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ACCEPTING FAILURE? LESSONS FROM LeBRON

If you’re good at accepting failure, it means one thing:
You tried, given it your best, and it wasn’t enough.
You’ve done it, I’ve done it.
If you haven’t done it, it’s coming.
Accept failure to get better, and who doesn’t want to get better?
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PRESIDENTIAL VOTE SINCE 1900, DAVID’S VERSION

The presidential vote is tricky to gauge.
Some of the guys from 1900 on are cloaked in the fog of history.
While this isn’t some kind of ‘last word’ on the subject, it is a reflection of the voting mood.
Sometimes you just don’t know how things will turn out.
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KNOW BETTER? BETTER THAN WHAT? TO VOTE

Adults have it over kids when they say, “You ought to know better,” when something goes wrong.
Older people have seen plenty go wrong, have done plenty of things wrong.
Did they have someone explain what they ought to know?
Or did they have the grace of being stupid by themselves without the feedback?
Well, speaking for one, maybe more, I’ll say if we heard about it, it came from someone we knew.
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FAME AND FORTUNE, BLOG WRITING ADVICE

Fame and fortune and blog writing?
Slow down there word-slinger.
Start with writing, then a blog.
What about fame and fortune?
What about it?
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GIVING THANKS TO CAREFUL READERS

Giving thanks for anything is a good idea.
It only gets funky when you try to work it into something else, like the opposite of thanks.
Would that be irony?
But a sweet thank-you is not the same as a hearty F-you. All cleared up?
[Read More…]

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toughen up

AR15 PURCHASE QUESTIONS THAT NEED ASKING

    The Washington Post ran an nice piece about a guy buying his first AR15. He’d wanted one for years and finally the day came.   Money, motivation, and gun show all came together for him.   The WaPo research seems pretty good, even with a tag of fake news thrown around.   The […]

Boomer Gym: 1-1-1

Baby boomer numbers scare non-boomers. Most of the numbers you hear sound like this: 79 Million Baby Boomers in America. 10,000 Baby Boomers retire every day. Those are the frightening numbers. Number matter, but one of the most important is one hundred eleven, the old 111. But what does it mean? It’s a natural number. A […]

CANCER SURVIVOR ESSAY STRUGGLE

    Stories about a cancer survivor are an inspiration to all cancer survivors. Even a cancer survivor essay about the trauma of being a cancer survivor holds important hope.   Pam Parker gets into it with a cancer survivor story in the Chicago Tribune.   It’s not pretty and sweet and all dolled up […]

Health Writing? Start With Cancer And Drill Down

  Health writing is about bringing hope to the afflicted. Cancer writing, not so much. One is about the future and the steps to make it better. The other is layered with dread.   One is about improving conditions, about personal bests, about gains; the other is layered with dread.   Health writing brings nutrition, […]

GYM RAT CONFESSIONS: FEAR DRIVEN EXERCISE

    Every fitness center, every last one, from 24Hour, to LA Fitness, to Curves, has a mayor. They also have city councilmen/women, department heads, and gym rats. The gym mayor checks their constituency. They spot, they talk. They walk from machine to machine. Gym councilmen / women spread an array of weights and surgical […]

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boomer years

SHARE THE BURDEN, NOT ADD TO IT

Relationship talk turns into Share The Burden talk. Marriage works if you work at it. Baby boomer marriages get plenty of work. It’s built into the ceremony. To have and to hold, in sickness and health, and talk everything into the ground until it’s covered with dirt then pick it up and shake it out […]

BOOMER FAMILY AND PAT CONROY

If The Great Santini Couldn’t Break His Family, What Broke Your Boomer Family? The author Pat Conroy, one year older than the first baby boomer, had a traumatic childhood by most accounts. He’s a good boomer spokesman for the voiceless masses who wonder why things go wrong. Call him a senior boomer. He mined his […]

Today Is A Special Day For Someone, What’s Your Day Like

  Coaches have had a grand time reminding their athletes that, “There’s someone somewhere training just as hard as you. Time to step it up.”   They say this right after you’ve had a special day of success so you won’t let it go to your head too fast.   Or, “Someone is training harder […]

GENERATION BOOMER AND THE DAMAGE DONE

They came in the as Boomer Generation, leaving as a Generation Boomer. Generation Boomer, at least those with millennial kids, lived up to the name. Our Millennials lead the list of the ‘most populous generation’ category. And most photogenic. You can’t be too smug when you’ve produced the biggest generation since the Baby Boomers, the […]

COMFORT ZONE AND BIG SNAKES? GET. OUT.

      If you’ve ever seen a snake wrangler in their comfort zone, they probably don’t look like this. There I was in a lovely Santa Monica apartment with nice people in Los Angeles.   They seemed like nice people, then I saw the snake in a cage.   “Do you like snakes?” someone […]

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buckle up

MOUNT RAINIER CALLS JOHN MUIR, ME, AND YOU TOO

  “The mountains are calling and I must go,” said John Muir. If go you must, then go prepared. Most important is going with the right people. Or person. It’s not a marriage, but there are some similarities with a good travel partner. Can you take it if they make fun of your driving? Make […]

DEADSPIN’S ‘WHY YOUR TEAM SUCKS’ IS NO WAY TO LEARN ABOUT ARIZONA

  Arizona is a lovely place. A little warmer than most, but still worth a visit. Deadspin’s annual take down of every team in the NFL paints a different picture. It’s supposed to be funny and sports related, something the rest of the world finds confusing. Football isn’t a world sport like soccer, like basketball. […]

THE REAL WESTERN AMERICA OUT HERE IN OREGON

The real Western America isn’t Texas or California Readers around the world see the American west through movies. From John Wayne in his cowboy costume, to private eye Jack Nicholson in LA’s Chinatown, to policeman Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry franchise, they view the west through a distorted lens. Forget about the red rocks of Colorado, […]

ELON MUSK JOINS THE SHARING ECONOMY WITH TESLA PATENTS

And Slaps George Selden’s Face In The Act. In a rare case of reverse capitalism, visionary Elon Musk gave away the farm by open sourcing Tesla electric automobile patents. He gave it away instead of using the patents to sue everyone who infringed on the technology. Now auto makers the world around have access to […]

THE OREGON BEER TRAIL TO PORTLAND

Oregon Brewers Festival Fans’ Points Of Origin. Courts of law rely on evidence. They need proof. Nothing helps close a case like proof. How do you prove Portland is a big draw, that the recent Brewers Festival draws huge numbers to Portland, who then go home and tell others? Put a map up with push […]

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