Unimportant Friday Noise

Been a bit since I last posted, my schedule has been too busy to be truly annoyed enough at any one thing to sit down and produce a post on...but lots of little things.

• Weather, complaining can't do much about this but I have to state that I really wish the weather would make up it's mind already, 70 degrees F yesterday and 45 today and again tomorrow will be 60's...wash, rinse repeat.

• Need to relax more. For a couple years I was on a pretty heavy duty bicycling schedule and I would average 30 miles a day at least with a few longer days and even a couple 100 mile days in there. I am not a roadie all suited up in my sexy spandex, I am instead a heathen who rides in whatever makes it to my body that day and can keep pretty decent pace with roadies on my mountain bike. I have slipped off that pattern over the last year and need to get my bike tuned up and some miles under my wheels again, it puts me in the right place mentally and physically and I really miss it.

• Finances, everyone complains about money so nothing new here, just had to give money a shout out.

I think in the end a change of scenery for a few days would solve a lot of the stress on my mind. There are
many things I didn't mention that the mentioned gripes add to. In looking at that list it seems pretty small and simple to fix in many ways.

• Weather, deal with it and put on your big boy pants, winter is cold, spring is unpredictable, summer is hot and fall is all kinds of screwed up. Same thing is gonna happen next year too so better grow a pair now in preparation for it.

• Relaxing, get your damn bike tuned up, put on your cool weather gear and get back into shape mentally and physically. This will in turn make you not only more relaxed but may help with the last complaint in the end.

• Finances, work hard, save money and if you aren't making enough then either get another job (I really don't want to), a second job (again not in my desires) or manage your finances better. I think in the end I will work on the management of finances so that I can go out and do some relaxing rides which will improve my attitude at work and the trickle down effect goes on from there.

Well that was simple and a bit cathartic which is what this is all about really. It was a lot less whiny than I heard it in my head too. Maybe once I get these things situated I will post even less to this blog...nah I doubt it, riding gives me a lot of time to think about all kinds of things both good and bad.

What do you do to work your way out of a funk?

Thanks for listening to my ramblings, I will make sure to dig something better up soon. Comment below as you like, show me adoration and tales of teaching your kids of my greatness or how you tell everyone I am the worst kind of human on par with Pol Pot.

John

Procrastination and me

I need to write a new entry about procrastination, probably get on that tomorrow.

Seems to be how the last week or so has gone for me. I could sit here and make excuses about busy at work, family emergency, cat pissed all over my laptop and so on. The reality though is that although I have been busy at work I have had enough time to draw up a new DnD campaign (ooohhh nerd poker), my family has had no emergencies in some time and I don't own a cat (though my daughter will probably ask me for one after reading this.

So enough with the bullshit excuses the real answer is I am a procrastinator and it is a terrible thing. It has invaded so many areas of my life I don't even realize I am doing it anymore.

Don't get me wrong I am not a lazy person so much as I just don't want to do any more than I have to anymore. After all these years of living life I don't want to pay bills on time, write letters (do people actually write letters anymore?), go grocery shopping, breathe...

OK I lie I actually do all those things on time, mostly, and I am never too lazy to breathe, well so far at least. There are a million more mundane things I just don't always care enough to make a priority in my life. It is like I have a filing cabinet in my mind and one is strictly so that when people walk into the office they see it so well organized they comment on it, then there is the real one that gets used all the time with random files stacked on it and doors half closed with paper sticking out of them, this is the real file cabinet of my life, the one I need to organize better, the one I am going to organize starting tomorrow in fact.

That file cabinet is filled with simple things, everyday things that seem terribly inconsequential but also the things that people notice the most because they are such trivial items. Things such as take out trash, wash car, write blog entry, cook dinner, do dishes and so on. These things get pushed around for days at a time and it has gotten to the point it annoys even me.

Right now in fact I am looking at a pile of dishes that have been sitting on the sink for a while. It isn't that I don't want to do the dishes and have clean plates to eat off of, but it is so much easier if I just wash the plates I need when I need them, this may last a week or so before I finally take the time to actually wash all the dishes that are there. It's kind of pathetic really but it is my fault that I do this and nobody else is to blame for it.

Luckily enough I have recognized the issue and have come to a solution. As I mentioned before I do have a daughter and she is a good kid who helps keep me on the straight and narrow most days as well as reminding me when I need to do certain things I have procrastinated on. This child of mine, the apple of my eye, my one and only reason for existing in this world shall from now on be known as "Daughter Dishwasher".

Man I am glad I could solve my problem with some simple time put into thinking about it, now I am going back to bed so I can dream up more solutions for procrastination.

So what do you put off for a later date?
Drop comments below and let me know I am not the only one in this world who does this.

