Don't Mess With My Coffee

While sitting at my computer this morning, with my fourth cup of coffee, I kept hearing this odd hissing noise. At first I thought it was my radiator because I closed the valve, but as I stood next to it, the sound came from the kitchen.

My neighbor and I share a wall, so I waited to hear if it was them making it. That’s when I heard it coming from my Farberware percolator. Turns out, there was a bit of coffee in the reservoir at the bottom and the ‘keep warm’ temperature was too high for it. As I unplugged it, I hoped the thermostat wasn’t acting up again. The percolator had fixed itself after brewing the coffee weaker.

Prior to making this morning’s batch, I gave my bean grinder a cleaning, because it’s been louder. I thought a bean had gotten stuck under the blades or in the column. After wiping it down, I saw that one blade tip broke off. It still grinds the beans so I shouldn’t have to replace it anytime soon, just a few more seconds holding down the button.

Now I'm concerned with how the percolator will work tomorrow morning.

Patience Is It's Own Reward And Money Is Nice Too

I'm finally eligible for Ad Sense on my blogger. I filled out the application and await their reply. If I'm expecting to earn a decent amount of money, then I'll need to write more.

Puddle Deep Thought

Something I like to do when reading a self help book is to use notebook paper as a bookmark so I can write down the more motivational passages. A few pages into 'The Obstacle is the Way' by Ryan Holiday and I wrote down 5 from the preface alone. I particularly liked;

Don't lool at it as an obstacle, but as an opportunity to practice a virtue: patience, courage, humility, resourcefulness, reason, justice, and creativity.

You're Never Too Old

You’re never too old for LEGO.

You’re never too old to stop imagining being a child with a cool treehouse and giant robot friend.

Pressure

Between a recent tweet from my brother and a conversation with my friend Stephanie, I came to the realization that we put pressure on ourselves to be more creative because of the internet. People are willing to share their creative projects across social media sites, message boards, and the rest. As a viewer, perhaps we think that they started and completed it on the same day. Pictures without captions of their progress is one reason.

If the hobbyist has made a video to watch, even the clip itself seems is a completed task if edited in a professional quality. I’ve seen clips of speeded up montages where a prefabricated second level of a house was attached to the existing first level. Hours become minutes, and the only viewable passage of time is the sun moving overhead.

Before apps that turned your smartphone’s camera into a dark room, it was done by hand. I enjoy taking pictures with my digital camera, but rarely do I edit them to look artistic. Kids and young adults will take a picture of their brunch, change it to black & white, apply a filter, and once posted online it looks like professional artwork.

When my brother was posting pictures of his completed drawings and paintings with regular frequency, I was envious of his talent and progression. It did motivate me to draw more, but I didn’t stress myself on the quality. Drawing takes practice and we shouldn’t give up if we haven’t made the progress we’d like.

We’ll only get better the more we do.

Never Give Up, Never Surrender

It's a new week, so I restarted my Lose it! program. Not only I have eaten sensibly, I went on a Westchester Geeks sponsored hike which burned 647 calories.

Seeing Myself

Today I saw a version of myself if I was born in 2001 instead of 1971. Walking into Mrs. Greens on Central Avenue, I saw a boy sitting on the sidewalk in the shade. He had a soda next to him and was focused on his iPod/iPhone.

When I was his age, it would have been a comic book or a new G.I. Joe action figure.

The Rules Of Your Life

For the first 18 years of your life, you have to do what your parents say

The next 18 years, you have to do whatever you want

Around the third start of your next 18 years, you have to do what your body is capable of

Lack Of Motivation 2

The only obstacle keeping me from making my life better is me. I have this handwritten sign on my refrigerator and computer that says “Today I will make my life better” I’d hope that writing it myself would subconsciously motivate me more.

Sometimes it works, I’ll stick to my my diet and exercise, go to bed at a reasonable time every night. Then I break the streak by sitting on the couch, eating every 30 minutes while watching TV till 1 A.M. Recently I changed my weekly habit list and gave myself Saturday to do anything I wanted. Having a day of complete freedom from the list has helped on occasion.

Another thing I do is complain about a circumstance but do nothing to change it. A perfect example is the neighbor’s child who’ll cry for 45 minutes. Do I ask the mother if should could quiet the child? Do I leave my apartment and go somewhere quiet? Do I put on headphones to drown them out? None of those, I’ll continue to sit and listen the entire time while complaining to myself.

I get tired of listening to myself complain, but that’s as far as I take it. I wish I had a house in Pleasantville or Valhalla, with the woods behind it. If wishes were mushrooms, I’d be eating portabella burgers every night.

I read a book on overcoming the fear of success, perhaps I need to re-read and keep reading it.

Online Inspiration

The other night I couldn't decide on what to watch on Netflix despite going through my queue and new releases. Then I thought I could go through my bookcase and decide on what to bring for the Westchester Geek Swap Meet (which I didn't go to) but that meant getting up from the couch and bringing in the folding table from my car.

I looked around my living room to see if I would be inspired to draw with my crayons, read, or work on my stories.

Nothing struck me so I decided to check twitter on my iPod and read that my brother had to delay his book because his laptop was in the shop. I was jealous at first because of his drive to complete a project and having a legitimate excuse as why he couldn't. That still didn't get me going using the excuse I was tired from staying up late the night before and the DST switch.

It’s not like I wanted to run a marathon, it was a simple task of reading or drawing. It was easier for me to complain than to do something.

This was originally written in January 2014, but I'm now just posting it cause I'm that lazy.

These Little Set Backs Are Just What We Need To Take A Giant Step Forward

I've been working on a story for a while now, partly due to coming up with the story, but most of it is because I am lazy. If I don't have an idea to continue the story, I should work on characters, the world itself, or a general outline. I don't though, cause it's easier for me to say I have no ideas.

Yesterday, I took a step back from the story to work on a timeline. I was excited to come up with the original idea, that I jumped into writing it. Nothing wrong with that, because I've gotten ideas from there as well. However I thought I had messed up the order of events so far, but I didn't after reading through what I have so far.

With a fresh page in a notebook (actual pencil and paper) I listed each day and the events that take place during it. While working on it, I got a new idea that fits in with the story.

While working on the villains, my muse whispered several more in my ear. That is something else I need to give my attention to. I don't want my story to be like painting my D&D miniatures where I painted all the heroes first, lost interest in painting and had a lot of unpainted monsters left to do.

I do have days devoted to writing, I could devote them to heroes, villains, the world, and general ideas.

Most importantly, just keep working on the story.