Feb 232015
 
Angry Birds

Angry Birds (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Before you start thinking that this title means something deep or is a description of my character in World of Warcraft (do they still play that? I don’t.)  it isn’t.  This title is the truth.  I am sure this topic has been covered and you are most likely to click off of this post and leave the Coots site right now.  But hold on a second, you need to be logged in for a few more seconds for it to count.  Really Hang on.  Just a bit longer.

Have you ever noticed those videos over in the sidebar?  How about clicking on our personal blog sites?  maybe Facebook?  Click that link and head to Amazon.com and get yourself something nice and we can make a couple of pennies.  Ok are you good?  See what I did, I just took something normal and easy and managed to waste a bunch of time doing it.

You know, I am fairly good at it as well.  If I actually spent half the time writing as I do screwing around I would be able to say I write for hours and hours every day.  Unfortunately, I don’t seem to have that luxury.

I can spend time doing crap that doesn’t mean anything and why?  Am I afraid of the actual writing? No.  I usually justify it by saying if I start to write something I will just get interrupted and my wife will need something so I may as well not bother.  Before you know it Netflix and Angry Birds are calling you from that seductive corner of your computer.

I try to leave the computer completely but then my kindle beckons with that book I am having a hard time putting down….Damn, I should have washed some underwear instead.  I need more sleep.  Now the discussion needs to shift towards what needs to be done about it?  I think I have proven that the “Just Write” argument is out the window…gotta kill some pigs.

Cerebral Cortex location

Cerebral Cortex location (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There is just a niggling in the back of my cerebral cortex that says I can’t do this same old same old anymore.  We are heading to Florida in June and I thought this morning, “Well I guess I will just neglect the blogs some more” while I am gone.  and then, “No!  I can pre write some posts!”  and then, “Yea right, I can’t write the regular ones.”  That in turn inspired this post.

So I am going to reward myself when I write something by being able to shut off that damn Adele song for more than 10 minutes.  The wife got a hold of that song and the kids play it and she plays it and the radio plays it and it never seems to get out of the *explicitve deleted* repeat loop!

But I digress….how do you fellow monkeys fight the urges that keep is from doing actual work?  How do you more efficiently waste time so that you can still work?  Inquiring minds want to know….and if you remember that you are as old as me….

-Justin

PS. The podcast is going to be revived on this blog very soon.  If anyone has an idea about something you want to hear about or want to be a guest, let me know.

I am thinking of using a new format and maybe a “What can the Coots be Cantankerous about”  much like the “What can’t Adam Complain about” segment on the Adam Carolla Podcast.

Give me some topics…and vote for Ralph in the CNS leader poll already.  His fragile ego can’t handle one lonely vote.  And I don’t want to write the CNS any more than I have too.

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Justin

Justin is the young Coot with a Cantankerous Soul who continues to be educated by older, more cootish Ralph and Bob. His Cantankerosity is his own.

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Feb 232015
 
Utah in the United States

You can't miss Utah

The weather in Utah is legendary for changing at a moments notice.  Ok maybe not legendary, but at least known to the public here.  Give it a minute the weather will change is a mantra we live by in the spring.

So When this post was written we had just finished a day of heavy rains.  The weather forecast said it was going to be partly cloudy and warmer.  I washed a load of towels to hang outside on the line.  Just getting ready to hang them out, and it starts raining.  I am sure mother nature was just thwarting me.

I had a few choice things to say to Nature at that point.  I kind of wanted to be Captain Dan in Forrest Gump screaming at the storm.  But, I had kids at home.

There will be another snowstorm, that is almost guaranteed.  Except it will be 80 this weekend and I have to get the lawn mower out before the jungle sets in.  My Great Grandpa, who had a garden that should have been on a magazine, always said, “Don’t plant anything until after Mother’s Day.”  That is sage advice here, because you will just get your tomatoes growing and it will freeze.  It just does here.

I have never been disappointed with that advice, even with pressure from my wife a few times becasue the weather was nice.  Didn’t plant, didn’t get frozen.  So, do you all have some interesting weather thwarting stories to share with us?  I would really like to hear them.  You can’t beat Mother Nature completely but you may be able to slap some sense into her once in a while.  Well, probably not.

