Two Lessons Learned When Children Learn To Tie Their Shoes

Parents take advantage of teaching their children how to tie their shoes. The advantage is two lessons for the price of one. The first lesson is obvious. Take the laces of the shoes. Tie the laces. The children tie their shoes.

There is a rhyme for tying shoes:

Make an "X", here we go. Pull one side under, now I know!
Pull the ends tight, and make a loop. Wrap around the bottom, I've got the scoop!
Push through the hole, pull it through once more. Tighten both ends, and give a whoop!

There is the bunny ears story:

Bunny ears, bunny ears, playing by a tree.
Criss-crossed the tree, trying to catch me.
Bunny ears, bunny ears, jumped into the hole,
popped out the other side beautiful and bold.

There are YouTube videos. Here is a selection:

Tie Your Shoes Song | CoComelon Nursery Rhymes & Kids Songs
Tying Shoe Laces Song | Original Songs | By LBB Junior
Learn How to Tie a Shoe Step by Step | Tying Shoes Children's Song I Can Tie My Shoes by Miss Patty. Not animated.
Sesame Street - Tying Your Shoelace. Classic Sesame Street. David and Harry sing tying your shoelaces.
Sesame Street - Savion and Elmo "Tying Your Shoelace". Classic Sesame Street. Savion sings to Elmo how to tie shoelaces.
HOW TO TIE YOUR SHOES - Easy for Kids!. A child teaches how to tie shoelaces.

The second lesson is multiples. The children learn from their mistakes. The children learn practice. The children learn patience. The children learn memorization. These second lessons apply at school, at work, with friends, with family, and learning life lessons.

Update On A Past Blog

Curses Are Meant To Be Broken. I wrote the blog on Nov 5, 2010. Major League Baseball was my example of breaking curses. The San Francisco Giants broke the 56 year curse not winning the World Series in 2010. The Chicago Cubs broke their 108 year curse not winning the World Series in 2016 six years later.

However, there are exceptions. The Atuk Curse is a curse which killed actors interested in the leading role. The actors were John Belushi, Sam Kinison, John Candy, and Chris Farley. Also, Michael O'Donoghue and Phil Hartman were killed by being interested in casting.

The Atuk movie was a planned comedy about an Inuk hunter moving to the city. The film adaption from the book The Incomparable Atuk by Mordecai Richler was never produced.

My Best Motivational Quote On Winning From Michael Jordan

Michael Jordan on winning from The Last Dance documentary aired on ESPN in 2020. A camera crew was given unrestricted access to the Chicago Bulls 1997-1998 season. The ten-part documentary is Michael Jordan's NBA career and the Chicago Bulls' six NBA championships in the 1990s. Here is the entire quote:

"Well, I mean. I don't know, I mean. Winning has a price. And leadership has a price. So I pulled people along when they didn't want to be pulled. I challenged people when they didn't want to be challenged. And I earned that right because my teammates who came after me didn't endure all the things that I endured. Once you joined the team, you lived at a certain standard that I played the game. And I wasn't going to take any less. Now if that means I had to go in there and get in your ass a little bit, then I did that. You ask all my teammates. The one thing about Michael Jordan was he never asked me to do something that he didn't fucking do. When people see this, they are going say, 'Well he wasn't really a nice guy. He may have been a tyrant.' Well, that's you. Because you never won anything. I wanted to win, but I wanted them to win to be a part of that as well. Look, I don't have to do this. I am only doing it because it is who I am. That's how I played the game. That was my mentality. If you don't want to play that way, don't play that way. . . . Break." *Jordan requests a break*

The motivational pics are 4K 3840x2160 resolution. There are two full versions excluding the last sentence when he cried and wanted a break. There is a half version and there is a quarter version for those who want a condensed quote. The full, half, and quarter versions include a clean version without the swearing.

Steve Jobs Quotes

Here are some quotes from the late co-founder of Apple.

I began to realize that an intuitive understanding and consciousness was more significant than abstract thinking and intellectual logical analysis . . . intuition is a very powerful thing, more powerful than intellect, in my opinion. That's had a big impact on my work.

