Tag: life

No such thing (get interested)

John Corrigan

There is a podcast that I am a huge fan of, it is called People I mostly admire. On the podcast I think it is episode 4 the host Steven Levitt interviews Ken Jennings. Ken Jennings of course talks about his jeopardy success and also his love for trivia, games and learning. One thing that jumped out at me was when Ken Jennings said the the secret to learning and knowing so much was interest.

“Like the people you see on Jeopardy tonight don’t have photographic memories. That’s not a real thing. They’re just interested in like ten times the things you are. And so more facts stick.” — Ken Jennings

It is easy to say that people know more than me because of this photographic memory but see Ken was right. According to the Scientific American there is no evidence for a photographic memory. Sorry it is not that easy if you want to know and learn something you will need to find a way to do it, no shortcuts.

I was often asked in school what I was interested in. What do you want to major in? What will your focus be? Do you like science more than math or are you a fan of the arts? Problem for me was that I loved all of it. I love history, art, science, math, and social studies. Life was and still is for me very very interesting.

When I was young me and my sisters told my mom that we were bored and my mom told us that there was no such thing as being bored only boring people. Man I hated that. How dare she call me and my sisters bored. I hated that comment but, it made me really start to look around and find ways not to be bored and learn as much as I could about everything. As a kid I learned how and why microwaves worked, why bullets moved the way they did when fired, what makes a rocket move, what are different types of art and when they were popular. my grandmother would buy me encyclopedias (yes I am that old) and I would devour them. Here I could see pictures and words describing places I’ve never been before, science I’ve never heard of. It took me forever to understand what my mom meant when she told me and my sister that there was no such thing as being bored, then I saw this skit from Louis CK. I understand that the comedian was canceled and i in no way would support what he did to get canceled but this skit in his show really hits the nail on the head with regards to the impossibility of being bored.

The world and you yourself is truly endless and interesting. Instead of being bored be an explorer look inward outward and appreciate the vastness, beauty and ugly of everything.

peace

john3c

It’s not just you anymore

John Corrigan

I started a new job this week. I am now the network engineer for a local organization. The work is close to my house and the organization is an important one.

Throughout my career most of my work has been code development. Create an app, website I was your guy. I know how to manage and navigate on a computer network however, doing this professionally is new for me.

Being new to this experience I bought a book and just started reading through it today. In the books introduction the author mentions that a personal computer when hooked up to a network is no longer personal. Your computer is now a resource on the network.

Somedays I want to hide in my backyard away from the world but I can’t and neither can you. Love it or hate it humans are not personal. What we do effects everyone on the planet. We are all networked together, we share air, water and land.

It can be easy to forget this and act selfishly and without compassion but, the damage that acting this way has and continues to do is horrible.

I was watching the news this morning and saw that a gang in Haiti had kidnapped some missionaries and was demanding ransom. Immediately my mind wandered to the Chuck Norris Sheriff character getting justice and “cleaning” up Port Au Prince but see that’s not network thinking or solutions. Love it or hate it me you and the gang members are connected. A better place to venture would be the place I imagine the missionaries came from when they visited Haiti in the first place. A place of empathy, compassion and understanding .

Instead of destroying the network I should work to help all its members. Learn what compels the gang members to do harm and break the laws. Is the law of Haiti doing good or harm? Why are the gangs so influential? It’s not a quick

or easy fix compassion and love but, I think it might be the only fix.

Which way

John Corrigan

I grew up on the looney tunes. I loved watching the animals that spoke and acted like humans. One of my favorite skits or troupes even was the one with the hound that chases a fix and actually asks the fox for directions.

When I started this blog I had planned on writing once every weekday and then life happened. It was a great plan but the universe laughed at me.

I haven’t posted to this blog in a week and it feels like I have left but I didn’t. I am still here and my plan hasn’t changed. I still plan to post once a day and will I just didn’t do that for the last week.

We should of course make plans but we should also be flexible

A flexible plan is paramount to being a happy healthy person.

