I spent a significant amount of my life avoiding certain activities because I was nervous about messing up. Maybe this is one of the reasons why they say ‘perfection is the enemy of good.’ If you’re afraid to try something just because you won’t do it right the first time, you miss out on a …
During the pandemic, I returned to an old hobby – cross stitching. I’m still not entirely sure why I originally set the practice aside, nor why I suddenly decided to pick it up again. I guess the need to fill time causes us to dredge up even the dustiest of our old hobbies. After the …
When I was younger, I poured a lot of time and energy into gaming. I had the time to spare. So I didn’t think much of dumping a hundred plus hours into something to make a small amount of progress. But now that I’m older and I have a mortgage, among other bills, to pay, …
2024 was quite a year. In fairness, I’ve felt most years since the pandemic started have been some kind of chaos. From the chaos of simply trying to fill the time to the chaos of resuming old hobbies while still maintaining new ones, the last few years have been an interesting mix. But no previous …
I put off writing this story for a long time. It wasn’t procrastination; I simply didn’t feel skilled enough to put the story into words. Sometimes you encounter an idea that feels so big and so important, you just know you have to make it as close to perfect as you can get it. Which …
Puzzles have become my obsession. Well, my new old obsession. I’ve always liked puzzles. I’ve had several stashed in my closet for practically ever. And I also have several bookmarks to digital puzzles I sometimes chip away at. The only problem is, once I start a puzzle, I feel driven to finish it. I don’t …
It appears to be time for my annual ‘oops, I forgot to write an update about my writing progress’ post. In fairness, I meant to write this post several times throughout this year. But every time I added it to the queue, something came up. Partly, I’ve been working around my hectic release schedule. (Which …
As I mentioned during my last travel blog, Pompeii was the last shore excursion of our Viking cruise. It has taken me most of the year to document a journey that lasted only a week, but it has been well worth the effort to recall all the wondrous sites we witnessed along the way. Though …
I have been slowly making my way through all the stops on the Viking Cruise we took this past Christmas. We started out in Athens. Then we made our way to Turkey, where we visited the ancient city of Ephesus. Following our departure from Turkey, we spent 2 days at sea, one of which was …
After we finished our extended trip at sea, our next stop was Sicily. It is the largest and most populated island in the Mediterranean Sea. And it’s located just to the west of the toe of Italy’s boot shape. It is separated from the continent by the Strait of Messina, and its most prominent landmark …