Daily Ramblings – Reading, Watching, and Learning – Change is Change

Tags

change, Learning, Reading, Thinking Thursday, Watching

I’ve been troubled by this particular day for some time. Why? I’m sure many of you are pretty “over” my weekly synopsis of readings, watchings, and learnings. I know I am. I can’t really tell you much about the books I’m reading because I don’t want to ruin it for anyone else.

The same goes for what I watch. It’s hard to tell you about a show when you may have put it on a watchlist and again, I ruin it for you by dropping a key scene or plot point.

So, I’m going to change this back to Thinking Thursday. It’ll be on a topic in the news, an interesting Ted Talk, or some other piece that I find out on the web and want to talk about.

I think this will be a refreshing change.

Well, as always, have a great Thursday, folks.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Reading, Watching, and Learning – CODMW2 Blog, CODM Blog, Generation Kill, and MS Excel

Tags

CODM, CODMW2, Generation Kill, HBO, Learning, MS Excel, Reading, Watching

I’ve been reading a lot of gaming blogs this week, because there were so many changes in season 3 (CODMW2) and season 4 (CODM). New weapons, new game play, and new maps. I re-watched a 7-part series on HBO called Generation Kill. It’s about a Marine Force Recon unit entering into Iraq during the Iraq War. I’m continuing to go through the MS Excel course and happy to say I’m only a few lessons away from finishing it.

The weather is terrific in Michigan. It’s still a bit chilly, but for those of us who are cold-blooded, me included, it’s polo shirt weather.

This will be short one today. I’ve got some extra stuff to get done today, so I’ll leave you with this: Read and Learn. It is by far one of the best habits I’ve established. It is great to learn new things and read both fiction and nonfiction. I love stories and kick myself for not reading more of it earlier in life. I love a good story. I also enjoy non-fiction and really enjoy history.

Happy Wednesday, folks. That’s it for today.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Free Writing Friday – Jordan Peterson Lectures on Personality

Tags

free writing, Friday, Jordan Peterson, Learning, Maps of Meaning, personality lecture, Reading, Weekend

Many know of Dr. Jordan Peterson because he has quite a lot of notoriety for his political beliefs. Some consider him a member of the Far Right, which is typically associate with neo-Nazis and the KKK. If you can avoid being sucked into this argument, he has recorded his lecture on Personality, which is free on YouTube. Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0xBOMWJkgM&list=PLYiqiGXyix6-Np9ONLHdHgRlHayGh4mXD

This lecture series is one of my favorites. He also has a lecture series on Maps of Meaning, tailored after his book. He also has a lecture series on the Bible. Very interesting lectures, but his lectures on personality are phenomenal. I highly recommend them.

Why do I bring this up today? Because I just started rewatching it. I like these lectures because they are just terrific. He teaches a great deal and his style of lecturing is very entertaining. In this series he talks about many clinical psychologists like Jung, Rogers, and Freud. He also addresses the various philosophies of psychology like existentialism and others.

If you’ve never seen this guy, I cannot recommend it enough. It is fantastic. You’ll learn a great deal about yourself and the greater world around you.

From time-to-time, I go through periods where I cannot learn enough fast enough. This is one of those times. I tend to read very intensely, for at least an hour a day and it is predominantly non-fiction reading. These are the periods where I knock out the majority of my Goodreads reading challenge. I shoot for 60 books a year. Some of these are books I reread each year, but most are new books that caught my interest. Some of these interests are generated by blogs I read that suggest a book or some topic I am just interested in.

I like to write about a great many topics and this is yet another free writing example. I hope you give this guy a shot. He is terrific.

Have a great Friday, folks.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Relax Time

Tags

Fun, good music, Hobbies, Hot Bath, motivation, Productivity, Reading, Relaxation, Sauna

It’s another Monday and it feels great. I had a great weekend. It was relaxing, and I got a lot done. I gamed a bit, enjoyed some reading, and had some good times playing with our new puppy.

I’ve written this before, but it’s worth repeating. When I have a great weekend, filled with fun, relaxation, and my hobbies, I am more motivated to get back at it on Monday. Are you the same?

