Hi everyone. Well, there are two things I could talk about here. One would be the books I’ve been reading and the other would be a simple challenge. Why don’t I do both? I’ll talk about the books first. This is interesting. How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big. Kind of the Story of My Life. Scott Adams. The guy who created Dilbert. Okay. Yeah, it’s a good book. I mean, I didn’t actually finish it because I mostly found myself sort of nodding along and saying, “Yeah, I get it. I know. Believe me, I’ve been there. I’m doing it right now.” He has dystonia or had it, I don’t know, one or the other.
It’s caused by a different thing in his case. It’s caused by overuse. In my case, it was caused by stroke. So it’s very different and most people aren’t doing any research on what I have versus what he has. But having said that, it kind of sucks. But yeah, I mean, I get where he’s coming from a lot of the time. And it’s a good book to read if you’re in the mood for that kind of book and How to Blog a Book. I always thought this was a very interesting book. It’s like, okay, really? I was reading through it. I’m perfectly aware of the fact that people have blogged books in the past, believe me. One time a while ago, I was making fun of the fact that somebody had a blog about the ’60s [that became a book] because sometimes people look at that decade with a certain amount of rose colored glasses and there were these commenters who said, “Boy, you sure are a jealous person.”
What? I’m not jealous. He’s like, “Just because your blog hasn’t been as successful.” Oh really? I thought I had a few readers. I did have a few readers for a while.
Well, I won’t go further on that. I will just say that they misunderstood what I was saying. Anyway, you can blog a book, of course. I’ve considered blogging my memoirs maybe, or at least blogging the high points, because some of it is very … not going to be very easy reading. Dug this one out as I was cleaning out my shelf. I wonder how many life strategy books I need. Well, actually I took a look at this one and it is surprisingly interesting. It has a daily prompt of some sort and it actually does. Let’s see. Okay. I’m just going to read from a random page. “People who consistently win play the game with passion, they get excited about what they are doing.”
This is the thing about writing. Unless you’re really into doing it, there’s not going to be much joy in it, is there? I don’t get why people say things like, “Oh my God, I have to write something. I have this horrible writer’s block.” Writer’s block is bullshit. Sit down and just start. That’s what it comes down to. You just start and if nothing else, pick up a book that you like, read it. Observe what that writer is doing that you like and try to think about that as you’re doing your own writing. That’s the best advice I can give anybody is to read other books, take lessons from them so to speak. Here’s another one. “An alternative approach can be a solution to your problems. Begin by admitting you have new things to learn.” Wow. I couldn’t have chosen a better random spot.
And now for the challenge!
On that note, I’ll just tell you quickly, I got this. This is coming out actually in December, but it’s a nice little book of Rules of Thumb. It makes really cool reading, actually. I just started in … It’s like little bits. It’s like reading flash fiction except that it’s rules of thumb. And here’s a rule of thumb. Does anybody remember the Golden Rule? I believe it’s do unto others as you would have others do unto you. Why don’t you see more of that on the internet? Okay. And finally, I had been looking for this and it was hiding on my shelf amid some other books. So as I was organizing my bookshelf this weekend, I dug this out and I said, “Yeah, maybe I will try drawing a bit more, just for fun.”
Okay, now for the challenge!?
Now here’s the challenge that I was going to pose. What I was going to do was suggest that you take a day this weekend assuming you’re not consumed with work for an employer who requires you to be there on the weekend and use the internet.
Okay? Whatever day you have off, whether it’s Saturday, Sunday, Friday, I don’t care. Take a day this week to stay offline. Just stay offline. One day, one 24 hour day.
Now the easier challenge or maybe the more fair challenge, depending on how you look at it, would be to say
- stay off social media for 24 hours. All of it. All of social media. Do not engage in social media during the 24 hour period. That might be a fair challenge. Okay, fair enough. That’s the challenge.
- Then what I want you to do is to sit down and write at some point what that felt like.
Did you feel bad? Did you feel good? In what ways did you feel good? And in what ways did you feel bad and why? Just something to think about. Was there anything different and interesting about your day that you did? Did you think different thoughts? Did you engage in different activities? Did you call someone? Now that’s something I will make an exception for. If somebody wants to make a phone call or send a text, that’s not social media.That’s using the internet. So yeah, social media. Anyway, I don’t know if I’ve defined the rules very well. Maybe I will just lay them out at the end of the blog post somewhere, whether it’s on Substack or on blog or wherever.
So if you’re watching this video, go to the blog where it will be posted if you want to see a nice, neat whatever list of requirements for the challenge. [See above list.] This isn’t a very good video, is it? Well, it’s authentic. Give it that. Alrighty. So if you feel up to it, engage in that challenge with me. I’m going to be probably taking off Sunday. It’s just a day when I get fewer emails to have to answer and I can just chill out a little bit. All right. Oh, if you want to watch TV, I get it. Again, not social media. It’s just the internet, Debbi. Yeah. You want to go without the internet with me for a whole day? That’s tough. It’s really tough. If you depend on it so much for entertainment. I like DVDs. What can I say? Records are nice too. For music, I have a bunch of records. I could do a whole thing about the records I own and all the concerts I’ve been to.
Oh my God, I saw the Who in concert with Keith Moon. That guy was nuts. Anyway, I’m getting off the point again. I hope you’ll consider joining the challenge just to see if you can stay off social media for 24 hours. That’s it. That’s all. Take care. Be seeing you.
PS: A song for the occasion? 🙂