Tag Resolutions

Happy Half Year!

Michael 4 Comments

Ahh July! One of the two months tossed in by the Caesars Julius and Augustus rendering the clues to the position in the calendar by their names of September through December moot.

The month that added pages to calendars and is the reason February holds the short end of the day stick started in the hubris of a petty little tyrant. (Warning, Donober may be just around the corner.)

Still there are some good things that came out of July. Not only does July contain within its weeks National Hot Dog Day (on the undoubtedly soon to be more available July 4) it is in its entirety National Watermelon Month and National Ice Cream Month, perhaps not at the same time. Fun fact(?) or perhaps Sad fact, the Fourth of July was not declared a federal holiday until 1938.

Not only was it in July (the one in 1687 specifically) that Isaac Newton published Principia, that contains within its pages his laws of gravity and motion, it was also in July (the one in 2001) that the wildly popular sit-com “The Office” premiered (the British production). And it was on July 13, 1923 that some future real estate tycoon erected the famous HOLLYWOODLAND letters in Griffith Park on Mount Lee above Beachwood Canyon that you might be more familiar with as the Hollywood sign after the last four letters were taken down in 1949.

For the fans of vaccines, and other reasonably intelligent people, it was in July that the rabies vaccine was first given to a patient. Microbiologist Louis Pasteur administered the vaccine to a nine-year-old boy bitten by a rabid dog on July 6, 1885.

For those who think weird like me, July is the first month of the second half of the year. In yesterday’s Uplift we suggested July is a good time to reaffirm your New Years Resolution. Ours is to find something everyday that makes you start the day smiling inside and work on that until the smile defines you. Read more about it at Half Year Resolutions. It’s good. Trust me.

RRSB Persons of the Year

Michael 7 Comments

Nearing the end of the year most everybody will be writing about the year in review (ugh) or resolutions (still ugh but perhaps not disgustingly so). I, because I am me, will embark on my own end of year tangent and instead, celebrate the RRSB First (and Likely Only) Persons of the Year Award.  Yes, you read that correctly – plural “Persons,” singular “Award.” My choice for outstanding individual of 2021 is two individuals.

After careless considerat…  err, careful consideration, I’ve concluded there are two people worthy enough to be the Person of the Year, umm Persons of the Year and they is, I mean are: (drum roll, fanfare, etc, etc), Washington’s newest power couple, Liz Chaney and Joe Manchin.

Yes, that is a match made in Purgatory but they, and as far as I can tell, they alone are the epitome of Representative of the People. There are 535 elected voting representatives in Washington, 100 Senators, 435 members of the House of Representatives. Of those 535 people, 533 are more comfortable voting however their party tells them rather than those who hired them for the job. Only Chaney and Manchin have to the point of loss of standing and threats of censure, voted as they felt best benefited their constituents rather than their party leaders.

Seriously, as we enter 2022 maybe our Congress needs to resolve to improve themselves and the first step is for all 535 of them to write 100 times “I represent the people who voted for me” on any handy blackboard. Then they can rip out the aisles running down the middle of each chamber in that big white building on the hill and rather than assigning seats by party, get all the representatives of each state to sit together like they did when Congress was a new idea back in 1700s. Committee assignments will be made by members’ ability and background and leadership positions will limited to those identified in the Constitution. Yeah, that’s a bunch of pipedreams but they make just as realistic set of resolutions as wanting to lose weight and exercise more, but a guy can dream.

Now, getting back to Joe and Liz, my Persons of the Year. I agree it’s a sad state of affairs when politicians are singled out for bucking the system but face it, if your reps are always voting however their party leader tells them, why are they there. Let’s eliminate 531 positions and leave just one Democrat and one Republican in each house and they can vote on everything by rock, paper, scissors. Makes as much sense as what they’ve gotten done this year their way.

Manchin-Chaney

That One Thing

Michael 5 Comments

As we enter December “Hooray, 2020 is almost over!” is moving to the top of everybody’s mental “Things to Be Thankful For” list. Should it be? The calendar is a few short weeks away from turning the big page to 2021, how much will be new in the New Year?

Come New Year’s Eve people will take part in the traditional announcing of their New Year’s Resolutions wishing for a fresh start to the fresh year in a positive frame of mind. With the concentration of negative news and events this year has given us, one day of wishing may not be enough. So here is the challenge: each day of December find one thing from 2020 that was a positive for you and resolve to repeat whatever actions you took then to make that happen again in 2021. Surely this can’t be done you say! How can anybody find 31 positive things that happened in 2020? Well, for one thing, it isn’t 1520.