If you run into some things that do not fit into your plan just realize that life is and should be messy and we should forgive ourselves for not sticking with our plans.

Add in a P

John Corrigan

Rhianna is an amazing artist, entrepreneur and mogul. She has grown her business at a meteoric rate and it has taken hard work, ambition, a god-like drive and some luck. Being god-like, specifically the omnipresent part, can be overwhelming. The Fenty empire is sprawling and has a lot of moving parts, makeup, clothes and tourism to name a few. Rhianna has been involved and worked in all of it.

You and I also having many parts in our mini empires our commonwealths if you will. But our common wealth’s have many moving parts to and we have to manage. Some of us are caretakers for people other than ourselves. Wake up, wake up loved ones, prepare for commute to work, answer emails, answer phone calls, do daily work, take care of the loved ones, commute home, cook dinner, clean, rinse repeat. Just typing the simple day gave me anxiety..

Mental health is health. I know it seems obvious but it isn’t always for us. We see and feel a broken arm and get that treated but sometimes life can be overwhelming. Just typing a few of the elements for a regular day made me feel overwhelmed. Always on, always overwhelmed can take a toll on our mental health and cause serious harm.

Rhianna puts a P in her calendar and takes that time for herself. Here, is a pretty good article about why and when she started doing this.

You cannot count on anyone else to take care of and know you like you will and do. Being self aware comes through quiet meditation and focus but once you reach this self awareness listen and take action before you harm yourself.

Put in that P and unwind. Go to the beach the park the mall, spend time by yourself or with loved ones. Once you know yourself you will be able to take care of yourself.

Known Unknown and Best Guesses

John Corrigan

There is a podcast that I absolutely love. It is 99 percent invisible. When you get the chance you should definitely give the podcast a listen. Roman Mars is a great host and the staff has some amazing shows.

Me, my wife and kids love to visit museums… Ok ok me and my wife love to visit museums and of course my wife and I always read the plaque. The always read the plaque is a thing that Roman Mars encourages all his listeners to do. I have done this since I was a child. My wife and I have children from our first marriages we are a regular Brady Bunch one weekend we were at a revolutionary war fort and museum and my wife could tell that she was “loosing the crowd” so she had each child read a plaque out loud to the group around the fort on our ad hoc self lead group tour. It was moments like this that made me want to marry that woman (still shocked she said yes to this day).

Me, my wife and two step sons were at the Jacksonville Museum of Science and history and I was reading a plaque. In front of a skeleton, the skeleton was a skeleton of a whale. Honestly if I were to only see the skeleton of the whale I would have assumed that the whale was much smaller than it actually is. Whales are massive creatures and much of their mass is not in the skeletal structure.

The podcast 99 % invisible had a show that explained how the shape of dinosaurs has changed over the years. It was a great show and explained that with skeletons and fossils there is still some guesses that are made about the dinosaurs appearance and the guesses have changed or evolved with new evidence. https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/welcome-to-jurassic-art/

When you get the chance check out the podcast show it is worth listening too. I mentioned the podcast to my wife at the museum and I again thought about assumptions, best guesses and life.

Everyday we make decisions, some ae big and others are small but we have to use the information we have to make the gest guess. We are not always going to have the best information possible and over time we will get more accurate information and when presented with this information their is absolutely nothing wrong with changing our decisions.

Best guess

There are many people that have or are experiencing midlife career changes, and they can be scary and provide for a lot of anxiety however let me tell you that if you evaluated all the facts and made a change based on the facts than there is nothing wrong with that. As long as everything we do is done in a loving manner then you have not made the “wrong” decision.

What matters more than what we do is often how we do something. As a child I was often reminded of the words from 1 Corinthians 10:31 by my mother. “Johnny whatever you do you should do well for the glory of God”. I can still remember those words today and they help. I have done and still do work that seems menial, but I just recall my mothers words and that helps a lot.

So whatever choices you make today just remember that you can do it. Analyze evaluate and if needed correct course. In other words “Keep calm and make your best guesses”.