"Just go"

The following quote, I just discovered, may be the key to many of my recent issues of late:

DARK HELMET
Good. Let's get moving.

COL SANDURZ
Yes, sir. Driver, prepare to move out.

DARK HELMET
What are you preparing. You're always preparing. Just go!

COL SANDURZ
Just go.

DRIVER
Yes, sir.

COL SANDURZ
Sir, shouldn't you sit down.

The cruiser takes off, and DARK HELMET is thrown in his seat.

Not what you were expecting? This is from one of my favorite movies, Mel Brooks' sci-fi spoof: Spaceballs. And while silly, if I may, I think it depicts a real problem in our crazy society: The inability to properly prepare.

Now I don't necessarily mean preparing in the sense of tedious planning meetings for a project at work. Or even being OCD with a planner and a wrist watch (really...don't you know we use cell phones for that now?). I mean more of mentally preparing one's self, allowing space for rest and and ease of flow into the next thing in our lives.

I know that I'm often just go go go. And man, it's draining. Pretty soon "just go" leaves one in a vicious cycle of no sleep and little room for healthy mental or spiritual reflection. Eventually, my body has a way of making me rest...throwing me back into the seat of my space cruiser, so to speak.

And now, I'd better prepare for sleeping... haha, I think I might "just go" though at this time of night!

UPMC vs Highmark

Sketch during a health benefits meeting about the UPMC / Highmark squabble.

"clusterFlock"

concept for Flock of Cycles group ride. A "clusterFlock" is a large chaotic group of cyclists. We try to stay away from clusterFlocking at Flock of Cycles...

New Site Concept at Work

Based off of our current site:

View from Georgetown Inn

I took my mom out to dinner on Mt. Washington (belated birthday) and we got to see a rainbow from out the window, as well as the following torrential downpour (which stopped by the time we left). It was a good evening. :)

Duct Tape Wallet

Finally, after using a plastic baggy as a sorry excuse for a wallet for a few months, I have finally made myself one that did not include the suffering of our bovine friends...





I used this YouTube tutorial for reference.

Grocery list comes to life

I know the roots are going the wrong way but I thought this would be a fun concept.

I also tried to keep myself from lifting my pen on this one...I was mostly successful.

Idea for New Pittsburgh Skyscraper

World's Tallest Horizontal building. We would call this a "horizonscraper".

Frog

Frog chalk drawing colored by kids.

A New Brain!

Or a brain getting stabbed by a ninja star. Your choice!

(inspired by the show I saw tonight: A New Brain)

Sketch-a-day Project!

Ok folks, I'm going to attempt to start a sketch-a-day project... The pic-a-day ended when my camera was stolen, but hopefully I can keep up with this. Plus I don't ever draw anymore and that is a sad sad thing.

I don't know what this is, but I like it.

Sunset over Larryville

Walking to the Round Corner Cantina.

T-shirt (test)

New shirt I got from The Cotton Factory. Featuring Larryville!

Kayak Trash #2 (testing this app)

Kayak Trash find #2

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Kayak Trash - Ball

Kayak season has begun! That means I'll be starting to pull trash out of the river every Wednesday morning for my weekly Venture Outdoors paddle. I plan to post pictures of my finds. Mostly it will be plastic bottles, but this week I found a soccer ball!

Meetings

by Despair, Inc.

hehe, just kidding. We are having 2 full days of meetings at work to plan for the upcoming year and I think we'll actually accomplish what we set out to do. But man, it's hard to get actual work done when your day is full of meetings.

Prayer

Does it work?
Can we really "change God's mind"?
Or is it an illusion?

Are there certain words to say?
Should I say nothing?
Is it an advanced form of listening?

Am I the answer to my own prayers?
Do I have courage to be the answer?
Do I pray for that courage?

Can I feel a change?
Do I see it work?
Or do I feel like I'm hitting a wall?

Do I get to see results?
Or grow closer to the mess?
Realize that it is bigger than myself?

Is it done alone?

Or done in community?
Does "where 2 or more are gathered" apply?

Approach with humility?
With anger?
With a rote method devoid of feeling?

Do you answer questions God?
Are you listening?
Are you there?

Mentoring

Thought of the day:

Successful mentoring or tutoring is about relationships and building trust. If you go into it to impart knowledge, you will likely fail. Become a mentor if you want to have a healthy lesson in humility.