By 1520 fifty-six million people, that’s 56,000,000 people, perished worldwide in the great smallpox pandemic. By comparison, so far in 2020 only 1.5 million have succumbed to CoViD-19. That is still a lot of people and the current pandemic will not end when the current year expires. Comparing again to the smallpox pandemic, that wave actually began in 1518 with few deaths.  Assisted by increased travel for trade and exploration, the variola virus easily made its way around the world with devastating effects, initiating the eventual loss of 40% of the Aztec empire population, over 8 million people, just 2 years later.

PlusBalThat was then, now is now. What good came out of 2020 for you other than being born 5 centuries later than your counterpart from 1520? Perhaps it was a new friendship you started with someone who was once “just a neighbor” when you found yourself spending more time on your front porch rather than at work and began trading tales of things you’d rather be doing. Perhaps it was a newfound hobby born of necessity like baking or of boredom like painting. These are the positives of 2020 that can become the resolutions for a better 2021. Talk to my neighbors more than a grunted “uh” is passing. Learn a new bread recipe and bake a loaf each month even if I can find plenty of bread on the store’s shelf. Read a book that has nothing to do with work, school, or that on-line book club I got roped into last April. Play a game of Clue without wishing I had the candlestick in the dining room RIGHT NOW! Buy a spin bike and work out at home with all the money I saved not paying for the gym membership I never used or even wanted to use until I couldn’t.

So … every day for the next thirty-one begin each day remembering one thing, just one thing that was good, that was a positive for you, that happened this year. In fact, just do 30. Take Christmas off. I will not be surprised that by New Year’s Eve you will have gone from struggling to remember one positive thing every morning to rattling off 30 new positive things each morning! Then you can start 2021 with the resolve that next year you will do it all over again – just the way you did this year.

I Firmly Dissolve

Michael 2 Comments
The new year is already more than a week old and I haven’t published a new post yet. I should be swiftly and severely punished for this. Or not. I pick not. I tried to write. Really I did. But I’ve been busy. I’ve been doing my spring cleaning, clearing out the herb garden, and ordering candy corn. Yeah, my chronology is a little disheveled. And I mix metaphors in my spare time too. 
 
Jan9Something I haven’t done yet this year, besides writing until today, is I also have yet to resolve anything. But hey, that’s the norm for me. I won’t even think about “New Year’s Resolutions” until sometime in March. I may not do anything then either but I will give it a good think. My resolution of years and years ago not to make New Year’s Resolutions in January (which I am proud to say I have kept quite well thank you) did not have the universal impact I was hoping for, encouraging others to likewise temper their plans for self, and often world,  improvement as each year begins. I see by delaying my first post of 2020 for 9 days I’ve gotten here too late to see many people who forged ahead with New Year’s Resolutions on January 1 adhering to those grand plans. How can I tell? Well…
  • You don’t “spend less time on social media” if you are posting to Instagram you doing things without your phone in hand.
  • “Eat healthier” is more than picking a non-GMO and gluten free beer for your weekly binge. (Is that even a thing?)
  • You do not get credit for “being nice to everybody” for adding 🤫 to end of a Twitter rant in which you call anybody a blithering idiot. (Yes, even exes and politicians) 
  • Getting up to find your remote does not mean you “take more walks.”
Surely there are some still resolving successfully even 9 days in. To you, congratulations! To the others more representative of my examples, well, at least you think you tried.
 
Look, it’s a new year and in another 357 days (leap year, remember) it will be another new year then yet another and so on and so on and so on. The only resolution you really need to make and keep is to do your best to make it to your next chance to resolve. Or not. 
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A Virtue by Any Other Name

Michael 8 Comments

I’m writing this at about 11:30 Wednesday morning while I’m waiting for my car to be serviced. It’s not the little roadster I’ve often mentioned here but the daily driver. Since my daily drives are now short, few, and far between, it is more aptly a daily parker. But still with even less than 5,000 miles added to its journeys since last December, it needs its annual safety inspection and oil change.

Although there are more than a handful of 29 minute oil change places within a few miles of me I opted for the dealership service department. It’s very close. Close enough I could walk home if I didn’t want to wait although an oil change and inspection is usually only a half hour wait and I can amuse myself reading the paper or tackling a crossword puzzle. And it’s only 9°F (-13°C) outside. That’s warmed up from the 5° it was when I got here 3 hours ago. Less than ideal outdoor walking weather.

