100DaysToOffload

A pretty fair Friday... listed and logged

This Friday started well in the Roscoe-verse. The sleep behind me was very acceptable: I count 7 hours of good sleep only barely interrupted. Friday morning's health metrics and financials were all good, too.

As the evening winds down it finds me listening to a good college football being called very well. When this game ends I'll be able to turn to another that started later. And when THAT game ends I should be ready to put head to pillow and call it a night.

Prayers, etc: 06:30 – Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel – Prayer for the Sick, O Blessed St. Roch... – Our Father – Hail Mary – Glory Be 07:20 – Day 6 of the KofC Novena for the Cause of Life, meditation and prayer 09:30 – Lk 11:15-23 15:45 – Prayer to St Michael the Archangel 20:00 – 5 decades of the Rosary, The Sorrowful Mysteries

Diet: 07:25 – chicken salad sandwich, an orange, a muffin 11:30 – steak and mashed potatoes 15:00 – one ice cream bar 16:15 – bowl of vegetable and meat soup

Chores, etc.: 07:30 – began listening to local news, and various news sources 10:15 – published a blog post 11:00 – listening to President Trump on The Rush Limbaugh Show 13:50 – learned today that a Brother Knight in the Philippines died yesterday. Sad news, that. Never met him IRL but he and I had become friends over the Internet over the last several years, exchanging personal messages, etc. We were looking forward to meeting in person, but the pandemic happened and the lockdown... 14:30 – box from Amazon with vitamins was delivered several days earlier than expected – cool 16:00 – turn to favorite news shows 18:00 – tuning into college football on the radio, Georgia Tech vs. Louisville

Chess: 15:15 – moved in many CC games

Exercise: 19:45 – light PM stretching

And the adventure continues.

Published on 09 October 2020, ~20:30 CDT, this is my post number 79/100/365 of the https://100daystooffload.com blogging challenge.

#100DaysToOffload #blog #RoscoeEllis #list #personal

by Roscoe

An Epiphany, of sorts

So there I was, fixing the morning coffee in my kitchen when the epiphany struck. It was an answer to a problem that's been lurking in the dark corners of my mind and surfacing at odd moments to haunt me: What is the best, most efficient way to coordinate my blogging with my personal website? (Best in this context meaning what is the most enjoyable for me, of course. While both the website and the blog are publicly available, they exist primarily for my own entertainment.)

The changes that I imagine will begin taking place over there at the personal website, and over here at my public blog, today. And the pattern they form will become clear as the weekend progresses.

The adventure continues.

Published on 09 October 2020, ~10:15 CDT, this is my post number 78/100/365 of the https://100daystooffload.com blogging challenge.

#100DaysToOffload #blog #RoscoeEllis

by Roscoe

No, I'm not watching tonight's VP “Debate” Show.

My decision was whether to watch that political debate, or catch a scary movie on TV. I've opted for The House The Dripped Blood, a cheesy British horror film from the 70's. And I'm convinced I made the better choice. Better for my peace of mind anyway.

Over the past several days I've been consuming much less “news” than has been my custom since, well... forever it seems. And my mood has improved noticeably. The reason for less news? More chess.

My load of Correspondence Chess games has become much larger: I've got 20 active games going now, thanks largely to a 7-player tournament that's just getting underway. And I'm taking these games much more seriously than the casual games I've been playing. Hours of daily chess study, with my mind clear and focused, simply does not allow for the distraction of “news” shows designed more to provoke anger and fear rather than impart balanced, factual information.

This places me in a win-win situation. More time spent with my chess, and serious study of that, is healthy in and of itself. And having less time to dwell on the emotionally charged, mind grabbing “news” spread by most popular media sources is good too.

A few hours in the morning with my coffee and chores provides me time to monitor current events and analysis from a mix of sources playing in the background. And another hour or so in the late afternoon or early evening similarly spent is more than enough for the news.

And so the adventure continues.

Published on 07 October 2020, ~20:30 CDT, this is my post number 77/100/365 of the https://100daystooffload.com blogging challenge.

#100DaysToOffload #blog #RoscoeEllis #chess #news

by Roscoe

Worth a thousand words?

PH-USA

Yes. It is to me.

Found elsewhere on the Internet, this image does a good job of capturing my feelings regarding The Philippines and the USA.

And the adventure continues.

Published on 04 October 2020, ~12:15 CDT, this is my post number 76/100/365 of the https://100daystooffload.com blogging challenge.

#100DaysToOffload #blog #RoscoeEllis

by Roscoe

Waking this Saturday...

Waking this Saturday was easy to do. There were only two brief interruptions in last night's 8-hour sleep, neither of which were of any significance. And the dream from which I woke, though detailed and thought provoking, was neither annoying nor disturbing.

The morning's health metrics were good. And the financials were as I expected, no surprises there. The budget is running smoothly, just as I like it.

With a full day of College Football to enjoy before tonight's Svengoolie, today promises to be a good one.

And so the adventure continues.

Published on 03 October 2020, ~09:00 CDT, this is my post number 75/100/365 of the https://100daystooffload.com blogging challenge.

