A ZARATHUSTRIAN POSTCARD
LET'S START WITH THE CROWS
I've kind of organically fallen into a new paradigm with the crows. I was putting out food multiple times a day in multiple locations, on a pretty strict schedule. I was making sure there were crows watching when I put out the food, and ultimately I was getting nowhere, or at least it felt that way.
I honestly just kinda fell off the wagon. I stopped worrying about being consistent, and sort of put food out once in a while, when I felt like it.
You guys only come around when you feel like it, I'm just gonna do the same thing with the food.
This went on for...honestly I don't really know. I just know that somewhere in the mix, I noticed I was remembering to feed them when I would hear them - which naturally grew into my inviting the crows to take a more active role in our symbiosis. Instead of putting the food out regardless, I am now consciously feeding them when they speak out and call to me. I mean, maybe they're not calling me, maybe they're being like Hey, there's the guy that used to put food out every morning! I hate him now! ...could be. Hell, probably is something along those lines.
Whatever it is they're saying, I've noticed lately that they have been tending to make a little bit more of a ruckus lately, so maybe it's doing something. At this point I'm figuring it could come down to consistency over a period of years, so I'm just sort of enjoying the process as it unfolds and no longer focusing on achieving any particular milestone.
NO, YOU'RE A MAN.
CREDIT
The shop floor manager came over where Artie and I were working. On the Marine Propulsion Control test stand. Some cables it seems had become worn out and were now making only intermittent connection, causing false failures.
She looked at Artie.
You gonna teach that boy how to test units now?? She pressed.
I joked with her - You talkin' about me? I cocked my head and made a face that would accentuate my boyish charm.
Hell no, the way you shoot 'em out, you're a man! She lowered her face slightly, raising one eyebrow above the other and peered suggestively at me with a crooked smile. She whipped her head towards her right shoulder, implying that the person she was speaking of was somewhere behind her and to her right.
New kid - whatever. He's back there somewhere. I'll get him.
Since I've been dressing all classy, I've been getting a surprising amount of additional attention from the ladies at work. I honestly have been shocked by that, but I guess ZZ Top warned me so I should have had some idea.
You're a man, I kept hearing it replay in my mind when I came home from work that day. Often times in my day to day life, I feel like a boy, like a kid...but I'm 41 now and have two kids out and one in the oven.
I'm a man, I pondered, looking at myself in the mirror as I changed out of my work clothes.
What kind of man am I? I pondered...not long enough to come to any conclusions though, just long enough that hopefully tomorrow when I wake up I will remember that I am a grown up man now, and not a kid. ...not because I want to be a grown up man, but for precisely the opposite reason.
SPEAKING OF MY INCLINATION AWAY FROM CONSISTENCY...
In my last post I spoke about all the ways I'd boxed myself in with commitments, and how I was now choosing to no longer hold myself to those commitments, but I think I forgot to mention a pretty big one.
Not even that long ago, I committed to no longer playing the flute while driving. The idea came from a good place, but it was short-sighted. A camel doesn't change his stripes, you know?
I tried not to car-flute, I really did. There were a couple good weeks where I only played while sitting in parking lots or waiting at the bus stop, but I am's what I am's...I couldn't not car-flute - it's something I love and a part of who I am. I consider it safer than texting, to be honest.
Anyway, #3Speak has been down for a while I guess. I kept trying to upload these fluting videos, but they would fail a bunch of times and eventually I would give up and just end up recording a new one a few days later with a different song. Then I'd try to upload that one and it would also fail...and so it has been going since like mid-last month or so. Anyway the point is, even in the video I recorded today, I start by explaining the move back to car-fluting and apologizing for anyone who had high hopes that I would stick diligently to this commitment...but I've recorded and had to scrap at least 10 car-fluting videos that start with this opener, and I noticed today that it's getting hard for me to apologize anymore - yet no one has ever seen or heard the apology. So now I'm writing it here, this way I can stop recording apologies and throwing them out.
I'll keep recording videos when songs hit me, but whenever I record a new one I just delete the one that was made previously, even if it was awesome...I just can't keep track of a bunch of aging videos in my camera reel any longer.
@sagarkothari88 I hate to bother you, but are you aware of any updates on the 3Speak situation? I know it's all for a good reason as we migrate over to decentralized video storage, and I don't want to rush, just haven't seen any updates for a while and was curious if we are any closer to being able to approximate a target date yet for getting upload functionality back online. I appreciate all you guys are doing to keep 3S awesome!
WHIPPIES AND AVATARS AND WHERE I'M AT RIGHT NOW
I was really holding it down with the whole super-consistent art thing, but currently am having a hard time getting back to any kind of sketch work. Honestly even typing out my thoughts feels a lot harder right now than it does when I'm in that mode.