Have a great Weekend.

-Justin

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Justin

Justin is the young Coot with a Cantankerous Soul who continues to be educated by older, more cootish Ralph and Bob. His Cantankerosity is his own.

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Feb 232015
 
North America at night - Satellite image - Pla...

Image by PlanetObserver via Flickr

What the???? It is already Friday?  Wow where did the week go.  Now, I know the title of this post is going to make people think I am jumping on Bob’s political bandwagon and talking about Political parties but I am not that sophisticated.  The parties I speak of are actual parties, with people invading your house and spilling punch on the rug, kids who drop cake on the floor and that rogue ice cream cone you find the next day on your nice table and are just thankful that it is on the marble part and not the wood part.

Yes, parties can suck.  They sound like a good idea but they are entirely too much work for me.  Plus there are people coming over and judging you to the enth degree and looking down on your decisions and…well that is just my parents.  If you haven’t guessed by now, we are going to have a party on Saturday.  I am not looking forward to it.

Party may be a stretch to say, but a reception with cake and punch ends up being the same thing.  And family will be there.  Some of which we haven’t had any contact with for months.  Some who should have at least called during the turmoil of the past couple of months.  But enough about my Father.  It will be interesting to say the least.

See, my son is getting baptized into our church on Saturday and this is one thing that I don’t think Grandpa will miss.  Birthday’s and major catastrophe’s are not important enough but this just may be.  We will have to see.  I may have another great post for next week all about it.  Monday may be interesting around here.

On a side note to that, Bob has found that his video posts are very time consuming and he has way too much life to live over the weekend to not stay up all Sunday night getting a post ready.  He will be moving his videos to Tuesday.  I think I have finally figured out what to do with my podcasts as well.  I now have a garage and I am going to build me a little studio in there to go hide   record in.  I am going to shoot for next week on Thursday for a podcast!  Just audio though, I still am just lukewarm on video.

On another disjointed side note Pink Floyd is not bad for writing too.  Throw on “The Wall” and start a rant….not bad.  And I am not even on anything…..

So back to parties.  They sound like a good idea but I think I would rather go to a party than host one.  Leave my house alone and save your derision for someone else.  It is easy on the net to let things roll off of your back.  It is easy to dismiss any evil that is given to you via email or a comment.  It is another to sit in relative silence and deal with the eye rolls and nauseated yet sarcastic phrases that are spat out.

I have respect for my elders and I will always respect my Father for being my father.  I just don’t want to talk to him right now.  I am hoping that he doesn’t show up, but that is a horrible thing for him not to be to his Grandson’s big event.  I am afraid that there will be a shouting match and more people than should will end up in tears.

What a $#@&ed up situation.  In general, take your parties and count me out, I don’t need the stress.  I had better make sure my migraine pills are handy.

For all of you, have a good weekend, or go to hell.  I don’t know that I care right now.

See you next week.

-Justin

 

Justin

Justin is the young Coot with a Cantankerous Soul who continues to be educated by older, more cootish Ralph and Bob. His Cantankerosity is his own.

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Feb 232015
 

English: Barack Obama delivers a speech at the...

I have noticed a trend in my email lately.  No not the typical SPAM about a dead relative to leave me money, or even the ones about Obama changing laws to get car insurance for $3 a month or some ridiculous thing.

I have noticed that many of those emails come in, from the future.  That’s right, the future.  Hours or even days into the future.  Now, I am not really sure why I have been chosen to be a prognosticator of deals and money forgotten by some millionaires in other countries, but I am.  I am able to tell my SPAM fortune.

It seems that I can also predict (somewhat) how Google will look at this post.  Thanks to Bob I know know I have to ramble on about this for another 150 words or so, inserting links and pictures as they come.   Or should I?  Hold on, I will check my email and see if the future holds anything  that will help us in the search engine rankings.

Nope, nothing is there, but I can make untold riches with this new system that will generate $2460 per day.  That would be helpful.  Not likely, but helpful.