Social Media Has Turned Us Into Idiots

 Oh look a meme nobody has seen ten million times in the last month.

 It seems at times that social media, which was built around being social and sharing ideas, has been overrun with memes, e-cards and inspirational quotes over shitty pictures. In fact just the other day I took a look at my feed on a popular social media site and realized probably 80% of my feed was filled with them (go ahead and take a look at yours I will wait).

 See what I mean? Count out the first 50 posts and note how many are pointless snarky images and how many are actual posts from people talking about their day, their successes, their utter failures at life or something useful such as a news article they find important or even a shout out...at least the shout out is them talking (shout out to Big Mike btw). 

 Posting a meme once in a while is acceptable and can even be found funny, posting 5 memes in an hour is not. In fact it is more like a scream to everyone that you are unoriginal, have done nothing (interesting or not) or just love to annoy the fuck out of your "friends". 

 Most of the people I have on my social media sites as contacts are one or more of the following.

• We grew up together, and want to keep in touch.
• We worked together, and want to keep in touch.
• We are related, and want to keep in touch.
• We hang out on a forum together, and want to keep in touch.
• We are friends or were friends and moved or live across the street and are too lazy to actually hang out anymore, and want to keep in touch.

 See the common theme in that list? Keeping in touch, sharing our lives even a little bit like we once did. Obviously that time together meant something and we added each other to our respective friends list/groups/twit feed or whatever, so why do you only speak in these crappy images with stupid words that aren't even your original thoughts? I know you didn't talk like this in real life or we wouldn't have become friends.

I like to think of it as though any time I post we are sitting around and having a conversation or each post is the start of a conversation. If someone sat down and used the text of a meme to start a conversation I would probably tell them to get stuffed without a second thought. For some reason though we feel we have to play this passive aggressive game of hiding how we really feel because it may hurt someones feelers. Well I say screw that, when someone is acting in a manner that you wouldn't accept in real life why would you not call them out about the same thing online?

 Maybe the person doing it doesn't realize that they are adding to the dumbing down of society as a whole or the extent of the continuously unoriginal posting they are doing. Well, that is a bit sad really, but by pointing it out bluntly maybe you are saving them continued embarrassment of showing the world what an unoriginal person they really are, kind of like removing a band aid...with a chainsaw sure it hurts now but they are going to thank you later for it. 

 I had to go through my list and remove several of the worst offenders and I felt bad because one of the offenders was someone I had known for most of my life, but repeated warnings were lost on them. Once I removed them I looked back through my feed and saw a beautiful sight, it was filled with news articles, comments on current events in both personal lives and national/local issues, arguments using words (I love these most) and photos of my friends with their families or places they have been. Gone were the kitty pictures, the Capt. Picard images that god awful "Worlds Most Interesting Man" and I can't forget to mention the steady stream of Chive ripoffs as well.

 It was as if someone walked into the social media bathroom and flushed the toilet on a twenty pound turd and with a few pumps of the plunger all was right enough with the world that I could comfortably sit down and release the evil within me in peace.

 As I end my rambling for today I ask that all of you take one thing with you from this, first and foremost social media is about being sociable and about being in touch with each other when you can't actually be there. So share your life, not just the good parts so everyone thinks you are the greatest, but share the ugly bits too so others can tell you that you are great especially when you don't feel it so much. Reciprocate with honest output because social media is only as good as what you put into it, and lets be honest here do you really want to be known for snarky unoriginal content and passive aggressiveness or as an honest asshole that shared your life/lives with those who care enough to call you a friend?

  That's my rant today, hope I offended.

  John

Why would it be offensive?

This is the introductory entry into the blogosphere for me...yay for devirginization!!1

In this blog I plan to talk about a variety of things, some are silly, some are serious but all mean something otherwise I wouldn't mention them here. 

Couple quick things to note:

I will use whatever language I choose.

I tend to state my opinion clearly and without apology, it is MY opinion after all.

You are more than welcome to post comments below as you see fit which will not be deleted or edited by me, as Voltaire once said, "I do not agree with what you say but will defend to the death your right to say it."

You are more than welcome to post opposing views in your blog and link me with them, by doing this I will assume you also allow me the ability to post unedited and not delete my comments because I am offensive to you. If that is not the case then I will simply consider you a less than intelligent being and probably talk poorly of you in my next entry.

OK so all that out of the way I am not as bad as I may seem (so much for unapologetic right?). I have a wide range of interests so I may post on a pretty wide range of topics. An attempt will be made to make sure all the "facts" are checked before posting, but sometimes I just need to get a rant out into the world and know that others agree on some level...or don't.

If you are OK with this then enjoy, if you aren't then I pity you and wish you well.

Not much else to say today, just wanted to say hello and get the first page out of the way.

John