Take Back That Data Center They're Trying to Build Outside My Door

 In 1987 Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers came out with a wonderful, rocking singles hit titled Jammin' Me.  It's still my favorite of his, and I dig the sometimes cutting and always funny lyrics.  That last line about country clubs I just changed to reflect the billings insult that these new AI centers, which consume way too much electricity while often added to customers' bills without their permission, are a blight upon our community.  AI has done very little for me, and I don't see substantial improvement in it for the next two or three years, assuming that God is willing and I'm surviving well.  This morning I got up early and have already performed 20 minutes of floor c-v exercise, including 15 of running-in-place.  I'm still imagining plopping my day's homework on the dining room table to do alongside my nice instant coffee.  I'm determined to enjoy a good day today, practicing avoidance of schteool along with its myriad hassles.  i'd like to check out local bookstores while the Dawg's at Scenthound for foreign language books and change my voter registration to Republican, giving me more real choices during the approaching primaries in this 2026 off-year election.  Looks like i'm going to follow in the footsteps of fellow conservative old geezer voters in faithfully going to the polls! Trump delivered his State of the Union address yesterday evening.  The opposition response was personal and largely condemnatory, with obscenities against Trump freely flying about.  Don't know how that's going to transfer to voting attendance in November.  But get ready for yet another tired old local protest rally in a few weeks..."democracy in action" my ass when folks simply won't vote and then they complain later!   We're looking forward again to today to see Anita and Jim, and some real dining room table foreign language study looks like it is reallygoing to happen...maybe I can use Wikipeida articles in different languages like Russian, German, Spanish and even Chinese. Still, Chatgpt looks good for the moment.  Now time to listen to my TV music, languages and self-improvement podcasts. Oh, it seems like I slept well last night. I am not showing my exercise minutes on the blog,, preferring to write the figures in pen on the inside of a puzzle book...I've done 20 total combined ipf and rock-running minutes so far with some more planned to come.  Y'all have a wonderful day, too...

Choosing One's Response

 A few days ago, near the start of he '26 Winter Olympics, I was dismayed to hear on the news about Trump going on a "you're a loser" angry rant against an athlete who simply answered a politically-oriented question.  This president always has an open line to contact me and discuss anything he wants, and if the highly improbable were to happen and someone shoved a mike and camera before me with a highly charged question, that's how i'd reply.  You see, I can't always control what happens to me, but more likely I have the option of being able to choose how to respond. And it's within my chosen responses that I have the opportunity for personal growth, and perhaps being able to take a positive step to help this sadly progressively degrading world we live in...

Podcaster Discusses Momentum

On his Mindset Mentor podcast yesterday, personal development coach Rob Dial brought up the subject of momentum.  Giving the word picture example of getting a car moving from a still position, he stressed that getting started in anything can be an arduous task...even becoming more difficult after the initial actions...but that once it all is in motion, that is, the habits begin to set in more and more, it begins to pick up momentum, which provides positive feedback and encourages more effort.  Then it is a matter of keeping with it and not interrupting the flow of your efforts, for once the car comes to a rest again, the whole process of getting it moving has to start from scratch.  I think that sometimes we confuse taking necessary small breaks from an endeavor, or even just a little rest, with walking away from it "for a season"...that latter break has a tendency to be a momentum destroyer.  Also, there is nothing like having people around you who see the intensity of your initial efforts in something as a kind of unhealthy fanaticism that must be curtailed and balanced...just contending with this kind of opposition can be discouraging: in my childhood I felt I was victim to this sort of negativity, with no recourse to the kind of personal boundary-setting that folks like Dial like to suggest.  But even without outside interference, it can be imposing to get started moving that "car" along, and not only that, but you're more likely to see how immense your undertaking is once you're finally moving down the road, with the possible inclination to put on the momentum-destroying brakes...