So, now I have a question.  To all of you out there, do you get mail from the future or is it just me?  If you are getting mail from the future then I am no longer special and will have to, well, do something.  But I would still like to hear from some of you out there.

And another question, who sends these things and who writes the programs that allow people to see into the future and send me the email?  Why can’t they use that power and send me the winner of the Superbowl and the world series so that I can bet on them?  I guess their power does not go that far….cheeky bastards.

let me know your thoughts.

-Justin

 

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Justin

Justin is the young Coot with a Cantankerous Soul who continues to be educated by older, more cootish Ralph and Bob. His Cantankerosity is his own.

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So What Happened to Vacations?

 Posted by at 11:02  rants
Feb 232015
 

I hate vacations. There’s nothing to do.

David Mamet

I’m confused. 

I confess that my upcoming vacation has kept me distracted. Serious vacations are new to us or at least memories from the past.

Beached

Going over our plans in my head in order to nip in the bud any potential problems, I can’t help thinking about vacations from the past. Times have changed. Today it seems that people yearn to get away from reality in some safe environment. People want to escape the harsh realities of 21st century America in make believe and indulgence. It is escapism, pure and simple. Maybe it is justified to want relief from the rat race and maybe it helps people cope with a meaningless job and a dysfunctional family. But I’m not buying it. The only benefit from two weeks on a Caribbean beach getting daily massages and drinks by the pool is a pile of debt. It doesn’t make you a better person or get you a better life. All if does is let you catch your breath. That’s not a vacation! That’s a cop out. The vacations I remember best were no walks on the beach or Mai Tais at sunset. They were serious commitments and wimps weren’t allowed.

Back in the Day…

When I was a kid, we took family vacations and what a family vacation meant to the Carlson’s was packing the whole family in the car and driving somewhere. Only rich people flew when I was a kid in the 50’s and nobody went anywhere to do nothing. Family vacations were road trips. We took a one week trip to Washington DC in ’53 which meant about two days in DC and four days on the road. Four days on the road with three boys under 10 in the backseat of a Chevy Bel Air Sports Coupe is not for the faint of heart. My parents took this all in stride because they wanted us to see our country’s capital. It was an educational experience. Somehow we took in all the National Landmarks and the Smithsonian and on the way there hit all the state capitals on our route. I remember that trip fondly and I  can’t remember much about fighting with my brothers in the back seat. Now that was a vacation. Thank heaven for the Burma Shave signs,

There were some shorter vacations to the nearby Ozarks and scenic Colorado but there was nothing relaxing about our family vacations. Every social and relationship skill we had ever learned was tested and found wanting. It was always a relief to get back home to get some quite time and personal privacy. Still, those vacations are my benchmark for defining a good vacation- engagement.

So I don’t get resorts! 

When I think about vacations, you don’t find me yearning for a mindless week of self-indulgent indolence. Vacations are for self improvement, adventure and testing yourself. You wouldn’t catch my parents on a cruise or lounging on the beach and I guess the apple doesn’t fall very far away from the tree. Vacations were not relaxing or self-indulgent. Nobody puts three young boys in the back seat of a 1953 Chevy Bel Air hardtop and drives for two days just for the fun of it.

It must be those self-indulgent boomers. 

Campo Santa Margherita

Today, it seems that the only reason for vacations is creating the opportunity to do nothing at the highest possible cost. I blame it all on the self-indulgent baby boomers who never had to work for anything in their lives and now feel entitled to continue asking. But no matter, I’m no boomer and I’m off the Venice to hob nob with the Venetians in the side streets and Campos away from the tourist meccas. We;re going to shop at the food markets, sample the dishes at the home style oosterrias and drink Bellini s in the Campos. We don’t know much Italian but it doesn’t worry us. We will be immersed in Italian culture and testing our ability to communicate beyond the constraints of language. It’s not a road trip but somehow, I think my parents would approve.

Ralph

Ralph is the inspiration for Cantankerous Old Coots and is our Grand Duke of Cantankerousness

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