Listening

Thought of the day in haiku form:

Listening: a vital skill
I must figure out.
Use my ears more than my mouth.

---------------------------------------
EDIT:
I found out that a haiku is actually 5 - 7 - 5, so here's my addendum:

Listening is hard.
Humility is the key.

Ears over the mouth.

Pic-a-day Down! (again)

So with my recent incident involving my bike bag being stolen off of the back of my bike (WHILE riding up a hill), one of the many things taken was my camera.

(BIG sad face)

This means that once again, my pic-a-day has screeched to a grinding halt. I did not even make the one-year mark, so this makes me very sad indeed.

I still like the idea of doing one small creative thing a day so I'm kicking around new ideas that wouldn't include a camera. Sketch-a-day? Random thought of the day? Quick story or poem a day? In the meantime, I'll be on hiatus, so I will try to think of something to replace my daily photo posting.

I'll start with this perspective of the day:
Even though I had a lot of important stuff taken from me, I still have my physical health and I will actually be OK. The kid who took my stuff is actually in worse shape...on the path to jail or worse. So, no matter what you are going through, it's good to remember, there's always another side to a story, and there's always someone worse off than you.

Punch in Procrastination's Face!

I finally rolled up my sleeves and slammed out a clean room within 3 or 4 hours. Take that, Lack of Motivation!

Now I just need to invite people over more often so I KEEP it this way.

Moderation? What's that??

My life has been taken over by bikes and biking events.

I've recently taken a TON of bicycling event pictures.

I noticed that in the past week, I've been neglecting my pic-a-day blog.
I haven't even taken the pictures to post.

Here's the ONE picture I took last week:


Inspiring.

This leads me to realize that my work ethic also matches my motivation in personal projects: When I go gungho over something, or overkill on a project, it is certain that there will be a long period of "slump time" to follow. This slump time often includes thoughts of, "Perhaps I should actually do something?", but often devolves to spending useless hours on the internets...

All before my next wave of motivation comes along. More like, tsunami of motivation, then an extended drought.

It kinda works in a way, but it's ultimately tiring and unsustainable.
(kind of LIKE THIS)

I hope I can somehow get to the point where I can actually do things in moderation... You know, break down projects into smaller parts and tackle them daily. Log those sales items as I go instead of wait for them to amass into a monstrosity that I try to ignore like a pink elephant. Actually take the zero extra seconds to throw the laundry into the basket instead of on the floor.

Maybe I should just embrace my way of doing things? Maybe I need to just accept that I'm like this and just go with the flow and not worry about how it ultimately gets done?

Or maybe I should go put my clean laundry away right now instead of procrastinating on the internet talking about it?

.....

Nah...

Guess that Phone Number

Tag for Tag-o-Rama

Pippa

Late Night Light Trails

Peruvian Deliciousness

Easter: Family

Blooms Outside My Window

I didn't like any of my Saturday pics, so here's one from Thursday... shhh!

Wet Ride

Ever notice when it rains that bright colors really pop? I like that.

Look at the Chandelier...

I forgot my camera at a restaurant, so I had to take a couple of these with my cell phone... This was at the Benedum before The Decemberists concert.

Wall Progress

Bike (Gear) Rack

Breaking Through

Once was Lost, but Now is Found

Building Walls in the Rain

In His Element

Yellow Eyes

Into the Mist

Red Means Fire (hydrant)

Human and Kitty Paws

Fancy Feet

Cycle Feet

Blurry Staircase

Skee Ball

Another Bike Shirt! New Pic-a-day Theme...

So I have a new concept to go along with Pic-a-day to give it some focus.

I plan on picking up an element from the previous day's picture and incorporating it into the next day's photo. Yesterday I took a picture of my dual screens, which has a picture of a railroad crossing with a bike symbol etched on it. Today, I'm carrying over the bike theme to the cool new shirt my housemates got for me.

We'll see how this goes...try to spot the transitions. :)

Dual Screens at Work!

Monday - Merry Christmas!

Wood Works of Art

Sunday (actually Sat - but too pretty not to include!)

Maple Festival

Saturday, April 2

Bedside Guitar

Fri, April 1st

Garage Full of Nouns

Thurs, March 31st


from a book I've been reading:
"There's nothing wrong with possessions; it's just that they have value to us only when we use them, engage them, and enjoy them. They're nouns that mean something only in conjunctions with verbs.

That's why wealth is so dangerous: if you're not careful, you can easily end up with a garage full of nouns."