I say Microsoft and Google have a lot in common. Microsoft never had the humanities and the liberal arts in their DNA. It was a pure technology company. And they just didn't get it. Even when they saw the map, they couldn't even copy it well. How dumb do you have to be to not see it--once you see it, you know. But Google is the same way. They just don't get it.

If you don't cannibalize yourself, someone else will.

Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R&D. It's not about money. It's about the people you have, how you're led, and how much you get it.

Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact, and that is everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you, and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use. Um, once you learn that, you'll never be the same again.

Picasso had a saying--'good artists copy, great artists steal'--we have always been shameless . . . stealing great ideas.

Some people say, "Give the customers want they want." But that's not my approach. Our job is to figure out what they're going to want before they do. I think Henry Ford once said, "If I'd asked customers what they wanted, they would have told me, 'A faster horse!'" People don't know what they want until you show it to them. That's why I never rely on market research. Our task is to read things that are not yet on the page."

Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers.

Stay hungry, stay foolish.

The journey is the reward.

When you grow up, you tend to get told that the world is the way it is and your life--and your life is just to live inside your world. Try not to bash into the walls too much, try to have a nice family life, have fun, save a little money. That's a very limited life.

You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something--your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

Your thoughts construct patterns like scaffolding in your mind. You are really etching chemical patterns. In most cases, people get stuck in those patterns, just like grooves in a record, and they never get out of them. I'll always stay connected with Apple. I hope that throughout my life I'll sort of have the thread of my life and the thread of Apple weave in and out of each other, like a tapestry. There may be a few years when I'm not there, but I'll always come back. . . . If you want to live your life in a creative way, as an artist, you have to not look back too much. You have to be willing to take whatever you've done and whoever you were and throw them away. The more the outside world tries to reinforce an image of you, the harder it is to continue to be an artist, which is why a lot of times, artists have to say, "Bye, I have to go. I'm going crazy and I'm getting out of here." And they go and hibernate somewhere. Maybe later they re-emerge a little differently.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma--which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it.

You're born alone, you're going to die alone. And what exactly is it do you have to lose. There's nothing.

The last quote is three paragraphs.

"I sort of look at us as two of the luckiest guys (Steve Jobs and Bill Gates) on the planet cause we found what we loved to do. And we were at the right place at the right time. We gotten to go to work every day with super bright people for 30 years, and do what we love doing. It's hard to be happier than that. Your family and that. What more can you ask for? So, I don't think about legacy that much. I just think about being able to get up every day and go in and hang around these great people and hopefully create something that other people will love as much as we do. And if we can do that, that's great.

"People say you have to have a lot of passion for what you're doing. And it's totally true. And the reason is because it's so hard that if you don't, any rational person would give up. It's really hard. And you have to do it over a sustained period of time. So if you don't love it, if you're not having fun doing it, you don't really love it, you're gonna give up. And that's what happens to most people actually. If you really look at the ones that ended up being successful *in air quotes* in the eyes of society, and the ones that didn't, oftentimes, it's the ones that are successful loved what they did so they can persevere when it got really tough, and the ones that didn't love it quit cause they're sane. Right? Who want to put up with this stuff if you don't love it. So, it's a lot of hard work. And it's a lot of worrying constantly. And if you don't love it, you're going to fail. So you gotta love it. You got to have passion. And I think that's the high order albeit.

"The second thing is you got be a really good talent scout. No matter how smart you are you need a team of great people. And you got to figure out how to size people up fairly quickly, make decisions without knowing people too well, and hire them, and see how you do and refine your intuition and be able to help build an organization that can eventually just build itself cause you need great people around you."

Live For Living

Keep going. Keep living. Use the brain. Use the muscles. Be physical. Talk, converse, and socialize. Sleep well. Eat healthy. Keep moving. Read books. Maintain a life full of freshness. Be motivated. Seek new adventures. Experiences new experiences. Innovate infinitely.

The simple sentences above are suggestions to live a strong life. The concise sentences above are suggestions to live an intelligent life. The quick paragraph above can't be any clearer. There is natural decline due to aging. The decline can be delayed by staying active. The decline can be minimized by living a busy life. Don't stop.

Knowledge For Strength

A more accurate title for today's blog is, "I take knowledge for $2,000, Ken." Any knowledge can open doors. The doors can be new job opportunities, new hobbies, meet new people, earn money, and save money. The knowledge for strength isn't necessarily physical strength; although, more knowledge on gym workouts can increase physical workouts. A common wisdom is, "A little knowledge is better than a lot of ignorance."

