Force of Will

What do you think of that expression "it's just gonna take a force of will"? Personally, I love it. It implies a sense of determination to reach a goal. But then I actually think about the power of a determined spirit and the human will, and it blows me away.

Seriously, have you ever seen someone snap under pressure in some form or another? Not the "explodes violently on everyone around" kind of snapping, but the "had enough, and not gonna accept failure yet again" kind of snapping. It's amazing.

Seriously, by sheer willpower, people can overcome some crazy thing. Be they physical matters (pushing for just one more mile, etc.) or psychological matters (breaking deep-rooted habits), the awesomeness of applied willpower is amazing.

The subject comes to me tonight because I'm realizing that I move to the far end of the country (and across three time zones) in a week and a half. It's feeling surreal, but that issue of timezones is a huge hit for me.

I naturally have very strong leans toward being a night owl. It's far from unlike me to be up 'til 2AM Pacific doing whatever (playing games, surfing forums, watching movies, etc.), and that's not a huge deal. But that's 5AM Eastern, and that's a much bigger deal.

Especially when I'll have morning classes out there.

Effectively, I'll need to be sleeping by around 9PM Pacific pretty soon, so I've gotta adjust my sleep schedule by a full five hours. My natural tendency is to say "damn the torpedoes, I'll deal with things when they get here." But when it comes to sleep, I'm not so sure that's a good idea.

Thus, I'm gonna need some serious application of willpower over the next week.

Go. Me.

Witty Titles

Have you ever noticed how significant a witty or catchy title for something is? Think about it. Titles are everywhere. TV Shows? Titles. Books? Titles. Movies? Titles. Position in a company? Titles. Research papers? Titles.

They. Are. Everywhere.

They really are significant, too. A title is what something is known by. A title usually needs to be at least a little descriptive of what it represents. So it's nice when titles are informative.

But titles are also something of a first impression. Especially when you're marketing something (even yourself), you want that first impression to stick. Thus, titles need to have pizazz about them.

Hmm. Mebbe I should go on about marketing (beyond the scope of product branding and sales, of course), but I think I'll just let it rest at this:

First impressions are a much bigger deal than we sometimes think; you only get one shot at them, so get 'em right.

Sarcasm

I love sarcasm. Seriously, no sarcasm at all there, I love sarcasm so much. It's so universal in function, and for a lot of people... it's a totally effective communication method.

Basically, if I speak in a sarcastic fashion with you, it's because I like you enough to do so. And, because I've known enough people who are "sarcastically challenged," I typically take my sarcasm a bit over-the-top to make it clear I'm not serious.

It usually works, and that's a good thing. I use sarcasm a lot.

And... I actually have no idea where I was going with this post. Uhm. Well blast. I have nothing.

Go forth. Share the sarcasm. You have my blessing.

Back for More

Fear not, my friends; I have not forgotten about you.

Well... except for the part where I did forget to update my blog after coming back from my reduced internet time. But that was so last week.

It's actually been a very crazy week. I went to the doc to check on possible lung issues; doesn't seem to be anything wrong so far. I did a bunch of stuff to make my move to Florida and school enrollment happen. I've spent a lot of time playing Marvel Ultimate Alliance.

It's been a busy week. This morning, though, I was woken up at 8AM with a call from the school's financial aid department. I had to wake up at eight anyway, but I was all kinds of stumbling over my words, trying to figure out which way is up with financial aid stuff three minutes after waking up.

Then I had to head down to my old college campus to meet with someone and make a purchase. What was the purchase? A PSP and some games on the cheap. Good deal for me. Sold one of my old guitars yesterday, so I actually had the cash for it. A nice feeling.

Speaking of money, my AdSense account has only generated a dollar since I launched this blog months ago. That's sad. The way the system works, I have to have at least $10.00 made before I can even get the cash. Site needs more traffic or something, I guess.

Time for a Break

Hey again, folks. How's it going?

Tonight, I'll get right to the point. I mentioned a few times over the weekend that I'm good at starting things and never finishing them... and just getting distracted and not saying disciplined when it comes to doing other things.

I think one of the reasons for this is that I spend way too much time idling online. No, this isn't conflicting with my previous comments about "just enjoying the days as they come." Plenty of good does come from my time online.