Lately it's felt like, every time there is that I could be typing out my thoughts or writing posts of other kinds, is also time that I could just be alive and breathing. I know others have expressed the same sentiment of having to get away once in a while and whatever, but I am having a really hard time coming back right now. I'm not mad at Hive or anything, I've just been really actively participating in my life offline. I've been getting out to walk with my weights, I've been lifting weights again as well. There's been an absolute shitload of effort going into getting the house ready for our forthcoming surprise-child, and also I've been very conscientious about trying to put in lots of quality time with my girls before we have a newborn baby here turning everything upside-down.
I don't know, I guess all this is to say, I managed to write these things down. It felt really important to me to do so, even though nothing I've said here today was really of any great significance and I knew in advance it wouldn't be. I have a few more months' experience with the Garmin Fenix 7 Pro watch now. I've been thinking about sharing some of the experience and giving a shout out to @galenkp. I've been thinking about going out and scoping out @dandays and @cmplxty and @meesterboom to see if they've got anything new for me to read - I'm sure they do at this point.
...THINKING ABOUT...
I've been thinking about these things, but still just too connected to the earth right now to even feel able to shift my focus back to the online world.
I know I'll be back. I know the phases will shift in the natural ebb and flow of life, and that I will at that time be back to my old "blah blah blah never shuts the hell up" self, complete with long comments and multiple posts-per-day...I just don't know when that will happen. What I do know, is that I'm not going to force it. So for now I'm glad I got these things out. I'm glad I'm at least able to share a few words and tell you, although Zarathustra may still be high on his mountaintop, here is a little postcard to let you know I still love you.
credit
Thanks for checking out some more of my work! As always, I hope you enjoyed witnessing as much as I enjoyed creating!
© Photos and words by @albuslucimus, except where otherwise indicated.
source
Haha, dressing smart does seem to work. The "Top" did warn ya! 🤣🤣
LOL! Smart is a fantastic choice of verbiage here - I am much more inclined to stay silent when I "look" smart - not gonna open my mouth and undo all that hard work 😁
I love your zeal Sir
Thank you! I don't know why I was always so against presenting myself with zeal, but now I am excited to grow :)
I appreciate your kindness; your hard work and thoughtfulness are evident in your posts. I have sent you 5 Hive in HSBI to help you grow your account on Hive! I wish you well, @joyben, and hope you have a wonderful day to day filled with many blessings!
The link below will tell you more about HSBI if you are not already familiar with it, it is a very cool project that does a lot to help consistent users grow!
Thanks so much Sir I really appreciate
I really enjoy dressing nicely, feels good! Hard to compete with a nice suit and tie when at the job but it’s not for every situation. The women do love it though haha. My son has recently gotten into wearing suits as well and wears them fairly regularly which is a riot, he gets all the attention being a young kiddo just strutting around in a nice suit!
Cheers hope you are doing well man, mentally and spiritually!
Dude that's awesome he's choosing to rock the suit! If I knew then what I know now, I would have not waited until my forties to jazz it up 🤣 ...especially with his being young, I think that does tend to amplify the impact. As a grown man, it's still noticed, but doesn't have quite that same shock/cuteness factor! It's definitely fun to dress up, but yeah, it's definitely not practical in all circumstances.
I've been doing really well man, actually you hit me not long ago when you mentioned you're sleeping on a grounding mat. After reading that, I made myself grounding pads for work (1/8" thick aluminum plates with heavy gauge grounding wire/ring terminals that connect back to the ground socket in my power strip) and a mat for sleeping (conductive EMF shielding cloth with coiled phone cable style wire going back to ground on the outlet). ...holy crow man, what an amazing addition to my daily barefoot walks! Being barefoot and grounded while I work at my desk (yeah, barefoot with a tux lol) leaves me feeling fully recharged when my work day is done - and sleeping on a grounding mat has resulted in a veritable overload of highly detailed and in-depth dreams every night. Can't thank you enough for changing my mind on "fancy grounding equipment," it has been a significant change for me since building these simple tools - I hope you and your family are staying well man, I'm glad to see/hear from you!
That’s awesome I am glad that you got back into the grounding foray. I’ve told a few people at work about it and my joints are definitely a lot better because of it! I don’t get the aches and pains for the most part even when I exercise.
It sounds like a really fun experiment to do it yourself like that hahaha I will eventually get into something like that! I’ve really enjoyed grounding my feet outside on the raw earth as much as I can but they spray the shit out of where we live with pesticides so I don’t do it here which is annoying. Mostly the beach lol.
The tux with bare feet - you belong in Hawaii man hahaha that’s awesome. It does have a good impact when my son does it, and I’ve been wearing those things a little more. I enjoy a pair of sweat pants but I make it a point to dress a little nice when I go out even for routine stuff.
How did you guys do with the hurricanes a few months ago? A coworker of mine was near the Asheville area and didn’t get hit too bad but knew people who got obliterates sadly.
Thank you for posting in the Ecency community
Sending you Ecency points ♥️
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You did an amazing job here