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SMART ENOUGH TO KNOW WHAT I DON’T KNOW

March 10, 2025 by David Gillaspie Leave a Comment

‘Smart enough’ is a fair goal in education. It’ll take you where you want to go, and help avoid places you don’t want to go. There’s a self-serving element to it when you like school so much you go to college to become a teacher. Or, you like kids enough to give them a better […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: appearances, baby boomer, Baby Boomer blogger, Baby Boomers, big foot, blog, blog post, BOOMER, boomerpdx, boomers, dog, dog whisperer, education, facebook, hoodlums, hoods, inner big foot, inner child, inner Sasquatch, learning, Oregon, sasquatch, Seattle, seattle freeze, smart enough, writer, writing

GETTING READY TO GET READY, THEN WHAT

March 9, 2025 by David Gillaspie Leave a Comment

Are baby boomers getting ready? They’ve been getting ready all their life. The boomer baby is continually shown as a rebel, a kid who grew up with a pledge to ‘not be like our parents.’ It was fine until one day we became parents. It was fine until we got all the left-overs.

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: baby boomer, Baby Boomer blogger, Baby Boomers, BOOMER, boomer blogger, boomerpdx, boomers, childhood, education, educational value, get ready, getting ready, history, history museum, murdered, parents, travel, writer, writers, writing

SIGNING PAPERS IN REAL INK

March 7, 2025 by David Gillaspie Leave a Comment

Signing papers is a fact of life. Sign this, sign that, and move on. If you’ve signed and weren’t convinced you knew what you were signing? Welcome to the club.

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: baby boomer, Baby Boomer blogger, Baby Boomers, blogger, BOOMER, boomer blogger, boomer moments, boomerpdx, boomers, Death, downstream, education, higher education, history, Love, MARRIAGE, millennials, papers, papers signed, PORTLAND BABY BOOMERS, shit detector, sign, signed papers, signing papers, spurious accolades, wife, writer, writing

VALUABLE ASSET? ASK THE MAGNA CARTA

March 4, 2025 by David Gillaspie Leave a Comment

What is the most valuable asset we possess? I believe it is self esteem, self worth. In fact, I count on it in myself and others. Good self esteem in others means they know how to behave themselves in public. I was thinking about it during a recent Costco run that included a chat with […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: asset, civilization, clean air, clean water, clothing, Costco, cutco, cutco knives, experience, experiment, food, founding fathers, king, knife, knife sharpener, knives, learning, learning experience, lucky, magna carta, marauding hoards, plunder, rape, self esteem, self worth, shelter, valuable, valuable asset, value, writer, writing, written

HOUSE CLEANING: WHAT GOES, WHAT STAYS

March 3, 2025 by David Gillaspie Leave a Comment

House cleaning is basic: start at the top, dust down, vacuum up, done. Or, dust down, vacuum up, scrub sinks and toilets, then done. Or, look at your stuff with dust around it and make a decision of stay or go, then vacuum and scrub, and you’re done. What am I missing? I’ll tell you […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: bookshelf, friends, hoarder, house cleaning, keep, memory, reading, roman bath, throw away, usual le Guin, what goes, what stays, what to keep, writing, writing books

THE SECOND PICK GOES FIRST? SOMETIMES

February 25, 2025 by David Gillaspie Leave a Comment

The idea of a ‘second pick’ can be a way of life, not a mistake. You’re heard of ‘one hit wonders?’ That’s what they call a band that only reaches the stratosphere of popularity with one song, not an entire catalog. Most of the time we hear ‘second pick’ and think of professional sports drafts. […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: access, anthologyj, bandwagon, biggest mistake, blog, blogger, chronic loser, Dallas Cowboys, first pick, general history, history, hyped, monograph, national history, negotiation, North Bend Bulldogs, Oregon Ducks, personal history, primary sources, recorded, research, rights, second pick, shill, stories, trust, truth, Way of life, winners, world history, writer, writers, writing

STAYING COMPETITIVE, WITH YOURSELF

February 18, 2025 by David Gillaspie Leave a Comment

Staying competitive can be a life goal. It means staying sharp, alert, ready. Being quietly competitive is one thing; you may bring out the best in you. Loud competition can be a problem, such as?

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: apartment, Baby Boomers, blog, blog worthy, blogger, boomerpdx, boomers, dead, Death, education, Fat, fat and lazy, history, lazy, MARRIAGE, new jersey, North Bend, nostalgic, Oregon, Portland, PORTLAND BABY BOOMERS, Portland Oregon, single life, starter home, writer, writers, writing

ATTENTION SPAN DEBATE ON VALENTINES’S DAY: WHAT?

February 14, 2025 by David Gillaspie Leave a Comment

A short attention span is normal? Older people like to joke about going into another room for some reason they can’t remember. It happens all the time, but there’s a hack: You have to stay in the room until you remember. That’s Michael Corleone wishing brother Fredo well.

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: attention span, blog, blogger, boomerpdx, coment, debate, documentary, happy face, historical, history, Hubers, memories, museum, museum of you, Portland, Portlandia, Seahawk, valentine's day, wife, writer, writers, writing

LANGUAGE ARTS FOR THE WIN

February 13, 2025 by David Gillaspie Leave a Comment

Language arts is the difference between the possible and the impossible. Can we return to childhood? Would you want to? Or . . .

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: art majors, blog, blogger, boomerpdx, childhood, dreams, english majors, fears, fight, history, history guy, hobbies, idioms, language arts, laughter, non-traditional student, profession, questions, Shakespeare, standard, unspoken rule, well informed, writer, writers, writing

HAPPY PLACE? KEEP LOOKING

February 12, 2025 by David Gillaspie Leave a Comment

They say you’ll know your happy place when you get there. Who are ‘they?’ Happy people, that’s who ‘they’ are. Are they happy all the time? No, but . . .

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: Army, Bill of Rights, blog, blogger, Constitution, declaration of independence, education, grandkids, happy place, history, keep looking, kids, making sense, marrieds, museum, museum manager, national archives, normal happy, rothko, smithsonian, travel, writer, writers, writing, WWII