearly stacked against them. So, the asshole part of me is that when a management decision comes down that basically vindicates my original and unwavering position, essentially shoving all the things wrong with the other person's argument down their throat, it makes me smile. It makes me smile big. When...

I just saw a post on the Listed blog called the '100 Day Writing Challenge' today, and this is so good, I must participate. In order for me to do this, though, I'm going to need to post to my Listed blog without images. This way I can focus on writing and posting, and not hunting for the perfect image to reflect the topic of a specific post. This should help streamline everything, plus, with this challenge, I can take the gloves off if you will. I can write whatever comes to mind, which I usua...

Part of how I 'relax' on any given day is to find new products and services that can help enhance my online privacy and security. And, when I find an online tool that isn't necessarily privacy focused, but would like to see if any privacy focused alternatives exist, I love going to AlternativeTo and seeing what privacy-based alternatives might exist. That's actually how I came about Standard Notes, and Listed. And now, I use both of these tools every day. However, in this case, I was resear...

Photo by picjumbo.com from Pexels Unplanned Update The below post I'd written most of earlier in the week. However, today I had an interesting turn of events. The potential employer who wasn't willing to entertain my salary requirements has contacted my recruiter to say "they'll do what it takes to make it work." I was surprised, stunned, even shocked. I asked the recruiter what changed, and he said that the CEO said that no matter what ideas he had, and what he tried to do to move forward ...

It's been a crazy week, full of ups and downs, and it's only Thursday. I'm hoping that tomorrow will be a nice quiet day. I've only got a few meetings scheduled, and things are usually pretty slow on Fridays. Of course, last week, as soon as I logged in for work, I mean, the very moment I was online, I walked into a shit-storm. Way more drama than I needed on a Friday. So, I'm really hoping this Friday's going to be chill. In any case, this week I'd had a potential job fall through during s...

Sometimes I feel like Bruce Lee. Not that I can do flying roundhouse kicks and do pushups with my thumbs, heck, I'm not even in shape to do any kind of pushup. But, when he created his own martial art, Jeet Kune Do, he did it out of necessity. He felt that all the current martial arts were too rigid in their structure, and that rigidity was a weakness. So, what he did was take the best of several martial arts (including fencing and boxing), discarded what wasn't useful, and incorporated all ...

First off, I kind of cheated this weekend. I didn't write anything Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. On Friday and Saturday I'd emailed my subscribers an already written article from earlier in the month. And Sunday, I was working on other projects and gearing up for Game of Thrones, because priorities. In the strictest terms, that meant I failed in my commitment, which was to post every day for the month of April. And I was so close, too. Part of it was because I didn't have a topic readily come ...

Again, I seem to be taken back to random memories long past, seemingly for no reason. This time was the Christmas of 1985. I really need to stop sharing how old I am with the world, don't I? At least I'm single spacing. Ok, back to Christmas of 1985. I was a sophomore in high school, and I loved music. Still do, actually. My younger brother and only sibling was in middle school at the time, and he somehow got it in his head he wanted to be a programmer. At that time, there were nowhere near...

Photo by mali maeder from Pexels As I was proofreading yesterday's post, I noticed that one of my sentences had no space between punctuation and new sentence. It really stood out as being weird. And, instinctively, I put a single space between them. This, however, goes well against my ancient teachings of how to use a near-extinct machine that pre-dates the computer, laptop, and smartphone. I'm old enough to have needed to use a typewriter as my only word processor. Yes, that ancient relic t...

Photo by Hasan Albari from Pexels Well, it was bound to happen. I missed a day of posting, and I felt like I didn't fully accomplish my day as a result. However, I had a second interview yesterday for a new position, this time in person. I wanted to process my thoughts and feelings on all of it before I posted yesterday. So for me, I think this post deserved an extra day of introspection. The first interview was by phone, and I thought it went great. However, I always get this feeling of...

Photo by Melissa Walker Horn on Unsplash Today is Easter Sunday for those that observe. And while me and my family don't do the church thing, we do have an annual tradition. We like to go to our favorite restaurant and have a great family meal together. There's not a lot of us since the kids are grown and gone, so it's just me, my wife, my in-laws, and a married couple who are great family friends. The place we go to is our favorite place, and they have really great food. Like, really great....

A penguin, a daemon, and a puffer fish walk into a bar... I don't usually geek out on this blog, but when I do, it's about non-Windows operating systems. I've got an older Chromebook that I bought off eBay for about $40. It's an Acer C720, which is a good model for supporting Linux. I'm pretty anti-Google, so I bought this Chromebook with the express purpose of loading anything other than ChromeOS on it. I started with GalliumOS, which is optimized for Chromebooks, and have tried out many ...

