Okay, I'm back.

Last week was pretty crazy: in addition to my normal two nights at school, I also worked late two nights, and then we spent the weekend on day trips to visit each others' in-laws. Special mention to my lovely wife for driving both days during daylight to allow me to study for my test this week in the car. She's especially gracious in doing so as she is jealous of my ability to read while traveling in the car; she gets carsick.

So some of the things that I wanted to talk about last week: First, a special recognition to Ken for doing an awesome job presenting a concert in the gallery on the 30th. He read about a blind busker who was trying to do a cross-country busking tour in order to raise money for seeing-eye dog training. This excited Ken's imagination, and so he called the artist and arranged to have him perform a charity concert in our venue. The audience was small but appreciative, and they raised a couple of hundred dollars for the charity, which certainly perked up the artist.

For my own efforts, I worked on trying to reduce negative actions and going extra steps from time to time. So instead of being silent in class, I contributed to discussions, and when I was dominating the conversation, I stopped to let others speak. It's a weird thing for me. I normally like to stay in the background, but at the same time, I just can't let the instructor hang there waiting for someone to speak. And once I get going, I find that I enjoy being a part of the discussion, so there you go.

I still prefer my quiet alone time to recharge my batteries.

So I have some other things that I've done over the past week, and I'm kind of embarrassed to be proud of them. Posting to a blog that I haven't been as passive-aggressive or unwilling to do a little extra at my job doesn't exactly come across as an accomplishment. But I have to acknowledge that I have been trying to improve my outlook and my commitment to helping people, and I'm seeing some effects from that.

That said, we come to today's cliche:

Admitting that you have a problem is the first step in solving it.

I Haven't Forgotten

Just a quick update to say that this has been a crazy week, but I haven't forgotten or given up.

There have been a couple of things that I've done, but to talk about them in this forum would embarrass the persons involved.

I'll take a quick moment to mention that Ken at work did a great job promoting a charity fundraiser for a blind street musician, and his efforts raised over $200 for the Seeing Eye Dog Foundation.

That's all for today; I'll try to get a true update tomorrow.

js.

Starting Small

Normally, when I get up in the morning, I have a series of things to do. Shower, get dressed, feed the cats, scoop the litter and clean up any cat "accidents", make lunch, empty the dishwasher, have breakfast, go to work.

The path to the cat litter takes me past my computer room, where I usually stop and fire up my PC and end up killing 15 minutes or so checking my RSS feeds, playing Evony, reading Facebook, etc. Then I rush up from the basement when I hear my wife coming down from the bedroom towards the kitchen. I end up rushing through the making of lunches and taking a breakfast bar with me to work instead of having my preferred bowl of cereal.

Today I resolved not to go on the computer, and instead spent that time tidying up the living room, which I had spent most of the weekend cluttering up. The house looks better, I didn't have to rush this morning, and my wife will be happier not having to either clean up a mess not of her making or push me to clean up after myself.

Perhaps I didn't find the cure for a terminal disease, but I did something that I wouldn't have normally done.

So today's cliche: a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

My New Challenge

So I've decided on a theme for my blog. My challenge is a good deed every day.

Life lessons and cliches come and go, but the one that I've chosen to embrace and to write about is to "become the change you want to see in others."

Lately I have been increasingly disillusioned with the way that people have been behaving in the common discourse: granted I take most of my information from The Daily Show and the Huffington Post, which both focus on calling attention to bad behaviour. That said, I've heard a great deal about increasing levels of anger and aggression, and it seems to me that I can do something small that goes against that grain.

So, instead of my original plan of using this blog to make fun of others, or being rude or passive-aggressive, I've decided to write about good things happening in either my life or the world, depending what I've got going on. I'm going to try to focus on my own personal good deeds, but if someone else has something that I think merits attention from my many readers [Hi sweetie! Your eggs are just fine!], then I'll write about that.

I may also spend some focus on changes in habits that I am working on, so my good deed might be not being a jerk at work, or remembering to ask someone about their day, or achieving weight loss goals or whatever, but I still think it counts.

So. Today I'll take a moment to shine the Daylight Candle on Wes Burrows. Wes is a really nice guy who saw a need in the world and worked to fix it. His fundraiser, the Great Shave at Three Willows United Church raised a total of over $20,000 over two years for the relief of AIDS-ravaged Lesotho.

So click the link and vote for Wes. If he gets the most votes, he wins a trip to work in Africa for a week.

The One Where I Get Started

Of the things that I like, I don't really think there's a dearth of written work analyzing them. I mean, my interests are computer games, scripted television, not liking unscripted television, science fiction and fantasy novels, Spider-Man comic books, movies, dogs, cats, and my wife.

I'm also interested in politics and the general state of common discourse, but again, not a dearth of writing on the subject. Really, the only thing not being blogged about already is my wife, and she's too introverted to be pleased at being the subject of my website. Not to mention that it would probably end up turning into a passive-aggressive haven of minor complaints and grudges. Even though I love (and like) her, when you live with someone, you end up finding fault with them. If you love them, you generally come to terms with those faults by either knowingly forgiving them, choosing to ignore them. If I used this blog to catalog my lovely wife's idiosyncrasies and rant about them, I'd end up getting more worked up about them than if I just walk it off.

Plus, I think she's the only person that I could reasonably expect to read these blogs, so that wouldn't really work. I guess I could use this blog as the forum for discussion with her. Next blog: Honey, I don't like the way you prepare eggs.

I can't see that as the best way to maintain my marriage.

Maybe next time I'll go off about the US health care debate...








Seriously, why would any town call itself Smallville?