Tag: Editorial

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NOLA

The year thus far, it’s been a bit crazy. I find myself waking up the past couple of days here in New Orleans, Louisiana. Three days ago on New Years Eve. I was invited to tag along on a trip to the Sugar Bowl. celebrated New Years with friends and went to bed mentally preparing for the journey.

The next morning was surreal. En route to the city, ran across news alerts for the attack in the city. The train kept a rolling. We were witnessing on news reports in surreal disbelief. We weren’t willing to turn around by the time it was announced the game would be delayed, we were practically already there.

We stayed in at the Airbnb that was rented, played some games, went to the store for groceries and had dinner. And yes for New Year’s Day got some black eye peas and leafy greens in.

The next day prior to the game we went to have some breakfast and did a little exploring around the French Quarter. Despite a few closed streets the city was vibrant and alive. A testament to the resilience and perseverance attitude of this city. Sure there was an extra police presence and a few streets closed. But the city was alive! I had felt no concern for safety walking around and enjoying the day. Football fans and locals about, we all did what we would normally do

We will lick our wounds be defiant and fight back.

What happened was tragic, unfortunate, and horrible. Yes, I say thoughts and prayers for the victims and their families. In these times, under these circumstances , the action to do as we normally do, we win. The fear and terror they strive to accomplish dies a quick death when we remain resilient to their objective.

We can’t get back what we lose, we will bear these scars a long time. Stay strong NOLA.

And next season, for your football team, may you find little to marginal success.

Sincerely your favorite Falcons fan. Rise Up.

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the new year

It’s a few days away.  How time flies, doesn’t it? 

To be quite honest, I do not know what 2025 will bring to the table.  If it’s anything like 2024, it’s saying, hold my my beer.  I, however, am not one to let the outside world dictate everything about my life.

I’ve been reminded on countless occasions that attitude is everything.  Others perceptions, are meaningless if you discount and disregard them, and everything when you, yourself define them.  It’s best to steer perception truthfully.  All this because, the worst thing you can do to another person is to not meet their expectations. No, you can do worse but, I digress.

In 2025, the number one thing i need to do is to be more consistent.  Is it going to be writing in this blog?  Do more with this aging social infrastructure I’ve established.  Has the content creation ship sailed for me?  Nope.  What has sailed for me is time.  There are going to be challenges ahead that I may not be able to tackle on my own.  There are going to be adventures.  There are going to be failures, mishaps and the like, and there will be success. I will see to that.  Persistent consistency will shape you.  The trick is, will you enjoy what you persistently are consistent about.

I’ve read from many resources that successful people always follow some sort of rhythm in their lives, they stick to a pattern of what works.  They surround themselves by others who are successful and feed off that synergy.  I could be a little more consistent in seeing where I succeed and fail in this. 

I plan to continue down this path, wherever it may lead.

Words to be: consistent, persistent, resonant, thoughtful, kind.

cloudland canyon
Cloudlannd Canyon
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From 23,000 Feet And Climbing…

It seems there are times that I totally forget I have a blog. I created this site to serve as a medium for content creation.

That being said the pilot on this aircraft stated we’d get some Turbulence. If you are one of the three people that actually read my posts, I hate to disappoint you, I doubt this flight will be a Hollywood Blockbuster… or could it?

I am flying back from New York City today. I flew up to New York this past weekend for a short getaway. I’ll send some links to a photo gallery soon. I came up to mark a few things off my bucket list. There are still plenty of things in NYC that could complete the bucket list, but some could be accomplished at home too. I needed a recharge, the kind I would think only a city like New York could provide.

I think one of my biggest pet peeves, in particular with transportation, is that it is inefficient. Being able to get from point a to point b on a system that just works? It’s not easy to do unless you own a car, which is the case at home but the exact opposite in NYC. If City and County governments in the Atlanta metro would get their act together and build reliable mass transit… wishful thinking for the south I suppose.

End that rant.

I’ve found it easy on this trip to be humbled. There is a lot to experience in this world. A lot of it is bad. At least we live in a place where most of that is filtered for us. Sometimes we want to reject or change that filter for ourselves, sometimes to our own detriment, although we think we are doing what’s right. We live in a place, The U.S. where we are allowed to be free. Free to move, free to think. Are we?

Rant (again).

