The Corrigan Encore

Just keep swimming

November 9, 2022 John Corrigan

It is November aka Native American History month, the start of the holiday season in North America, and (drumroll) the National Write a Novel in a Month month. I am participating in this National month and I am way behind. The average novel is 50000 words long and that’s the goal for the writers. It averages about 2000 words a day and I am off by about 10000 words. Today I plan on doing some serious writing and here is to hoping that I will get back on track today or tomorrow.

It is easy to get behind a lead goal. A lead goal tells you that you are on track to meet a future goal. A lead goal for me in writing a novel is 2000 words a day, if I were losing weight with a goal of 25 lbs in 3 months a lead goal maybe a three mile jog five times a week.

Understanding leading and lag goals is important because life is full of them. Most of us work towards the the goal of retiring. To retire we need savings. and there is a rate at which we should be accumulating these savings.

What can we do if we are off track of our lead goals? First look at lag goals. A lag goal is a goal you have already accomplished. You have saved enough money to buy a car and or a house. How did you save that much money? You have lost weight in the past what exercise and diets worked. If you have done this before you can do this again. Second thing and it’s more important than the first when you are missing lead targets or goals is to just keep swimming.

Just keep swimming was the mantra spoke by the protagonist in a Disney movie called Finding Nemo. Two fish set out on a task that took them across the Pacific ocean. The task was to find one of the two protagonists son named Nemo. One of the two fish was discouraged and wanted to quit but the other fish encouraged the fish with the mantra of Just keep swimming.

You can still accomplish you overall goal even if you are behind on leading goals, targets and or indicators (the terms are all used interchangeably). There will be days this month when I type 5,000 or 10000 words then there will be days when I type 500 words I am thinking days like thanksgiving. However in the end if I just keep swimming I can make it and no matter what you are trying to accomplish you can make it too. Just keep swimming!

Apple Music does not disappoint

November 8, 2022 John Corrigan

This morning on my way into work while listening to I found out that the movie 8 Mile was released 20 years ago and the rapper eminem was awarded an oscar for his song Loose Yourself

The most interesting thig I found out this morning was that Eminem wrote the Oscar winning song Loose Yourself while in his trailer between filming the movie 8 Mile.

The movie was going to use the song Cleaning out my Closet for the soundtrack but Eminem wanted a new song and he wrote and performed that song. Creators create it maybe in their spare time while working full time jobs but they create.

In the city I live in there is an art collective and most of the members of the collective have full time jobs, that being said when you see the body and quality of work the members of the collective put out you cannot help but be impressed.

“Struggle for your art. Die for your art. But you can never give up on your art!”
Avijeet Das

Photo by Mark Angelo Sampan on Pexels.com

Musicians don’t retire; they stop when there’s no more music in them.”
Louis Armstrong

I had planned on writing about how people et lucky and find their passions but I think that its more than finding passion. it seems that when something is important people make time for it. If you are like me you have a list of things you would like to get done. Why not take time today to evaluate the list and see what matters the most and do that one thing? You may have to do this after work and in-between responsibilities but you may have n Oscar award winning catchy as hell rap song when you finally finish!

What’s good about living if you aren’t living good

November 7, 2022 John Corrigan

I just finished watching the last show of the first season for the Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power tv show. This show was a blast to watch and I truly hope it is renewed for another season! If you haven’t watched it yet go ahead and watch it.

Of course the show takes place in middle earth and involves epic quests and adventures and magical creatures like elves and Harfoots. It is on a Harfoot adventure that someone says the words “What good is living if you ain’t living good?” That phrase really resonated with me.

in season 1 episode 7 the Harfoots are already on a quest a migration and the migration splinters into some dangerous territory . One of the friends of the Harfoots has to go on a quest that is not part of th migration an he attempts to do this alone but the some of the Haroofts will not allow their friend to go alone when asked why they answer with “What good is living if you ain’t living good?”

It is easy to lie and do the wrong thing. Ethics and morality can get gray and a little fuzzy. At the end of the day I always thought it was best not to lie, cheat, steal, or intentionally do harm to anyone. Those rules are pretty much universal in all of ethics, but it can be hard sometimes to tell the truth, not take things from others and to not harm someone especially when we want vengeance.

Doing the wrong thing can and often does get people ahead at home and at work. So why not do the wrong thing than? Well because a life spent doing wrong is a life not well spent. Doing the right thing is more than just us and our life it is all of the world and humanity. When do the right thing you make the world a better place. When you do the wrong thing you help yourself at the expense of the world.

Let’s all make a pledge today to do the right thing.

What is it and how do I get it?

November 4, 2022 John Corrigan

A person that I work with has an amazing quote in their signature box on their emails. I am so tempted to just leave that sentence there and not tell you what the quote is but I would never do that.

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
~Nelson Mandela

There is the amazing quote.

