Daily Ramblings – Thankful Thursday – Grateful for Content

Tags

5-minute journal, Articles, BrainyQuote, Content, Flipboard, Google News, Pocket, Quotes, WordPress

If you’ve been reading my blog for any length of time, you’ve probably figured out I am not a huge fan of the mainstream media. The bulk of it is regurgitated news written by real reporters and twisted to fit a narrative.

Particularly now, you don’t know what is true, what has been fact-checked, and you have no idea who or what they are promoting. The days of just reporting the news are long gone and so am I as a former consumer of news. Now, it’s just one political argument from one side against the other and I just don’t want any part of it. I scan the news, but rarely dig into an actual article.

That’s why I’m thankful for my fellow bloggers who post real, heart-felt content. I’m also a fan of the Pocket and Flipboard apps. You can tailor what you see, save what you like, and both of these sites provide you with new articles that align with your interests and not theirs. They are also free. So it’s quite a bargain. I also enjoy Google News, but again, just to scan the news to gather what’s going on and forget about the details, which are a waste to read, anyway.

I enjoy sharing articles and quotes I enjoy with my social networks. I love Brainyquote and the 5-minute journal, both of which provide me with great quotes without a lot of digging around. So there you go. These are the sources online that I get all of my online content, other than WordPress.

What I do is pick an article from each of these sources and read them. Once I’ve read them, I’ll share them to Facebook. My quotes go to Instagram and Facebook. I enjoy article on outer space, history, writing, comics, video games, productivity, and other self-help topics. I also follow news streams and articles related to Python (programming language), JavaScript, and other languages I’m interested in. It’s great fun!

What’s interesting is the current lockdown has had ZERO impact on the way I live my life. I have always enjoyed relaxing days in my office or living room (when my laptop is up and running). I do my writing, reading, learning, and programming between 12 am and 3 am. This serves two purposes. First, it’s really quiet. Second, it frees up my time during the day to help my wife or around the house, when the folks need it.

So, today I am grateful for online content. It is a real service that provides me with learning, entertainment, and ideas to think about during the day.

Until next time…

Dave

 

 

Daily Ramblings – Ted Talk Tuesday – Microscopic Life in your Home.

Tags

Face, Helpful, Home, Learning, Microscopic life, Ted Talk Tuesday, TedEd

I think you’ll find this as fascinating as I did. Enjoy!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Workout Routine – Week of April 27, 2020.

Tags

Discipline, Exercise Bands, Full-Body, healthy living, Home Workout, mixing it up, motivation

Last week’s workout was pretty good. This week, we’ll mix it up again.

Monday – Saturday

Full body, in-home, exercise-band, workout (25 reps per exercise–no rest).

Yep, a single-set, full body circuit this week. Time to get a little sweat going on.

See you at the finish line!

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Week of April 27, 2020.

Tags

Mental, motivation, Physical, pumped up, recharge, Social, Spiritual, vacation week

It’s Monday!!

Time for another installment of my Motivation Monday. I’m enjoying a vacation this week, but still take a bit each day to tackle my highest priorities: Reading, Writing, Learning, Exercising, Spirituality, and interacting with family and friends. Oh, and video games! I’m currently playing a game called Rage 2 and it’s quite good, if you like open world adventure games. Here we go!

Physical – eat right, drink water, follow CDC guidelines, exercise, and get plenty of rest.

Mental – Continue coding work, read, write, and learn

Social – Stay in touch with family and friends as best I can with the lockdown, post meaningful posts and informative articles on my social media channels, keep up my blog and interact with other authors and comments

Spiritual – Spiritual exercises, spiritual readings.

Nothing specific this week, folks. I’m taking my first staycation of the year. Have a great week and remember to take some vacation time too. It is great to recharge the brain and body with relaxation, mindless video games, and hanging out with the family.

Have an awesome week, folks!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spread Your Wings Sunday – Weekly Challenge April 26, 2020

Tags

April 26, change, Lockdown, new generation, Sunday, Weekly Challenge

Here we are! One more week passes us by in lockdown. It’ll be interesting when generations are born that don’t know anything about this. Whatever we decide to do as a society on the upcoming months may require permanent changes in how we work, how we play, how we socialize, and to a new generation born outside of this, it’ll all seem normal. The changes we make as a society won’t be a change to them. It’ll be normal. Crazy, right?

Change is inevitable in this world. In fact, it is something you can count on. Changes in relationships, changes in jobs, changes in health, changes in interests, change, change, change. Why do we fight it? Why not accept what is and adapt to the new circumstances? Because we’re human. We like consistency. We like things to stay the same.

This week, let’s mix it up a bit. The challenge is simple.

Weekly Challenge: Change one thing in your life, your daily routine, or your schedule. Do something that is different every day for a week. Reply in the comments with what you came up with, regardless of how small it was.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday – Listening to the Inner Voice

Tags

Awareness, Conscience, going within, Inner guidance, Inner voice, Intuition, Listen, Peace, Quietude, Tranquility

All of us have an inner voice. A voice that advises us. Some call it your conscience, some call it “the muse”, and some don’t know what it is. What I find most interesting about this inner voice is how it reacts to what you do. If you listen to it, it gets more clear over time and gives you more. If you ignore it, it gets very quiet, almost quiet enough that you forget it’s there.

