Day Jobs, Dinklage and Dumb

The word of the week is pertinacious.

Nov 20 - Inspiration

Peter Dinklage and I share a first name, and something else: a desire to succeed.

I ran across his magnificent 2012 commencement speech to Bennington College, and its core message is this:

Failing is not failure: it's learning, and showing progress... and you can watch the whole speech below, it's great, even with the laugh track:

Nov 21 – Fake News, Free Science?

As some of you have seen of late, I'm fairly active on FBook when it comes to climate science, as there's just too damn many ignorant people out there who don't know the most basic science:

Yup, pretty much brainwashed...

As well, there's a smaller but far more active subset of Climate Change Deniers, who actively work to spread misinformation( 'fake news' if you will )about climate science. They're part of a network of people making a living off widening the 'Doubt Gap' as I call it: making the general public, unversed in the sciences, doubt the facts based on nothing more than cherry-picked out-of-context articles and misleading( or outright fraudulent )graphs that LOOK convincing to the layman.

Above is the example of one of the more active Deniers I've run into and regular butted heads with. As you can see from the screencap, he has NO interest in conversation regarding the veracity of his 'proofs' but merely wants to spread an agenda.

The insidious thing is, few people have the time to hold fast against people like him. I certainly don't; the best I can do is keep tabs on the various climate-related groups I'm in, checking in morning and night for a few minutes to post warnings about these trolls so that other people don't engage them in their sneaky antics.

It's wearing, but someone has to do it... otherwise these Deniers have free reign in the Comments sections of social media to spread their misinformation. Since I've been active in the last 6 months, there's been a BIG decline in the number of people both Liking and engaging these Deniers in their posts, which I'm glad to see. As well, more and more members of various FBook climate pages are now wise to these individuals, and taking it upon themselves to call out their BS, which has lessened the load on myself and a few other regular pushback-posters.

BONUS: one of the sites I frequent has compiled a list of FREE, factual science-based sources that will go a long way towards weaning people off 'newsy' science and get them back to the pro-science, fact-based non-partisan places.

What still scares me though, is how easily the misinformation's been spread by just a few people. What I wonder is: how much elsewhere am I missing seeing?

Nov 22 – It's a Go-bot!

Earlier this year, I spotted the future: the Gita!

The cute little follow-me-bot was at a tech expo this summer, and this updated video was released at the end of August to showcase what it can do:

Being able to load up to 44lbs of gear into the Gita would free me from lugging things to and from work while I'm physically unable to carry more than a light backpack, to go grocery shopping, carry games and other things... it'd be great!

There's still no price listed for the unit, but I'm hoping that it will enter the market at a point around $1000 USD, which will sell well enough to allow the next generation to be at an even more affordable price....

I'm still keeping an eye on things, and who knows? Maybe 2019 will see me with a Gita, if I still need it!

Nov 23 – When you stop...

... exercising, what happens to your body?

For athletes, the news is pretty stark, and for the rest of us: not great either.

Answer: Nothing good

For me, I've noticed the degradation in my physical abilities since I started my desk job 3.5 years ago, to the point where right now stress and injury have made me subject to daily pain and discomfort that distract me almost every waking hour.

That makes it frikkin' difficult to concentrate, sucking my mental and physical energy away from things I need to get done outside of work like writing and my business. Being constantly in pain can't be masked, and is a stressor in itself: being wary of a misstep that might cause re-injury, or worrying about the pain I'm already in, can exacerbate breathing / tension issues I'm already experiencing. Being over 40 doesn't help either:

Still, there's hope: I've made progress in other areas through determination and research( greatly-reduced anxiety / chest pains almost gone, and more )so I know that I can DO this: I just have to work at things patiently through trial and error until I find a pattern that works for me in my current daily life.

Nov 24 – Sore Core

My five-day week caught up to me today.

By the end of my workday, my solar plexus was feeling sore and a few hours after I got home, I was having trouble sitting up straight without using my arms...

Yet again, my core's shown itself to be just too weak for my needs. So I'm doing these starting this week, gently and slowly at first:

As for the levels of discomfort, it's not as bad as it was four months ago, when I could barely function without a tensor-wrap and shooting pains: being uncomfortable at the end of a long work week is an improvement, by any measure, and I have to keep telling myself that instead of obsessing over it turning back into those agonizing pains again. 

Blogging about it helps: setting down things here means they're OUT of my head, and I can move on.

I'm choosing to take this discomfort as a warning sign: I need to exercise, to get back in the pool despite my nagging inability to make my leg tendons heal up properly. Swimming has to be something I do regularly and generally, instead of just being afraid of injury myself further: I'm down to about 4K steps a day with my cane, and even at 10K steps, I wasn't doing any aerobic for strength building exercises, just walking... which isn't enough to stay healthy.

The longer I go without exercise, the worse it's going to get.

Nov 25 – No Excuse

I've got a day job, and I'm plugging away at my passions... slowly.

It's a grind, and I'm feeling it more this year than any other, given my health. There's books to write, a home business to set up, and a ton of other small projects I've love to devote time to, but can't find the mental mojo most days to make it matter. Nothing's broken upstairs, but the body is weak, as they say.

Still, there's hope: some people are doing it even with a day job, and aren't afraid to share their experiences:

I did notice that the person above doesn't mention their health, and I'm assuming that they're in decent shape given that they mention they have 'lots of energy' daily: the two kind of go hand in hand.

Ten years ago, I had more energy too, and as I got into shape from riding around Victoria, I had even more, until I injured my arms and quite my MMart job.

But: I was there once, and I can get there again. Just take one step after the other...

Nov 26 – Winning / Losing / Learning

Ah, games...

One of the joys of my life at the moment is playing boardgames: my lady and I spent a few hours every weekend playing through our collection and thoroughly enjoying each other's company as we match wits.

To my chagrin, I lose to her more often than not in certain games, despite my efforts though she was kind enough last weekend to point out some of my flawed strategies so I could learn. Which I appreciated, because I discovered something else about myself this year:

When I win, it's a fleeting joy... because I take losing, even a boardgame, really hard... and that's made me wonder why I feel like that when a loss occurs.

Thinking about it in depth this month, I know there's an aspect of pride involved, but I believe the central tenet comes down to one thing: the domino effect. When I lose, especially several times in a row, all the things that I haven't accomplished well up in my subconscious and beat up my brain. Kind of like the phrase 'misery loves company' - my failures line up and seemed to extend in a cloud all around me, blocking off my successes and my joys suddenly and completely.

Which is silly, because it's just a game, and I can always play again.

Still, the fact remains that I get upset too easily: I'm not a sore loser, but a poor winner, in that I don't pay enough attention to how I've won, because I'm supposed to be relaxing(and)and when I lose, I can't accept that my strategies failed.

Now that I've recognized this aspect of my psyche and given it some good thought, I think I'll be much better balanced when I'm playing. As I mentioned last week, I'm consciously refraining my winning losing as enjoyment / learning in my mind, so my subconscious doesn't beat me up when I lose... and I can enjoy the small thrills of victory when they happen.

Which will be more often in the future.

Not much of an afterword: four days of working during the day, four evenings of writing while easing my body, then a three-day weekend to catch up on everything I missed getting to wherever any of the above didn't mesh. Status quo!