What Are You Doing?

Actually it was the Charvel offset V back then, I believe the Jackson name plate was a product of the collaboration between Randy and Charvel on that guitar.

 

There is a custom shop doing Stevie Ray Vaughn replica spec’d off his touring strats.

 

Some dude bought this banged-up used guitar for $3.9 million:

Spoiler

It's David Gilmour's Black Strat, which he played on The Dark Side of the Moon, The Wall, and a couple other recording over a nearly fifty-year period.

 

Very nice, but I call that a little scuffed.

 

Soaked the plugs yesterday and did a stack of work on me book this morn, so that was nice to have some sort of productivity happening. Pots scrubbed up nice. Ran them on the stove for an hour with boiling water to ensure a deep clean.

Still sore, so another rest day.
Watch some Superbowl and Clickspring.
Pig out on OJ.
Weight is currently 75.5Kg.
Will hit the village later today as there's 5 vid cards waiting @ postoffice, last of the stew, so grab some ingredients for the next batch, 'av a coffee and chat with eBay for some clarification.

 

Just entered the amatuer photography competition. Now I wait.

 

Looking for the joy of writing. Or should I stop looking and wait.

 

Is that a book title or something you want manifesting in your being?

 

Just finished watching Superbowl LI
Nearly didn't download it due to 3gig size, Superbowls are usually 1.3
Far far more than "Well worth it" !

Some thoughts on the event.

Every day is a new day to improve your life.
(substitute 'day' with any other time frame, depends on the situation I suppose. I chose 'day' for that's a low pressure amount of time to reassess and implement changes)

You get a fresh start every day. Doesn't matter what you did wrong in the past, be it from bad judgement or a deficiency of body or soul, if you missed the mark or life threw you a curve ball on the day, you can learn from your mistakes, you can examine and develop yourself and change how you respond to life.

Your tomorrow is only dictated to by your past if you allow or choose it, if you dwell on the negatives and forget about the positives, be they external elements or aspects of yourself.

Never give up, have faith and confidence in yourself. Small seemingly insignificant steps leads to huge profound changes over a long period of time. Your future is determined by every decision and action you take moment by moment, so choose wisely and commit to a life of determination and improvement despite the situation.

You never know unless you try, and when you try and are rewarded with improvements, you may say to yourself, 'I never knew I had it in me', 'cus challenges are where we can either crumble under the pressure or rise to the occasion. It's in the challenges of life that we're afforded the opportunity to improve. No challenge, no need or desire to improve. Challenge becomes an ally instead of an enemy. Challenges are met with enthusiasm instead of dread. Life becomes a wonderful experience instead of a never-ending burden.

Comeback stories are deeply inspiring. The best ones are your own stories.
Dysfunctional family upbringing, 3 breakdowns, since childhood - two types of Depression, Anxiety Disorder, a severe inferiority complex, various psychological issues, a failed marriage...single-parented for half me kid's lives, remained single, a suicide attempt at 47, and here I am, after 25 years of effort, now havin' a most profoundly joyful and contented walk through life.

You're the author of the story of your life, get crackin' and make it a good one.

 

Trying not to fall back asleep after my nap.

I was hungry before I left work and now I'm completely starved... but too tired too cook.

Just been exhausted all day and won't get anything done today.

 

Something I'm looking to have manifest in my being. Although I'm sure there are plenty of books on the subject.

I've come to accept that writing isn't always a joyous process. It's also work. The kicks of pleasure are what justify it.

I'm trying different things. Like alleviating some unnecessary pressure to make room for having more fun with writing. I want to be successful so badly that I think it's killing me, not driving me. My entire future is more or less depending on my ability to do this. "No big deal".

That's the path I chose though. I can't complain. In the meantime I've been researching, reading a couple books by K.M. Weiland on character arcs and outlining.

I have plenty of ideas that I find wonderful and exciting. Coming up with premises is easily one of my greatest strengths. I'll dare to jinx it and speak the dreaded "easy". Some of those ideas have stayed with me for years now, growing in my mental incubator. My productivity just sucks. And obviously there's no joy in making insignificant to no progress.