#100DaysToOffload #blog #RoscoeEllis

by Roscoe

Three small changes

Earlier this week I cancelled my Twitter account. The darned thing had become a time sink of very little value.

Also this week I enabled comments to posts at my personal website. Not that I'm expecting to get any, but still. As long as it doesn't become a spam or bot magnet, I'll probably let it run. There are some folks I'm sure who may be interested in following the Standard Notes posts I've started publishing there daily.

And I'm starting to reintegrate the formal prayers of the Association of the Auxilium Christianorum into my daily routine.

And so the adventure continues.

Published on 30 September 2020, ~20:30 CDT, this is my post number 74/100/365 of the https://100daystooffload.com blogging challenge.

#100DaysToOffload #blog #RoscoeEllis #changes

by Roscoe

Remembering how I used to do it.

Sunday nights often find me jumping around the AM band, trying to find an acceptable radio station that I can listen to while drifting off to sleep. My favorite is only good Monday through Friday; on the weekends programming there changes and becomes more annoying than relaxing.

To my delight, I stumbled upon programming that used to be one of my staples. But with the passing of years and changes in habits I'd completely forgotten about it.

But, wow, amazing how quickly shit falls off aging radar

Yes, exactly!

What I found last night was Westwood One Sports on a local radio station broadcasting the live, play-by-play of Sunday Night Football! Years ago I used to follow NFL games on Westwood One, but then my interests and lifestyle changed. And the few times I caught an NFL game it was while in the company of others and watching TV. And I forgot how I used to do it.

As I mentioned recently I do prefer to follow football on the radio. Remembering now how I used to do it, I know I'll be following the rest of the NFL Season on the radio

And so the adventure continues.

Published on 28 September 2020, ~14:00 CDT, this is my post number 73/100/365 of the https://100daystooffload.com blogging challenge.

#100DaysToOffload #blog #RoscoeEllis #radio #NFL #WestwoodOne

by Roscoe

Friday Night College Football

Tonight's Middle Tennessee vs. UTSA game is being played here in San Antonio at the Alamodome, a venue where I've watched a lot of football. I'm following tonight's game via radio broadcast, though.

I tried to catch the game on Roku's TuneIn Channel but, once again, there was no audio playing through the channel even though every indication on the screen was that the sound was coming through steadily. That's the same thing that happened last weekend. Very disappointing!

However, just like last week, Roku's Android App on my old tablet saved the day. It's pulling in the game just fine.

So GO ROADRUNNERS! They're up 7-3 in the 2nd Quarter, and I'm cheering for my home team!

And the adventure continues.

Published on 25 September 2020, ~20:00 CDT, this is my post number 72/100/365 of the https://100daystooffload.com blogging challenge.

#100DaysToOffload #blog #RoscoeEllis #CollegeFootball #TuneIn

by Roscoe

After a surprisingly productive early Thursday...

... this late afternoon finds me relaxed and mapping out my major project for the next few months: cleaning off the back porch and cleaning out the garage, throwing away as much trash as I can get away with. Tomorrow and Saturday should allow me time to make a good head start on that chore, weather and general health permitting, of course.

The plan is to get rid of the stuff cheaply and legally, bagged in the appropriate large kitchen trash bags and placed in my brown trash bin for weekly scheduled pick up. It will take some time (months, for sure) doing it that way. But I'll avoid the legal hassles of tossing it all into some dumpster, (businesses pay for those, you know, and anyone caught using them illegally can get into a heap of trouble!), and I'll avoid the expense of hiring someone to haul it all away.

Since the pandemic has shutdown any chances of making the international move I'd planned until late 2021 or 2022 at the earliest, I've got plenty of time to dispose of all that junk bag by bag, week after week.

And the adventure continues.

Published on 24 September 2020, ~16:15 CDT, this is my post number 71/100/365 of the https://100daystooffload.com blogging challenge.

#100DaysToOffload #blog #RoscoeEllis #chores #cleaning

by Roscoe

Running blogs within a blog...

all three blogs

... makes sense to me. Having one central place where my blogging activities can be found simplifies things for me. And that one central place is Roscoe's Story, my primary website. The screengrab seen above shows all three blogs as I currently have them running.

The larger, central column of my self-hosted WordPress website, which is actually a blog in its own right, now always includes a daily entry from my Standard Notes app. (see above screengrab.) Though I'm not running a pure Standard Notes blog on listed, I certainly could do so. And I do think of my “(logged and listed)” entries as blog posts, because that's what they are.

The left sidebar of Roscoe's Story shows links to the most recent posts to Roscoe's Notebook, which I think of as my “real” blog.

Over on the right sidebar of Roscoe's Story can be found the most recent entries to My Twitter timeline. Twitter is, of course, generally considered to be the original micro-blog. Though it's the only non open-source of all the blogging tools I use, and I do favor using #FOSS, it does fit more comfortably into my larger system than any alternatives.

And so the adventure continues.

Published on 22 September 2020, ~12:15 CDT, this is my post number 70/100/365 of the https://100daystooffload.com blogging challenge.

#100DaysToOffload #blog #RoscoeEllis

by Roscoe