White collar people can learn blue collar knowledge. Learn cooking. Sew a button. Change the motor oil for an automobile. Diagnose a leaky toilet. Paint a room.

Blue collar people can learn white collar knowledge. Learn basic Excel spreadsheets. Keep up with financial headlines. Understand income taxes. Upgrade from basic computer skills to intermediate computer skills such as memorizing hotkeys and shortcuts for an operating system.

It takes motivation to gain knowledge; on the other hand, it doesn't take knowledge to gain motivation. The examples I mentioned above I completed them. I performed the words with action. I'm one step closer to become a self-trained genius.

Parents Are Salespeople, Too

A common family knowledge is children listen to their parents. Children are taught from their parents. Brush your teeth. Candy is bad for you. Go to sleep. Do your homework. Read books. You're playing too much video games. Eat your vegetables. Include your brother or sister. You don't need *insert unnecessary consumer good*. Say thank you.

Parents are parenting. Parents are also salespeople. Parents interact with salespeople buying a car, buying furniture, and shopping for home improvements. Salespeople must build trust, creditability, and sincerity selling a good or service. Parents must build trust, creditability, and sincerity nurturing and guidance. The children are the parent's customers. Parents adapt the ABC in sales which is Always Be Closing. Or parents practice rough parenting ABP or Always Be Parenting.

The Real Moving Forward

Moving forward equals active. Moving forward is closing old chapters. Moving forward is opening new chapters. Life moves on. Strength, courage, intelligence, and wisdom are required.

A person is dying when he or she thinks more about the past than the present and future. There is no more looking ahead. Dying is looking back only. Dying is evaluating what a person has remaining good or bad. It can be knowledge. It can be memories. The person gives up. The person's game is over. The person rewatches old movies and relistens to old music too many times. The planning ahead stops. Making plans to watch the next TV series, play the next video game, or read the next comic book don't count. Make real plans getting up and doing something. Stay busy.

Update On A Past Blog

I wrote the blog My Generation X Sucks on Jun 20, 2025. I said the forgotten Gen X is the gunnie pigs in today's Information Age. Gen X made the mistakes to correct for the future generations.

I wrote two blogs the Greatest Generation doomed future generations including Gen X, Gen Y or Millennials, and Gen Z. The Baby Boomers generation is responsible for the doom, too. I listed unsolved problems in the blog The Greatest Human Generation Doomed Their Grandchildren And The Future Thereafter written on Jun 25, 2022. Some of the problems include loneliness, increase costs of living, and poor physical health. The answer is yes to the question Did The Greatest Human Generation Doom Their Grandchildren And Their Future? asked on Mar 14, 2019. The Greatest Generation and the Baby Boomers created today's life being too good. It's difficult for future generations to learn from our mistakes.

Car Maintenance Is Expensive

Expenses must be paid to maintain a person's automobile. Filling up gas in a car is not car maintenance. The engine must be maintained. Change the car's motor oil. Replace a dead battery. Install new spark plugs. Check the air filter is clean. Inspect the belts must be tight without cracks.

Interior maintenance is important. Nobody wants to sit in a car full of trash. Exterior maintenance is important. Protect the car's paint from the sun with wax and sealants. Tire air pressure, headlight restoration, break lights functioning, and clean outside mirrors are additional examples.

Everything Else Maintenance

Car maintenance leads to life maintenance. Life maintenance costs add up. Some of the bare necessities are soap, clothes, toothpaste, towels, bedsheets, cups, light bulbs, haircuts, and laundry detergent. Insurances, utilities, cell phone services, relationships, and job skills are more examples of maintenance. A person can cheapen his or her maintenance. A person gets what he or she pays for himself or herself. A life wisdom is a person saves a dime ends up spending a dollar.

Time is also a maintenance expense. Time is required for physical fitness, learning new skills, and sleep.

Chaos is the result without maintenance.