But I know this isn't the whinging thread, and I'm not hear to whinge. It isn't all bad. I think my research and willingness to find what will work for me is slowly helping. For example, I'm much better off writing with pen and paper, even a modern typewriter, rather than computers which I find to be way too distracting (and I'm easily distracted).

I said I'd work on my monthly budget in a spreadsheet I made on Google Drive. Instead, I came home, turned on the computer, and went straight to these here forums.

EDIT: Got my butt in gear and updated my monthly budget.

 

Currently thinking about this quote and sharing my subsequent thoughts on the matter.

Spoiler: my thoughts

I was in the building industry for 15 years, became the best in my field in the south east section of my state, enjoyed my work, then life began to unravel, unresolved soul issues, marriage failure, enduring all this for 6 years.

It was 2008, the 1st job of the year, in a surreal state I walked around in the house for 2 hours wondering what the hell I was doing for it became quite evident I went to work primarily so I could buy more supplies so I could go work on more houses. I saw a pointless cycle and was no longer fond of or energised by my accomplishments, good that they were, and writing, though I did a lot of it, wasn't even considered a hobby, I just had a life of doing a lot of writing in my journals and online forums.

I had no alternatives beyond my current work lifestyle, but upon seeing how irrational, unfulfilling and unprogressive my current work situation was, I made a decision. I unloaded all the materials I carted around in me car, left all my expensive tools on site and drove back to my temp accomodation in a caravan park (now living alone, the kids growed up and living their adult lives) with a zero game plan for the future.

Had enough cash to last me 6 months of no employment, spent all my time delving deep into myself, attempted suicide, didn't see that coming though it was an integral part of my journey, I still don't recommend it to others, came out of that blackhole through a white hole in the psych ward, 12 months later fully unravalling the mystery of my Endogenous and Major Depressions that I'd been working on for 4 years, a few months later realising a book on my healing adventures was a top idea, a decade later, in the final stages of completion.

None of this amazing life I now have would have occurred if I fearfully remained stuck in my cyclic and dead end but financially secure and profitable job. I had no idea what the future held for me as I drove away from the last job site I would ever lay foot in, but that decision unlocked potentials that were closed off and unknown to me. The dreams were in me, I just wasn't aware of what they were.

 

I congratulate you on having the courage to make a change. Life starts (again?) now?
The signature on my profile says this:
'The greatest risk of all is spending your life not doing what you want on the bet that you can buy yourself the freedom to do it later'

 

Hey Foxxx, will contemplate a bit and write a response asap <--which means I'll post a response before I die as I have no idea how long contemplation lasts per subject matter.
Perhaps there's a thread or we could create one for deep and meaningfuls.

- Currently raining, intermittent mild to heavy. Hoon weather, will go for a spurt over The Sidling today. My hooning is not about speed, I enjoy driving within the parameters of the road rules, it's about car control thus slippery wet conditions is the best time to improve my skills and have tonsofun, plus the tyres last longer.

- Testing all the vid cards I got yesterday.
- Yesterday hot rewaxed chain for install of new crankset on treadlee, couldn't 'cus what was delivered has different measurements thus cogs are 7mm further away from frame, unuseable, ordered another set on eBay. Did the work inside as it's been raining on and off again. Bike rebuilt, tested and tweaked for ride today but rain kicked in again.
- Already done heaps on me book this morn, I envision at current pace one more week and it'll be ready to send off to publishers.
- Personal grooming fotos allocated to around the 12th. Why? Aliens.
- Bought another vid card on auction and got it way cheaper than I thought it'd go for considering how sexy, powerful and its pristine condition.
- 8am, time for breakie.
"Simon, a smoothie if you please."
"Roger that, a smoothie, destination time, 20 mins"
The plane heavily banks left.

 

Define 'success'? (For you). Publishing something? Making money? Writing the greatest story ever told? Just finishing something? Other?

For many people, the goal of 'success' is too big to be manageable and can seem overwhelming. Keep the dream in mind but perhaps redefine success as finishing that chapter. Then write another. Small victories, worthy of celebration all the way through.