Oh, yes, you read that right. Three hours. I have seen people come and people go and I’ve worked all the puzzles I’m I the mood to except the one that answers why it takes so long to drain old oil out, pour new oil in, honk the horn, flash the lights, and tap the brakes.

I guess that’s not a fair representation. I know there’s more to it than that and that those who have come and gone might have had even less work done. After all, it was only 5° at the start of the day. I’m sure lots if batteries are being sold and they can switch out 4 or 5 of them in the time it takes 5° oil to ooze out of crankcase.

I don’t know what you do but whatever you do somebody has said, why do you have to take so long, why do you charge so much, why did you have to go to school for that? All you’re doing is…

Knowing that I had been the subject of such complaints throughout my work days, I was certain I never said such a thing of others. Until 3 paragraphs ago. More than likely, until 50 years ago. Impatience is not one if the seven deadly sins but it certainly should be. I spent the first hour of waiting just fine. I sat in a comfortable chair in a warm lounge and read the morning paper. By the second hour I started getting impatient. The chair got hard, the paper was boring, and there was a definite chill in the air. Heading to the third hour I am close to irate. Why am I still here when I could be home in a comfortable chair …

in a warm room …

reading … um …

the rest … ah …

of …

the … um …

paper.

Hmm…

You know I don’t do resolutions at the beginning of the year but maybe I’ll make an exception and not do that again and hope that you don’t either. So it’s taking a little longer than I expected. Across the room is a father and son playing some sort of game on a tablet. In the corner is a young man appearing to be watching a webcast on his laptop, two seats down from me a pair of young women are planning a brunch before they take a third friend shopping for her wedding dress. They all have more things going on in their lives and don’t seem to mind the wait. I’m sure I can learn something from that.

Even at my advanced impatience.

 

Resolved to Not

Michael Leave a comment

If you’ve been following along with me for the past several years you know I’m in no danger of breaking my resolutions before this week is up because I won’t be getting around to making them for a few months. (See “Be It Resolved,” Jan. 2, 2012 if you don’t remember or understand.) While I think I have a perfectly reasonable self-help program going on there (even though I seem to be actually helping myself very little most of the time), most of the world has already gone out on that New Year’s Resolution limb. And many of them armed with a chainsaw.

I was enjoying reading an article on an on-line journal yesterday when a link at the end caught my eye. It was something to the effect of why you should make “non-resolutions” this year. If you consider that “to be resolved” is a quite strong statement in that one who is resolute is adamant and unwavering  about one’s decision, to make a “non-resolution” would be to plan on faltering or even failing. Which seems to be what happens to most of our resolutions anyway. This, I thought, bears some further study. Maybe.

I clicked on the link to see what the author had in mind but what he had in mind was to sell some of his books on positive thinking and I thought I was pretty positive that I could think fairly well on my own. So I thought for a while and I think I came up with something. This “non-resolution” idea just might go somewhere.

Consider what most people resolve to do in the shadow of empty champagne bottles, pork roast remnants, more sauerkraut than was really a good idea, and still more empty champagne bottles. To lose weight. To stop drinking. To eat less sauerkraut. They are negative goals and success means not doing something. And unless you are really adept like to a professional level at problem solving, you probably do set personal goals from a negative perspective. Eat less. Reduce debt. Don’t be late for work. It’s not unnatural to our thinking because it is indeed easier to not do than to do.

A self-help expert would say to be successful you must plan positively and with a specific target or goal. You don’t resolve to lose weight you resolve to eat healthier, exercise more, and lose two pounds a week over the next 4 months. No wonder nobody ever loses weight starting in January. That’s a full time job you’re taking on there. Now what if we give those “not to” abstracts some still real measurable goals? Without changing the negative of course. Eat less becomes eat three less desserts a week or eat at McDonald’s one less time a week. You’re still planning on not doing something and you’re brain is still comfortable with that. But now you have something specific to not do and if you don’t do it you meet your goal.

Sure it’s not for everybody, but maybe it’s worth a try just so you can say you didn’t break your resolution before you took down the Christmas tree.

Or. You could resolve to make your resolutions this spring. With me. When I’m pretty positive they should be made.

That’s what I think. Really. How ’bout you?

Counting It Down

Michael Leave a comment

To prepare for the new year, here is my countdown.

10. Next year, try something new. If you’re really ambitious you might want to try 12 somethings. It (or they) could be anything – try a food you never had, go dancing if you never had, go to a movie if you never had. See a baseball game, read a new author, go bowling. Twelve new things over the course of a whole year. That comes to just one a month. You can do it.

9. When you think of those you encountered this year, think of them kindly. Chances are you’re either going to run across them or at least think of them again next year. It’s so much nicer to remember good stuff.

