Sometimes Blog Posts Fail

The remote for the television in my bedroom is lost. One moment it was there and the next it is gone.

I ask my daughter if she is lying on top of it and she says no.

We look under the covers, on the floor and behind the bed but it is nowhere to be found. Maybe angry house elves have stolen it and are holding it for ransom.

Sadly their wages shall remain unpaid as I haven’t any extra cash to spare to ease their plight.

Sometimes Blog Posts Fail

The post I wrote about my 11th blogiversary didn’t do very well. It wasn’t heaped with praise nor did I receive a note from the White House, state governor or even family members.

It wasn’t heaped with praise nor did I receive a note from the White House, state governor or even family members.

It might sound contradictory, but I am ok with that because sometimes blog posts fail. Sometimes the pieces you are most proud of fail to produce the kind of response you hoped to get.

Truth is I don’t know what I expected from that blogiversary post.  Some of those exercises in self-indulgence, and bragging marketing that I tend not to be especially good at.

It is not because I don’t know how but because I just don’t push that side the way I could. I don’t reach out to brands and ask them to send my review products or pitch publications and ask to become one of their writers.

Kind of funny because I tell my children that if you want to dream your life away you can do so by looking out the window or you can try to live your dreams by getting out there and doing something about it.

Maybe it is inaccurate to tie that blog post into a comment about blog posts failing because it was never supposed to be representative of my work and all that I am capable of.

That is another area that I have been focusing upon as a father and person.

All that people are capable of and all that the kids are capable.

Slow The Game Down

I have been playing pick-up basketball for around 30 years now.

Sometimes I think about mapping out where I have played because it sounds cool to say it includes Two continents, three countries and at least a dozen states.

But it over inflates the importance of these games.

They have been just pick up games where I joined a group of guys who were playing for fun. No medals or awards were earned.

My game has evolved and is no longer the same as it once was. As time has taken away some of the physical ability I once had I have replaced it with veteran cunning and I can say I am a much smarter and more effective player than I once was.

About six years ago I left my old gym and found a new group of guys to play with and for a long time I really enjoyed the no longer new to me group.

But these days it is not as much fun.

That is because some of the guys have moved on and new ones have joined and they aren’t as much fun to play with.

They want everything to be fair and if a team is too dominant they insist that they break it up and mix up the members so that things will be more fair.

I hate that.

Life is not fair and you don’t get a trophy for just showing up.

You have to work for it.

*****

In the old days the younger guys used to complain that I slowed the game down and that it wasn’t fair because my team would win more often than it  lost.

But they didn’t ask for a handicap to equal things out.

They understood the value of hard work and when I explained the rationale behind slowing things down they understood.

I slowed it down because if I did that I could play for hours instead of just one and it allowed us to be more precise and more effective.

We could stay with teams that were more talented and often win. It was devastating against the teams that had runners who couldn’t shoot.

What good is it to push the ball up court at break neck speed when you can’t score.

When my kids tell me that life is crazy I tell them to slow the game down.

The Similarity Between People & Angry House Elves

I don’t know if there is a similarity between people and angry house elves. I have never taken a remote and held it for ransom or at least I can’t remember doing so.

Hell I don’t know if house elves exist but I did make a general announcement that I don’t care about the remote.

I didn’t see any elves but the dog’s ears flipped up when I said I didn’t care it was gone.

I watch television in spurts.

I go for long periods of time where I don’t watch much of anything and then I binge on some show.

If I don’t find the remote it won’t make much difference to me. Eventually I’ll buy a replacement but in the interim if I really need to watch I have alternatives.

What is of greater concern is how crazy life feels now.

I keep trying to slow the game down so that I can see the floor and figure out the best moves but the players aren’t cooperating.

I can’t crash the boards and outwork or out hustle the others guys in this gym. It frustrates me a bit because I can’t walk away and say I don’t care either.

The kids are graduating and they’ll be in new schools but I don’t know yet where those will be. Don’t want choices to be made based upon fear or inertia.

Maybe I’ll try slowing the game down again and see if this time it is more effective or maybe I’ll just go by a remote and watch television in my bedroom.

Sometimes blog posts fail.