But it does distract me from other things I could be doing that I would enjoy just as much. So, for the next while (haven't decided how long), I'll be taking some time off of Facebook, Twitter, and reducing (if not cutting) my time on forums.

I won't be updating my blog in this time, either. I know, you'll miss my bizarre ramblings, but it must be done.

See you all on the flipside.

Can You Breathe?

Can you?

Today, I couldn't. Not the first time it's ever happened, but while out and about today... I found myself lacking in air intake.

Not cool. Not fun. A few times in the past, without any clear reason for it, I've found myself short on breath... sometimes even having trouble completing sentences without pausing for air. It's been really sporadic in the past, but it made me wonder if I had some kind of asthma going on.

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not in the greatest of shape, but I've played lots of basketball, football, etc., and I knkow what exertion-related shortness of breath feels like.

Today, while walking to Target (roughly a mile and a half or so away), the asthma sensation, the lack of breath hit me again. I'm used to walking long distances (though it's been a while since I've walked much distance in the heat), five mile walks are far from unheard of for me, so when I was not particularly pushing myself and found myself suddenly without air... well... that wasn't fun.

With a normal heart rate, no other sensation of exertion (barring the unavoidable sweat due to my hyperhidrosis), I suddenly went "oh crap... where's my oxygen?" multiple times between getting there... sitting there, hoping to recover... and coming back. From what I can tell, if this is actually asthma (and I'm pretty sure it is), then these instances are in the mild to loosely moderate range of attacks.

I would hate to have serious asthma attacks. I would hate that so much. My sympathies to anyone living with said attacks.

On the positive side, I'm seeing a doctor about this on Thursday.

And Then There's Consistency

Last night, I talked about being really good at starting things... then getting sidetracked by something else... and never finishing the original thing.

Today, I'ma conclude Fatal Flaws: Weekend Edition by looking at a related but different flaw of mine.

Oh joy! You get to hear me come clean about my inevitable humanity. Guess I'm not quite a deity after all. But life goes on.

Anyway, this other flaw is consistency. See, even the things that I don't just up and move away from entirely are not easy for me to keep up with consistently.

With both the things I have to do and the things I love to do, consistently spending time doing them is not a strong suit, either.

Take updating my blog for instance. It often takes forcing myself to write a nightly post to actually get it done. Some nights, I actually have something to say. Other nights, the posts are more obviously forced (though still epic in their own regards). Sure, there were extended periods of time when the blog got put in the "meh... I'll do other things pile," but for the last long while it's just been a few individual days missed here and there.

Days when I simply forget that I'm supposed to update my blog. In a way, it's a lack of self-discipline.

Which is probably even more evident on the other side of the spectrum: not spending enough time doing the things I love. In case you haven't figured it out, I love Street Fighter.

Still, even this thing I love, I'm not always very good at spending time with it. If you haven't played the game, I don't expect you to understand, but it's one of those things (like any other competitive thing) that requires disciplined practice and study to truly excel in. Problem is... I'm not consistent in my practice, and that haunts me when I show up to a tournament... or just some casual matches with other enthusiasts.

I get my face handed to me, and that probably wouldn't be true if I were more consistent in practicing.

So now I've gotta finish projects I start, and I also have to work on self-discipline.

O Life, why do you impose such challenges on us?

Finishing What I Started

So... I think I may have mentioned a couple days ago a certain friend of mine calling me out for not finishing things I start. He was talking about TV shows, and despite knowing that what he said was in jest, it still managed to cut me deep.

Don't worry, I don't hate him (how could I hate you, Riley?), but what he said did quite the number on me.

Since that conversation, I finished Corner Gas (which I know I wrote about) and season three of X-Men. I'm now on season four, and it's been great.

It's funny... it's so easy for me to get distracted and stop doing whatever I started. Yet, now, after finishing Corner Gas and working on wrapping up X-Men, I find completing these things to be totally worth it.

Now, if only my leaving things unfinished were simply a matter of TV shows. Sadly, that doesn't seem to be the case.

The cost of being an ideas guy is that it's hard to stay focused on the work of something when new and more awesome ideas are always coming to mind. Still, sticking with something rarely does me wrong. So it's something I have to work at.

Which reminds me... I need to work on my comic book idea.