26. Are you retired or working? What are your plans for retirement?
I am currently working and having this constant dread that I'll probably have to do this until the day that I pass away.
Life has a lot of twist and turns. A lot of restarts and some plans that had not materialized.
So, I’ve moved all my available resources into making sure that my children have everything they need in order to succeed.
25. Is there a special food from your region or heritage that you a particular appreciation for?
I'm in California and there are a lot of different foods in our area that I get to sample. There are two foods that I find to be special and that I make for myself time to time.
The first is hot dogs and beans. I like to class it up a little bit by using lil smoky sausages that I pan fry before adding the Bush’s baked beans. Now, these are both processed foods and probably have the total amount of sugar for a whole week contained in one serving. I shouldn’t admit it but no one is going to read this and respond, but I eat the contents of both the package of sausages and can of beans in one seating.
24. Write a review of your favorite album. What lyrics mean something special to you?
A LOT of people love Michael Jackson's Thriller. It's got a lot of big hits on it and the title track is a halloween dance favorite. My favorite album is the one before it, Off the Wall.
I find myself really enjoying the entire album. It starts off with a bang with “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” that really gets the energy up. I feel that it’s more of an anthem at that point as it tells the listener not to settle.
23. What words of wisdom would you have appreciated from your younger self?
Sometimes I don't think I've become any wiser in my years. Just a little more patient in some areas and less in others.
But, if I could say something to my younger self it would be that I should be more present with the time that I have with those in my life. I would try to tell him about what things matter and what things don’t.
- Have you been to a memorable concert? What made it stand out to you?
My first memorable concert was the [Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Coming Out of Their Shells Tour](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teenage_Mutant_Ninja_Turtles#Concert_tour).
At the time, my school had a reading program where you could get a personal pizza if you read a certain amount of books. As a kid, these were my two favorite things pizza and reading! I don’t remember all the details, but I do remember that PizzaHut had tie in with the Ninja Turtle tour and that you could buy the sound track with the purchase of pizza.
Well, we’re at the end of the month and I did not meet my goal of having a post every day about mental health as I had set out to do. If anything, I probably posted less this month than at other times this year.
Apparently, I need to take the break from posting.
Still, there were a lot of great posts that came from this and would like to thank everyone who wrote or read a blog to think about joining communities like indieweb.org or adding themselves to Blog of the Day.
I’ve been thinking about the different projects that I’ve got going on and some of them have been sitting around needing some time. I thought I would share a couple links about how to restart a project.
Today, was the second to last day of a losing season of volleyball for my family.
It’s been tough.
There have been lots of dropped balls and random issues here and there.
When we lose a game, I like to go through the following steps.
Above all, I avoid complaining about other players. It just makes the losing worse as you keep on dwelling on what you can’t go back and change PLUS you start fighting with the people you have to play with in the next game.
Exercise is a great stress reliever for me. I know my day will be better the next day if I spend at least 20 minutes working up a sweat. I can focus. I’m smarter, funnier, and better looking after working out a couple days in a row. Maybe that last part is because of the confidence I get from the feeling of accomplishment.
But, I’ve been having trouble getting back into a routine.
Today is Global Accessibility Awareness Day and you see companies like Apple, Microsoft, and Google post about how they are making things more accessible for their users1.
It’s good to see major companies doing this as it helps everyone. I just wanted to take this time to remind you that you can do your part by making your website a little more accessible.
A good place to go is WebAim and looking at the page on accessibility for designers. After reviewing the guidelines, you can checkout this page of accessible website examples.
So, I’ve been feeling less than great the last couple of months and I’ve been wondering why.
Turns out that I’ve been really neglecting my workout routine the last couple of months. I know that I feel better if I get at least 20 minutes of exercise a day, but I haven’t been making it a priority.
I was feeling really run down the last couple of days due to allergies and lack of sleep. Isn’t is so amazing how coughing and sneezing can keep you up at night. Tonight, I figured I would try to get some better sleep and look up some resources on how to do it.
Click Here for production information. I’m sure that you can find something on this list that you can do in your own life.
Well, I’m hoping to get back into writing regularly. Tomorrow, I’m going to be writing a little bit about exercise.
Not feeling well today because of lack of sleep and allergies. Going to post more tomorrow.
Sometimes, it’s hard to think about how to make it through the day. I’ve had my moments where I thought the world would be better without me.
I’m lucky to no longer have those thoughts play around in my mind as they did back then.
I’m not going to say that my life is perfect now, but I will say that it has gotten better. I have a better understanding of what kind of solution
I was thinking about and how it really just makes things worse.
Hemispheric Views had another great episode of their podcast. This one was about the perfect album. Defining perfect as an album that you can listen to without skipping tracks and just enjoying. Since the initial release of the podcast, people have been blogging about what they feel is good.
I’ve thought about a couple albums but one that comes to mind right now is Louden Up Now by !!!. I bought this album while I was in college on a whim and I find myself putting it on when I’m feeling particular angsty or frustrated.
I’ve been thinking about what to write for this day during Mental Health Awareness month.
And, it came to me.
Sometimes we need to take a break.
I wanted to write an article about finding music that you can relax to. I tried finding a couple links to where you can find relaxing music and the first couple pages of my search results were links to hours long videos on YouTube and I didn’t want to link you to music on a streaming service.
I tend to find myself listening to albums that I’ve had for years in order to relax or using an app called Focus@will. I’m still trying to figure it out.
This is the first Monday of Mental Health Awareness month! A lot of my coworkers HATE Monday. For them it’s the hardest part of the week. Some days, I feel the same way.
I try to be grateful as Mondays usually mean that I’m starting the work week and that will lead to a paycheck that will provide for my family and I. But sometimes, I need a little bit extra.
Hello! You might have missed the news about weblogpomo or missed the first couple of days. Who knows, you might be missing today or tomorrow. You might throw your hands up and say Shucks! I missed it!
But, and this is a secret, it’s ok.
I was hoping to have a longer post about how to improve your sleep but I woke early this morning and all I can think about (other than this post) is when I can go back to sleep.
If you find yourself in a similar situation, I suggest you read this article on WikiHow about taking a Power Nap
.
I’ve been trying a different approach to planning my day this month. Instead of looking at all the things that I feel I need to do, I’m just going to a couple of them and knocking it down.
I don’t get through all of them and sometimes I add more through the day but it’s a nice visual reminder of what I have set out to do.
Sometimes I feel like things are really a mess. I don't know what the next step is or - on the hardest days - what steps are possible. On those days, I try to clear my mind and gain a little bit of control by clearing my desk off.
Here are a couple of articles linking cleanliness to mental health and stress relief.
Every month should be Mental Health Month.
Period.
But, just like Christmas, Halloween, and Valentines, it’s good to do a little bit more as we Get into the Spirit
.
I drew the picture attached to this post because I find myself doing this when I’m stressed. It makes me happy. I also like to do large multiplication problems and then checking my answer with a calculator, but some people find that stressful to look at. :upside_down_face:
If you are looking for inspiration to write more on your personal blog, then I would like to point you to this upcoming event put together by Apple Annie.
What is it? Weblog Posting Month, 2024! If you use weblog.lol, or otherwise have a personal blog, you should absolutely participate in this month-long blog posting extravaganza!
I am hoping to have a theme of Making it Happen in May
, where Ill write something about self-improvement or promoting Mental Health Month.