Do we do things for others out of selflessness, or because we get something out of it? I'm not sure the answer could be "both". Because selflessness and self-benefit are at odds with each by their very definition. As I read someone's LinkedIn update this morning, it got me wondering whether we do kind things for the true benefit others or really for ourselves. The post was about this person who witnessed a mom who could only afford $3.00 of gas. As she was about to drive away, the Good Sama...

Photo by Sharon McCutcheon from Pexels Not every joke hilarious. Not every post engaging. Not every song a hit. Not every swing a home run. Not every movie wins an Academy Award. Not every painting is an instant classic. Sometimes not right away, but eventually your work gets noticed. Sometimes not at all, but there's more to you than just a single effort. And sometimes because it's not a gem, you'll actually produce more gems, because you've learned, experienced, and grew from the ones that...

Image by wwwslonpics from Pixabay Have you ever heard of the 'Hemingway Method' of writing? It's founded on Earnest Hemingway's mantra of "Write drunk, edit sober". And while I do like the idea of writing drunk, I don't. What that really means is that if you embrace the Hemingway Method, you just write. You write down your thoughts, your phrases, your ideas, just let it all flow. The key here is that you're supposed to write down everything, no censoring, no correcting, just a stream of consc...

Being that I'm somewhat of a lifehack geek who loves everything about time management and efficiency, imagine my frustration when I encounter someone wasting both. You could say it's a pet peeve of mine, and yet it is so rampant. I value time as my most precious commodity. It's the one thing you can't get back once you've spent it, and when you're out of it, you can't make more of it. The best you can do is make the best use of it while you have it. Frugality is key, my friends! So, if there...

Photo by Lacey Williams on Unsplash Do our actions really align with our goals? On a daily basis, do we live our brand that we want to be known by? And by brand, I don't mean like an Instagram influencer, or some social media maven... no, the brand of who we are and what we want our name to be attached to. Whether personal or professional, we all carry some kind of brand attached to our names. Is that brand a good one or a bad one? We're well within our power to determine which one it is. B...

Photo by Tegan Mierle on Unsplash When I think of a goal, I'm reminded of a song from a children's Christmas special. Usually children's songs and TV specials have positive messages wrapped in song, and "One Foot In Front Of The Other" from Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer is no exception. Yeah, I'm sure on the surface, this sounds like a really cheesy post in the making. But, if you stick it out, you'll see where I'm going with this. The pure and simple message of the song is so true. One s...

Photo by Liv Bruce on Unsplash This morning there was a nice thunderstorm. Wasn't in the forecast, but there was plenty of rain, and a nice gentle thunder. Almost like I was listening to one of those sounds of nature you have Alexa put on when you're trying to fall asleep. I was about to go back to sleep when I remembered what I wrote about earlier this week about taking the time to enjoy the little things. So, I woke up, and consciously listened to the rain and thunder. I didn't need to s...

Image by Sasin Tipchai from Pixabay In the grand scheme of life, this shouldn't even be a blip on my radar, but it frustrates me anyway. I try to be a good citizen, team member, and all around good egg. I'm also somewhat obsessed with time management and efficiency. Therefore, I've integrated little habits into my daily life to try to shave time off tasks wherever I can. And when it comes to my calendar, I always manage my meetings and appointments. I'll let people know if I'll be late or ca...

Sometimes random memories just pop into my head... among many other random things. Recently, I had a memory take me to a time when I was hired to manage a technology I didn't know anything about, but I did have industry experience. It's happened before, a few times, actually, but this was the first time I remember it happening. It was to manage the email system for a mid-size bank. And not just any email system. It was an aging, failing, overworked, underpowered email system that required con...

Photo by Jessica To'oto'o on Unsplash I don't think I appreciate the little things enough. It mostly has to do with not slowing down and taking the time to soak in the moment. What's around me? What do I see? What do I smell? How am I even breathing? For all my pursuits around personal development via minimalism and writing, trying to be a better me, I'm lacking in this one very big thing: taking time to appreciate the little things. Even though I pay someone to keep my yard well manicured,...

Photo by Bethan Abra on Unsplash When I worked at a consulting firm a few years back, my assigned career mentor would always tell me, "Jay, you gotta specialize! You need to find a niche that you can own and be the expert at. This way you can always be the go-to expert for that specific technology!" I was always like, "Uh huh, sure, ok, I'll work on that." But I wouldn't really work on that. And that's for a couple of reasons. First, it was really difficult to specialize in one technology and...

Photo courtesy of Mad Men Fandom Wiki I remember the day I joined Facebook. It was an early morning in 2006, about 5:00 in the morning, and I couldn't sleep. So, I decided to try this new Facebook thing everyone was talking about. Shortly after making my first post, I was hooked. Thoughts and ideas of all the cool possibilities of using a platform like Facebook started running through my head. The biggest of which was the ability to let my friends and my family know how me and my family are ...

