Category: About

A Reboot of Me, Myself Music and Mysteries!

Hopefully, I can Do It Better This Time!

So as I start this post iI feel like a mix between Siddhartha and Prodigal son, someone who has gone away to look for greener pastures only. Only when he returns he sees that where he was where he should have stayed all along. I went off to find greener pastures on the Internet creating a myriad of blogs but the traffic on this blog appears to be still pretty good. It is certainly better than other blogs I have created. As a result I am starting today a 90-day Me,Myself and Mysteries (MM&M) Challenge. It’s a challenge to revise, revamp and improve this site.

One way the ways I think I will reestablish this site is to repost. The seems like a good idea to reorganize the site. It also will make me review music that I’ve listened to and books I’ve read with the idea it may lead me to new books and music by the authors and musicians who created the works.

Revisiting Caleb Stine

To find an example of this I went back to the music I wrote about in April of 2011. The first musician I wrote about that month was a singer-songwriter from Baltimore, Maryland Caleb Stine. The album listened to back them was his 2010 release I Wasn’t Built For A Life Like This. I enjoyed the album and there were a couple of standout tracks on the album. “My Service Isn’t Needed Anymore” was my favorite track on the album. You can read what I wrote about the album here

Anyway, I went to Spotify to see if Caleb has released any more albums. What I found was he has only released one album since 2011. Moon is the title of the album. So I gave it a quick listen and some of the songs sound very interesting. So I’ll put the album in my rotation and give it a few more listens and let you know more about it!

The bottom line is that I will be challenged to revamp and reinvigorate this blog. My methods will be writing new posts but I also will be revisiting older posts to remember books and albums I liked and then search for new works by those authors and musicians. Since some of you still visit this site and my=aybe new folks are too, I hope you stay with me!!

Now I have to post this and then go for a run! So what will be the soundtrack? I have a lot of good music to choose from so I’ll let you know later today!!

Ok so I guess the best way to start over may just be to recap what has been happening over the last month or so. On e of the things that has kept me from posting is that my laptop keyboard wad not working properly. Several of the keys were not working including the y and r keys. You never know how many times you use a letter until it’s not there anymore. And believe me I use a lot of Rs and needing to use the on-screen keyboard each time you write an R is a pain. Anyway, a week or so ago I replaced the keyboard and now everything is working. So now what else has been happening.

Let’s Catch Up on Running, Yoga….

The last  post I wrote about running was on the 17th of February. Since then I only ran one more time on the 24th due to cold weather and maybe even some snow. In March though I have been doing a little better. I have rum 5 times. I ran three times last week. Those runs were two 3.1 mile runs and the other (this past Sunday) was a 5.25 mile run my longest run in a long, long  time. My overall pace for most runs has been hovering around 10 minutes per mile. Hopefully, now that it’s spring I can keep up running twice during the week and then one longer run on the weekend. As I have written previously one of my goals this year is to run several 5K road races.

Most days my morning workout is a 20-35 Dance-Cardio (i.e. jumping around in time with the music) routine. Lately, the soundtrack has been a playlist of the music of Credence Clearwater Revival. During the routine I always workout with light weights, various bands and sometimes a jump rope to various songs. I typically burn anywhere from 200 to 400 calories each workout.

On the days that I work at Target I do a short yoga routine and a short meditation. I also have been doing a 30-minute Yoga routine almost every night. I believe that this routine has gotten rid of several little aches and pains.Occasionally, I have done a new yoga routine on a non-Target workday morning. The routines were taken from back issues of Yoga Journal magazines. Recently I decided I would create a notebook of the routines, cutting them out of the old magazines and putting them in a three-ring binder. Then I can refer back to them to do the routine again. b

.and Diet….

I have also been doing pretty well with my diet. I’ve been incorporating a salad in my weekday dinners. Typically it’s a Asian Mix Chopped Salad with cabbage, carrots etc. I’ve been adding cucumbers, radishes, and Feta Cheese. The dressing has been Kraft’s EVOO (extra virgin olive oil). According to the book Genius Foods EVOO is one of the most important genius foods.

