The Last 5 Songs on iTunes:
- Glory Days- Bruce Springsteen
- Synaesthetic- Blue Man Group
- Born to Lose- Social Distortion
- Fire And Rain- James Taylor
- Take Me To The Pilot- Elton John
People say that things happen for a reason. Sometimes I agree with it and sometimes I don’t, but most of the time I try not to think about it.
Been wrestling with a variety of thoughts and ideas about this and that. Some are profound and some are mundane but they all have their place. The new DISQUS has really caught my eye and I have been playing around with switching over to it.
I want it to be easy to comment here. I don’t want to ask people to jump through hoops. Overall Livefyre has been pretty darn good, but there are hiccups. I noticed yesterday that Danny Brown made the switch over to DISQUS and meant to ask him about it. Had a very busy day so I didn’t do it earlier.
Decided to check to see if he had blogged about it and came across a post called The Indecision of Being a Blogger and smiled. I know all of the feelings and concerns he shared there. It doesn’t matter how long you are in the game for you always have moments where you wonder about the blog.
You wonder about your content and if you are publishing your best stuff. You wonder about your design, if it is user friendly and if it encourages your readers to stick around. You wonder about the plugins and commenting systems and you wonder about a million other things.
At least some of us do.
This is my baby. I love this place and I want others to love it too. It is my Fortress of Solitude and my refuge from the occasional moments of chaos and conflict. It is one of my favorite places to hang out.
It is kind of fun to look at this joint and see how it has evolved and how I have grown as a writer.
The Next 5 Songs On iTunes
- Faithfully- Journey
- New York’s Not My Home- Jim Croce
- Lady Jane- The Rolling Stones
- The Pusher- Steppenwolf
- With or Without You- U2
I want to be the Michael Phelps of something. I want to be that good, that dominant and that successful. That is not sarcasm or one of my tongue-in-cheek comments.
But this next sentence might be.
I wonder if Dick Clark shared his secrets on aging with Bob Costas. Maybe there a secret Fountain of Youth that they had/have access too. Don’t know if I would want it for me or not.
Part of me sort of appreciates the lines on my face, I have earned these.
Some people have told me they think that politics have gotten nastier and that we are witnessing a severe decline in discourse but I am not so sure. Think about the famous duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. Much of that came about because of political differences, as far as I know none of our politicians are engaging in duels.
Reality Check
It bears repeating- stop telling me what the world should be like and start talking to me about what you are doing to make changes. Let’s deal with what is and not spend so much time on what should be.
I should be able to fly and have a digestive system that isn’t lactose intolerant or unwilling to convert donuts into essential nutrients and vitamins. I should be retired and attended to by my 293 concubines all of whom are perfectly willing to share me because that is normal.
When we deal in reality and what is it becomes much easier to figure out what could be and what should be as well as how to make them happen.
Another 5 Songs on iTunes
- The Long And Winding Road- The Beatles
- Natural Blues- Moby
- Spoonful- Cream
- Numb/Encore- Linkin Park and Jay-Z
- Moby Dick- Led Zeppelin
It has been quite the summer here filled with lots of moments to remember. Some of these moments have been good and some…less good. It has been a time when plans fell through and I have done my best to roll with the changes.
Maybe that is why I wonder about what is coincidence and what is meant to be. Maybe it is why I wonder if it doesn’t matter what road I take because eventually I am going to reach the same place I always was. Not really sure about that, but I am doing my best to just let it happen.
Doing my best to keep my ego out of this place. Ego wrecks blogs.
Speaking of blogs I am working on about six now and am feeling the wear and tear. It is time for me to adjust my schedule again because the pace is starting to impact the quality of my content. Or so it feels to me.
There is much more to share but there is work to attend to and I have miles to go before I sleep. So for the time being I must bid you adieu. See you all later.
Hey Jack, Enjoyed your comments about Mr. Costas. You make a valid point about the purpose of questioning ourselves (kinda like a self check once in awhile). But I guess what I’m talking about is when it turns to a habit of second guessing yourself. When I start to turn inward too much, I find I lose some of my spontaneity. Is this ever a problem for you?
charlieandsheba I may second guess myself but I am pretty good about just following my gut so I don’t think I really lose any of my spontaneity.
Hi JackI enjoyed your post. Is it the time in our life when you finally wonder about a lot of stuff and all the purpose for what we go through? Even why we have to endure any hardships? Like didn’t we get enough tough times when we were younger? (Since you talked about wrinkles, I am guessing…besides I am up there too.) Why do we seemed to get wiser after we once again go through things and say oh yeah I have should have learned that from the first time around…it just looks different this time under a new scenario of the same repeated mistake. For other stuff I just think we have more logic to ponder as to the why instead of taking things at face value when we were younger and still new at life. Just a thought anyways! Great post.Mary
@Mary Stephenson Hi Mary,I have always been one of those people who question things. The older I get (not that I am old, ‘cuz I am not) the more I look around me and wonder why some things have to be as they are. Certain things make sense, but so much seems just ridiculously complex to me.But maybe that is just because I am a curmudgeon. 😉 You are right about the experience of asking why we make the same silly mistakes more than once. Sometimes I just wonder.
Hey Jack,I’m not really sure myself that everything happens for a reason. If it does then I think at some point in life we need to know what those lessons were suppose to be because I have one hanging over my head for more than 25 years now that I still don’t know what the heck that lesson was. Â That kind of gripes me to be honest with you.I understand the concept between these commenting systems, for more interaction but I know a lot of people who refuse to comment due to having to log-in. Â Heck, I have so many blogging friends now that have them all that I could really care less for myself. Â On the other hand, I like the regular old commenting system just fine.Love the tunes you have on iTunes, I’m seeing some oldies but goodies in there.Ah, things to ponder. Â Yep, you always keep us thinking that’s for sure.Enjoy your week Jack!~Adrienne
AdrienneSmith Hi Adrienne,There are a bunch of bloggers who write about this sort of thing with a lot more knowledge about what things are supposed to mean than I have. I understand what you mean about not quite getting the point of the lesson, I have had a few of those.I really liked CommentLuv but the overwhelming amount of spam I got ended up chasing me away. When I moved over to LF I saw the discussion here grow so I decided to stick with it. There is certainly something to be said for simple and that really is.But I don’t mind testing things out because what works for some of us doesn’t always work for all of us. Always good to see you here.
Hey Jack, before I make my comments on today’s offering, I want to share this with you and your readers. I read an article about bloggers and their followers. It was about etiquette, what is acceptable and not. It reassured readers that they not always have to feel compelled to leave a comment. Just enjoy the read. So I was prepared to do the same today. Read it and move on. But since your theme is about self doubt and self introspection…well it made me feel a little better. It’s good to question yourself, how else can you grow. Just don’t let it get to you. Totally agree about Mr. Costas, maybe he is eternally youthful because he seems to be a really decent man.
charlieandsheba Costas does seem like a decent guy. He is someone I would be interested in meeting. Would be cool to sit down and talk to him, try to get a better feel of who the real man is versus the television personality.He probably has some great stories.As for questioning, well that is half the reason this blog exists. It is a place for thinking out loud and for searching.