Photo by Donald Tong from Pexels Today I was going to write about one of four other topics I'd brainstormed earlier in the week. This isn't one of them. Today's post is a topic that's off the cuff because, well, because I can. This morning when I woke up, I was thinking how powerful writing really is. I'm not delusional in thinking that writing is some kind of enlightened or annointed status you're awarded just because you jot down a few words on a screen. But, like any art form, writing h...

Photo Credit: Pexels I've never been a morning person. Well, maybe on Christmas day between the ages of 4 and 8 I'd be up before 5am brimming with excitement. Since then, not so much. Don't get me wrong, I've woken up early plenty of times in my life, and I'm sure I'll have to do it plenty more before I leave this mortal coil. But, it sure as Hell doesn't mean I gotta like it. Having served in the military, there's been plenty of zero-dark-thirty wake-ups during my time in uniform. There have...

Photo by Jamie Street on Unsplash A year or so ago while I was perusing Medium, I stumbled on a peculiar blogger. Well, I guess you could call him a blogger, because he would post every day. Nothing too long, just very short and concise little nuggets each day. He was so interesting, I signed up to his email list so that I could receive these little daily nuggets in my inbox. The thing is, he's approaching blogging all wrong. His writing isn't how a 'normal' writer approaches sharing of wor...

Photo by Fauzan Saari on Unsplash Today was a damn good day, and somehow I knew it was going to be, even before I got to work this morning. Have you ever had one of those times where a thought of something you really wanted pops into your head, then some time later it just appears? Whether that thing is something you buy, something you want to attain or achieve, or someone you want to notice you, it doesn't really matter. And the some time later part can be a day, a week, or even sometimes y...

Photo by Kyle Hanson on Unsplash In yesterday's post, I mentioned that I was able to accomplish a couple of things while I was out of work, with that post focusing on Less is More and Essentialism. Today, I'll share the second thing I was able to accomplish, which is learning new things. While a part of me wanted to just lay around all day, without a care in the world while I rested and healed, I just couldn't do that. Perhaps another post at another time about my internal feud between wantin...

Photo by Jesus Kiteque on Unsplash When I was on medical leave late last year and early this year, I set out to achieve a couple of things, despite the fact I was unable to work. One of them was to learn more about minimalism and see if it would be something I could embrace. Turns out, it's both fascinating and refreshing for me at the same time. I watched a documentary on minimalism on Amazon Prime aptly titled, "Minimalism". It's the story of two podcaster and YouTube stars, Joshua Fields-...

Or, the rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated Photo by Curtis MacNewton on Unsplash The last time I posted here was August 6th, 2018. It was when I declared April 1st to be the day I left a job that was increasingly unfulfilling, killing my spirit, and crushing my soul. To some, this may sound dramatic. To others, you can probably relate. When I made that post, I'm not sure I believed that April 1st of this year would be my day of deliverance. And, as tomorrow is that date I'm s...

Even though this is being written on August 6th, 2018, I’ve made April 1st, 2019, a significant date for me. That’s the target date I’ve set for myself to give my notice and quit my job to pursue self-employment. I spent this past weekend doing a lot of reflection, and I realized that every goal or dream I set for myself, I’ve achieved. So why would leaving my corporate job for a freelancing career be any different? The only difference between those other times and now was that this time I wa...

One thing I didn’t touch on when I wrote last was that a large motivating factor for me getting organized and building a space that’s conducive to both creativity and business is that I’m now at the point where I’m just miserable at my job. Whether or not I have reason to be miserable, given my achievements, and my standing with the organization will be a debate for another day. But at this moment, I’m screaming inside to get out. I’ve put out feelers, and my career history combined with my ...

I’ve been absent from my writing, and I’ve missed it. However, I wanted to be sure of a few things before I hit the keyboard again, just so that I could have a sense of peace that comes from writing extend beyond just me and my input terminal of choice. I wanted to create a set of surroundings and conditions that would be conducive to the things I’m trying to accomplish. One of those surroundings I wanted to optimize was my home office. I threw out a bunch of items and furniture I didn’t want...

It’s been a roller coaster of feelings and emotion this past week. As I wrote earlier about my manager leaving, last Friday was his last day. My sadness and melancholy hadn’t diminished, and as he messaged me early Friday to wish me well, I felt a sense of loss. Much like I wrote before, I’m not sure why I feel this way. People have come and gone my entire life. Nothing new, and even when growing up, because my parents moved around a lot (not for work or military, mostly just because), I neve...

