Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Happy Halloween

Tags

Eerie, Focus timers, Focused work, Games, Halloween, motivation, Music, Naps, Pomodoro, Scary

There’s nothing more motivating than a holiday. Halloween has been fun this year, because I used the entire month to celebrate by watching scary movies, concentrated my posts on scary topics, and had a great time playing my favorite mobile video games that have all added Halloween themes to their game experience.

Holidays are nice because they give us the freedom to choose what we will do and what we won’t. It’s a nice break from the hustle and bustle of the normal work week. Employers are having potlucks, employee dress ups, and even cutting folks loose early so they can get their kids out for their trick or treating.

Today, since yesterday was my “do nothing day”, I was ready to go. I was up at 3 am, writing, learning, reading, and so on. These little breaks can really add to your motivation to get back at it.

Speaking of breaks. Here are a few ways to maintain your motivation throughout the day:

1. Use a focus timer like Pomodoro, which will have you work in a specific time-frame and then take a break. The default setup for this is 20 minutes, followed by 5-minutes, but most of these apps are highly customizable. I typically like working for 25 minutes, then take 5 minutes so I have a 30-minute work-break session.
2. Plan rewarding times for yourself after each big chunk of activity. If you go to a gym, hit your favorite coffee shop on the way home. If you are working at your desk, perhaps you are a video game advocate like I am. Get in a session after you’ve knocked out some work.
3. Naps are also a great reward, particularly if you work from home. Plan in a nap after lunch, before dinner, or whenever your schedule allows. Keep it to around 20 minutes so you don’t get too groggy to go back to work.
4. Listen to some music, meditate, or do some creative planning for something you would like to do on the weekend.

These are just some ideas for you to start with. You know what you enjoy. Sprinkle in this fun throughout your day, in and around your work schedule, and you’ll find that each day will be much more satisfying and the work you do will be more motivating because you know there is some fun and relaxation waiting for you after each session of work.

I hope you have a great Monday and enjoy Halloween. We’ll be passing out candy to all the folks who come around for tricks and treats.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Sunday – Spiritual Stress Relief

Tags

angst, Eckankar, Finances, health, Loved ones, Morning Commute, News, Relationships, Stress, Stress Relief, Worry

All of us experience stress from time-to-time. We experience stress on the job, in relationships, even with money. When we get sick we experience stress. When we watch the news we experience stress. When we commute to work we experience stress. Where do we go to get relief?

Some rely on pharmaceuticals. Others rely on mental health professionals. Still others rely on a friend or family member. There is also another avenue we can take. We can seek a spiritual solution to our stress. In this free e-booklet, provided by ECKANKAR, you can read about some of the techniques you can use today to relieve some of the stressors we all experience.

Here’s the link: https://www.eckankar.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Spiritual-Stress-Relief_ebooklet.pdf

Have a great Sunday, folks!

May the blessings be!

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Gaming Saturday – CODM, APEX and PUBG

Tags

APEX, Challenges, CODM, Halloween themed areas, Halloween themes, Haunted Voyage, PUBG, ranked play, Skins

How are you doing? I hope your weekend is going well. Halloween is right around the corner and all of these games have come up with some cool Halloween themes to celebrate. If you’re in Call of Duty Mobile, check out Zombies as a separate game and the multiplayer versions. Also, make sure to have some fun on Haunted Hacienda. If you’re playing APEX, you’ll want to check out some of the cool skins for legends like Ash and Wraith. On PUBG, you’ve now got special Halloween areas all over the various battle royale maps.

If you haven’t seen it yet, MW2 just released for Call of Duty on Console. If you’re like I am, you can’t wait to get your hands on this one and start playing the campaign. Stone Mountain and a few of the streamers I watch played through it, and it looks outstanding. I have not played, yet, but will keep you updated. I’m looking to get back onto console after a long hiatus, concentrating exclusively on mobile gaming.