My grandmother bought me encyclopedias when I was younger. I loved encyclopedias. I grew up and while growing I was curios. The average child asks 73 questions a day. I swear I exceeded that number by double. Encyclopedias were of course the holy grail for me. Its like all my questions were answered in text and image. Ironically my oldest has made a hobby of being a volunteer editor for Wikipedia.

I had questions and I looked for answers, often I found more questions in my search than I did answers. Education is an enlightening experience that results in a person whom is well rounded responsible and helpful . Let me rephrase that a good education is the later a bad education is an experience that is taught ignorance and results in an irresponsible closed minded person.

If you wonder what type of education you have received are receiving or giving just do a quick check. Is the education giving you or the student all the answers? If the answer is yes chances are that education is bad. A good education will leave the student with more questions than answers. If your education challenges you than it is probably good.

Good learning has no end either bad education has a start and and.

Imagine how much better the world would be if we all worked towards gaining and giving a good education!

Haji Harry

November 3, 2022 John Corrigan

I hope this story gives you the same chills that it gave me. I’ve said it before and I will say it again, there is much talent on Word Press. I love this!

Weekend Stories by Trishikh

In the 980th year of the 2nd millennium of the Anno Domini, the 80th year of the 20th century, the leap year of our Lord 1980, a frail and strange-looking tiny boy was born to a mentally unstable beggar lady in a flimsy cloth shanty beside the Belur Math Kali Temple on the banks of the river Hooghly in India’s Kolkata city. At that very moment, some eight thousand kilometres away, a healthy and handsome boy was also born to a Punjabi lady in the United Kingdom’s port city of Liverpool on the banks of river Mersey.

The sudden strike of a matchlight on the deck of a sixteen-footer diesel steamer on the still waters in the dead of a moonless night revealed a scarred and pocked face of a scary-looking man. He lit a thin mini cigar of tobacco flakes wrapped in a Diospyros melanoxylon leaf tied with…

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Be Nice

November 3, 2022 John Corrigan

Its hard to do sometimes. You stand over the person who has tried and almost succeeded to knock you down and all you want to do is rub their face in the dirt. You rationalize the act; if I hurt them they will regret their actions so much that they will not do this to others, but you know that you just want your pound of flesh.

We all know that it is better to be nice than it is to be mean and we all understand that being mean is easy. Earlier this year I posted about how Homo Sapiens killed all other types of humans and this makes me kind of believe that being mean is almost in our nature.

It feels good, it is natural so why not do it? Well violence and meanness is not the answer. Violence is temporary and seems to only perpetuate more violence. There was this game we would play. I was in middle school and every time we saw a hill or a mountain we would rush to the top and begin to push each other down the mountain to claim the title as king of the mountain. The king gets the satisfaction of being the lone survivor at the top however he or she is of course lonely and has to watch their back always. Species thrive in diversity and community yet here we are still playing king of the mountain.

The average CEO makes 324 time more than their employees, king of the mountain. The average politician makes just under 200000 a year while the average employee makes 50000 a year. We have truly applied nothing we learned in school to our society.

Last year charitable giving has increased by about 2% so, maybe we did learn a little.

Lets continue to learn and be nice.

“Violence is not the answer, it doesn’t work any more. We are at the end of the worst century in which the greatest atrocities in the history of the world have occurred… The nature of human beings must change. We must cultivate love and compassion.”
Martin Scorsese

Violence among nations seems to be on the decline however violence between people within the nations is on the rise The reasons for the violence’s line up on seperating lines like gender, race, religion and political affiliation. The lines that the violence fall on seem to be part of the rationalization for the violence. It is ok to harm someone who is not like me is the thought but that is wrong at the end of the day we should strive to just be nice

Already here, still her

November 2, 2022 John Corrigan

The United States of America is a country geographically located on the North American continent. The founders of the country arrived on the continent in 1607. The founders survived with support from the native Americans. The native Americans understood family, religion, freedom the one concept that the native Americans seemed to not understand was land ownership. Native Americans do not treat the land as commodity, the land and nature is not a commodity that can be bought sold and used.

Humans and the the land lived together in harmony.

Currently the earth is in a major climate crisis. I have no doubt that land ownership and treating land as an individual commodity contributes to climate change and poor health for all the humans on the land.

Land should be treated as a member of the community.

Our land is more valuable than your money. It will last forever. It will not even perish by the flames of fire. As long as the sun shines and the waters flow, this land will be here to give life to men and animals. We cannot sell the lives of men and animals; therefore we cannot sell this land. It was put here for us by the Great Spirit and we cannot sell it because it does not belong to us. You can count your money and burn it within the nod of a buffalo’s head, but only the great Spirit can count the grains of sand and the blades of grass of these plains. As a present to you, we will give you anything we have that you can take with you, but the land, never.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
Crowfoot, chief of the Blackfeet, circa 1885

I wish all to know that I do not propose to sell any part of my country, nor will I have whites cutting our timber along the rivers, more especially the bark. I am particularly fond of the little groves of oak trees. I love to look at them, because they endure the wintry storm and the summer’s heat, and–not unlike ourselves–seem to flourish by them.
Sitting Bull, Lakota warrior, quoted in 1932

The idea of ownership is actually pretty foolish and detrimental to society instead of owners we as a person and society would be better served if we were stewards. The harm of land ownership far outweighs the benefits.