Update On A Past Blog

I wrote two past blogs on maintenance. The first blog is Routine Car Maintenance At The Gas Station written on Apr 30, 2014. I wrote quick car maintenance checks while the car is being filled up with gas such as check the oil amount, check the tires for damage, and check the coolant level. The second blog is Maintenance Is Important As Innovating Infinitely written on Nov 6, 2016. I shared some of my life maintenances including a clean household, job training, physical fitness, and keeping myself clean and groomed. I admit maintenance can be boring; however, my life is in chaos without maintenance.

Instant Bullets Blog Mar 3, 2025

*Zombo.com is a joke webpage from the George Washington University Center For Professional Development in 1999. Zombo.com consists of one page with a title and animation of seven colorful discs. There is an audio clip welcoming the visitor to "Zombo com."

*Round Up by Sam Spence. Selections from Autumn Thunder. 40 Years of NFL Films Music.

*Jazlyn "Jazzy" Guerra aka iamjazzysworldtv interviews Mike Tyson. Tyson fought social media star Jake Paul.

"Well, I don’t know. I don’t believe in the word legacy. I just think that's another word for ego. Legacy doesn't mean nothing. That's just some word everybody grabbed onto. Someone said that word, and everyone grabbed on the words, and now it's used every five seconds. It means absolutely nothing to me. I'm just passing through. I'mma die, and it's gonna be over. Who cares about legacy after that? What a big ego. So I'm gonna die. I want people to think that I'm this, I'm great. I'm, no. We're nothing. We're just dead. We're dust. We're absolutely nothing. Our legacy is nothing."

*Board Game Geek Forum topic Why I Got Rid Of It discussed board games the original poster removed from his collection.

*World's Shortest And Tallest Women In 2024. Rumeysa Gelgi from Turkey is 7 foot tall. Jyoti Amge from India is 2 foot and 3/4 inch tall.

*[I] told me kids they were allowed to hit each other once per day so they should really think it through and not waste their one hit and now they're calmly discussing when might be the best time to hit each other (but the actual hitting has stopped, I'm a genius).

*Financial markets from the textbook and financial markets from real life.

*visceral: 2 relating to deep inward feelings rather than to the intellect; emotions over intelligence; instinctive. 1 relating to the viscera or internal organs in a body.

*leeway: the amount of freedom to move or act that is available. An allowable margin of freedom or variation; tolerance.

*Epididymal Hypertension. Aching or painful testicles. Some people may experience the pain after sexual arousal not ending in orgasm. Blue balls is a slang term. A cummy ache.

*The Emperor's New Clothes. A slang term expressing when many people believe something that is not true. To express something as untrue.

A Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale published in 1837. A vain emperor was obsessed with new clothes. Two con artists tricked the emperor they made clothes out of fabric visible to those worthy. In other words, the con artists made no new clothes or made nothing. The emperor wore fake clothes which was nothing while the subjects remained silent to avoid being thought of a fool.

*Kevin Durant's Advice To Victor Wembanyama Phoenix Suns Durant said to San Antonio Spurs Wembanyama after Wembanyama suffered from deep vein thrombosis or a blood clot on his right shoulder ending Wembanyama's 2024-2025 NBA season.

"Just be patient, and that's the most you can do. You can't get back on the court. Being upset about it is not gonna do much for you. You know, so get in tune with yourself a little bit more, and maybe go find some new Legos to put together, read a couple new books, and then when you know it's time to get back on the court to start working out and stuff, lock in. I think he'll be fine. You know, it's tough mentally not playing the game, but you know when you understand what's ahead and focus on each and every day, it'll make it a little easier."

*Old Shirts. Remove the buttons before throwing away, recycling, or using as rags.

*It's better to aim high and miss than aim low and hit. Agree or disagree?

*The US population is separated by 10% radical left, 10% radical right, 70% too busy to care, and 10% love to fight. Agree or disagree?

*A Block Of Clay. Create something your way. Make something to match your desire.

I Made Good Choices After All

"You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something--your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life." --Steve Jobs

People said I did it wrong throughout most of life from Sep 2019 and earlier. I made mistakes. The logic was illogical. People didn't follow me. They wanted it their way. My thought process was nonsense. My actions were insincere. Ignore Raymond Mar because of ineffectiveness.