8. It is never so bad that you can’t make it worse. Regular readers will remember that as one of the sayings I’d like to see on a wall plaque, t-shirt, screen saver, or anywhere I can see it on a daily basis. I may make this my mantra for 2016, reciting it upon waking every day to remind myself to not screw things up. Again.

7. Sing in the shower.

6. Be tolerant. Nobody is ever going to be exactly the person you want. On the other hand, you’re never going to be that person for anybody else.

5. Don’t compromise. When you compromise, everybody loses. Do collaborate. When you collaborate everybody gets in on the fun!

4. Pray, meditate, contemplate, reflect, wonder.

3. Sleep late sometime, lay there and enjoy not doing almost anything. Get up early sometime, lay there and enjoy getting ready to do almost anything.

2. Don’t wait for another New Year’s Eve to plan new resolutions. Resolve to be better more than once a year.

1.Have a Happy New Year all year long!

That’s what I think. Really. How ‘bout you?

It’s a Pizza Revolution – err, Resolution

Michael 2 Comments

It’s still too early for New Year’s Resolutions for me.  If you want to know why, look back two posts.  However…if I owned a pizza shop I would be building a new bandwagon to hop on with a dandy.  Pizza palaces, parlors, purveyors, and other who have you’s need to seriously get hold of their coupons.

While cleaning out the old coupon keeper and unpinning overflow restaurant coupons from the coupon board, a myriad of pizza coupons bit the dust – expiration date speaking.  Besides the fact that it is remarkably easy to make your own pizza, it is remarkably hard to figure out pizza coupons.  Even the big national chains are getting into the “let’s make this so confusing that nobody will ever want to redeem our coupon or take advantage of our special” craze.  And that’s just plain crazy.

Let’s start with those national chains.  Two pizzas at $5.99 each.  What a deal.  Oh wait, only Monday through Thursday.  Still a deal.  And it comes with two toppings.  On two pizzas.  Now hang on.  Just to whom are they marketing this great special of theirs?  How often does a family of one want two pizzas?  How often does a family of four want two pizzas?  While we’re hanging out with that family, have you ever tried to get four people to agree on two pizza toppings?  Sometimes you can’t get one person to agree on two toppings!  So let’s cross the street to the other chain.  Any large pizza for $7.99.  But we’re back to two toppings.  Unless you want bacon.  Then it’s $12.99 for one topping.  Don’t confuse that with the “Any Pizza for $11.00” deal.  It all depends on do you want carry-out or order on line.  While we’re at it, do you drive to work or carry your lunch?  Sheesh.

Since those guys are no help let’s visit a local shop.  I have a coupon from one for a large pizza with one topping, a twelve inch hoagie, an order of breadsticks and a bottle of cola.  Too much for your family of seventeen?  Another shop has one large pizza with one topping for only $10.  If it’s Thursday you can get two toppings on that large pizza for the same $10.  And if you like that you can super-duper size it to five large pizzas with one topping for only $45.  You can use the savings for your co-pay at the cardiologist.

An interesting thing about these specials is that all of the coupons specify no substitutions and to mention the coupon when ordering.  Why?  It’s not like these are secret savings to special card carrying members of the “I Like Your Pizza Parlor” club.  These come every week in every newspaper, hard copy mailings, e-mail blasts, on the Internet, on their Facebook pages, and taped to the top of the box when you actually do order something.  Substitutions?  Who understands the offer to begin with!

Does it really have to be that confusing just to get a pizza?  Tell you what to do the next time you have a pizza craving.  Take four cups of flour, a cup and a half of warm water, two teaspoons salt, one teaspoon sugar, two tablespoons oil, and a pack of active dry yeast.  Mix the yeast in the water, add the sugar, let it go to town for 5 minutes or so.  Add half of the flour and all of the salt to the water.  Get your hands into it and slowly add the remaining flour then knead it for a couple of minutes.  Put it in a bowl coated with oil to let it rise for about an hour.  Shape it, put it on a lightly oiled pan, brush it with oil then top it with however many toppings you want.  Bake it at 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes.  After you finish your pizza, call your local pizza shop and tell them to stuff it.  And you don’t mean the crust.

Now, that’s what I think. Really. How ‘bout you?

 

Let’s Stay In Touch

Michael Leave a comment

It’s much too early to make any New Year’s resolutions.  (If you haven’t already, you can see our thoughts on New Year’s resolutions at “Revolving Resolutions (Dec. 30, 2013), Resolving to Keep It Real (Dec. 31, 2012), Be It Resolved (Jan. 2, 2012), and/or Be It Further Resolved (March 22, 2012).)  However, it might be just the right time to make a New Year’s Eve resolution.

