The Most Brazen Approach To Blogging…Ever

Sometimes the best posts I write are rooted in the most painful experiences of my life. The darkest moments where I felt the dumbest, most helpless and most foolish provide ridiculous amounts of blog fodder and generally the most feedback.

Maybe it is because people relate to whatever I am writing about or maybe the cynical side of me is right that people like reading about other people’s pain. Look at the stories that sell the most papers and garner the most views and you see there is a connection between the two.

Sometimes I wonder if I should focus more on those pieces, plumb the darker depths more thoroughly and engage in far more self promotion because it is a proven recipe for success. When you don’t ask, you don’t receive.

The Most Brazen Approach To Blogging…Ever

The 17 long time readers know headlines trouble me and it is not because I have trouble coming up with them. I am consistently surprised by my irritation with being asked to play the headline game and write ones that have an active call-to-action that generates activity.

That is because I tell my children that sometimes the most effective way to make good things happen is to find a way to work within the structure and systems we operate in.

But if there is one place where you can consistently call me a hypocrite/rebel say I am not good at following my own advice it is working within structure and systems. That is not to say I won’t or can’t but I tend to blaze my own trail far more than I follow the path that has already been created.

In the quieter moments I like to say it is because I’m a creative type and we like doing things our own way or by saying I am an engineer who likes to understand how things work by taking them apart and putting them back together again.

But is entirely possible I am just hard headed and prone to doing things my way and in my time. Ask the Shmata Queen and she’ll verify that and if you catch her when she is feeling talkative she might even tell you that it is not an exaggeration to say I will try to move the mountain instead of going around it.

It is the joy of being a Taurus, still I get wherever I intend to go.

Confessions and Tales

I wore glasses and or contact lenses for almost 20 years. When my son was 3 months old I had Lasik done on both eyes and then proceeded to make my wife crazy by trying to figure out how good my vision really was.

Sure the doc had said I had perfect vision but I no longer remembered what that was so I needed to confirm it on my own. It was glorious being able to see unaided again and I never stopped appreciating what modern medicine had provided.

Yet I always knew a day would come when I might require reading glasses. The doc had told me that it would come but that it wouldn’t be until I was in my forties and suggested I might have surgery then to fix that too.

Since I was 31 I didn’t care all much, forty was nine years away and being in my forties even farther.

A few years ago I started having some trouble with dry eyes and was told I probably had blepharitis which was a lovely thing to hear.  I began tearing through preservative free eye drops but that didn’t fix every thing, especially since work requires me to be at a computer for countless hours.

So I looked into additional help and came up Gunnar Optiks and picked up a pair of their computer glasses. That is a non affiliate link, this is not a sponsored post but I digress.

It made an immediate improvement and life at the computer improved dramatically but I have a sneaking suspicion that age might be catching up with me.

Reading Glasses and Middle Age

A short while ago we took my son in to get his eyes checked and when I mentioned in passing my eyes the doc suggested I get a pair of reading glasses and see what happens.

So I picked up a two dollar pair at the lowest strength and discovered they are working. Call that code for it is easier to read the screen with them on.

Gah, bleah and ugh.

I can still read without them. Give me a dime or penny and I can see it in anything but the darkest corners of the room but something tells me this is one time I shouldn’t try to fight.

Does this mean I am officially middle age? Do I need to run get a cool sports car for myself now. Should I be concerned that I have three gray hairs too.

I am not even 45 yet, ok I will be in a few weeks but that is still young. I am young and I’ll be damned if I let these glasses impact my view of myself.

This Is Not The Most Brazen Approach To Blogging…Ever

Ok, this is not the most brazen approach to blogging ever but this is the end of this particular post. I included one more photo you can use when you share this most magnificent piece of hyperbole.