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GET TO THE WRITING POINT

December 26, 2025 by David Gillaspie

People who feel like their head might explode in the middle of the night because their brain won’t calm down need to get to the writing point. No writer has ever felt the internal pressure in their mind because they’ve already gone over things. Gone over, and over, and over, and over. Let me rewrite […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: baby boomer, Baby Boomer blogger, boomer blogger, boomer kids, boomerpdx, fiction, new yorker, non-writers, opinion, over and over, Portland, Portland Oregon, public education, revision, rewrite, sentence structure, shared history, story, surveillance, teachers, writer, writer's worth, writers, writing, writing point, written memory, WWII

INSPIRING KIDS TO ACHIEVE? THAT’S THE JOB

August 26, 2025 by David Gillaspie

Who is inspiring kids to achieve? Who inspired you? I’ll start. It’s the parents, mom and dad, the home unit. What else would you expect from a baby boomer blogger? My parents inspired me.

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: achieve, ass kicked, band teacher, battles, bosses, coaches, friends, inspire, inspired, inspiring kids, kid, kids, leaders, Social media, spanking, teachers, uninspired

GOOD EXPECTATIONS, VARIED RESULTS

August 20, 2025 by David Gillaspie

Good expectations, not great, are the more reasonable expectations for most people. Even when you harbor feelings of greatness, who would you tell without sounding like a nut-job? Yes, I hear you with your, “But Muhammad Ali . . .” He was ‘The Greatest’ and proved it over an over, until he became what all […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: American civil war, American History, art, autobiography, big jobs, black market, cancer, Civil War, death camps, diverse interests, expectations, family historian, General Eisenhower, general grant, good expectations, good teachers, great expectations, history, history buff, history museum, I like Ike, jobs, literature, loss, memoir, monuments men, muhammad Ali, museum men, museum mistake, plunder, primary sources, racial, racial profiling, reasonable expectations, serious research, teachers, The Greatest, throat cancer, WWII

LEARNING MORE AS WE GO? OK BOOMER

June 22, 2025 by David Gillaspie

Learning more is a life goal. Sharing life goals with others makes it even better. Baby boomers in the long haul of marriage have so much to look forward to, and look back on. That’s the benefit of sticking around, of sticking together. Embrace your history, ok boomer? How does that work? Stick around.

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: baby boomer, black belt, BOOMER, education, history, history books, history question, learning, learning more, listening, martial arts, more better, ok boomer, pain, personal history, pho, read books, reading, sticking around, sticking together, teachers, teaching, the boss, Vietnam, Vietnam War, war story, what happened, writing

THE RIGHT SHIRT PULLS EVERYTHING TOGETHER

June 15, 2025 by David Gillaspie

What is the right shirt for the occasion? As all fashionistas know, it depends on the occasion. You don’t want to go too over the top as much as you don’t want to look like you could care less. Try not to channel your inner-Lady Gaga. This was the right shirt for the No Kings […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: army birthday, beer, dropout, education, enthusiasm, family, father's day, fathers day, GPA, history, joy, Love, low GPA, married, Michael Jordan, millennials, no kings, Oregon History, pater familias, philadelphia, public service, real world, retired teachers, right shirt, seventies guy, sixties guy, story, student loans, teachers, Tigard, US Army, us history, wife, young people

EMBRACING CHANGE, BUT NOT TOO TIGHT

May 18, 2025 by David Gillaspie

Embracing change is all there is to do when something new pops up. Either that or get miserable and bitter. Go with the flow or drown fighting the current. If you think this sounds like being a quitter, well . . .

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: athletes, big difference, cancer, change, cigarettes, coaches, community, difference, embracing change, fitness, fitness guys, game, hero, high school, lung cancer, money, parents, quitter, smoking, sports, teachers, team, weight lifting

EXCITABLE BOY, THEY ALL SAID

March 5, 2025 by David Gillaspie

An excitable boy at age eighteen is a good thing. I had a great year at that age. Graduated from high school, got a summer job, hitch-hiked to Iowa and back. I left town for college, then turned nineteen and joined the Army the next fall like it was school. That’s where I saw older […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: Army, berlin bunker, best results, blowhard, dangerous, excitable boy, exciting times, germany, historical documentaries, historical industry, history, history degree, human depavity, killers, machine guns, peer pressure, research, teachers, testosterone, Vietnam, WWII, young men

DAD DAYS TO GRANDDAD AND BEYOND

September 19, 2024 by David Gillaspie

Dad days never end, and I’m glad. I didn’t sign up for the part time version. There wasn’t a switch to throw for the eighteenth birthday that said, ‘I’m done.’ I’ve been a dad since my first born, then doubled up with my second. Since then a few surprises joined up, just not those surprises.

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: academic, another dad, college, Dad, dad days, dad hug, education, funeral, graduate school, granddad, grandpa, grave, honor, husband, kids, last goodbye, role model, school, teacher, teachers, wife

EXTRA EFFORT? WHO’S THE JUDGE

May 11, 2024 by David Gillaspie

There you are doing your best, trying your hardest, and a voice in your head says, ‘You’d do better with a little extra effort.’ If you’ve heard it, do you know where it come from? A coach, a teacher, a parent. “You could be somebody if you actually applied yourself.”

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: applied yourself, basketball, basketball goal, bitter, blog, blog post, blogger, coach's fault, coaches, extra effort, football, football guy, good effort, good sportsmanship, grace, lose, marketing, mental health, personal branding, sportsmanship, talk writing, teachers, twitter, varsity letter, voice, win, writer ranks, writing, your best, your hardest

SELF MADE BADGE OF HONOR, OR GLORY HOG

April 3, 2024 by David Gillaspie

The self proclaimed ‘self made’ man stands alone all by himself. No one else gets any credit for his accomplishments because: A: His accomplishments are so meager no one knows, or, B: He’s been shunned. Which is it, because no man is a self made man.

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: arnold, blogger, college education, dull gibberish, favorite blogger, handmade books, help, helping hand, homemade books, learning, readers, reddit, self made, self made man, self made myth, self made writer, shunned, teachers, write, writer, writing, writing better, writing conferences, writing seminars