Posts Tagged blog

It’s been a long while….

I shouldn’t have left you…

Without a fresh blog to read through!

(more…)

Todays words from the digital man cave are about education. And a change in format. I’ve been doing this for 12 weeks now and it’s been a  good thing. I started this Sunday regular series for a few reasons. 1) I really wanted to stick to a set post schedule and I needed something consistent to nail that down. 2) I wanted to chronicle my adventures and misadventures in going back to school. 3) I needed a regular post topic to free up time and mindspace to work on other projects.

Well now that the first quarter is all done, I’m going to switch it up a little bit and not post about the educational world every week. The experiment was successful and I’ve got the schedule down. I’ll just post on it as things come up, and the week counter will still be kept for the frame of reference on how far along things have progressed.

I’m doing this so I can provide a little bit more varied content here at the digital man cave. Right now I’m only giving you the meat and potatoes once a week. I need the option to hit you with the double whammy on the regular. Other projects will continue as they have been… something about not being in an office right now makes it much easier to think and create. Go figure. You’re probably wondering what all this has to do with education and what have I learned over the last twelve weeks.

Well first, going back to school is not all it’s cracked up to be. When you’re out of school you kind of miss it. Don’t let the nostalgia fool you. The fact of the matter is, once you get out of school you fill your time with all sorts of other things. When you go back to school those other things don’t necessarily disappear, and change is rarely ever easy.

The second thing that has stuck out to me is that you sometimes want to plan ahead from your planning ahead. You got the feeling like something is about to blow up in your face, listen to it. Things come up. Gotta be able to adapt. Darwin wasn’t stupid. Whether or not you should care what he had to say is something that will probably never be debated here, but in modern life the law of the land is “he who is most adaptable will survive and thrive“.

Stay tuned to the digital man cave as you get more of what I hope you enjoy!

Todays words from the digital man cave are about the changes taking place here, and the changes taking place in my life. Next week marks the beginning of the posting change. I’ll be on a 2x/week schedule, with either Tuesday or Wednesday as the week’s first entry and Sunday as the anchor. Every Sunday I’ll be posting my experiences in graduate education to the man cave, from the perspective of an old man still learning to be a kid. Someone who believes in the infinite possibilities of life, and someone who won’t be satisfied until he permanently kicks his dirty little addiction (it’s a three letter word, starts with J and ends with OB).  Please note that I’m not really an old man, I just think like one.

I titled this post “Reading The Writing On The Walls” because that’s what life is about. Recognizing the signs of coming change in our lives BEFORE it’s too late to capitalize. Well I’ve got some changes coming up in my own life, and there are choices I can make, based on what I believe my goals are. I am in graduate school full-time, and I am building TWO businesses. All three should be treated with the same amount of care that a full-time job would receive. But as it stands there is very little time in the day to do everything. I like challenges, but a change would be nice.

Well for an interesting twist to the story, I will soon have plenty of time to spend in my digital man cave because I’ll be joining the tens of thousands of laid off Americans.

Yes, that is some serious writing on the walls.

So now the question becomes: what next? Do I quickly secure another job, and hope that there is enough time and energy to see the other businesses flourish. Do I throw myself into school, and hurtle down that path with as much speed as I can, and hope that there is enough time and energy to see the businesses flourish? Or do I work 80 hour weeks, stay in school as a fallback, and make sure that these businesses give me all the positive returns I think they should?

What would you do?

Stay tuned for more words from the digital man cave…

Pretty soon a very different and unique project will be taking place here and across other blogs and facebook pages. It’s called The 9 to 5 Project. Each writer will write a minimum of 3 short pieces (short story, short description, poem, haiku, whatever they choose);  The Promise, The Dream, The Reality. At the end of each piece, each writer will link back to others taking part in the project, so anyone who stumbles upon it at any one place has the opportunity to see the perspectives of everyone participating.

In The Promise they will describe what they were told about life and work as youngsters. The promises they were told.

In The Dream they will describe what they dreamed life and work would be like after school, or starting out. The dreams they were sold and the dreams they created on their own.

In The Reality they will describe what they experienced of life, work, and the world. Was it The Dream? What was it?

If The Reality did not live up to The Dream, then the writer has one final piece.

In The Rediscovery the writer talks about what getting on the path to The Dream means to them.

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It’s an exercise in self-reflection, honesty, and writing. It should be a lot of fun.