I have also been having a breakfast smoothie with fresh banana, strawberries, and blueberries. Mixing in some yogurt, frozen pineapple and cherries! On colder days and work days I’ve been having oatmeal with added raisins, walnuts and blueberries.

While I have been using the Instant Pot,I still think that I can still do more with it

Reading…

Yesterday I finished the fourteenth (14) book I have read this year. So far I haven’t written about very many of them. That has got to change. What I need to do is figure out a way to write about a bunch of them together. I know I can do January and February reads but maybe there’s a way to tie several together. So stay tuned.

…..and Music

I wrote a while back that I have been listening to a lot more music from my music library over the last two months. While that is true, I also have been listening to some new music. Two recently released New Age albums Running Away from Timothy Wenzel and Cappadocia from Jeff Johnson and Phil Keaggy have both been excellent soundtracks for both my morning and evening yoga routines.

Several other albums have been the soundtracks for runs. Off the top of my head I know I’ve listened to new albums from Rhapsody of Fire, Walter Trout and John MayalI. None of which I have written anything about.

In Conclusion: Let’s Move Forward

Concluding I’d just like to say that over the last few months I keep trying to think about how I can make this blog new and more interesting. Well one sure way to not make it interesting is to not post anything! Duh! So I think I’ll just jump right back in and write about my dull life. At least though by writing about my exploits I am forced to do something i.e., run, read, try a new yoga routine or cook a new meal. I got back into running by carving out time to run on Tuesday, Thursday and one weekend day..

Maybe I need to do the same thing for writing. I need to schedule a time to write and stick to the schedule!! I’ll try if you read!! Thanks!!

Here are three reasons to move forward! A reason to stay healthy and active. My grandchildren. Left to Right Oliver, Logan and Zoe. While I wouldn’t want it any other way babysitting Logan and Zoe two to three days a week cuts into my time to write posts! But guess what, they come first and if I want to write, I have to work around them!!

Connecting All My Audio Equipment Leads to New Music Goals

I mentioned in the last post that I’ve been listening to a lot of music from my music library instead of new music. One of the reasons I’m doing that is I now have my electronic equipment situated so I can play music from just about every media that I have. I now have connected to my receiver the following: an Ion turntable for my vinyl, a five disc CD player, my iPod and a small cassette tape player.

The receiver has three playback ports. The ports are a turntable port, a tape player port and CD/auxiliary port. Initially, I connected the turntable to the turntable port and the sound was too loud and horrible. When I connected it to the CD port it was fine.

Now I had four playback devices and only two ports. The solution was two by a four pack of these RCA plugs.

Now I know It seems like a lot of trouble to go through when I can just listen to almost everything on Spotify. But in my opinion there is just something special about dropping a needle onto a vinyl record. I guess that may be because it sounds better, but I think it’s just because it brings back fond memories.

While CDs don’t bring back as many memories as vinyl records there is still something about holding the jewel case maybe reading the liner notes doing that beats just plain digital recordings.

Now cassettes, I can probably take or leave but there are some albums that I have in cassette that I’m not going to get on CD and may not even be on Spotify. I’m thinking particularly of two early Chris Wall albums.

What These Connections Mean For 2019…..

Ok so now I have the ability to listen to my music library using the media that I first obtained the album on! So what does that mean for me and this blog going forward? One thing that I want to do this year is to listen more often to music  from my music library.

Over the last few years I’ve spent so much time discovering new music that I have lost touch with the music I have loved in the past. Now I’m not saying that I want to live in the past, just that I want to visit more often!

So maybe what I’ll do is bring back Flashback Friday. When I first started to blog  on Fridays I would put on a few old albums listen to them and then write about the artist and album. Yeah, I think that’s something I want to do again!!

Music Goals  for 2019

So here are some music goals for 2019…..

1. Increase the amount I listen to music from my music library. Use music from my music library for the soundtrack of my workouts and yoga. Re-institute Flashback Fridays to listen and write about old favorites!

2. Continue to search out and listen to new music. I will continue to scour the bottom half of various music charts to find new artists!!

3. Make new music the soundtrack for my runs. Typically, the soundtracks of my runs are from the progressive rock, blues or bluegrass genres.

4.Make sure a jazz or new age album is playing in the background while I’m reading. A New Age album will always be the soundtrack of my yoga workouts.