As a side note, many of you who follow this part of my blog, may not be aware of my father’s condition. He has dementia and cannot be left alone when he’s up. I’ve been tasked with staying with dad and this caused me to move to the mobile arena of games because that was all that was available to me. I’m still thinking of a way to get back on my console, but it may take some adjustments to my sleep schedule to make that happen. I’ll keep you posted.

Anyway, if you are on console and playing the new MW2, congrats and have a great time. I’m still working on ranks in APEX and PUBG, and working on diamond camouflage for my assault rifles. I’m also working on Gold for the ZRG 20mm sniper, the new Krig 6 assault rifle, and attempting to complete the battle pass for Zombies.

I have not done this yet but will be creating a server on Discord where folks can join me on the various games I play. I’ve discovered that APEX particularly is difficult to rank up if you are playing entirely with random players, particularly those who are from foreign countries who do not speak English. The only type of game play available is trios. Unlike PUBG and CODM, I can play battle royal solo, which is my preferred method of play when I’m ranking. I’ll notify you here when I’m up and running. I’m currently taking a Discord course that I should finish in the next few weeks.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Gaming!

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Funny Friday – More Scary Pranks

Tags

Eerie, Funny, Halloween, Jump, Laugh, Pranks, Scary, Scream, Startle

Well, we are slowly approaching Halloween, and this will be the last Halloween-themed posting. I hope you enjoyed them. Here is another Scray Prank video. Happy Halloween all! I hope you have a great time on Halloween!

Have a great weekend!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Reading, Watching, and Learning – Deep Time, Deadly Influence, Blackbirch 3, The Omen 1, 2, 3, and Discord, Canva, and MS Excel

Tags

BlackBirch 3, Canva, Deadly Influence, Deep Time, Discord, MS Excel, The Final Conflict, The Omen, The Omen 2

I’m still reading Deep Time, the sixth book in the Star Carrier series. I’m also reading Deadly Influence, a story about a young boy that is kidnapped by a religious cult. I just started Blackbirch 3, the third book in a series by K.M. Allan, an Australian YA author. all are terrific books with very engaging plots.

My sister and I watched The Omen 1, 2, and 3. Boy, those were good movies. The trilogy is about the birth of the antichrist. If you have not seen them, they are worth a watch. I don’t know what my sister and I will watch today but it is sure to be another scary one.

I’m learning discord, Canva, and MS Excel. These are all great courses. The discord course is really good and will help me build my own discord server, which will be a great addition to my ability to interact with the gaming community.

Well, that’s it for today. Have a great Thursday, all!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesday – H.G. Wells

Tags

Author, English, H.G. Wells, The Invisible Man, The Isle of Dr. Moreau, The Time Machine, War of the Worlds

The path of least resistance is the path of the loser.

H. G. Wells

Advertising is legalized lying.

H. G. Wells

If you fell down yesterday, stand up today.

H. G. Wells

What really matters is what you do with what you have.

H. G. Wells

The uglier a man’s legs are, the better he plays golf – it’s almost a law.

H. G. Wells

If you’ve heard of movies like the War of the Words, The Time Machine, or The Isle of Dr. Moreau, then you know who H.G. Wells is. Here is his link on Wikipedia to learn some things you may not know: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._G._Wells

Have a great Wednesday, folks!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Ted Talk Tuesday – Lovecraft

Tags

Cthulu, Fear, Ghost Writers, H.P. Lovecraft, Horror, Scary, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Titan of Terror

Here is yet another short video about scary stuff as we slowly approach Halloween. I hope you enjoy it. Here’s to everything that goes bump in the night. Everything we fear is not always what we see, but what we don’t see. Let that settle in your mind for a bit. Mwahahahaha.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Intuition

Tags

habits, ideas, insight, Intuition, Monday, motivation, Nudge, Prompting, schedules, To-dos

Have you ever gotten an inner prompting to change things in your schedule? I get these all the time. I finally came upon a really cool way to run through the things I need to do each day by using mini-days and categories of tasks so I can concentrate on one facet of my day at a time, 4 times a day. Let me explain.

