Oh, it’s Tuesday, where’s my post?

             

Photo by Heather Ford on Unsplash

   Looks like I broke my habit once again, here it is another Tuesday has passed and no post, how disappointing is that? Very much so . . . but the good news is good, in that it is no longer because of procrastination, it is no longer because I’m too busy with a job that doesn’t exist anymore. It’s not even that I don’t care, because I do care. It’s not even because I’m too busy to write, because that is all I’m about anymore which is good, now I know first questions is if you are too busy writing, how can you not be posting here, well priorities I guess, and not so much in that this place doesn’t matter to me anymore because it does, heck I’ve been here a very long time and still keep pushing out, yes granted should be a ton more content here, but sometimes some of my writing is quite inappropriate for this blog, some of it just doesn’t fit here, it doesn’t fit at all, but that is the way it works sometimes.

                So, don’t get too disappointed if you show up on a Tuesday and there’s not a new post here waiting for you, sometimes, heck most times I think I will be shooting for every other Tuesday. So, don’t fret have faith, have patience.

                I guess the wildest part about it being Tuesday and there not being a blog post here is that, I recently lost my job and so in response I have declared myself a freelance writer, and what happens then, I get too busy with the business end of things, which is necessary too, that I don’t make the effort to write, if you think about it, how insane does that sound, a full time writer who is too busy to write. And I swear it’s not an excuse, it's just the way it has worked out. But all that effort has equated to a good foundation being laid in order to expand my writing opportunities. Heck I’ve doubled my Twitter followers in a short amount of time, built a new web site, (contentconceptions.com) and a bunch of other stuff that you as a reader may not notice because most of it was behind the scenes, but still stuff that needed to be done, but like I said I believe it has given me a solid foundation.

So yea when I realized that it’s Tuesday, I got nervous.  I just hope and pray that you weren’t sitting here hitting the refresh button, waiting for my latest post, because you may have been waiting a while. So instead of arguing the fact, who really wants to argue with a dedicated reader? Not I unless I know I’m right. (Which is usually the case!) So, to avoid an argument what I offer you instead is simply this:

 The top seven reasons why I may not actually post a blog on Tuesday.

1.       It might not be the right Tuesday

2.       I thought I had one scheduled to automatically post . . . oops!

3.       I may have been busy with a PAYING client

4.       I may have been promoting stuff on Twitter and lost track of time (that happens a lot)

5.       Oh, you mean it’s Tuesday again

6.       You didn’t catch my live stream on Twitch, I thought I explained it very well.

7.       I was too busy making a YouTube video

Doctors, Knifes, and Complications. . .

Flickr / tara hunt

No, I haven’t abandoned you my loyal audience or especially my beloved blog, first and foremost I want you to understand that. (We have talked about it before, - -  just read the archives. :) The truth of the matter is I’m not going anywhere soon . . . at least that’s what my doctor tells me, but then again you just never know. The point being there’s been a small gap in my publishing schedule, and it shows if you been paying close attention . . . If you haven't noticed all the better, I feel that I could take a small vacation with no retribution, without a handful of fans even noticing.

I wish that was the case but so far it is not . . . because I went under the knife a couple of years ago, and it has been anything but a vacation. The time prior to this was just stressful and took a lot out of me, the time after my surgery was not as smooth as hoped or predicted. Heck, I'm still not 100% (at least at the time of this writing, which was a while ago, but much better now, kinda) but I hope to be there soon. Then after that work took over my life for a long time, but not no more. So, I haven't disappeared, I haven't given up, I haven't abandoned anything or anybody, got distracted with a dead end job and just had very minor surgery, that’s all . . .

What does any of this mean to you? There is a lesson here for everybody just hang in there. . . Be patient and you will be rewarded for that attribute.

The worse part of the whole adventure came totally unpredicted. Forty-eight hours after being discharged from the hospital I started to feel worse than the day before and the more time that progressed felt worse than when I first came out of surgery, oh wait, a bad comparison I wasn't feeling a thing then. I had a severe fever that spiked at 101.7 and it had definitely put me down, to say the least. This caused an undue return trip to the surgeon, and the hospital, for tests to determine if the surgery didn’t work out as planned, or caused an infection or such.  I passed the two major hurdles (which was a great blessing) and was left to fight off a viral infection I had picked up sometime after my surgery, probably at the hospital. Now if you think about it, the place that I went to be made well had the opposite desired effect and made me sick . . . the irony of it all.

So, no excuses, I had a good reason not to publish any blogs lately, (my tendency to procrastinate hasn’t helped much either) the takeaway lesson for all of us involved, and you too is simply this. The stuff I’ve learned since then. If you or a loved one is looking at a hospital stay soon, try to keep the hard-learned lessons, I had to endure, in mind and hopefully, your experience will be a better one than mine. Who really needs to fight a viral infection after surgery anyway.

Hospitals are not as clean and sanitary as they would have you believe they are.[1] Be proactive instead of reactive, assume the worse and the better off you will probably be.  A byproduct of surgery is a weakened immune system,[2] which makes you more susceptible to viral attack and bacteria. And trust me there is plenty of those suckers to be found in the hospital and your room may not have been as thoroughly cleaned as you would expect.

