Thursday Thirteen

1. Is anyone surprised to learn the former guy flushed documents down the toilet? Not me.

2. A book I read the other day was called As a Man Thinketh, by James Allen. I read it because Richard Marx mentioned it in his autobiography and said the book had a big influence on him. It was basically 90 pages of how many ways a person can say a person is his or her thoughts. If you are strong, you are thinking strong thoughts. If you're weak, you're thinking weak thoughts. There was absolutely not a single example of what a strong thought might be or what a weak thought might be, but there you go. The book was written in 1902. It reminded me of the self-help book, The Secret, which is the only book I have ever thrown in the garbage.

3. These types of books - bootstrap books, I call them - tend to exclude the extraordinary external conditions that people face. It doesn't deal with how an abused child might come up with low or no self-esteem thanks to constantly being told he or she is a piece of shit. It doesn't deal with rape, incest, murder, thievery, or other societal ills. It doesn't deal with the economics of society, the lack of jobs, gender or race issues, or how society itself works systemically to keep certain types of people "in their place," whatever society has allotted that place to be. If everyone could think themselves wealthy, wouldn't they?

4. I've been trying to get my paperwork ready to take to the accountant so she can tell me how much more money I need to pay the government. Like most people, I do not like to pay taxes. Unlike many people, I consider it a privilege that I get to pay taxes. That means we make enough money to need to pay taxes. And somebody has to pay for the upkeep of roads. Just because I honor the commitment doesn't mean I have to like it.

5. I have been crocheting a scarf for several months. Ok, maybe 5 months. It shouldn't take that long, but I am only doing a couple rows a night.

6. I have also been writing a song for about a month now. It isn't finished, so no one has heard it yet.

7. My poetry is allegedly going to be published in Artemis 2022. This will be the fourth year in a row I've had a poem published in this anthology. I need to write more poems as I am running out of them.

8. My next book is a massive tome called the Priory of the Orange Tree. It's about 1,000 pages long. I think this one may take a while to read.

9. I'm considering some life changes, but I don't know where I'm going with them. I need a plan.

10. I don't have a bucket list, either, but some things I wouldn't mind doing include travel. I would like to see Ireland and New Zealand. Too bad they are an entire world apart and not next door to one another. I'd also like to see Scotland. I do not foresee any of these trips taking place. Maybe a good goal would be to read up on them and learn all I can about those three countries. Create my own summer semester, as it were.

11. The ends of the tree branches are suddenly a bit thicker. They are starting to swell with buds. Just a little bit, but spring is on its way. The dreariness of winter is giving way and heading out the door.

12. Milky Way Midnight is my favorite candy bar, and I ate the first one I'd had in over a year yesterday. It tasted good and didn't cause too much problem with my stomach. But I can see that chocolate is something that is going to have to stay out of my diet, for the most part. I will have to make do with an occasional hit.

13. The Winter Olympics have underwhelmed me this year. I used to enjoy watching them and I wish all the athletes well, but the prime time showing seems rather poorly done. We watched the women's half pipe snowboarding thing last night. I have only managed to see figure skating in youtube videos. I don't know how I keep missing what I really want to watch.

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Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here if you want to read other Thursday Thirteens and/or play along. I've been playing for a while, and this is my 742nd time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.