I learn, read, write, exercise, and do a whole lot of other things each day. To be more efficient, I came up with the idea of using mini-days so I could do more activities in each of my high-priority tasks each day by doing something in each category 4 times a day instead of just once. Subsequently, I read 4 x each day, exercise my body 4 x each day, work on multiple writing projects each day, and so on.

You may have a different insight. This is one of the things I’ve discovered during my productivity journey. How we do things is staggeringly individual. We may get our ideas from various self-help books, but in the end, it is really about what works for each of us. So pay attention to your intuition–those inner nudges you get from time-to-time. They are usually great ideas. I’ve discovered that the more I listen to the inner promptings, the more I get. Take action on those promptings that make sense. You’ll discover as I have that your intuition can be worked out just like your body. Over time, your inner nudges will become better, and you’ll be able to trust them more. You will learn to discriminate better so you make better choices amongst all the inner prompts you receive.

Well, that’s it for today, folks. If something isn’t right, contemplate it. Think about it. You’ll start getting ideas on how to improve your current situation. They won’t come all at once. They’ll trickle in. When you get one, try it out. If it doesn’t work, wait for the next one. At some point, you’ll get the exact solution you need to improve the way you organize yourself and knock out your daily tasks, whatever they are.

Have a great Monday, folks!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Sunday – The Power of Gratitude

Tags

comfortable, Content, Contentment, Eckankar, Grateful, Gratitude, Happy, spirituality, Sunday

Happy Sunday!

Gratitude is one of the acts that can bring us huge rewards. Gratitude brings us to a place of contentment where we realize we have enough. We’re okay. We have enough clothes. We have enough food. We have a comfortable living space. We have a reliable way to get around.

Here’s another free e-booklet from ECKANKAR that discusses the spiritual aspects of Gratitude. Enjoy!

Click to access The-Power-of-Gratitude_ebooklet.pdf

#Free booklet

I hope you enjoy this one.

Have a great Sunday, everyone.

May the blessings be!

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Gaming Saturday – CODM, APEX Legends, PUBG

Tags

Apex Legends, CODM, Haloween, King's Canyon, Mobile gaming, PUBG, video gaming, World's Edge, Zombies

All, happy Saturday! I’m getting ready to fire up CODM this morning after I get done some of my to-dos. I schedule my day around 4 primary contexts: Physical (exercise, eating, sleeping, water intake), Mental (Learning, Reading, Writing), Social (Blogging, social media, etc.), and Spiritual (Spiritual exercises, reading, journaling). The rest of my day is gaming.

CODM’s new battle pass is awesome. They’ve brought back Zombies. They have some Halloween-themed maps and some great challenges. I was surprised they didn’t do anything for the Battle Royal side of things, but that’s ok.

APEX has a new legend called ASH. She has some great powers and I’m working on attaining her tier 3 battle powers. I’m up to Gold II. This season reset ranking, so I’m back at it. The goal this season is to get to Master level. I’m still learning the game, and also learning the new map system which is called World’s Edge. This is the map that was console only, prior to this season, but this time around, they are rotating between the maps they always used in mobile and World’s Edge. It’s cool. King’s Canyon is also cool. I like all the neat things World’s Edge has. They have trains, flying supply boxes, a vault, if you get a vault key, and all kinds of neat terrain–even lava, which will burn your character.

PUBG has also started a new battle pass and have specific areas on the map that are denoted by a jack-o-lantern. These areas are high-quality loot areas and also very busy with players looking to kill you while you are hunting around for weapons, scopes, and healing stuff. I’m still learning the best strategy for this game. I’m currently diamond level and working toward the next level in the rank progression.

Well, that’s it for now, folks. Have a great Saturday.

Oh! If any of you are interested in playing some games, reach out to me on any of these games. My character’s name is ieatbullets63. Once I’m done with a class on discord, I’ll be creating a server for gaming, where people can join my server and find people to play with. Finding good people to play with is really important if you are going to achieve the higher ranks. Playing with “randos” will not work. By having a server dedicated to my gaming, I’ll be accessible to everyone, regardless of what game(s) I’m playing. Well, that’s it for now, folks!

Happy Gaming!

Dave