I’m often working hard to write late into the night these days, fighting a never ending battle against Writer’s Block and Written Diarrhea that it feels too epic for a human writer. As a result, I have conjured up my vision of a writing superhero to visualize my glorious quest to push me through any barrier that stands in my way. I call him Nightwriter, and his symbol is that W you see to the right!
writer
Options Instead of the Extra Point for the NFL and CFL
In North American football, the extra point is a single point short kick after a 6 point touchdown to give the full 7 point value a touchdown can give a team. The full 7 points also makes the touchdown more valuable than two field goals, at 3 points each, in not only concept but also score. Otherwise, the extra point is also a second chance to cheer loudly for the touchdown just scored if it were your team to have done so.
Once upon a time, the extra point used to require an actual effort so it was not a sure thing by any means. However, these days, it has a success rate of over 99% according to New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick. It has become too easy for the players playing to execute it that it not only becomes boring, it’s also a waste of time. Sports Illustrated’s Peter King feels the same way about it, calling it “the biggest waste of time in sports”. Nothing in sports should be that automatic, basically. What kind of competition is there if the outcome was the same more than 99% of the time?
Six Life Philosophies from an Obituary Writer
The Boston Globe recently had a great short article about six life lessons given by Bryan Marquard, their obituary writer of over 800 obits in the past 3.5 years. His perspective was that he looked at life through the lens of death. The article ended by asking “what have you learned from life”?
I’ll summarize the article here and give a few answers for this post.
1. Be nice.
No matter what you accomplish, how you treat people has a lot to do with how you will be remembered.
2. Don’t be mean.
You can be #1 or #2 without being the other.
3. If you want to live long, retire young…
Leave some time for fun in your life.
4. Or don’t retire at all.
Pursue your passions.
5. You don’t have to be rich – or even have a home.
It’s you, what you are and what you do that matter most.
6. Act now.
Don’t put off what you’ve always wanted to do.
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I liked the article because it looks at life through a very different perspective than one that I have. It’s not that I think most people have the view of an obituary writer, but rather how much I stay away from the thought of death. I have never fully read an obituary, even of some people very dear to me. And I don’t have insurance except for where I can’t avoid it, like to drive or insurance with my job. Sure, I appreciate a health plan and such, but insurance is like a constant reminder, with payment, of unfortunate things. As someone who believes that if you think about something enough, it might just happen to you, I stay away from those negative things.
As for some of what I’ve learned from life? For starters, I’ve got 26 life philosophies through this link. But if you’re not interested, I’ll leave three different ones here:
1. Act now, enjoy the moment, but live like there is always a tomorrow.
You couldn’t hope to either truly live every day or moment like it’s the last of your life, or last long doing it.
2. It’s not how you start that matters, but rather how you finish.
Save the best for last, and something better for tomorrow.
3. Everything means more the more you had to earn it.
“Earn” is any kind of effort you have to put in.
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If you want lots of life lessons, please check out my blogging buddy’s Lifelessons4u blog. She’s got more life lessons than you could learn in a life time!
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In the spirit of how the Boston Globe article ends, please feel free to leave comments regarding
What have you learned in life?
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Flesch-Kincaid Grade Reading Level: 4.2 (pffft! topic is a little beyond grade 4!) 🙂
South Park, Doodle Friends and Other Facebook Tagging Memes
I saw these tagging meme graphics on Facebook, but they weren’t in the best formats for Facebook so I improved them in various ways to share. I did not contribute to the text, though, so if you were offended, please don’t blame me. The first set is a bunch of South Park characters, with appropriately offensive labels in some instances.
The second is Doodle Friends characters, from where I do not know other than that they are part of a Facebook application.
The final one are just some personalities attached to a drawing style I do not know.
Here’s how you can get any of these memes to use:
- Click on the poster you want below to get it at full size.
- Right click on that picture and save to your computer.
- Upload it to your Facebook profile.
- Tag your friends (or let them tag themselves).
Please click here for a complete list of over 100 Facebook picture tagging memes on this site with which you can use for fun with your friends.
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- Doodle Friends
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- Onion Heads
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- South Park II
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- South Park
Digital Citizen 