A blogger near Seattle exploring the future
Lessons learned about life; pearls of wisdom I’ve gleaned through pain, failure and honest reflection
It’s awesome to see all ages at the dojang. It’s a sign of a healthy school. My school has a huge range of student agents, from small children to adults in the 50s and 60s.
Every student brings something great to the school, helps us all grow, to be better.
A great short film brought to us by REI. Looks at the challenges and brilliance of women’s climbing. I really appreciate their viewpoints and ideas about how toopen up climbing, as well as the world.
Ed Sheeran has not been terribly exciting to me. However, his song, Castle On The Hill delights me deeply.
It’s opened me up to exploring more of his music.
What do you think?
Nature’s not mocked
For she holds all the power
We are but trifles
I’ve been thoughtful today. Yesterday a friend had a “small” stroke. He’s not much older than me, so there’s that sobering element. I’m thinking about the fragility of life, and similar things. And I’m grateful that “small” seems to be accurate.
Greg is known by many as Papa Greg. Partly for his wisdom, partly because he holds love in the highest regard. It shows and he’s loved on return. Watching his Facebook feed fill with well-wishes truly was delightful.
I try to live my life this way. To have love so central that it exudes from my being.
It’s heartening, in the end. Especially as he’s chatting with us on Facebook again.
Life moves and changes. It is the way of things.
I created this site a couple of years ago to be a focus for my poetry.
I didn’t think too much of it at the time. Just was following the advice to focus your content. My writings scatter across many interests, so I broke apart my stuff into more focused sites.
Well, A Poet’s Journey has done quite nicely. 1266 subscribers, and the most stable/solid stats (sessions, pageview, etc).
Funny that another experiment, Not Just Seattle, has taken up most of my vanity SEO. The Carl Setzer who opened a brewery in Beijing, getting featured by Fortune magazine, amongst others, has the lion share of SEO for my name. But my Keller Williams Realty page, and Not Just Seattle are on page 1 as well.
As of today, my namesake page, CarlSetzer.com, is on page 3. Crazy that an experiment took over the whole thing! And the site that’s getting the most action is down on page 3.
Yesterday’s weather was certainly quirky. Earlier in the afternoon, it was nice enough in Marysville to get a 20 minute walk in. As my weight’s been creeping up, this was quite welcome
Not too much later the thunderstorm rolled through. My son and I planned to hit the gym, but the weather knocked the power out there. So, we went out for a little ride.
Now, it had cleared up as we were gearing up. But it started to pour as we headed out. We opted to keep going. It was my son’s first real rain ride.
I’ve become a fair weathered cyclist over the years. So it was nice to get out and get wet on the road. I love riding so, and need to get back in the saddle more.
I want to push my fitness higher again. Not get my fitness back. Rather, adapt and create a new life, with a solid center of fitness.
Besides riding, I want to get into kayaking. I’ve a fair amount of experience on the water…and I want more. I’ve dreamt of riding rivers; rapids as well as exploring the shores of the Columbia. Well, and many others. Oh, something else I want to try on kayak: ocean riding! Imagining cutting through the surf, riding the waves…yeah, that sounds cool. Just got to avoid pissing off the surfers.
Also, during the winter I want to get deeper into cross-country skiing. That’s one I really miss.
So, my mind’s afire with outdoor ideas. Should be a fun summer!
Strangeness surrounds us
So much unbelievable
Such a crazy life
Oh, the frustrations of long, long days!
I generally work normal work hours. Sure, at times I’m on my computer on weekends or after hours. But I’d be doing that anyways.
However, I’m taking an evening class right now. The class meets one night a week, so that demand isn’t that much. But after an 8+ hour day, a 3 hour class can get wearying. And the class is mostly sitting in front of a screen, which is what I tend to spend all day doing.
Tonight, by 8:45, I was pretty much toast. I hadn’t noticed it until I saw several dumb mistakes. And those mistakes caused me the aggravation of redoing about a 1/2 hour’s worth of work. Fortunately, it took less time to re-do than to do originally. But that means extra work, needless extra work.
I was clever enough, though, to see that and, after fixing the mistakes I’d made (at least I’m pretty sure I fixed them), I opted to stop.
At times, when effectiveness hits the floor…and punches right on through, any effort at all will be counter-productive. That’s a hard lesson to learn, internalize, and keep in mind regularly. I, too, suffer from the mindset that “if I only worked harder/more/whatever…”.
I know that sometimes the only way to be effective is to stop and rest, get my head back together and then restart.
It’s just living it that’s the challenge.
Numbers flowing fast
Elegant computations
Joyous creations