Times have changed. Attitudes have changed. Opinions have changed. Circumstances have changed. New knowledge acquired. Connect the dots backwards. Hindsight is 20/20. I did it correctly. I could have been successful. The logic was logical. People should have followed me. Their way was problematic. My thought process made sense. My actions were sincere. Listen to Raymond Mar. Take candid pictures. Physical workouts are equally or more important than mental capabilities. A person's inside is equally important than a person's outside. Drinking eight glasses of water per day is false. Read books. Minimize processed foods. There are not enough pie pieces for everyone. There are no valid reasons to watch all those television shows. It's okay to be alone. Sometimes be patient and go for the long run. Don't be a nice person. Do be a good person. Listen to intuition.

I have not been perfect. I admit my mistakes to anything brought to my attention past and present anytime. I should have earned my share of wins. The past is the past. All is forgiven.

Don't Settle

I'm changing. There is something to learn daily. There is something to change daily. There is a different life flow daily. Sometimes today's life flow is good. Sometimes today's life flow is bad. A discovery can occur when life flow is good or bad.

There are infinite types of good change and bad change. I hope for more good changes than bad changes. I increase my chances for good changes as long as I don't settle. Never settle. Keep learning. Seek new adventures. Experience new experiences. The negative changes settling down are noticeable especially being a second party or third party observer. Intelligence decreases. Lower strength. Motivation weakens. Slower physical abilities. Muddle thinking. Increase desperate actions. Too much hustle. Too many bad choices. A settled person is lucky if he or she notices the negative changes, and he or she acts to unsettle.

Don't settle. Discover daily. Innovate infinitely.

Update On A Past Blog

Today's blog is another example of change says yes to Raymond Mar. I wrote Change Says No To Raymond Mar on Oct 18, 2017. I'm not settling. I continue working to become a self-trained genius. Geniuses don't settle.

Settle Down And Intelligence Quotient Goes Down

How does a person know he or she is losing intelligence? Self-evaluating I.Q. can be difficult. It can be hard to be honest with oneself. Maybe a trusted family member calling out the person getting dumber? Maybe a trusted friend calling out the person getting dumber? Maybe a third-party person calling out the person getting dumber? Maybe an event acts as a wake-up call the person is getting dumber? "What the heck is going on with me?" is an example of a question the person asks himself or herself something wrong.

I witness people who settled down for years they're losing intelligence. I notice their I.Q.s are dropping. Never settle. Minimize the television shows, video games, and social medias. Slow down to minimize stress. Take a breath. Continue learning. Use the brain or lose the brain. Read books. Continue physical fitness. Use the knees and elbows or lose the knees and elbows. Always seek new adventures. Experience new experiences indefinitely. Maintain sharp senses eyes to see, ears to hear, hands to touch, nose to smell, and tongue to taste; for example, try new foods. Never stop innovating--innovate infinitely.

The late Steve Jobs on don't settle: Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

Throwback Blog: Curses Are Meant To Be Broken

Blogger's Note: Throwback blogs are blogs from my past. I start posting past blogs reflecting what I wrote. It's like my "A Second Look" blogs for which I give myself feedback.

Today's throwback blog is titled Curses Are Meant To Be Broken written on Nov 5, 2010. I used Major League Baseball teams as examples curses were broken. The San Francisco Giants won two more World Series in 2012 and 2014. The Chiago Cubs won the 2016 World Series. The Cleveland Guardians, formerly the Cleveland Indians, continue waiting.

Here are recent first time franchise championships. I don't know their local franchise histories. I believe local fans say there were curses. The Texas Rangers won the 2023 World Series. The Denver Nuggets won the 2023 NBA Finals. The Florida Panthers won the 2024 Stanley Cup Finals.

The title is self-explanatory. Curses are meant to be broken. However, it's unfortunate some people can't or don't break their curses for reasons beyond their control. Blame life.

The last time the Chicago Cubs won the World Series was in 1908, a span of 102 years which is the longest time a team hasn’t won. The second longest is the Cleveland Indians at 62 years. The third longest was the San Francisco Giants at 56 years. The key word is was.

