Reading stupid listicles about what I’ll regret when I’m older. No. Really.

At the risk of really pissing off a few folks who love to pen their endless how-to listicles, I stumbled on one today that I hadda read. Now that I am nearing 70 I wanted to assess where I have screwed up (at everything, kindly) and where I might have nailed it (only my middle finger with a stupendous hammer blow but that’s a different story).

I think the piece was by a Millennial. Not sure. Doesn’t really matter, maybe it does. No clue. However, what struck me wasn’t what was included but what was missing. Here then is the…

This is NOT how to make a million on Medium. You guys know me better. I’m actually going for the jugular here.

I’ll start with Unsplash, and drop my tightey-whiteys right up front. In preparation for this article, I typed in the word “FAIL” and got 66 options. Most of those photos have nothing to do with failure as I understand it.

Of course not. We can barely say the word except for putting it in a meme and feeling self-righteous. We don’t celebrate it. We bark and mumble about the importance of failure but by god we will die from pent-up gas to avoid farting in public.

I don’t have that issue. I found that being able to let loose at…

I cried a lot yesterday. That’s a good thing. Stay with me here.

The Diversity feed over on LinkedIn is likely a lot like most other social platforms. It’s basically Facebook, with all kinds of non-business utter nonsense ranging from kitty videos to product pitches. It isn’t very pleasant, but for now, I tolerate it. Not easy.

However, a meme came through that really speaks to where I stand regarding jealousy, envy, and professional hate.

I can only recall the gist. Effectively the message was that you and I shouldn’t be mad at some successful (in this case, Black) woman for achieving something. That she did it means that you can too.

While…

How you know it’s time to go.

Spectre was on in the background, and I could hear Bond introduce himself through my dining room windows. The weather finally cooled off around here enough so that, even as we bake in the afternoons, I can enjoy the cool breezes of the fir forest around my new home in Oregon most of the day. In a few weeks, a small fortune in blinds and SPF film will be installed to help control the heat and cold transfer through the glass.

I am almost done with the Really Big Projects.

Time to go.

I was patting potting soil into a huge, chipped Mexican…

The audience rose to its feet as one. It was late in the day, and a great many of us were hoarse from shouting encouragement at the folks who were on stage. Our friends, our family, folks whose journeys we’d been watching.

At this moment, however, we were honoring the journey of Zack Childers, A 31-year-old man with cerebral palsy. As a young man, Zack’s doctor told him he would never walk.

He not only walked across stage, out of the joy of his accomplishments, he ran back. Wobbly, but he ran. That he was even upright on the stage…

I watched a well-deserved standing ovation. Stay with me here.

Just a few hours ago, an audience stood to cheer, very very loudly, for an award. The young man on stage staggers a bit when he walks, but he walks. Not only does he walk, he won an award for extraordinary hard work, accomplishment and dedication in the face of unbelievable odds. I am doing a separate story on that young man, but this is about a commenter’s utterly inappropriate comments which touched this person, and the community around him

The Cecil Phillips Classic is Eugene’s all-natural bodybuilding event. For whatever reason, my new home town is the center for…

Choosing which doctors to listen to can kill you off, or ensure your thrival. Choose carefully.

“Trust me, I”m a doctor.” Sure, Sparky. Sure.

And with that, we hand our health away.

Look. To be fair, there are plenty of good docs. The problem is finding one. Or two. And as you and I age, even harder, because, well, ageism. Sexism. Racism. I could list a hundred reasons. First, because doctors are above all deeply human, frail, susceptible to bullshit as we all are, but given massively more agency because of the moniker, “doctor.”

Those of you who know my writing know that I’ve got a bone to pick, if you’ll forgive the pun, with the…

Food rant, inspired by one too many CNN stories about the restaurant industry.

Been out for a meal lately?

Notice that it takes longer to get service? Food? Get seated, even though there are plenty of tables?

Getting pissed? You waited all this time for a nice meal at your favorite place and THIS is how you’re rewarded?

Whatcha doing about it, Skeezix?

Abusing your servers, punishing them with fewer tips?

Screaming at them in front of all the patrons until they cry?

Calling the manager over to abuse them in front of everyone because your salad was missing a lettuce leaf?

Putting on my Mommy hat:

Get out of the fucking restaurants, you selfish assholes, and go…