I believe in the inner voice, but it is easy to be fooled from time-to-time. So you have to ask for a confirmation before you jump at something your inner voice tells you. Sometimes we can confuse that inner voice with our own ego. They are dramatically different. If you listen long enough, you recognize the true inner voice and the one that is just you trying to talk you into doing something you shouldn’t do or keep doing. My inner voice is always succinct. When it speaks, it speaks in very short sentences. That’s how I know when the inner voice is the real deal.

You may call this intuition or the subconscious bubbling up, but I think it’s more than that. You may use your intuition to judge or interpret what the inner voice is telling you, but the inner voice is there. It’s like it is coming from deep within you. A place of perfect calm, peace, and tranquility. A voice that has no self-interest, no interest in gain, and no interest in whether you follow it or not. It is just there, providing guidance constantly. If you let it.

It’s the voice that raises a red flag, saying, “You better be careful with that.” It can also provide suggestions, advice, and interesting ideas, particularly if you are trying to create something. Think about Einstein, Edison, or any other great thinker. They all arrived at their novel ideas by just being quiet and going within. Whether it was Edison taking a nap or Einstein’s thought experiments, it was all about going within and getting the answer. How do you get an answer about something that doesn’t exist?

Hopefully, I’ve got you thinking. The inner voice, for those of you who know what I’m talking about, is a huge advantage. It provides you ways to avoid all kinds of self-inflicted trouble. It gives you ideas. It is always there. You just have to listen.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Funny Friday – Send Some Clothes

Tags

Friday, Funny, Giggle, Happy, Joke, Laughter, Smile, Smirk, Weekend

Mother: “Sweetie, make a Christmas wish.”
Girl: “I wish that Santa will send some clothes to those naked girls in papa’s computer.”

Courtesy: The Laugh Factory

Happy Friday, folks!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Thankful Thursdays – My Xbox

For many of you, video games are not your thing. I get it.

I have loved video games since the arrival of arcades in the 80s when I was in high school. In fact, it was one of my hangouts growing up. After the consoles and PC games began taking over, the arcades died off.

I used to like playing PC games, but frankly, I got tired of always having to get a new video card, sound card, or some other card to make my PC capable of handling the new game that came out. So, I began looking at consoles. My first console was a Nintendo. Then I switched to the Sony Playstation because they didn’t keep creating new consoles (Nintendo) that made the older games irrelevant.

Then Microsoft released the Xbox. I have always been a fan of Microsoft. Every job I had used Microsoft Office and I still have a Microsoft Office 365 subscription to this day. I figured, let’s try this one out. Well, they haven’t disappointed. Each new console Microsoft comes out with is backward compatible, meaning the Microsoft team will refactor the old code of a legacy game to make it compatible with the newer consoles. This isn’t always the case. The game has to be popular enough that people will still play it. If the game isn’t any good, once it dies, it dies.

Anyway, other than my work and daily rituals, the Xbox offers hours and hours of entertainment. To say I am immersed in a really good game is an understatement. Time disappears when I am playing. Yesterday I started a new game. I had to force myself to go to bed, because the game’s storyline and mechanics are just that good.

So today, I am grateful for my Xbox. By the way, having a monthly subscription to Game pass Ultimate is another great thing. Microsoft offers up around 100 games for free, that would normally cost you $59 US for each one. It’s a great deal if you play as much as I do. It also allows you the variety of playing games you may never have played, just because you can play them more cheaply with a monthly subscription.

Well, that’s it for today, folks! I hope you are having a great week so far!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesday – Follow Your Gut

Tags

Choices, Freedom, Gut, Instinct, Learning, Programming, Reading, Writing

This week I’m taking it easy. I’m still working through my tasks, but not as hard as I normally do. At the end of last year, I committed to taking a week off every quarter. I’m a little off, but this is my week. I have to say it’s pretty nice.

I just felt a little off last week and figured, why not? I can catch up on some shows on Netflix I’ve been blowing off, I can sleep in a few days, and I can get in some fiction reading. It’ll be a nice week.

Sometimes I have doubts about this or that. When I do, I follow my gut. I pay attention to what I’m doing and determine if I really want to do that. If I struggle to do something, I just stop it. There’s no sense in forcing myself to do something when I’m retired and don’t need to. I try to stick with what I’m excited about. I try to do things that even on my vacation; I have no problem doing them.

The things I really enjoy are programming, gaming, reading, writing, and learning most of all. But the topic has to be something I’m interested in. I love history, science, mathematics, writing courses, and topics that are related to these.

Obviously, there are things you can’t blow off, but anything you consider discretionary time, do what you want! Life’s too short to do something because you think you have to. You don’t. Do what you want with your time. When you do that, pay attention to how you feel about approaching that class, that writing, or anything you’ve done. If you have to drag yourself into doing it—stop. That makes no sense.

Do things during your time that inspire you, interest you, and make you happy. There’s no sense pursuing something that just isn’t your bag.

Well, that’s all I got today, folks! Have a great Wednesday!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Ted Talk Tuesday – Making Stress Your Friend

Tags

Claustrophobic, Covid, Home, Kelly Mcgonigal, Lockdown, Prison, Stress, Ted Talk, Unpleasant

There is a lot of stress out there. So many people are not used to being locked in their homes, only to go to the grocery store or some other critical venture. Here’s a Ted Talk that will give you some ideas on “How to Make Stress Your Friend.” Enjoy!

Until next time…

Dave