POSTS

Goals

So it’s a new year. Which means a new round of goals. No, not silly resolutions that you don’t take seriously. It’s time for you to sit down and spend a few minutes (if not hours or days) and think about what you want to achieve and what you actually can achieve.  Here are the guidelines I used for last year and this year.

• Your goals must be specific.
• Your goals must be measurable.
• Your goals must have a time limit.
• Your goals must be your own.
• Your goals must be in writing.

I used the following categories and tried not to put more than 5 or 6 goals in each category.

Money

So after a few blogs on politics, let’s change gears. Let’s talk about money. Something everybody knows something about. Everyone has an opinion. Many people don’t want to deal with it or understand it. But just like knowing how to change a flat tire, or change your oil, if you have some basic knowledge you can be ready to deal with pop-up emergencies and keep your money working for you like a well-maintained engine. Ok. Enough car analogies.

Writing More Better (Often)

I keep mentioning the idea of wanting to write more. I definitely feel that I have things I can contribute to the world. Some of that is through writing. I’m a creative person naturally and love to create ideas, videos, music, etc. I tend to hesitate to create because it involves putting your ideas out there and waiting to see if people like/understand/approve of it. This fear and hesitation has held me back quite often from putting my creative things out into the world. So I’m working to overcome this and start creating more. I’m moving towards the attitude of not caring about your opinion of my work. If you like it, great! Share it, comment on it, etc. If you don’t like it, that’s ok too. When you create passionately, you are going to get people who don’t care for your work, don’t like it, don’t agree with it, etc. But at least you are being authentic to the creative process.

More Updates

I’m going to try and start using my website and social media platforms more. I’m getting tired of reading stupid people on facebook and twitter. I’ll write and rant my opinions here and if people choose to come read it they may.

I haven’t really used my youtube channel in many years. I need to upload some videos, I just don’t have any ideas.

Periscope is cool when I use it. Mostly to watch kids soccer games back and forth between my wife and me.

2016 Fitness so far

So it’s April 9th. I just finished week 13 of p90x3. This is my blog about all the fun and pain.

I started Dec 28th to get almost a five day head start on the new year resolution. That worked well.

It took me 15 weeks to do the 13 week program. I did week 5 twice due to missing 4 days that week and I did week 9 over due to missing most of that week. Both of those were due to business travel and Army weekends. It just made it logistically too hard to hit all seven days. Overall I am very proud of myself for completing the program. I could have done some parts better, but as they say, “Do your best, and forget the rest.”

Intentional Living

It’s January 1st. Time for silly new years resolutions posts. Ha. I’m not gonna do that. But I will talk about a concept I feel I’ve started to understand in 2015.

Intentional living.

I define it as follows: Living life with a purpose and goals. Making things happen in your life, instead of waiting for or reacting to things happening to you.

You can sit back and be reactionary in your life and complain about the circumstances and situations that come your way, or you can work hard, be intentional and do your best to overcome obstacles and achieve your goals. Basically not having a victim or entitlement mentality. Life is hard, the economy sucks, etc. I get it. I really do. But really you only have two choices. Roll over and die (slowly) or take it head on. No one owes you anything. Not the government, not your family, not your job, and not your friends. Anything you get from any of those is just a blessing. You’re not guaranteed anything and you shouldn’t expect anything. Man that sounds depressing right?

A quick update

So I haven’t updated in a while. Life sometimes has a amazing way of getting busy. Here are some bullet updates. There are too many thoughts and ideas jumbled in my head to get them all out now in paragraph form.

• I’ve travelled to Minnesota twice since my last update for work.
• I just got back from a week in Chicago. I walked over 30 miles in a few short days and only lost one pound.
• Being sick sucks.
• Thanksgiving was good to see my Grandma and family.
• I’m enjoying seeing some of my long term budgeting plans starting to come to fruition. #intentionalliving
• Work has been really good at times, and also really stressful at times.
• This year has gone by extremely fast.
• Having 3 kids is way more of a challenge than having two.
• I’m excited for the Christmas season. It helps me to remember there is still good in people.
• The Royals celebration parade was crowded.
• Maybe I’ll start trying to post movie reviews.
• I’m getting really burned out on stupid people and their opinions on the internet.
• I got promoted to Staff Sergeant this summer.
• Music is amazing as always.

And now for random photos from my phone.         Later, Derek

More Blogging!

I think I will start blogging more. I’m thinking of re-doing my site completely and pulling it all into WordPress. It just depends on how much time I want to waste on it. Some parts of my site are way outdated and need to be changed or removed. But I do enjoy tinkering in the html occasionally.

So we’ll see how the redesign goes if at all.

I’m also gonna try to start adding more content. Movie reviews. Tech news. Army stuff. Music. I dunno. Whatever.

There are no words....

For friends i know who are suffering… There are no words Sometimes there are no words when life has planned for so much joy and tragedy strikes to steal it all away the hollow feeling in your soul no amount of tears could fill If only you could hate it all away bargain it all back there’s nothing you wouldn’t give to just have one more day when laughter and smiles no longer have meaning time stands still and these open wounds last forever There are no words….. grey and butty the days have no meaning where will the strength to go on come from? no rhyme or reason to it all the day to day filtered and muted robotic motions to the world becoming numb as the pain and hurt slowly kill it all from the inside This is the hardest thing I will ever face how do I bury my child? how can I live again? I feel that this could kill me…. There are no words…..

Chicago

So I’m in Chicago for a work conference. I’m supporting all the IT needs of my company’s booth. It’s going pretty well for the most part. Occasionally you have to try and fix something as quickly as possible that randomly went wrong. Its been kind of fun. The days are long, but its not too bad. The shortest day has been 10 hours.

The cool part is getting to see a big city. Having lived in the suburbs my whole life, it’s quite different. I’m taking the train and/or cabs to work everyday. The buildings are huge and the architecture is impressive. I wish I had time to do some more touristy stuff and see more of the city. I would probably never visit Chicago on my own, so getting to see it while working has been interesting.