Tag: personal reflections

Blog post: twenty years of a blog

Carl Setzer2 Comments

I launched this blog twenty years ago today. It’s rather mind blowing to consider how much has transpired over that time. George W. Bush was President. I still worked at Starbucks, and have had 6 other jobs since. I’ve moved once. I’ve gone through multiple stints of unemployment. A lot of my life has gone into this site.

This site started as a Blogspot page. Years ago, I migrated to self-hosted WordPress. Mainly, I became concerned about the number of services Google has abandoned. Also, WordPress was becoming a key player in the website ecosystem. Having skills and understanding in this system would be powerful. I’ve LONG aspired to move into web development. And here we are.

I’ve moved from executive support to general administrative support to project coordination to tech support and data analytics and management. I’ve documented so many changes in the tech scene, in Seattle, and wrote so many haiku. I’ve evolved, changed, and grown and failed.

I’m glad you’ve come along for the ride. It’s been fascinating. I’m still growing and changing, and my blog will evolve with that. I’m exploring how I want to evolve. One of my goals is to be better at proactivity. To have a plan and a direction. I want my blog, and connected social media to support all this. We’ll see what comes of all this.

So, thanks for reading. I appreciate your support and presence.

“Be myself? I’d rather die.”

Carl Setzer
one black chess piece separated from red pawn chess pieces

Substack has a feature where they serve up posts that I might like. Not all of them have been been hits, much less home runs (wait…why the hell am I serving up sports analogies?). But this one was good! “Be myself? I’d rather die“, a post by psychologist Adam Mastroianni, and it looks at many things, but the focus that spoke to me was on the evolutionary value of conformity.

TLDR: social norms are one way we communicate our learnings about survival. He references cassava, which is edible ONLY when prepared correctly. Otherwise, it’s potentially lethal. Makes me think of the Hebrew proscription about pork, as an other example.

It’s rather eye opening to consider that social norms are often survival mechanisms. And, thus, that feeling of “needing to obey them”, even when they don’t seem to match make much more sense.

I want to remind folks, though, that as valuable as those learnings are, it’s the people willing to push through the norms and challenge are the ones that change things. I’m sure, at one point, no one ate cassava as it’s rather problematic until “treated”. Yet someone, somewhere, said, “I think I can eat this”, and, for whatever reason, we stumbled through it and the world was changed.

I appreciate the insights, especially on why the urge to conform is so damn powerful. However, I intend to live my somewhat contrarian life. I’ve enjoyed most of it so far.

Friends Who Introduce You To New Music Are The Most Important Ones

Carl Setzer
grayscale photo of printer paper with printed music life near headphones
Photo by Breakingpic on Pexels.com

If you’ve read my blog for a while, you’re probably aware I think highly of Wil Wheaton. If not, I have written about him a number of times. Well, today he penned another post that got my nostalgia going: “sweet and tender hooligan“. One element of this essay that really struck me was about a young woman, who is named “Kara”. First loves, when it’s love and not just lust, are powerful things in lives. And, as Wil’s, Kara holds the place well. In a beautifully written way, Mr. Wheaton shows how she expanded his world in so many rich, deep ways. The kind of person we all want in our lives and should strive to be in the lives of others. Anyway, give it a read: it’s well worth it.

I didn’t have a “Kara”, exactly. I had several elements, though. There was a girl when I was in high school, a senior when I was a sophomore, who was much the same for me. I didn’t have a crush on her but thought she was massively cool. Very goth, quite radical for my little suburb of Seattle. She didn’t shave her legs! Another alien notion to me at that point. Though not a one-on-one relationship, she invited me to hang out with her senior friends. This crew introduced me to Rocky Horror, and bands like Roxy Music, The Jam, The Clash…and that’s only what I remember. There had to be more, but sadly the brain cells holding those memories have evaporated. Up to this point in my life, I had limited musical exposure. Top 40, that’s it. And that mostly meant disco (though I’ve developed an appreciation now, it was not really my…um…favorite back then). These folks opened my eyes in ways that dramatically changed me, some in ways that I’m still working on understanding. And, for that, I’m grateful. Like Wil is to Kara.

The playlist below features a few songs that this post brought to mind. These are some key songs by some key bands. I hope you enjoy!

