Tag: cats

Categories
Writing

The Search for a Social Identity

I am your typical introvert: I don’t have a need to talk to people. I can go an entire day and not say a single word and not mind at all.

Likewise, I don’t have a need to interact online. I enjoy peek into the socials to see what’s going on and what other people are up to, but I rarely feel the need to share my own activities.

Therefore I really don’t have much of a social media presence. I appear once in a while, say something snarky, and disappear back into my cave.

And I like it way.

However, I’ve been told repeatedly that I need a social media following to be a successful writer in this market. But it’s been hard to keep myself focused on the task. I have to pull myself away from other tasks – more important tasks – to do this… whatever ‘this’ is.

I’m not sure what I’m to do about it. I’ve laid out media plans, scheduled wiring tasks, outlines, etc. And have failed to stay on task at every turn. But yet, I’ll rework a single scene from my story for hours on end. Because ‘that’ is the work to me. Not this… not talking… not socializing in electronic packets… not showing you my lunch or my cat or derpy dog.

Sigh… But I guess I will for a laugh….

Whatever happened to that solitary tortured soul of a writer?

I miss that guy…

Categories
Life

Your Task List Will Expand to Fill the Alotted Time OR How I Lost Track of Two Months

I am a busy guy. I don’t really have ‘free’ time and I like it that way.

I have things to do.

I am an engineer and project manager, a husband with a large yard and an old house, a scuba diver, a traveler, an aspiring writer and guitar player, and occasionally a blogger. It’s the ‘occasional’ that I want to address here.

I started blogging because I had ideas, opinions, and general thoughts that I believed someone would find entertaining. I also enjoy writing and do it every day in some form. Lately, it’s spent more planning to write than actually writing. But that is always a struggle.

Yet, this year my other tasks seemed to have gotten the edge on me and I found myself buried in ‘things to do.’ This all resulted in two months vanishing without me really writing anything substantive. This blog will break that cycle and tick off one of my tasks. I have made a nice dent in my list and have even started using a Kanban board to manage my priorities.

(I can honestly say that it has worked. The engineers and nerds out there will know what I’m talking about.)

The pics in this post are a small sample of what I was doing in May and June, including:

  • Rewiring a production line
  • Scuba diving in Key West
  • Visiting the Hemingway House
  • Laying tile in my basement
  • Shakespeare in the park
  • Drinking beer with a cat
  • And something to do with a saw

As you can see, I’ve been busy.

There are still lots of stories from our Egypt trip to write up and I need to have that wrapped before our Italy trip. So, I’ve got some work to get done.

I hope you’re enjoying your summer. I’m going to go tear out a basement closet, now.

    Categories
    Life

    Yard Wards – Episode 3

    The weather has held, but the labor is not fairing so well. I’m getting worn and tired. But I am plugging forward. We completed the small patio area under the deck. The place where my grill was parked didn’t have a full brick underlay so my wife wanted to use larger paving stones to redo it. I’ve done larger sizes before am not a fan. I’m not sure why maybe my technique is not up to it?

    However, our cat Turkey has turned into quite the assistant. Has to have his paw in everything.

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    Turkey supervising.

    But we finished that area on the weekend and then did the next section in the original repurposed red brick. The smaller bricks were much easier to work with. They are more forgiving. The area is NOT level or uniform or anything else professionally expected. I mortared the joints on Monday after work. It took a lot more than I expected. However, they are pretty and permanent. That is enough for me.

    My knees and feet are killing me. Today, rather than tackle the next section, we broke mandatory isolation and snuck to Menards for more mortar and sand. I think we had 1000lbs of materials in our old beat-up minivan. It was NOT happy.

    Tomorrow we’ll tackle the run to the garage. It should be easier than the patio. I might know what I’m doing now. My goal is to survive this lawn. I haven’t bled into it yet, but I gave it all my aches and pains. This is why people hire professionals.

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