The Giants won the 2010 World Series defeating the Texas Rangers four games to one. The win is the first time in San Francisco franchise history. The torture is over, and that includes torture Giants fans experienced during the last six weeks of the season. Edgar Renteria’s three run go-ahead home run in the bottom of the 7th inning is the Giants most memorable homerun in San Francisco Giants history. The championship is for the Willie Mays, Will Clark, and Barry Bonds eras. The win erases all the Giants curses. Here are some of curses I lived through:

*1987 NLCS. Candy Maldonado’s misplayed fly ball in Game 6 and Jose Oquendo hitting a homerun in Game 7 off Atlee Hammaker against the St. Louis Cardinals. Oquendo hit one homerun in the regular season.

*1989 World Series. Loma Prieta earthquake and the Oakland A’s swept.

*2002 World Series. Anaheim Angels’ Scott Spiezo’s three run go-ahead homerun against Felix Rodriguez in Game 6.

*2003 NLDS. J.T. Snow thrown out at the plate on the last play of the series against the Florida Marlins in Game 5.

Curses are meant to be broken. If you’re in a bad streak of sales, dates, homework and tests scores, interviews for a job, burning cooked dinners, or buying bad goods, don’t worry about it. Don’t give up! Curses are meant to be broken.

Side note: The Boston Red Sox’s broke their curse in 2004.

Reading Books Reinforce Centuries Life Lessons

Blogger's Note: May is pic month. I'm catching up posting pics from my smart phone. Enjoy!

I posted pics of pages from good books I read. Good knowledge. Good wisdom. Good smarts. Books are great indoors during cool windy days. I can go back in time to watch classic anime series drinking a Coke.

There Is Work To Be Done

There are responsibilities to be completed. Get it done. In particular, the single and unemployed people. Not all work involves being compensated with money. There is physical work staying in physical shape and maintaining good health. There is work preparing healthy meals. There is work maintaining a clean and organized living environment. Work to get smarter by reading books and learning skills. Training in job skills is work. There is nothing wrong with watching television and playing videos games. They're leisure activities. Watching television and playing video games to avoid work is a problem. Watching television and playing video games don't pay the rent or mortgage.

Instant Bullets Blog Feb 8, 2024

*The US Prison System. I read from an ex prison guard. Sex based offenses aren't tolerated in general population. The prison he worked these convicts are called SO. The SOs shower separately. SOs, severe mental illness, and ex law enforcement are separated in protective custody units.

Moreover, a lot of prisoners need help. They ended up locked up with sociopaths. Most are under-medicated or over-medicated. All are undertreated.

*Similarly, the foster care system is similar to prisons. Combining children with trauma and mental health problems don't make a nurturing environment. Foster care facilities are a jail for children.

*cordon: a line of circle of police, soldiers, or guards to prevent access to or from an area or building. Prevent access to or from an area or building by surrounding it with police or other guards. The troops cordon around the headquarters. The city center was cordoned off after fires were discovered in two stores.

I thought cordon was pronounced "corner off" when I was a child.

*The World Needs More Kind Teachers. Teachers communicate silently to their students writing notes. Next, teachers walk up to the student's desk to give additional help instead of calling out the student in class. It avoids potential shame.

*Is The Color Grey? Follow the instructions. Both blocks are the same color. Use your finger to cover the middle line. Light plays an important role in how we perceive color.

You may cover half of the middle line above or below.

*Internal Monologue. There are brain mechanisms which cause a person to hear himself or herself talk in their head without speaking. On the other hand, a person visually hears himself or herself talk if he or she doesn't hear his or her inner voice. For example, a person visually looks at a to-do list and can't hear himself or herself think.

*Aphantasia is the inability to visualize images in the brain. Mind blindness. Aphantasia is pronounced a-fan-tas-ia.

*A cow is female given birth to a calf. A heifer is a female cow not given birth to a calf. A bull is a fertile male. A steer is a castrated male calf. An ox is a fully grown castrated male.

*Miscarriage And Stillbirth. A miscarriage is a loss of a baby before the 20th week of pregnancy. A stillbirth is loss of a baby at or after 20 weeks of pregnancy. A miscarriage and a stillbirth describe pregnancy loss.

*Harry Potter. Diagon Alley is diagonally. Knockturn Alley is nocturnally. Grimmauld Place is grim old place.

*Snap Fingers. The snapping fingers sound is from the fingers hitting your palm. Specifically, the middle finger hitting your palm. The sound is not the friction between your middle finger and thumb.