The best way we can honor the native Americans would be through understanding how the Native Americans understood the relationship with the land and their values. The current relationship with our land is broken and doing harm to everyone.

Gone but not forgotten

November 1, 2022 John Corrigan

What happens when we die? That is a huge question that no one really has the answer for. Every religion has an idea, science really has no idea. Here is an article with some references to books that try to explain with science what a soul is. Most believe that there is a soul (60% of Americans) and that the soul when we die moves onto another plane of existence. No matter what we believe it is hard to argue against remembering our family and loved ones that no longer exist here on earth. One amazing way that the dead are honored in Mexico on November 1 and 2 is through Day of the Dead.

Photo by Becerra Govea Photo on Pexels.com

Day of the Dead is a holiday that honors the dead, with altars to the dead, favorite food of the dead, dressing up to honor the dead. It is important to celebrate lives well lived and the impact the lives made on us. We have the Aztecs to thank for the tradition of the Day of the Dead. This is one tradition that survived the conquest and destruction of the Aztec nation. The forced conversion to Christianity of the survivors could not stop the Aztecs from honoring their dead in their way.

The Aztecs had some traditions and religious practices that were awful, (human sacrifices immediately comes to mind), but I do not think the answer to life lies in subjugation destruction and forced conversion of nations.

Let the human race learn from the Aztecs. We should understand that the dead are still with us in spirit and memory. It is believed that the Aztecs understood that the dead lived on in the afterlife with us as hummingbirds and butterflies. I like this idea not because I like butterflies and humming birds which I do but because, the dead are still here and we can still care for the dead by caring for and being good conservators of earth.

Help yourself and help the dead by taking care of the earth.

Needs, wants and this

October 31, 2022 John Corrigan

The United States economy is driven primarily by consumer spending. Us companies spend about 230 billion dollars a year in advertising. All that money and time to get someone somewhere to buy something that will be used and “thrown away”.

Today is Halloween and very shortly we will be right into the Holiday season, Christmas and Hanukah. The average cost of the holidays as in girt giving is 887. That is how many gifts are bought.

71% of the United States economy is in consumption. Buying stuff that we usually try to dispose of. I use the word try because nothing is every really thrown away. Landfills are filled up, eco systems destroyed and all because of what?

We do it because it makes up happy giving and receiving stuff. But does it? Since the 50’s America has gotten bigger stuff. Bigger and more cars, bigger and more houses. more clothes, more food, more everything and happiness still seems to allude most Americans. As of 2020 Americans are at the most unhappy level they have ever been. One of the major reasons cited for being so unhappy was the standard of living.. Wait that makes no sense if stuff makes you happy. Consumption has gone up so fast but no one is happier. Stuff will not make you happy.

There is a movement called the Slow Movement. Slow living is about consuming less and taking a slower approach to everyday life. This year for the holidays maybe we can give our loved ones less things and the few things we do give them we could build for them. Building something as a gift show thoughts and love.

Hand made Christmas gifts are the best. You learn something new and feel accomplished and the gift receiver gets something unique and special. A great idea is to include before during and after photos of you making the gift for your loved one as well.

Lets end this year with a commitment not to the economy but to ourselves and the environment. Let’s commit to make the world and ourselves better.

How does that taste

October 28, 2022 John Corrigan

One of my best friends in the house right now is my dog storm. Look at that picture how can you not be best friends with this guy?

Ok, ok I will try to quit anthropomorphizing, my dog try but will probably fail. Every afternoon I feed this guy because he gets hungry and like I said he is one of my best friends. When the dog first got to the house he was happy with dry dog food but about a year ago he got a taste of the dog food that comes in the can or wet dog food. Now I get to mix a can of wet dog food with two cups of dry food for the guy. The dry food is pretty boring but the wet dog food has flavors written on the side of the can and I am kind of ashamed to admit that some of the flavors sound delicious. Duck, Chicken all kinds of entrees for my dog bestie.

In 1976 the actor Lorne Greene went on tv and told the world they should feed their dogs Alpo and then he fed his own dog Alpo. The term dogfooding was coined and now it is used (especially in the tech world) quite often. Dogfooding is when someone uses their own products, the term dogfooding gained popularity recently when Mark Zuckerberg gave all his employees Android phones because, users had complained about Facebooks Android interface. Shortly after being forced to use Android phones major improvements came.

It can be easy to dismiss claims from others about their situations however it is not a great idea. Everybody is going through something some way and the best approach when interacting with anyone is kindness and empathy.