Plans and Connections

Carl Setzer
I spent the morning going through my contacts, cleaning out and updating things. There were so many folks in there who I had for some random project, many from my time in Real Estate, who I haven’t contacted in years. I felt puzzled by the number of contacts with limited information and no memory of them. One nice thing in Google: looking at the email threads. For many of these folks, there was simply nothing. I spent many years as a chronic collector of contacts. Here’s the end result.
My intent: get my list down to those I know, and build a plan to maintain connection. There are so many great people I’ve met over the years who I really wish I was still in contact with. I intend to fix that.
I understand that many contacts I’ve kept are people who have moved on from me. And that they may have no interest in reconnecting. I’m good with that, though I’ll be a bit disappointed. However, I recognize that none of us can do everything. All of us need to focus.
Also in my plans are to use this site to communicate better, too. Post more regularly and with those life updates. Multiple channels for connection and all of that.
I hope all is well with you during this time of COVID. What are you up to? What are you most proud of? I’d love to hear.

This Vet Reflects On “Soldiers Stories”

Carl Setzer

Reflections on a blog post:

Soldiers’ Stories | Life After Iraq & Afghanistan

These are the stories of US combat veterans. Powerful stuff. Stuff that resonates deeply with me, a vet, but not a combat one. These are stories that every citizen should read and consider before we blithely send our youth to war.

Week In Review: 3-29-2020

Carl Setzer

With covid-19 disrupting so very much of life, I thought I’d take a moment to rehash what I’m working on to keep busy. My family has been home due to school closures. I have been unemployed since the February 28th.

First, I’m signed up to study web application and cloud development at Edmonds Community College starting next quarter. There are still pieces to pull together, but I’m moving forward. Classes start on April 13, so it’s coming quickly. I also need to get my math skills back up to snuff. I struggled mightily on an assessment test and was pretty made at myself. Then it hit me: the last math class I took may have been calculus, but it’s been several decades since. One of the folks at the school connected me with a website to help that along, so I’ve been working on getting those skills back up to snuff.

Also, I’ve spent time refreshing some skills. I had purchased a CompTIA training bundle last summer that I haven’t had a chance to start with yet. And I have a Adobe Creative Suite bundle as well. I’ve been carving time for each of those as I can. I also discovered IronCAD, which apparently has a free download, so I might try and squeeze some more CAD work in as well. That’s one big thing I miss from my Eagle Country Construction days.

As for entertainment, I’ve been binging on “Traveling Robert“, a YouTuber traveling the US with his trailer. I really have enjoyed the show. There’s a genuineness that’s delightful. I discovered him via YouTube’s algorithm. It dished up his trip to Seattle this past summer, which I found nice.

 

There’s plenty of other things that I’ve been working on, too. Keeping several websites up to date, as well as a couple of email communication campaigns (about the covid-19 closures and such). And I’ve helped a few folks with their WordPress sites, and with setting up Facebook business pages and trying to pull together some kind of marketing plan in the midst of the pandemic. I mean, how do you market in such a way that you’re being, well, a decent human being.

Update On My Son’s Progress 6/17/19

Carl Setzer
Well, another week has passed and we’re moving forward. Braeden had 2 separate appointments at Children’s Hospital of Seattle giving us some much needed info and direction.
 
Monday he met with a Speech Language Pathologist. We found out he still has some issues with memory and word retrieval. For that, come July, he will start weekly sessions in a group of teens called Return To Learn. They focus on developing executive functioning skills (such as tools for remembering things that need to get done, as well as increasing cognitive stamina). That’s a 12 week program, after which he should be back in full form.
 
Then on Friday we went to Children’s TBI Clinic (Traumatic Brain Injury). The doctor commented that Braeden is doing remarkably well given his injury. But we still have healing to accomplish. Braeden was hoping for clearance to drive again, but she told him “no”. But we now have information about the return to driving process. She gave us information about driving rehabilitation services. Once she gives us the go ahead, we will contact them to evaluate Braeden’s fitness to drive. As you can imagine, he really misses the level of independence driving provides.
 
The clinician also told us that Braeden has to keep both feet on the ground for about 3 months – until the skull fracture heals. This means some of the items that are cleared for activities when concussion sufferers “feel up to it” are off the list. Which provides him some more frustrations.
 
School ends next Wednesday. We are trying to encourage Braeden to attend at least 1 class each day, but the issues with memory, word retrieval and focus do make school hard and unpleasant. With things like finals, it’s even more challenging. But there is end of year fun that might make school more appealing and less exhausting.
 
We want to extend a big thank you for your prayers and warm wishes, and all the support we’ve received.

When I am an old man

Carl Setzer

When I am an old man
I will be gentle, wise and kind.
Full of delight and wonder.
The lover of all who smile.

I shall drink coffee with my friends
Watching the glories of youth
Drift by, unaware that I will
Capture their grace, embellish
It with verse, releasing a poem.

Beautiful birds dancing upon light,
Forever elegant ambassadors of life.