Going through some strange feelings today. For the first time in a while, I’m feeling lost. I just got the news yesterday evening that my manager is leaving our company. He’s the person who I interviewed with and ended up hiring me. Thing is, I’d botched my first interview, and somehow, in my attempt to recover from it, I impressed him just enough to give me a shot. And for that, I’ll be forever grateful. Since being hired on, I’ve made it my life’s mission to make sure he never regretted h...

This past weekend was incredible. I was able to get a glimpse of what life could be like as both a copywriter and life coach. I have a friend who's a couple years shy of retirement age, and was recently laid off. His resume looked like it could use some polish, and he admitted as much. He hasn't had to actively look for a job for at least 40 years. With this, I saw a few golden opportunities. First, I could help a friend in need with my skills. I like to help my friends when they want it or...

My wife was looking at the HSN website and sent me a link to their special of the day. It was for a Roomba robotic vacuum. The vacuum itself wasn't very well priced, and had so-so ratings. But the real story here is the fact that my wife was actually open to getting one. This is big for a couple of reasons. First, it normally takes me about a decade to get her to embrace anything "new". This time, it only took about 3 years for her to actually come around to the idea of a robotic vacuum. The...

Today I seem to be feeling confined, restrained, held down. It’s very claustrophobic, and being made to sit in an office just doesn’t make sense to me. None. I'll have to admit, I got it pretty good, as I get to work from home two days a week. That’s been pretty consistent. And, during the holidays, I’m able to work from home from Thanksgiving until New Year’s. All in all, not a bad gig. The only thing that would make it better would be working from home 100%. The idea of working in an offic...

My kids - who are now grown and gone. My mom - who left us way too soon. My stepdad - who also left us way too soon. My stepmom - who yet again, left us way too soon. My best friend from junior high. My childhood home. My friends from days and times past. My time in the Army. My time before the Army. The way things used to be (in some cases). Some (but maybe not all) family members that I don't see or talk to anymore but had a great childhood with. Sometimes I do feel nostalgic, and I do mi...

About a month ago, I declared that my next step in my personal and professional journey would be to take up copywriting. And after just shy of a month in, I'd like to share some of what's been happening on this journey. I may continue to post updates like this to chronicle this journey from aspiring writer to actual professional writer. This could serve as a good lessons learned manual, or perhaps a cautionary tale, but the goal here is to document the journey for myself and for others. For...

A fellow blogger here at Listed has hit the nail right on the head with their latest post regarding Medium. I'm a fan of Medium, and I find myself reading tons of articles from there. Heck, I've even posted a few myself. But over at Catch and Release, the poster really nails it. The name of the post is My Favorite Medium Articles, and it's just fantastic. It's a humorous posting (I think), but as with all comedy, the laughs are usually wrapped in a fair amount of truth. And, hey Medium... i...

If you're somehow finding this post as a result of a search engine query (which I doubt, because I totally suck at SEO), you might not know what Standard Notes or Listed actually is. For those of you that do know, you can skip ahead to why I love Listed. For those that don't, you're welcome to keep reading... Standard Notes is in my opinion, the best note taking app I've ever come across. It's basic, yet can be as complex as you want it to be. The free version is pretty no-frills. The paid ...

When I look around, I see an unending amount of examples of people just simply getting in their own way. I’m sure I do this as well, but it’s easier to look outward rather than inward sometimes. Mainly because I strive to be efficient and save time, without sacrificing quality, every chance I get. For me, time is more valuable than money. For as long as I can remember, I’ve looked at time in this way. I value it, I hate to waste it, and I resent others who just piss it away freely and witho...

Today turned out to be a great day. The week? Not so much. But today turned out great. At work, the project team I'm on was able to submit our deliverables. There wasn't instant agreement on the content of those deliverables, but we eventually did reach common ground, and submitted in time for our deadline. That felt really good, as I will say that I had a big hand in finding that common ground with all team members. And while I don't necessarily enjoy making decisions by committee (I prefe...

While at a Super Bowl party a couple Sundays ago, I overheard two guys talking while I was grabbing my Buffalo wings. These guys, who were each wearing their favorite football team's jerseys, with neither of their teams actually in the game, were sharing why they "hate" Tom Brady and the New England Patriots. "It's like, this guy [Tom Brady] is in the Super Bowl every single year", one of them said. And then the other one continued, "Yeah, and the Patriots? Really? Couldn't some other team ge...

Last week, while at work, I started something that I never intended to start. Turns out, I needed to do this mini-project way more than I realized. Both in result, and in actual benefit. What I started last week was to chip away at organizing my work emails, and took on the challenge of figuring out the best way to leverage Microsoft's OneNote alongside Outlook. The MS Office suite is standard issue at work, and while I've been using these and many other Microsoft products for multiple decade...