Calming Waters

Life has been very calm. For me this is fundamentally the way I want things. I keep incrementally hitting my New Year resolutions and overall, I think this is very effective. Since announcing I was writing an eBook, I have not written a line beyond what I already had but I do know it will be finished. I am feeling so much more relaxed and worries seem to pass me by... I navigate any rough waters so as to calm them. This is not so much bragging, because it really is an idealized description, as it is setting a standard to keep to. A course to follow. Thank you for reading the real blog here.

Local e-Book Author

I talked to a lady the other day who came around to print some stuff. She asked me if there were any writer's clubs at the library. I said that we had a poetry club. She asked me if I wrote and I said that I wrote a few blogs. She started to tell me this amazing story after telling me I should think about writing ebooks. She and her husband now write Young Adult fiction for ebooks. She told me all kinds of personal details about money and stategy that I really should not go into, but I was amazed. I knew she was a local because I knew her from way on back (I have only been working here for 12 years now but that far back). She and her husband is a major success but she says she does not want publicity. I really was inspired. Someday, when there is an appropriate distance from this time or if she goes public, I will relate all the details. Very fascinating opportunity there.

Simple

I had a terrible New Year's Day worried about the GOP and doing it out loud. Ever since Hurricane Katrina when it all hit me that our government was broken, I have been talking back to the tv. I gave up the tv news and now I get angry at my computer for delivering me idiotic news. Today I subjected family members to my statements during the low moment when it looked like Boehner was going to wreck the bill. Oddly, exactly what I asked for happened. I figured the Dems would cave and I said that the Senate or Obama needs to say no to Boehner. Bing... wish came true and finally GOP leadership had to put the bill up for a vote, to allow our elected representatives to vote on something.

But the saving grace of the day of worry was a hug from someone dear.

New

And the new year begins with a whimper. I have downloaded an app called "worry bottle" which advertises itself as a way to send your worry to a complete stranger and have them give support. So far I have thrown out 1 worry with no reply. Really, it was more fun to watch the worry disappear into the ocean. I kind of hope no one answers it. The more interesting part was in answering other people's worries. The app allows "thank you"s or appreciation. I gave encouragement and advice to 8 people and have already been thanked for 4. I put some thought into my answers without even knowing there was a response coming. Finally, there was a worry that someone felt they were not getting enough appreciation. I even put thought into a long paragraph basically saying charity is it's own reward. I got appreciation from the person of course. ;) I would not think of using the word "charity" because today the implication is that the person receiving charity has something wrong with them, or even implies pride on my part. My worry? Basically, that there is a lack of community today.

Resolutions

1. Lose weight.
2. Blog at least once a day in one of my blogs.
3. Go out of my way as often as possible to brighten the day of others.
4. Take at least 7 pictures a week.
5. Walk one hour a day.
6. Add more resolutions in the new year.

Happy New Year.

I loved my last post about sports. It was so cathartic. After the election, I thought I would blog a lot more but life is changing as it always has. My Facebook posts reach a larger audience and even when I have nothing creative to do with the post, as in sharing someone else's for instance, I feel a sense of participating in a dialog that is important and affects things. Yet, my heart is here with the blogs so I will be here, just less often.

The Only College Football Post I Ever Do, I Hope

I noticed Alabama's Coach Saban shrug his shoulders over and over in a post game interview. It was funny. I completely remember being punished for shrugging my shoulders at my teacher in first grade. She said "Stop shrugging your shoulders at me." I did not even know what the word "shrug" meant and shrugged my shoulders in reply. I got swatted.

My stepson had been watching the Alabama-Auburn game and it was in it's waning moments when I got home from work. I watched Alabama's coach in a post game interview. I noticed him shrugging quite a bit. I backed the tape up and counted Coach Saban's shrugs just for the heck of it. 17 shrugs were apparent if I included the micro shrugs. AND it was an extremely short interview. So at this point I thought that surely someone had noticed this before. In all likelihood, Coach Saban must do this constantly. So I looked it up on the Internet and to be sure found THIS.

But oddly, before I found that one, I found this: 

 

It was coincidentally the same number that I counted and posted in almost exactly the same form I used on Facebook, to wit: "Saban 'Aww gee whiz' shrug count in post game interview = 17".  I post anything on Facebook. If someone doesn't like it, there is an unfriend button for me and them.  :)  I have defriended dozens and dozens because of annoying sports posts. Otherwise intelligent people have to be banned for me to be able to enjoy Facebook. And I do enjoy it.

Furthermore, since the date was different in this tweet which I had uncovered, this tweet must have referred to a different game. How strange! As with most things, even when I have an original thought, someone else has beat me to it. But, in reality, I actually knew this kind of thing would be out there in cyberspace somewhere because of three reasons. (1) This man shrugs like nobody's business. It makes him look very insincere. His first grade teacher had nothing on mine. (2) I hardly ever watch sports anymore, (college football sports was the last to go) so what was the likelihood this was unique? The only thing unique was that the game was on my TV. (3) College football fans spend godawful amounts of time discussing and studying every unimportant aspect of their hobby. I used to be this way about my hobby, The Beatles, and in some ways I still do this. But there isn't a competitive thing going on in my hobby. Nevertheless, I kind of get it. I think the competitive thing is dumb, but I get it. 

So, it all boils down to this: I basically only like "Curling" which I see in the Winter Olympics. I used to like lots of Winter Olympic sports and will watch them a bit, but the best sport of all, in the entire world, bar none, is Curling. They are gentlemen, or gentlewomen. The sport has good sportsmanship. The rest of sports you can toss in a barrel and burn. Drugged performances, commercialism, bribed players, shallow fans, idiotic interviews, and commentators that are as dumb as toasted oats. 

Sadly, the Alabama or Auburn football fans honestly fail to see how their hobby colors their world negatively. Some sincerely speak about tolerance and in the next breath, or post, are extremely intolerant of someone because of the sports team they support. Is there a better metaphor for the dehumanization of mankind? Because, in general, the state of Alabama does not have a lot of folks that are tolerant towards anyone different or any thought which is not a truism directly from Fox Noise. And, that intolerance seeps in  through the back door of college football for those others who would otherwise be very thoughtful people. It is like racism without even a racial characteristic to recognize.

Shit!, my father would have said.