When we work hard or keep ourselves really busy, doing certain tasks during the week, the weekend is appealing. When we get to do what we want on the weekend, we’re ready to get back to work on Monday. I think it’s about opposites. We yearn for the weekend when we are working really hard and we crave the work when we’ve had a great weekend.

I imagine some would argue that a great weekend spurs us to want a longer weekend, but it never seems to work for me. After a few days of being lazy and indulging myself in the things I like to do for entertainment and relaxation, I’m ready to get back to work.

Some folks, particularly all you Mom’s out there, don’t have the luxury of doing what they want like I do. Some others may have to work 6 or 7 days a week. In these cases, you’ll have to pick an hour or so to wind down and do what you want. So instead of a weekend like I have, your “weekend” would be a nice bath with some music, a favorite tv show, or nice cup of coffee or tea and a good book, while you lounge on the couch with a blanket.

The diversity of activity is what is appealing to me. I get tired of doing nothing or not moving on my goals after a day or so, so the weekend time is about right. When I worked, I tried to do the same thing. I had other responsibilities like cleaning, lawn work, and that sort of thing, but I’d try to get these knocked out as soon as possible so I could chill out for the remainder of the weekend. I’d get in some game time or tv time at night, but it was short-lived because I had to get into bed at a certain time to be ready for work the next day.

Regardless of your schedule, set aside some time for your hobbies and fun time. Even if you don’t have access to an entire weekend, like I do, you can still reap the benefits of these opposing schedules. Relax time leads to a need to be productive and high productivity feeds back into relax time.

Well, folks, that’s all I got for today. I hope you all have a great Monday.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Reading, Watching, and Learning – Economic Facts and Fallacies, YouTube, and TedEd

Tags

Learning, Reading, TedEd, Thomas Sowell, Watching, Women's History Month, YouTube

I’m still reading Economic Facts and Fallacies by Thomas Sowell. He just covered the heated topic of equal pay for men and women. It’s a fascinating read.

I watch YouTube to get tips and tricks on the various games I play, but also watch streamers who use YouTube as a live platform. I also watch them on Facebook, Twitch, and Tik Tok. Many of the educational videos I provide here are on YouTube or TedEd. For those of you who are unaware, TedEd is a an offshoot of the TED talks platform and created to provide teachers and students with some interesting tools for the classroom. These sources have been terrific during Women’s History Month.

I love learning new things and there is always something exciting to pick up.

Well, I hope all of you have a great Thursday!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Reading, Watching, and Learning – Women Inventors, YouTube, and Chat GPT

Tags

Artificial Intelligence, Chat GPT, Inventors, Learning, Reading, Research, Watching, Women, YouTube

I’ve been reading all my books, watching a lot of YouTube videos, and learning a great deal about so many famous women this month. Like most months where we celebrate various things throughout the year, it is so hard to grasp the depth and breadth of the contributions of so many women who have contributed to what we call our current day reality.

During one of my searches, I discovered this article, which lists the top 100 women inventors in history. Here’s the link: https://www.cadcrowd.com/blog/top-100-famous-female-inventors-in-history-modern-women-inventors/#:~:text=Top%20100%20famous%20female%20inventors%20in%20history%201,%28Unknown%29%208%208.%20Ann%20Lambrechts%20%28Unknown%29%20More%20items

Here are a few women from that list:

Ada Lovelace is responsible for writing the first ever computer algorithm.

Adeline D.T. Whitney is responsible for the creation of alphabet blocks for children.

Alice Ball was responsible for creating the first cure for leprosy.

Ann Tsukamoto was responsible for discovering and isolating stem cells.

If you’d like to be inspired or awe struck, take a look at all the women who have made great contributions to the many technologies we enjoy today. I grabbed four that caught my eye in the early part of the list. There are 96 more. This is again the wonder of women throughout history that have contributed to our current society. Bravo!

If you want to see some great videos of women in history, simply search for them on YouTube. I have watched so many videos on women inventors, women in history, and the other searches I’ve used, it is mind boggling. I simply spend about 20 minutes a day looking at videos to broaden my knowledge of women in history. There are too many to highlight any here. If you’re interested, do a “women in history” search on YouTube, and you’re likely to see the same videos I’ve watched so far.

