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Rebuilt

Well, it took all weekend and then some but I’ve got the laptop back in a semblance of working order. Now to get on with everything that should have been happening Friday afternoon when it tanked…

Getting There

Just remember, once you’re over the hill you begin to pick up speed. ~Arthur Schopenhauer

Sometimes you just need to burn it all down and start from scratch.

That’s fine for confused, malfunctioning laptops but not so much for countries.

I strongly disagree that we need to reconstitute the basic essence of our society. What we need to do is determine what our core values are going forward.

The past is imperfect.

Trying to change it is pointless. Erasing it is just a communist mind-fuck and we definitely shouldn’t do that either.

We need to look forward and just get on with life.

Would be kind of nice if we could do that without all the megaphones, intimidation, rioting, burning and murder.

Can’t Make Up Your Mind?

Don’t Vote!

If your only reason for voting for Biden is because Orange Man Bad, please stay home.

If you’re voting for Biden because you think his platform is awesome and you believe in what he stands for, please see a doctor and get on some antipsychotic medications ASAP.

It would be fine if the Blues stood for prioritizing social issues and the Reds stood for prioritizing military preparedness as they appeared to have done in decades of yore, but it’s not really like that and it really never has been.

The issues in the upcoming election are such a profound fork in the road that it beggars logic to think you’d willingly take the left fork unless you were either expecting to benefit from it personally (politicians, lobbyists, apparatchiks) or are just barking mad.

Seriously, just stay home and binge a season or two of your favorite series and leave the future of our country to people who actually care.

Bumps In The Road

Obstacles are things a person sees when he takes his eyes off his goal. ~E. Joseph Cossman

Your focus determines your destination. My focus has been lacking lately.

This is primarily because my laptop crashed and I had to spend a couple of days restoring it and partially because I could really use an optometrist appointment.

I think I’m going blind. Everything looks microscopic anymore.

Thing is, I’ve been so distracted with physical ailments and hardware malfunctions that I haven’t been able to focus on where I really want to go.

The goal is vaguely in mind rather than firmly so.

That’s kind of fine for the time being.

Think of it this way. If I wanted to drive to Pittsburgh, really, really, really wanted to drive to Pittsburgh (I don’t, actually, it’s just an example for illustrative purposes) I could plug my Garmin in and jump behind the wheel and go.

But not really.

I’d need to stop at the gas station first to tank up.

But that’s in the entirely wrong direction!!!

True, but I’d still want to jump down to the EZMarket and tank up before heading out to Pittsburgh. That certainly seems like a lack of focus. It seems like an unwelcome distraction. It seems like I’m not making any progress.

Even when I get to Hamburg and jump on I-76, it feels like I haven’t even gotten anywhere. There’s so much Pennsylvania in the way of my goal of getting to Pittsburgh.

That’s how it feels right now. I’m distracted by my rebuild. I’m distracted by errands that do not facilitate my personal goals. I’m distracted by the contract work I’m attempting to do in spite of hardware malfunctions.

It’s all distractions.

Thing is, I can’t get there until I get there. I can choose to be annoyed by all the stuff between here and Pittsburgh or I can enjoy the ride.

Unfortunately, I’ve had very good reason to be annoyed.

There are a lot of annoying distractions that I have to deal with even if I don’t particularly want to.

Finding the peace that will allow me to enjoy the ride has eluded me of late. I’m not enjoying that either.

The current climate seems custom-made to piss everyone off. I’m not immune to that. In fact, I’m quite susceptible to it.

One of the things about being a cranky old man is that everything annoys you even in the best of circumstances. When there’s an existential plot to piss everyone off, well, I’m just as vulnerable as the next guy.

Boy, I can’t wait until this random fuckery is over.

At least I have a working laptop again. That’s something to be grateful for.

I took a nice soaky bath this morning and did a bit of meditating to try to re-center myself. That’s also something to be grateful for.

We’re coming up on a season of gratitude. I need to focus on that instead of the societal chaos that the news brings in on a daily basis.

I also need to get on with my 2020 Holiday Season Serial Romance. I picked some character names and have been mulling some plot options as I drive Dorothy to and from school, but I’m really not putting pen to paper yet. The sooner I get started, the sooner I’ll be done.

As for the rest of the IPs, they just need to wait until I’ve got my laptop entirely reset and my head back in the game. It’s not a problem, though. I’m not going to be in a position to publish anything until I can afford to buy a batch of ISBNs and a book cover or two.

I’m trying to be very deliberate on this. I’d like to have a repeatable process and an executable plan for all this. Some people just slap a book out there and throw traffic at it. I guess that works, but it doesn’t make for a coherent, long-term strategy in my opinion. I’d rather do it more “right” than that.

How To Get Back On Track With Your Goals!