The Adventures of Bloggard

Been Around the Block. Got Some Stories. These are Them.

How to Destroy Writer’s Block

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June 7, 2023, Mount Shasta, CA: If you experience writer’s block, it’s very easy to change that so that you no longer experience writer’s block. Here’s how …

Get up in the morning, go pee if you have to, then sit down and start typing. Don’t do *anything else* before you start typing.

Type anything. Garbage, memories, nonsense. Snippets of your dreams. Any thoughts. Don’t try to channel it in any particular direction.

Within 3 weeks or maybe even less, you will no longer experience writer’s block.

That’s really all there is to it.

How to Network Effectively

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If you’re in business, or even if you’re not, networking is usually a part of getting along well, learning new things, meeting new people. And there are some tricks to it. This article contains (almost) everything I’ve learned from a lot of study and decades of practice. For anything from “picking up chicks” to “establishing new business contacts” these simple techniques will make you twice as effective, and it will be fun as well …

I found this article on Medium (a wonderful place to find fascinating articles). The article is by Michael Thompson. In turn, he’s reporting on a fascinating new book. Here’s what he says …

[Read more…]

How to Speak to Strangers

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Mount Shasta, California, December 28, 2019 — When I was a child and a teenager, I was very insecure. And needing reassurance all the time, in the tough-guy culture of Northern Texas, I became a loud show-off smart-alec, even though I was actually an introvert.

As a result, even when I gained confidence over the years, I had to *learn* how to talk to strangers, and how to approach women. I did learn. However I wish I’d seen this article, which is both simple and [Read more…]

How to Let Go of Sadness or Worry In Only 3 Minutes

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January 28, 2019, Mount Shasta, CA — Do you ever feel sad or worried?

Well, no problem! Here’s how to let it go in under 3 minutes.

Just follow these steps …
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  • Sit down, relax, take a deep breath, and at the top of the breath …
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  • Feel your mind go still.
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  • As you slowly exhale, feel the stillness flowing down into your body.
    .
  • Note the feelings of relaxation in your body.
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  • Now imagine a [Read more…]

Closing a Door

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October 19, 2018, Medford Oregon –– Tomorrow a big truck with moving guys comes, and nearly all my home is packed into boxes. The last few weeks have been overshadowed. As the leaves were turning gold and falling from the huge tree out front, I worried that packing up seemed overwhelming, but bit by bit …

The view from my kitchen window

Behind the house of the neighbor across the street, her name is Linda, her trees have turned bright and colorful. It’s Autumn.

The neighbors next door had yet another fiesta last Friday. Although it’s sometimes noisy near my bedroom window, I like the sounds, men talking in Spanish, kids yelling and running around.

A Change in the Air

After tomorrow, I don’t live here any more.

I’ve felt this before. Maybe you have, too …

It’s time to go, and the rooms become empty again, until finally the place looks vacant like the day you moved in. And you walk around these empty rooms, and whether or not you liked the time spent there, nostalgia comes over you.

In my bedroom, in my mind I again see gooddog Charlie. This is where he died, not that long ago. I feel like I am abandoning him, because I am leaving the room. I miss him and feel like somehow I am also leaving him behind, because it’s the place where I hold his memory.

But he will not miss me here.

No Reason to Be Here

A few years ago, I moved here with Susan, before she lost her sight and went away to learn how to be a blind person. I thought it likely that the relationship was completely gone. I felt no different toward her, but had to accept letting it go.

A few months ago I was surprised to hear from her reaching out by phone again. And a few trips to visit over the last few months where she’d landed again in Mount Shasta. Surprised and happy to discover the relationship was not gone after all. And so I am moving back to Mount Shasta.

Unlike some other moves in the past, this time I do not have the feeling of  moving forward. I feel like I am moving backward, retreating. But it’s what I want to do. I cannot remain, no reason. Though I’ve made a few good friends here, there is nothing to keep me in Medford.

I just didn’t have any other place that called to me.

Until now.

 

Are You a Pirate?

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In one of the last scenes in the fun movie, “Pirates of the Caribbean,” the heroine makes a statement about the leading man. She says, lovingly, “He’s a pirate.”

As you may recall from the movie, that young man started out hating the pirates, and yet, in the course of his adventures, he’s become bolder and he has dared great things, and by golly he has become a pirate. And that’s a good thing.

And so … why is it a good thing to be a pirate?

[Read more…]

The Root of All Magic and Freedom

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[reprinted from my former site How to Tune a Human, March 7, 2010]

For thousands of years,  systems have existed which we might call magic, or manifestation, or self-help. The common denominator of many of these systems is that they depend upon visualization.

Some folks do well with this; other people never seem to succeed.

What do you want from such a system?

You want (a) success; (b) rapid success; (c) reliable success. Just like your Ford automobile, you want it to always start and carry you down the chosen road, to start quickly, and to operate reliably as expected.

In these various systems, different factors are touted as helping to attain success, rapidity, and reliability. These include —

Dr. Detecto Rescues a Rope

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Daly City, 1989: If you read a Dashiel Hammett book about Sam Spade, or even a modern Sue Grafton book about Kinsey Milhone, you will discover that their investigations are exciting, dangerous, and apparently pay the bills. (Though Sam Spade seemingly just throws his bills into the trash.)

When I was Dr. Detecto, the private investigator, my own investigations were neither exciting, nor dangerous, nor did they pay the bills.

As proof, I respectfully submit my most exciting, dangerous, and profitable case — the Case of the Rescued Rope …

I was musing in my Geary street office one afternoon in the early fall in San Francisco. The air had just turned crisp, and I was thinking about the gubbamint and dozing off, when a tall woman walked past the window. I knew she was tall because my office was on the second floor. [Read more…]

 
 

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