Snap your fingers. Hit the palm hard with your finger.

*A Child Is Thirsty. A child asks the parents for a glass of water late night. One of the parents is lazy walking to the kitchen. The mom or dad gets water from the bathroom. The child complains he or she wants kitchen water. Water is water. Don't be fussy.

*Dear Abby Oct 24, 2023. 1. The dad is a bad cook. Her advice is the entire family cooks together. 2. Son getting married and father wants to bring his special friend because mother has dementia. Her advice is no special friend because his special friend is a wedding distraction. 3. Old high school girlfriend heard old high school boyfriend arrested wants to contact his mother. Her advice is contact approved because they continue their relationship. Click Dear Abby Tue Oct 24, 2023 to view the column.

*Rank from 1 to 5 being 1 most important and 5 least important the following: emotional, financial, mental, physical, and spiritual. My rank is 1 physical, 2 mental, 3 spiritual, 4 emotional, and 5 financial. I define my spiritual as sleep because I have no religion.

*Human beings don't know what they need until they have seen what they asked for.

*sanctimonious: making an exaggerated show of holiness or moral superiority. A sanctimonious control freak.

*omniscient: knowing or seeming to know everything. I'm the omniscient narrator.

*Can a person experience the highs without experiencing the lows?

*Make A Marriage Bet. Make a marriage wager. Look at the groom when the bride walks down the aisle in a church. Don't look at the bride. Make the appropriate bet.

Another note. Neither the bride nor the groom wants to reverse engineer or connect the dots backwards a failed marriage. The multivariant equations are weaponized.

*A Granola Person. Granola loves the outdoors, low maintenance, and conscious of the environment. The outside activities including camping, hiking, and skiing. Granola supports local businesses. Granola eats organic foods.

*Successful Marriage? Yes or no. A couple is married for 50 years. 47 of the 50 years are miserable. The couple is not divorced.

*The secret lies in the reading and the writing. You are able to read. Every day you must read one page from some good book to your child. Every day this must be until the child learns to read. Then she must read every day, I know this is the secret. --Mary Rommely, A Tree Grows In Brooklyn

Matching Connections Between People Get Along With Each Other

I dreamed last night I played softball at a privately owned softball park. The softball park consisted of many softball fields, batting cages, a soccer field, and a central building for administrative, operations, and a cafeteria.

The first part of the dream I played in the left outfield. Each team required four outfields. I played between the true left fielder and center fielder. No balls went my way. The left fielder was a grade school child. He caught all the fly balls hit his way. He fielded all the ground balls hit his way. The game ended. The grade school child was recruited for another softball team.

The second part of the dream I wondered around looking for a team who needed an outfielder. I found another team. There was a two minute interview. The team accepted me. The weirdness was the second game I played was inside the narrow rectangular office suites of an industrial building. The entrance of the office suite or the reception was the infield. The first office suite with no windows was the shallow outfield. The second office suite with windows at the back was the deep outfield. The captain, vice-captain, and I played the outfield at the second office suite. There was a fourth outfield who didn't appear in my dream.

The game started. The team played poorly. All three of us couldn't catch fly balls defensively. The team couldn't get on base offensively. It was three batters up and three batters down. The opposition scored runs without problems. There was in-team fighting and arguing. I asked the umpire named Mr. RR about the maximum seven runs scored per inning rule in the middle of the game. The umpire acknowledged the rule. The opposition scored seven runs in their inning. The umpire told the captain of the opposing team to switch sides. The captain was angry.

There was enough time in the one hour of gameplay for the final four batters to step up to the plate. I was batter number ten. I hoped at least of the three reached base for me to bat. The opposition didn't send a pitcher. Mr. RR pitched for the opposition. One of the three batters reached second base on a double. I approached the batter's box. Mr. RR gave me a wink. The first pitch was in the middle of the plate. I hit the ball deep to the outfield or the second office suite for a two run inside the park home run. The team celebrated at home plate and at the dugout like we won the championship. The game ended. I woke up.

I finished the dream consciously lying on my bed. The team went to the central building cafeteria. We ate pizza. We drank beer. There were smiles. There was socializing; although, some of the conversations was drunk talk. There was singing. There was joy. Everyone connected. I established the connections. It took one action to combine a group of people. It took one event to bring togetherness. It took one moment to be together. It took one person to spark a group of people to become together.