Well, I hope you enjoy the link I provided and the adventures you have on YouTube.

What am I learning? ChatGPT. This is Artificial Intelligence. Microsoft has already incorporated this into its web browser Bing, which I use, but the ChatGPT client is something else. You can use this tool to search the internet and create papers, books, and other written artifacts. I’m currently exploring how to use it to learn. Imagine asking ChatGPT about any topic. It will put together a paper for you at the length you specify and even provide the references it uses to support the paper’s claims. I’m very interested in the wars of history. My current interest is the Peloponnesian Wars. I’ll keep you updated on my progress.

If you’d like to try this out for yourself, here’s the link to get started: https://chat.openai.com/auth/login?ref=upstract.com

The log in you create is nothing more than your first name, last name, email address and phone number. You’ll have to verify your email address and phone number and then you’re all set. There’s a Chat GPT +, but I imagine that will cost you some money. For now, I’m going to stick with the free version. It’s pretty cool, so far. I hope you give it a try. It’ll be a great addition to my ability to conduct research on all the things I enjoy learning about.

Well, that’s it for now, folks. I hope you have a great Thursday!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Reading, Watching, and Learning – One of Those Faces, Economic Facts and Fallacies, YouTube: DMZ Tips and Tricks

Tags

DMZ, Fiction, Grawl, Learning, Non-Fiction, Reading, Sowell, suspense, Watching, YouTube

I recently started reading One of Those Faces. It’s a thriller, and boy is this author great! The author is Elle Grawl, and man she has you tensed up in the first chapter.

Economic Facts and Fallacies is another good one. I’m reading the part of the book that discusses disparities between a man’s income and a woman’s income. His findings are quite interesting. I’ll leave it up to you to read the book. All I can say is he is blowing out most of the stuff we hear in the news about this “fact” and that “fact”.

YouTube is my go-to for anything related to Call of Duty. The DMZ is just one of the games you can play in COD MW2 that was added with this installment of the game. It is what is called an extraction shooter, because you can leave the game play area anytime you wish. If you successfully “exfil”, you get to keep what you picked up. Weapons, keys, missions you complete. Unlike Warzone, which follows the Battle Royale format, the DMZ has missions you can complete that provide new weapon skins and blueprints, character skins, and other things that help your character become stronger.

Many of these missions are easy, but as you progress through each faction’s five levels, the missions get more and more difficult. The great thing about YouTube is there is always some creator that has completed the mission and has a video showing you how to find the mission area and what you are supposed to do to complete the mission successfully. A mission I completed recently was called Muddy Waters. This mission requires you to find three intelligence items: a thumb drive and two documents. Typically, you go into the DMZ with two other players. There is an option to go in solo or with two players if you only want to go in like this. You simply turn a button called fill squad to off and you’ll either go in by yourself or with a teammate.

Well, folks, that’s it for today. I hope you have a great Thursday!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Reading, Watching, and Learning – Ancient Wisdom for Today and YouTube

Tags

Blogging, Books, Building Community, Courses, Eckankar, Learning, Reading, Watching, YouTube

I’m still reading the books I listed last week. I’m enjoying them immensely. I am also doing a lot of reading on Activision’s blog. This blog covers all things Call of Duty. One of the books I’d like to mention is a free book that is offered from ECKANKAR. It is written in layman’s terms, so it’s easy to understand. If any of you would be interested, here’s the link to get your free download or hard copy: https://www.eckankar.org/freebook/wisdom/

I watch a lot of YouTube, particularly to learn how to do things in Call of Duty and other games I’m playing. It is a great source of information. I watch videos on weapon builds, maps, all kinds of things that creators put together so others like me can learn something quickly that took hours of game play to figure out. It’s a great service.

I read another person’s blog post today about restarting her blog after finishing grad school. She expressed the same doubts about what to write about–one of the fears I had when I started Daily Ramblings in early 2016. Now, after 7 years, I write about what I like and care about. I’ve found that the people who enjoy my blog are kindred spirits. They like learning, they like interesting videos and articles, they have some spiritual inclinations, and they are politically agnostic–they realize politics is a reality in our lives, but choose not to participate or waste their time and emotions arguing fruitless points with one another.