The last two years are obviously different, and a lot of different things are troublesome. The cracks in the building are showing. not just in this country but in our society as a whole. From my perspective, I pray that the forces that dictate the opposite, that are demonstrating their opposition to our freedom to roam, create, explore, educate and expand freedoms, would come to some enlightenment.

/rant

We reached 36,000 feet a short while ago. It’ll be time to start approaching to landing soon, only an hour from landing. I,m gonna sign off and end this random musing that I paid $5 to have an internet connection to be able to post from the air.

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Word of the day: Efficiency

According to the Merriam-Webster: the collegiate definition of efficiency is an effective operation as measured by a comparison of production with cost (as in time, energy and money) or the ratio of the useful energy delivered by a dynamic system to the energy supplied to it.

I am probably the least efficient person I know when it comes to certain things, yet I demand efficiency in others on those same things. In many ways we are spoiled by expectations, certain logic. and things that are quite ironic.

For example, last year I wanted to obtain a Peachpass for my new car so I could use the express lanes on an upcoming vacation in Florida. The act of obtaining an object that could make a more effective commute (time wise) – to be more efficient – is housed in one of the buildings of a place that is jokingly mocked as one of the slowest operations in government – the department of motor vehicles.

To be honest, I have to give the PeachPass Administration credit, at least they kept their operation in a separate area of the building and in person service was immediate. However, their computers were down at the time I made it there. They were kind enough to call when it came back up, which was just right at the time I was arriving back at my home – so I made another half hour trip to the DMV office- only to find out their computer went down again. “Just my luck.” I thought as I left again, only to be hunted down by a worker while I was still in the parking lot to inform me the computer system was back in operation.

All that being said, had I been a little more proactive and not waited until the last minute to order a transponder in the first place, I wouldn’t have had to put up with that hassle. Ultimately all turned out well in the end, despite my lack of effort. I would not call that particular effort to being more efficient an example of being efficient.

Any time I am in a rush to get something done, the example above is a good demonstration on how things usually turn out. It takes double the time, effort and money to get the task done.

What happens though, when we allow ourselves to budget the time to accomplish a task ahead of time? We can figure out all what we want, how we want it and when we need it by and what we need to do to get it done, efficiently, ahead of time. One would think that is what we all do, right?

Wrong. Why do we end up spending a ton of time in a drive-thru line – because the dip-wad in the yellow Mercury ordered half the menu and took twenty minutes to make up their mind on the order? And ended up behind them because we were being polite and had to yield to them in traffic, and we had to yield to them because we got stopped at a red light because the cement truck ahead of us is slow, and we got put there because, ultimately, we decided to hit the snooze button.

Why in the world would I even want to complain about any of that. I should be grateful for being able to wake up, own a car, drive said car, have a nice restaurant to go to, get there safely and return safely, all while being fuming mad while doing so?

This all happens when my expectation of others is not met. When others don’t operate my way, in my view in a way that makes sense, that becomes upsetting. I know I’ve done the same to others. I’m in a different mind set about the topic. I’m in no rush or just allowing myself a lazy, relaxing, carefree moment. Should I do that more often?

My personal philosophy is not to become lazy and carefree at the expense of others as much as possible. The hard part is – I can never expect that of anyone else. And honestly, some people may be operating as efficiently as they can, and yet still be slower than I would like. We have to get over that and let it be.

I also realize that in some cases, others cannot get over it so easily, other people may escalate a situation into a conflict, become angry, upset, explode into rage and turn a situation violent. I would hope that is not the case, however we live in a world where people do behave that way. They may be misunderstood and misunderstand the situation. And when someone intoxicates themselves, well we can only go downhill from there.

But honestly, quit being a dumb ass and get out of my way so I can get back home in time to catch the start of the ball game.

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A little talk about Normalcy

What is normalcy? Again – according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary (EDITOR NOTE: Auto Correct tried to respell it to Merrimack again – I’ve since correct the error in my recent post on “invest”) normal means “conforming to a type, standard or regular pattern” or “according according with, constituting, or not deviating from a norm, rule or principal.” When it comes to people – normal means “of, relating to or characterized by average intelligence or development” and “free from mental illness, mentally sound.”