 

Success means all of those things to me. I need to be able to support myself, which requires money, which would require to publish something, and I'd like what I publish to be the greatest story I'd ever told up to that point, and that requires to finish something in the first place. I do understand your point about breaking "success" down into its parts.

If I got as far as "published something" (including all the steps that come before it, and the qualifier "greatest story I'd ever told up to that point"), but didn't make money, I wouldn't say I was unsuccessful. But I would say that I wasn't successful enough.

In terms of journalism, I've technically already gotten as far as "making money". Just not nearly enough to support myself. I'm careful to speak in terms of the inevitable; it isn't self-evident to me that I will be able to support myself with a career in journalism. In a decade I could find myself broke and seriously considering - uhh - opting out, for all I know.

Spoiler

Vacuous optimism about the future is about as useful to me as vacuous pessimism. But unfortunately, most advice I get is to ignore the bad, entirely probable, theoretical outcomes and live in a delusional world of riding off into the sunset in which one need do absolutely nothing other than believe in it. I need practical practicable advice because that's the kind of approach necessitated by the fact of bureaucracy, eating, and having a place to sleep at the least.

Oh, I almost forgot another part of my definition for success: not working at a coffee chain for the rest of my life, or any other low-paying, high-school graduate job.

 

Getting up on my day off. Fucking finally. Would love to sleep in but big agenda today. Gotta get up and around, make a protein shake/smoothie (protein powder, almond milk, fruit, and yougurt blended togehter) head down to the gym, volunteer at the summer safe haven program (grew up going to programs like that hell my only meals durring the summer so.even with my 11 hour shifts on six week straights im not gonna stop being a part of it), work out, (gym lets be do it for free), go to the library, pick up a book for there book group/pie social in August, aak if they still have a job open there (starting to get better at my job but....the hours are killing me...not gonna leave without something better though. Working circulation desk in the children's sectoin sounds great to me though. If if the opening isnt filled. I allready have clearances and the safe haven program should be child experience), do some photo editing (last minute of the motorcycle rally i did for the tourism people) while at the library, come home, laundry pick up my room and clean, shower, then sleep.


Hell of a agenda for my only day off this week.


Lets do it though.

Monday and Tuesday...i worked. Getting into a better routine there...still...working like hell. Found a good foot soak to help with my foot pain and a nice cafe to pick food up at after work.

Thursdays camera club and turning in the photos, Saturday's a memorial and a graduation party for two different people...so many emotions. Fridays payday though...do get nice checks for being half dead.

Not a bad week.

 

I was doing some pretty good breakfast shakes of soy milk, protein powder, spinach (powder), peanut butter, and ice for a while. Kept me full, was losing some decent weight with it. Almond milk was originally called for, but I looked at the prices and started snooping around for substitutes.

The question is though, if it's 100% whey protein and chocolate-flavored, what the hell are they doing to those cows?

 

Waiting for my doctors appointment.

Going to see if my foot is bad enough to save or if I'll have to keep up with the constant pain.

Eta. Suffer it is.

 

Glad you found someone.

 

Bah i wish.

 

Woke up just after midnight due to heavy rain and strong wind.

Checked for massive puddle inside the secondry front door, only a small spattering due to door being left open. Apparently redigging out the trench that runs along side the house has stopped the flooding. It fills up with dirt over time from washout from the rest of the yard. Whomever set the position of the cottage had no understanding of drainage etc...or in typical Aussie fashion, just didn't give a shit.

Felt energetic and today was going to be stew making day anywho, so I started early.
It's now 3am, the meat has been stewin' for a while, all veges and beans ready to go in.
This time remembering to add Cumin, Tumeric and some finely diced Garlic...and some coyote pepper I got a few weeks ago...powerful stuff.

Hunter heard me in the kitchen and asked to be let in, I gave him some of my delish expensive mince. He wolfed it, then having no further use for me, asked to be let out.

Contemplating Foxxx's posts and looking for a place to post D n Ms.

Looks like we is gunna have another wet winter. Been raining a lot these last couple of weeks. 'Avin' a coffee and running my Ambient playlist.

 

Just got home from nine holes of golf. I'm not getting any better, but I'm not getting any worse, so I'll take it.