I want Daily Ramblings to be a place where people can hear from people across history who offer great advice that is still relevant today. I want to share how I run my life, after a lifetime of military service and working in corporate America. I want to share my love of technology, video gaming, reading, writing, and sharing. I like sharing hacks I ‘ve come up with that make my life much easier.

In the end, I write this blog for me. It’s a nice “diary” if you will. I can go back to some of my earlier posts and remember what I was thinking at the time. I also enjoy the blogs I follow. There are artists, philosophers, environmentalists who love animals and nature, people who craft, authors I’ve come to know through their books, and so many others, just because they have interesting things to say that align with what I like to read about.

My advice is this: Write. The followers will come, if you are interested in building a community. Just write. There are a lot of people out there who are interested in what you have to say, because they think the same way you do. They’ll share the same interests.

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

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Reading, Watching, and Learning – Economic Facts and Fallacies, One of Those Faces, Crash Course World History 2, and MS Excel

Tags

Call of Duty MW 2, Crash Course, Goodreads, Learning, MS Excel, Reading, Thomas Sowell, Watching

I’ve been reading Thomas Sowell’s Economic Facts and Fallacies. Boy is this a good one. He picks every situation imaginable about housing, equity between men and women, all kinds of ideas we assume are true because we read them in the news or hear a politician spout about them on a talk show. Thomas says, “Hold on. Where’s the data that supports that assumption?” It’s a great book and one that will open your eyes to how many things we assume are true but are not.

I have just selected my new fiction book to read. It’s called One of Those Faces. I have not read any of it yet, but I’ll dig into it today.

Crash Course World History just taught me more about WWI. It was an interesting take and got me thinking about all the things that contribute to war. Great series, composed of 20-minute snippets of all the events that shape our world today.

I’m learning how to create and code user forms in MS Excel. It’s really cool.

One of the things I wanted to mention here is Goodreads. I don’t know how many of you use this, but it’s a great tool. I participate in Goodreads “reading challenge” each year. It helps me keep track of my reading and it keeps me on track for my yearly goal of reading 60 books a year. I don’t have to do any work. It tracks them within the Kindle app automatically and it logs a book read when I finish it. It’s a terrific service for those of you who read as much as I do. I use it primarily to avoid re-reading a book I forgot I read. It also allows me to read those books I read each year (like my Bible).

Well, that’s all I have for today, folks. I hope you all have a great Thursday! As a reminder, Season 2 just started in Call of Duty MW 2. It is so much fun. New characters, new weapons, and new maps. See you there, if you are a gamer. My id is: ieatbullets63. Reach out with a friend invite. I’m normally on at 5 PM daily.

Until next Thursday!

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Reading, Watching, and Learning – Economic Facts and Fallacies, A Dangerous Influence, Crash Course History 2, and MS Excel Course

Tags

Black History Month, Crash Course, Learning, MS Excel, Reading, Thomas Sowell, Watching

I just started reading Thomas Sowell’s Economic Facts and Fallacies. Wow! What a read. It is absolutely shocking to read about some of the things that most of us take for granted. If you’re interested, you can get this book on Kindle for about $10 US.

I’m approaching the end of A Dangerous Influence and discovered that this book is part of a series of books by the same author and main character. I’ll be moving to another one of these soon. I really enjoy his writing.

Crash Course History 2 is what I’m watching now. It is terrific! In the MS Excel course, I am learning about user forms in Excel. It’s terrific learning about all the things you can do with Excel. This course has been terrific and has kept me busy for over 2 years!

As part of Black History month, I encourage you to go out and find prominent African Americans in our history and read about them. I try to find a new person to read about on Wikipedia and on the web each day. It is fascinating to see all of the people who have had a huge impact on our daily lives. I try to avoid the typical sports hero or musician. Instead, I focus on statesmen, poets, authors, scientists, historians, and the like. Join me on this adventure. You can find all kinds of terrific stories about the great things these Americans have had on the trajectory of our lives, despite crushing oppression, particularly in the earlier part of our history as a country.

Have a great Thursday, folks.

Until next time…

Dave