I Am Weak: a Premature End to No Meat Week
Filed Under: Uncategorized
I was doing pretty good until yesterday. I don’t know what happened, but I started farting loud enough to scare the cats and wake Sarah up from a nap, two rooms away. I had to check and make sure I hadn’t accidentally sat on a trumpet at some point earlier in the day. I levitated off the couch a couple of times. I believe I produced enough methane to power Fort Collins for at least 10 minutes. There is a glacier in Greenland melting a little faster today with my name on it .
So yeah. Gas. I had not anticipated that.
After having nothing but a banana for breakfast because we ran out of milk, and after losing my temper over missing my new lenses arriving via UPS, I gave in. I just finished some McDonalds. Barely should qualify as meat, honestly, but there it is.
I admit it, I am weak. I am surprised I made it as long as I did. I’ll attempt it again later in the summer perhaps. While camping, maybe.
Announcing JT365
Filed Under: Photography, creativity, personal
Today is my 32nd birthday.
I can’t say that I’m happy about it. But I’m coming to terms with it.
At this point in my life, birthdays for me are a reminder of my mortality. They ceased being about gifts when I was in my teens. For a while in my college years, I thought my birthday was bad luck due to a string of nasty events around my birthday, so I went out of my way to hide it from friends well into my late 20s. I’m past that nonsense, but I still grow melancholy.
I wanted to do so much more with my life than I have. It feels as if I have squandered the last ten years, even though I know this is not so. I have some wonderful things to show for my time. Nothing of serious consequence in the greater world, but… I am content with this.
It’s time that instead of doing things to impress other people and draw attention to myself out of some misguided sense that it would be a way of achieving a kind of immortality, I have instead determined that I will attempt to dedicate my remaining time towards living a life that I can look back on without regret. As my old boss used to say, each day is a gift, and it is up to us how we use them. I have long squandered them on things that I will not remember when my time comes to pass.
So today, in an attempt to live each day more fully, to connect more with the passage of time and develop more of a sense of being here in the now, I am launching my 365 day photography project. I am taking and selecting one photograph each day for the next year. There’s nothing original about it. Many people have done these before, but I have not. I At times, I will experiment with new techniques. Sometimes, I will probably not be able to get out of bed, and so I will be forced to find some interesting way of capturing the ceiling of my bedroom.
If you all, the audience, serves a purpose in this project, it is to keep me honest. I find that when you do something like this out in the open, you feel more dedicated to the task. I let myself down often enough, but it’s a motivator to avoid letting others down. Ultimately, however, this is a project I do for myself. You’re welcome to take pleasure from the project, and I hope you do. But I’m doing this for so many more reasons than usual.
The 365 project can be found here. You can follow it on twitter here.
So that’s my primary goal right now, on the road to turning 33. We’ll see how it goes.
Music for Renee:My aunt needs help
Filed Under: creativity
Hi all. This is another post in which I ask for money, but not on behalf of myself. If such posts bother you, please go on about your business. I’ve gone back and forth on whether or not I should post this, asking you all to help a complete stranger. But ultimately, I decided that it would be letting down my family if I didn’t say something about it. So here goes.
I’m asking on behalf of a family member, my Aunt Renee, who recently lost a leg due complications from diabetes. She and her husband both live very much on a fixed income , and are now facing very difficult expenses not for the hospitalization, but for the equipment and home adaptation costs so that she can do very simple things like make it from her car to her front door. The family has approached many organizations for aid with the costs, but none have any funding due to the economy.
I’ve helped my family set up a website to sell $1.99 downloads of a song my mother wrote and recorded along with muscians around the world. The site also has a donation button you can use if you’d rather just give a couple of bucks and aren’t interested in the music. We’re not asking for hand-outs. But whether or not you listen to the song is up to you I guess. We’re trying to offer something in return.
Anyway. I appreciate, and the family appreciates, any help you can provide. You’ll have my gratitude especially.
Visit Music for Renee
Personal Interlude: A Project Awesome update
Filed Under: creativity, personal
When I’m too busy to write a nice, well-thought out blog post ahead of time, then things are actually going pretty well.
Project Awesome launched a month and a day ago. Since then, I have had no more success in finding a job than before, but everything else has improved dramatically. Freelancing is going very well, with enough work to cover a couple of months, and I haven’t even marketed myself.
Rule #1 has been good. I have lost my temper a couple of times and shared it online, mostly dealing with computer failure. For the most part, I believe my attitude portrayed online has improved very much–you’ll have to let me know if you don’t think so too. I don’t always feel great, but I keep it to myself., which leads me to rule #2.
Rule #2 has probably had the most amazing impact on me out of everything. When I start to feel down, I remember this rule and push onward. In no time, I go from faking feeling good to actually feeling good. My writing has improved and my design skills have improved because I have decided to pretend I am great even if I don’t think I am.
Rule #3– I don’t think I’ve broken this rule. Nobody owes me anything, except my clients, and I take paypal :)
Rule #4– definitely. As I experiment with different topics for posts on this blog, I’ve failed at generating interest with some. But I take it as a learning experience, and it’s helping me tailor where I want to go next.
Rule #5 & 6– sharpening my talent is pretty much my driving goal in everything right now. I’m seeing fantastic results, I think.
I do like working. Even without a job, I find work. Things are fine.
All the rest, I think have been moderately successful as well.
To summarize, I feel much better, and I feel like I’m making real progress in my life goals thanks to Project Awesome. Opportunities keep coming, despite the dire situation of being laid off. Right now, I don’t miss the grind of an office job at all. My stress levels are lower than ever.
If it weren’t for the insurance issue (which I have yet to resolve), I could do this indefinitely.
I hope you’ve been enjoying the blog. I will get back on track with regularly scheduled high-quality posts tomorrow and over the weekend.