Alcohol wipes . . . Bed rails, call buttons, remote controls bed adjustments. It is much better to be safe than sorry.[3]

The worse part of this whole story is that I even had some alcohol wipes with me, intended for the touchscreen on my phone and I thought it would be kind of anal to wipe down some surfaces I would be in contact with, well folks trust me that thought was not anal at all, and now I’m left to ask what if. You would think that at my age I would have learned to trust my gut, intuition told me beforehand, I failed to listen, and paid the price! I guess you could say that I learned the hard way, but even worse than that would be if you decided to not learn from my mistakes, I hope that is not the case because all that suffering would have been for naught if you don’t become proactive.

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[1] Every year some 1.7 million people in the U.S. who are admitted to hospitals hoping to get well instead end up getting sicker after picking up infections during their stays, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease 

  Hospitals are pooling places for sick people and all the germs they carry; just walking into one a puts everyone at a greater risk than normal of contracting an infection. But you're particularly vulnerable if you're immunosuppressed, elderly or an infant—or if you are there for surgery, because cutting the skin and sticking various tubes into the body provides germs new means of access.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/10-ways-protect-yourself-superbugs/

[2] Any type of major surgery can stress the body and suppress the immune system. The reasons for this aren’t fully understood, but we do know that surgery and the anesthesia medications given to help make you sleep can be hard on the body.

http://www.breastcancer.org/tips/immune/cancer/surgery

[3] Your best protection against infection is to make sure everything you come into contact with is clean. If that means reminding your doctor to wash his hands or the equipment he uses, don’t hesitate to do so.

Source:http://www.webmd.com/healthy-aging/features/common-surgery-complications?page=3

What's Your Roar?

flickr / Steve Wilson

When I had finished writing the first draft to this blog post, I thought to myself that it seems like a waste,  this is my manifesto, and there’s no point in really sharing it with anyone. Then I thought, well who really cares I guess the only advantage is that it is out, it is on paper, it is out in public for all to see. Maybe I am overly presumptuous in assuming that there holds no value for anyone in it, but only for myself. I’m not a selfish person, or at least I would not consider myself to be (I guess with further reflection we could see how selfish we can be sometimes as individuals, but this is neither the time or the place, that would just ruin this conversation). I cannot on my own merit judge the value, if any, that may be presented before you through this effort. I guess all I can do is hope that in some way it’s value is revealed to you through encouragement, motivation, dialog, and even a call to arms.

 This is my story, this is my call to arms, this is my manifesto.

Too often in life, we have to deal with “others”, those who hold intentions that are not honorable, not only because they are self-serving, but also because they feel bad enough that they don’t want others to feel good. They want the warm fuzzies for themselves, they do not want to share, and they are more than willing to take yours away from you. They do so because in one form or another they don’t feel as if you are deserving enough, or at least as much as them, and they feel that it is their decision to make whether or not you are deserving. I heard it once said that “hurt people are the ones who hurt others”.

In case you didn’t know they have a name, we call them haters, they suffer from, among other things, self-delusions brought about by a self-serving ego, which causes their ego to trip out, on a regular basis.  Empathy is not a concept they understand unless it relates to them. Not only are the haters off center, but they are also just plain Jane out of whack! We have all been there, me and you, (you and I) we both know, we have at one time or another fell victim to one breed of hater or another.

Then for some of us, myself included there are the times when we do the pushing down, the holding back, the self-inflicting, self-defeating nonsense that we have all fallen victim to at one time or another. Then when we get tired of pushing ourselves down we put ourselves into positions where we will let others do it for us . . . Regardless of who the perpetrator may be, there comes a time as individuals that we must dust it off, to quit bellowing in the dirt and let out a mighty roar for all to hear. 

So for me and the purpose of this blog entry a mighty

roar equates to whatever your passion and talent may be. In the simplest of terms, a roar is when we as creative beings have held the creation in for so long that we can no longer contain it, no matter what the critics say. It is when we get to the points in our creative life’s where we have no choice to let it out, a mighty roar. This roar comes from a passion that has a little bit of attention gaining quality to it. After all, if a lion roars in the jungle, all creatures happen to take notice.

If it needs to be said I will say it now, my roar is writing. The written word on the computer screen in order to come to various ends. Such as to encourage, to educate, to inform, to edify, to entertain, and to contribute to the great conversation, whether it be through the art of fiction or a simply spun essay. They say that “the pen is mightier than the sword” (1)  and I believe it to be true, I’ve been moved by the written word, and I hope to move others. That is my manifesto to move others, that’s it, it is that plain, it is that simple. The presenting of value in a simple essay, to move you. It is me presenting value to you in a challenging medium in order to move you . . .  that is the value of what I offer to you, and that is the value contained in the written word.

As I do so I am able to sit back and watch the others who thought they knew, and watch the shocked expressions on their faces as they hear me roar!!!! I encourage you to roar along with me in whatever method you choose, and together we can, and will, change the world.

So what’s your “Roar”? What is your passion, what makes you tick, makes you want to get out of bed in the morning? What is it that you are able to hold up to the world and say look here? For some, it might be a song, for others like me its words on the page, for others maybe marketing, or still leadership, maybe you are a follower, a transcriber, a speaker, an Uber driver or a babysitter. You have a roar and I want to know what it is, please share it in the comments below, and tell us how you plan to change the world.