Happy Living An Alternate Life

My current life is the George Costanza from Seinfeld when he was unemployed and lived with his parents. I can live a life working in a crappy dead-end job while spending my free time watching TV and playing video games. Unacceptable. The life is a loser. I can upgrade somewhat. I live a life working in a white collar and dead-end job, struggle financially, spend time with weak friends, practice unhealthy habits, find little time to learn life skills, and spend little time job self-training. The idea adults must move out of their parent house just to move out of their parent house is questioned. The global pandemic exposes the truth independence can be overrated. Living independently may be deceptive independence is the way to live an adult life.

If anyone asks me if I'm happy, then my answer is I'm working on it. If anyone asks me if I'm happy yes or no, then my answer is yes. I accept my alternate life hoping its temporary.

Forget the average life. Forget the B's, C's, and D's graded life. Grade A life or grade F life. Success or failure. There is nothing between success and failure. I have nothing to lose. I'm fortunate I still have a choice how to live my life. I don't take the choice for granted.

Update On A Past Blog

The world is happy when I'm happy. I reference the last paragraph in Happy Life on Dec 21, 2010. Happy life is for everyone. Happy life must be earned and worked on. Happy life never comes to you and me on a silver platter. Go out and get happy--a happy life.

Too Many 5's And 6's Dice Rolls Playing Axis & Allies

Axis & Allies made by Milton Bradley Company was a board game I played in high school. I sucked. I remember there was a chance I win one game. There were five of us. I teamed up with a straight A student friend who was like the late Steve Jobs without charisma. He knew how to play the game. We were the Axis. I played Germany. He played Japan. The other three friends were the Allies Russia, Great Britain, and United States.

My friend guided me where to put my soldiers, tanks, and planes. My friend suggested where to attack, where to place my armaments, and when to save money. He wanted to win. He wanted me to win. He cared. We lost. What happened? The answer was I rolled too many 5's and 6's. I rolled too few low numbers to attack and to defend. I rolled too few low numbers to win battles. Pathetic. My friend suggested a different method to roll the dice. Unsuccessful. My fault? Yes. Bad luck? Yes.

Two of the three friends playing the Allies were smart students. They enrolled in advanced classes. One of them could bowl a 200 score. The other friend was fluent in English and Spanish.

Tabletop Gaming Curse

If there is a term for bad luck playing tabletop games, then give me the term; otherwise, I assign myself the tabletop gaming curse. I realize connecting the dots backwards bad luck factored in my losses. All games involving luck include dice rolling, drawing cards, drawing tiles in Mahjong, and spinning I experience more bad luck than good luck. The odds are in favor of my opponents. The over 50% probability are in favor of my opponents.

Likewise for my present life. I lost count the number of times I was the second choice for a job hire. There were job hires cancelled due to a director overriding the hiring manager, budget cuts, and breech of procedures not my fault. Curses are meant to be broken. I don't know how to break a bad luck curse.

Too Much Fun Is Too Dumb

Minimal brain thinking is needed for most fun activities. The purpose of fun is resting the brain. The purpose of leisure is relaxing the brain. A brain is not needed to watch TV, watch YouTube, play video games, and browse social media. There is a limit on fun. A fun life 24 hours a day is not fun. A fun life 24 hours a day is counterproductive. A fun life 24 hours a day the brain becomes dumb. Intelligence decreases by eating too much processed foods, having too much sex, and accumulating fun junk. Although, there was a Seinfeld episode titled The Abstinence where George became smarter when he couldn't have sex with his girlfriend due to mononucleosis; on the other hand, Elaine became dumber because she didn't have sex with his boyfriend to help him successfully pass his medical licensing exam.

How does a person live an intelligent life and live a fun life? My answer is fun and intelligence are the outcomes after work is completed. Work is done. Daily goals are successful. Intelligence is either maintained or increased. However, don't work to maintain intelligence indefinitely. Find new work to increase intelligence. Fun is rewarded. Furthermore, physical fitness is required, plenty of sleep is required, and financial discipline is personally enforced.

Ignorance is bliss. On the other hand, use your brain or lose your brain.