Category: Social

Fit in by not fitting

by MAÔ, posted in Social

We go through our days trying to be what we think we should. We don’t worry about who we are, because if we did we might drive ourselves crazy. We likely wouldn’t care for what we see in the mirror, or how we feel waking up. So we try to be the best that we can, within certain parameters that we give ourselves.

But we all feel less than, if we compare ourselves to others. Or try and squeeze ourselves into the holes that we think other people fit in.

The thing is, if we just be ourselves – be who we are designed to be – something amazing happens. We find our tribe. Even if we feel that we don’t fit, if people like who you are, they change the size of their holes. We don’t have to try and fit. They open up and let us in.

Pundits

by MAÔ, posted in Social
pun·dit
/ˈpəndət/
noun
plural noun: pundits
  1. an expert in a particular subject or field who is frequently called on to give opinions about it to the public. 
  2. variant spelling of pandit.
I’ve been thinking about this word a lot. You hear it all over the news – radio, television – especially around elections. According to Dictionary.com, the origin of Pundit comes from the Hindi pandit. And pandit was derived from the Sanskrit pandita, which means “a learned man or scholar.”
But an expert generally has a very narrow view. Outside of subject matter, experts may not focus on other fields. I wouldn’t want my surgeon to work on my car’s engine, just as I wouldn’t want my mechanic to operate on my anything.
Yet we routinely take the expert’s advice concerning more than just the subject material without consideration of any other factors. It’s our responsibility to make informed decisions. Not to rely on one person’s opinion.

Week’s Highlights

by MAÔ, posted in Social, Writing

Some of the things that caught my interest this week.

  • Beetlejuice the Musical. Well, I seem to be heading to New York in September. It’s odd how things happen so quickly. But, I’ll be attending this musical while up there, and hopefully seeing a few more.
  • The Magic Flute by W.A. Mozart, with book by Emanuel Schikaneder & Carl Ludwig Giesecke. I was tuning in to the radio station I do my show for, and heard this piece from Die , where the baritone was singing “papagena, papagena, papagena.” I thought that I could sing the whole piece, so I borrowed the music from my friend and accompanist and began working on my German… which is atrocious.
  • Online shopping vs. in-person, with relation to adverse weather conditions. Did you know rainy days can increase online sales?
  • Newly-created interest in video games, as it pertains to my weekly recording sessions, has led me to some previously-unvisited corners of the internet. If you’re looking for free games to play, try this piece from Games Radar.

Week’s Highlights

by MAÔ, posted in Social, Writing

Some of the things that caught my interest this week.

If you’re thinking about how you’ll make it to retirement, here are six suggestions from NBC’s Kelsey Butler in January of last year. I’ve been thinking about retirement accounts a lot over the past couple of months, having blown through three of them over ten years.

The Tim Ferriss podcast with my hands-down favorite author Neil Gaiman. I first read Ferriss’s The 4-Hour Workweek last spring (listened to the audiobook, twice in a row on several trips across Florida). Gaiman’s Neverwhere I read as a high-schooler, and that was my first introduction to the author. I’ve since read just about everything he’s written, including the Sandman series (straight through and then with the annotated editions from Leslie Klinger), American Gods, Stardust, and The Graveyard Book, to name a few.

If you have an Aubible subscription, get Sam Shepard’s True West, the West End production featuring Kit Harrington (Game of Thrones‘ Jon Snow) & Johnny Flynn. It’s a free download for subscribers (up to two Audible originals each month), and it’s really good.

Unroll.me. I was slow to get this one, but it really works! I’ve gone from a couple hundred emails a day down to less than 30. I’ve still got some clearing out to do, especially across multiple email addresses. but thus far, this has been an amazing help. Plus, its single daily email with previews of each email you’ve rolled (not unsubscribed but not individually let in) gives me one place to see if there’s anything there that I need.

 

Week’s highlights

by MAÔ, posted in Social, Writing

Inspired by Tim Ferris’s five-bullet Friday, and having a little time at many points during the week to browse and peruse, here are things that I across which you may like:

Be More Chill original cast recording. Check out the animatic version, which rocketed the failing musical to new popularity.

Alex Strohl’s methods for defeating burnout. As a creative and recovering busy-person, I’ve experienced burnout more than a handful of times. Leading a board, raising money, and creating original work all left me feeling spent from time to time. Strohl’s routines may not be for everybody, but I like to take suggestions from those I new face the same challenges I do.

Fundrise. For a minimum deposit of $500, get into the real estate business with this Real Estate Investment Trust. Great dashboard and communication with their DC headquarters makes this an appealing addition to my portfolio.

Japan’s Sea of Trees, Aokigahara. It’s on my list for visiting in 2020, along with other areas of Japan. Following my friend’s wedding in the Philippines, I’m planning on visiting Japan, India, and Thailand.

I don’t care about Instagram

by MAÔ, posted in Social

I don’t care about Instagram. And it isn’t because it isn’t cool/hip, or useful. It’s not because the pictures some people post aren’t moving, or awesome, or don’t right mind-blowing. And it isn’t because some people spend hours upon hours looking through their feeds.

It just wasn’t made for me. I’m not the market.

I could try and force myself to be the market – to use Instagram as a business tool, or as social interaction. Yes, I put up pictures every now and then. But the pictures I take are of skies and clouds. These are the things that grab my attention – wide open spaces that look untouched by any but divine hands.

So no, I don’t care about Instagram. But it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t.

Learning to play

by MAÔ, posted in Sports

My great-grandfather George Heron was a professional golfer. My grandmother was an avid golfer most of her life, and my grandfather was a golf course superintendent. My father as well played, though hasn’t for some time.

I shoot like I’m swinging a baseball bat. It’s rather jarring how bad I am at the sport. However, it wasn’t something I was raised in. I didn’t learn about George H. until I was a teenager, at least. By that point, not ever having held a club, it’s easy to ascertain why it would be so difficult for me now. I haven’t played in a year, and that was just once in 2017.

So, out I go again. What I last wrote about frequency applies to golf as well, and there may be times when I ask clients out for a morning on the links. Though it’s okay for them to beat me, I don’t need to spend my paychecks on replacing all the golf balls I lost.