It was sometime last week when there were five people and four oh-so-smart phones at the table all at the same time.  This was He’s extended family and usually that group can never find any of their phones.  But for some reason, on that day everybody but one (and oddly enough that was the youngest of the group and a true card carrying member of the “Don’t Leave Home Without It As Long As It Is a Phone Brigade”) had his or her cell phone strapped, perched, or holstered onto his or her body or close by.  Miraculously, nobody’s phone made a peep during the meal which is why all of them were at the table at the same time.  But the site of all that electronic wizardry did start a story.  And so it went.

Once upon a time, staying in touch was easy.  If you wanted to speak with someone you called that someone.  Landline and then cell phone calls were an easy push button distance to just about anyone.  If nobody answered there was usually an answering machine or voice mail willing to take a message.  Even as home computing became the norm, e-mail was available and handy for sending large amounts of information or even sharing files.  And thus we managed quite well getting our lunches planned, our rides scheduled, and our points across.

And then the madness struck!

It was even before the smart phone revolution.  Texting.  At first, only the 13-18 demographic texted.  It made perfect sense.  Texts were free.  Calls were still charged by the minute.  Parents knew about every call made.  Parents cared less about texts.  They showed up on bills as numbers of but followed by NC – No Charge.  HW!  (How Wonderful).  As the 13-18 year olds aged, their favored means of communication improved.  Texts became faster and clearer.  And as the texting became easier, the parents and other fogies suddenly realized they too could be saving time and money.  What two better things are there to save.

With the time saved they all became users of Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Linked In, Skype, YouTube, and YouNameIt.  Many, many ways to stay in touch.  Then problems started arising when people started realizing they were on too many services to stay on all of them as much as they wanted.  And thus, each picked a favorite.  All different favorites!  But they rarely shared which was their favored favorite.  So if you want to reach your best friend you have call, leave a message, then text, then private message on Facebook.  At least one of those will be ringing, humming, or vibrating your recipient’s phone.  If all else fails, there’s always e-mail and maybe a landline phone call, possibly to the work number.

So what’s the resolution?  For the callee, everybody should resolve to tell everybody they really want to hear from how to reach them.  And don’t get miffed if someone picks the wrong means.  Stuff happens you know.  And for the caller, make certain you listen to all your contacts and somewhere mark their preferred means of…. No, how about once you send out the message you give your intended recipient enough time to get back before you…. No, make sure you’re using the right platform for the right…. No, how about don’t assume that your favorite means of being gotten hold of is everybody’s favorite…. Oh heck, was it really that important anyway?

Tell you what, have your people get hold of our people and we’ll do lunch.

Now, that’s what we think. Really. How ‘bout you?

 

Revolving Resolutions

Michael 1 Comment

For the last two years we have explained why we don’t get around to making our New Year’s resolutions until sometime in March.  No, procrastination has nothing to do with it.  Out logic is flawless.  The holiday season stretching all the way back to Halloween is just too hectic during which to make logical, sustaining, life altering decisions.  (See “Be It Resolved,” Jan. 2, 2012 in Life.)

The rule is about to have an exception.  A couple of them even.  She and He have both already resolved at least once for 2014.  He started planning changes for 2014 at the end of October.  She reached her epiphany while doing some between holiday cleaning and verbalized a resolution for next year almost before Christmas was over.  That’s when the light bulb went off, the penny dropped, and realization came into focus.  It’s never the wrong time of the year to improve oneself.

Holy resolutions! What a profound statement.  It’s never the wrong time of the year to improve oneself.  When something significant arises it would be silly to wait until March – or January – to do something about it.  And that’s another reason we’re against New Year’s resolutions at the start of the New Year.  One can’t just pick once a year to start improving.

Now there are always going to be those non-resolution resolutions.  Eat less, exercise more, stay off the couch, don’t nag, don’t drink, lose weight, gain height, avoid sharp objects, don’t insult the boss in public particularly when the boss is part of the public.  Some people just can’t make it through a New Year’s Eve celebration without spouting something seemingly profound in the cloud of champagne and confetti.  Go ahead and make those.  They are the ones that die on January 2 anyway.  (Hopefully at least the one about the boss.)

But real life changing challenges shouldn’t be restricted to one day.  It’s never the wrong time of the year to improve oneself.  Except maybe January 1.

Now, that’s what we think.  Really.  How ‘bout you?