So now I need to go and listen to some music. Hmmm it’s Friday and I see many albums from my vinyl collection. It’s time for Flashback Friday …..what shall I listen to???????

P.S. When I went to take the picture of my audio equipment I realized I forgot to mention that I also have my Sirius/XMRadio connected to the system too! Only I have to unplug something so I will probably just let it play by itself!!

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Can I Get Over My Blogging Blues?

OK so  over the last month or so I have had a hard time making myself write a post. I have started several posts only to get distracted, I then leave the post and find reasons not to finish it. It’s not like I’ve fallen off the “{Better Next Year” wagon.I’m still moving forward and actually doing well! For example, my weight has been fluctuating right around my 2018 goal weight since October. I have been eating well since then also.

I also have been running fairly consistently through the winter and my mile per minute pace has been its  fastest in years. Likewise in my non-running days my workouts are still pretty strong. I have also been doing a nightly yoga routine that as gotten rid of a few minor aches and pains.

Additionally I have read twelve books so far in 2019. So I am, according to Goodreads, on pace to reach my goal of 72 books.

I have also listened to a lot of good music. Just last week my wife and  went to see Tom Paxton and the Don Juans at the Sellersville Theater. The concert tickets were a Christmas present from my wife. But yet like all of the over I haven’t written about it!!

Why can’t I make myself write new posts?

So why??? Why can’t I make myself write new posts!  I think a major reason is I don’t think anyone reads what I write so why waste my time when I could be doing something more constructive.

When I first started blogging the main purpose of the blog was to help keep me sane. It was 2010 and I was going through a rough patch. My mother was in a nursing home and her Parkinson’s medications were keeping her pretty wacked out! In addition, my work life was in turmoil, too!

. In July of 2009 my bosses of 29 years 11 months sold their business. While things didn’t change much initially it didn’t take long for changes to happen. Within two years my work load shrank to the point I was doing baby work just to keep me busy and with four years I was laid off and only working when needed. And by the fall of 2014 I retired early.

Anyway listening to music, reading and writing about what I read and heard helped me get through those years. Now though my life is moving along fairly well and that need to write and to feel that I am accomplishing something is not as strong. Consequently, I’ve been trying to think about  new directions for this blog. As of today I have not come up with anything!

While I haven’t been posting about it, over the last few days I have been listening to less new music and more of the albums that are already on my iPod. The soundtracks for my nightly yoga routine have included albums from: Peter Kater and R. Carlos Nakai, Coyote Oldman and Deuter. Maybe that’s a direction I’ll take more old music less new music.

Maybe more health, wellness and happiness. How about more books less music. More music less books?? What do you think?

Ok so now I’m going to sit back, listen to “All Souls Waltz” form Peter Kater and R Carlos Nakai’s album Honorable Sky, while I wait for all the sage advice from my readers!

What Paths Should My ADD Brain Travel ?

Ok so I have written before that there are times when I strongly believe that I have undiagnosed ADHD. The belief is based on. The fact that my mind races from one thought to the next very quickly. And the thoughts may all be about something completely different. That also may be the reason that I enjoy so many different things. I am virtually a “jack of all trades” and unfortunately a master of none!

For the last eight years I have written about a variety of topics and have created several blogs for those topics.

Paths I’ve Traveled?

I would say that the majority of those posts have been about the books I read and the music I listen to. Unfortunately, I believe that I am not in the mainstream concerning either of those topics.

I have also written about my running and my efforts to roll back my biological clock. As well as writing many posts about my family life and my explorations if my family tree.

Additionally, I created one site Socialstudious to explore my love for politics, history and social studies in general.

The bottom line is all of my efforts have only been read by either a handful of people or by bots and crawlers!

Should I Travel a Few Paths or Many?

So my question is there something that this 67 year-old with a love for books, music, running, yoga, history and politics, his health and family should be writing about?? Should I be concentrating on one of those topics? And if so which ones?

Any thoughts ?? Here’s the way my ADD brain discusses this…….

I should concentrate only in music….

But I love books and writing about them…

What about my running and anti-aging….

Help!!!!! What should I do!!

One of you 3,500 subscribers must have a thought, don’t you???