A state of normalcy, at least in my opinion, never remains constant. I’ve hear the phrase – “A New Normal” quite a bit lately. When it comes to the drastic changes that people have had to make in their lives in the past 5-6 months in this world, is this new normal going to be acceptable by the masses of people. The simple answer to that is no. There are those of us who refuse to accept the new normal, and I am perfectly fine with that. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t abide by it for a short while if it means a temporary discomfort – or even if it may help save a life.

Are we going to abide by what is mandated or recommended to us by our leaders? Or is it that we must follow the orders dictated to us by our leaders? I see a difference in the way people are interpreting the messages being sent over the media and the laws and rules written – Unfortunately it’s a matter of perspective. We’re divided in society on what we see as normal. That’s bound to happen in our society – race, age, gender, culture – whatever the case may be.

I’d like to think about how different leadership, and a different perspective on our news sources and media would have handled the current pandemic and revolution. I’ll table that for speculation later.

Moving on – normalcy. Are we ever going to be back in the state or act of being normal, at least to the way what normal was just a year ago? No. Do not deceive yourself otherwise. Normal changes everyday, and even normal yesteryear is different than the normal 40 years ago (which by the way is 1980 and we are marking the anniversary of “The Empire Strikes Back, ” but I digress. We can try, wish and hope things would return to normal, and some things may seem that way in time, but it will be the new normal, not the old normal.

Is it good for our mental health to grow and adapt? Will it mentally break us to find a balance to hold true to our beliefs and embrace the new normal? Are we physically, financially and mentally fit to adapt to the sudden change of normal. I do not believe a lot of us are. Do we adapt or die? Give it time and let a cooler head prevail.

Think about how the Industrial Revolution and the Technological Revolution and what it did for the way we live and work. The Civil Rights Revolution – in my opinion that has been ongoing since the 1960’s is now demanding even greater change after some blatant injustices fueled a firestorm. I’ve seen the cracks crumbling for years and some are trying to take advantage in these times to make their normal the new normal.

I don’t think this new normal will last long – many of us are fed up with it already. The question is – are we focusing on the right things now? I doubt it.

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Word of the day: Invest

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary online – the second listed definition of the word invest is to “to make use of for future benefits or advantages.” There are two other definitions – “to involve or engage especially emotionally” and to “to commit (money) in order to earn a financial return.” Although I enjoy studying and learning the money ways of investing – you really need a large sum of it to make it worthwhile in my opinion.

I’d like to focus on the other two parts of the definition. Making use of (something) for your benefit and involving or engaging an object emotionally – this concept is something I really need to focus on more in life. For a moment I would like to consider thinking about the intangible investment that always comes from the ether – time. Taking the time out of our day and using it to do something, accomplish some goal or task, devote it to our own benefit.

I believe we waste so much time in our lives. I believe I have in many ways. But at the same time I think I have become pretty good about making better investments of my time. I believe reading and writing are good investments of time, or shooting or recording a video. Maybe even taking half an hour to play a game to take a mental break at the end of the day could be a good use of time. But does playing a game for 3 hours and staying up too late make a good investment of time? it may to some, it may not to others.

We budget ourselves free time, but what about our work. Does your work reflect a good use of time? Certainly time management is a critical skill to have in todays’ workplace. Retail, office, services; the saying is time is money. At the end of the day are you proud of what investments you made in your time of that day?

Tangibly speaking? Am I making good use of the resources I have at my disposal. What can I do to mark an improvement? So I am starting a journey on this little blog on the Fried Circuit channel – I’ve got some ideas in my head for it – now it is a matter of making the best use of my time to invest in it.

On a side note – I’ve built my own web server to host it, which was no easy task. I am using a Raspberry Pi as the hardware platform for my LEMP stack and in case you can’t tell, WordPress as my site management platform. In the future I plan to go into more details on explaining that and how you could potentially build one yourself – but in the meantime there are tons of great tutorials out there. The important thing is be careful and don’t leave yourself open and vulnerable to an attack.

Back to our word for the day. The concept of emotionally dedicating some object, person, or thing to an investment. I think this is the piece where many investments fall short. People lose interest in old or outdated things – It was there for a period of time, then something else better comes along. If not managed or modified or upgraded – our investments will go to waste whenever we lose interest. When we fail to emotionally dedicate to an investment, it will wither and die, just like anything else in our lives.

The question is – can we keep up and stay emotionally engaged or managed to our investments – time, money, people? Or do we fall short.

What are your thoughts?

– Jon

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