So after wallowing in a molasses coloured quagmire of blog apathy, I nagged the Blog Demi-God of SA yet again for some inspiration, motivation and encouragement to help me get blogging once more.
Mike's sage advice: "Carl, you overthink things. You want each post to be this profound work of art. And that gets in the way of you writing anything."
I asked him to give me a topic, just to get going (by now my voice had reached that self-loathy whiny pitch). His response (after rolling his eyes): "Write a post called 'Ten Things I Hate About Myself'"
My shortlist (and I struggled 'cos I'm pretty full of myself (I hate that too!):
1. I have a serious case of Adult Onset ADD - so much gets my attention. The older I get, the more wildly fascinated I get about pretty much everything around (and not around) me.
2. I'm still not married. And this deservedly after passing up/being a complete tool to the women I've loved.
3. I'm still pretty pissed off at the majority of my family for disappearing for 25years. Finding it hard to forgive and forget though I really should because I've already lost 25years.
4. I've started so many cool things with awesome humans, only to bail midway or switch to silent mode unexplicably. I'm sorry guys, I'm working at that and much better these days.
5. For my colleagues: I know I have a gazillion useful, profitable projects in various stages of dev. I'm working on closing the loops and the PMP training is really helping.
6. I make way too many altered state jokes/quips.
7. I'm becoming a bit of a no-sugar fascist after quitting most forms of refined sugar. If you see me snarling at your "4 spoons of sugar in coffee" habit, understand I just quit a really unhealthy habit and am feeling kinda proud.
8. I'm a model example of overpromise-underdeliver. I'm not lazy or stupid. I'm just now, learning to scope required resources/constraints more accurately. Still, I hate that I didn't fix this sooner.
9. I suffer from cobler's children syndrome. My blog needs a new coat of paint and some depth, like a few account managers from a supplier or two I know.
10. I can be pretty sharp-tongued at times (see #9). I often don't see the pain that ensues. This sucks and I wanna do something more inspiring with my tongue.
That's some of my laundry out in the open folks ...
A fun start to a whole slew of content I hope reveals how I go about making sense of the planet and navigating information age challenges, all the while patching my personal suck.
In closing, more evidence of the Stopforth's legendary motivational skill:
[10:32:58 - Mike]: just promoted ur blog on twitter thinking you'd posted about strat prof there
alas not! :P
[10:33:09 - Mike]: now you better blog plonker
[10:35:42 - Carl]: dude - it terrified me into writing a post right now - almost done and publishing in 3omins
[10:36:01 - Mike]: HAHAHAHA
[10:36:03 - Mike]: loool
Mike Stopforth has left the conversation.
11. I worry about being called a "plonker" ;)
So after wallowing in a molasses coloured quagmire of blog apathy, I nagged the Blog Demi-God of SA yet again for some inspiration, motivation and encouragement to help me get blogging once more.
Mike's sage advice: "Carl, you overthink things. You want each post to be this profound work of art. And that gets in the way of you writing anything."
I asked him to give me a topic, just to get going (by now my voice had reached that self-loathy whiny pitch). His response (after rolling his eyes): "Write a post called 'Ten Things I Hate About Myself'"
My shortlist (and I struggled 'cos I'm pretty full of myself (I hate that too!):
1. I have a serious case of Adult Onset ADD - so much gets my attention. The older I get, the more wildly fascinated I get about pretty much everything around (and not around) me.
2. I'm still not married. And this deservedly after passing up/being a complete tool to the women I've loved.
3. I'm still pretty pissed off at the majority of my family for disappearing for 25years. Finding it hard to forgive and forget though I really should because I've already lost 25years.
4. I've started so many cool things with awesome humans, only to bail midway or switch to silent mode unexplicably. I'm sorry guys, I'm working at that and much better these days.
5. For my colleagues: I know I have a gazillion useful, profitable projects in various stages of dev. I'm working on closing the loops and the PMP training is really helping.
6. I make way too many altered state jokes/quips.
7. I'm becoming a bit of a no-sugar fascist after quitting most forms of refined sugar. If you see me snarling at your "4 spoons of sugar in coffee" habit, understand I just quit a really unhealthy habit and am feeling kinda proud.
8. I'm a model example of overpromise-underdeliver. I'm not lazy or stupid. I'm just now, learning to scope required resources/constraints more accurately. Still, I hate that I didn't fix this sooner.
9. I suffer from cobler's children syndrome. My blog needs a new coat of paint and some depth, like a few account managers from a supplier or two I know.
10. I can be pretty sharp-tongued at times (see #9). I often don't see the pain that ensues. This sucks and I wanna do something more inspiring with my tongue.
That's some of my laundry out in the open folks ...
A fun start to a whole slew of content I hope reveals how I go about making sense of the planet and navigating information age challenges, all the while patching my personal suck.
In closing, more evidence of the Stopforth's legendary motivational skill:
[10:32:58 - Mike]: just promoted ur blog on twitter thinking you'd posted about strat prof there
alas not! :P
[10:33:09 - Mike]: now you better blog plonker
[10:35:42 - Carl]: dude - it terrified me into writing a post right now - almost done and publishing in 3omins
[10:36:01 - Mike]: HAHAHAHA
[10:36:03 - Mike]: loool
Mike Stopforth has left the conversation.
11. I worry about being called a "plonker".
Yup, it's true, I own a share ... ONE Share in 
1. I embrace the principle "It's never too late to have a happy childhood" - this can be evidenced by: my collection of action figures; Silver Surfer and Green Lantern comics; inflatable spidey; lego robotics and expansion sets; love for the word monkey or anything to do with monkeys; focus on the dessert menu at restaurants and love of anything but breakfast cereal for breakfast. How cool is ice cream for breakfast? How cool is it many, many weeks in a row? .. of course that gave rise to me signing up for personal training/coaching with 
2. I spent plenty of time growing up on a farm, Adamantia Ranch, in 
4. I made a 'guest appearance' on the national 8pm evening news, without even knowing it. I was in one of the last groups of SA lads to be conscripted to compulsory military service, trained as an operational medic and deployed in the Kruger National Park. One evening, just past midnight, my radio went bezerk calling for medical assistance along the kaftan (the electrified barrier with razorwire, that separates South Africa and Mozambique). Frelimo and Renamo where at it again and the battle had spilled over into the town of Rosano Garcia. Locals in the villages fled to the SA border and those who had blankets hurled them on the fence and climbed over, many didn't have that luxury and hurled themselves on the fence while others climbed over them, with mothers throwing their children over (SADF had turned off the current so the only menace left was the razorwire, which left no refugee's hands and legs unscathed). I grabbed my assistant and most of the supplies in my sick bay and hurtled toward the scene in our Mfezi (land-mine 'resistant' military ambulance). Being first on the scene, we sorted the group of about 80 refugees in order of severity of injuries and began treating them. The press from nearby Komatiepoort arrived and captured me on film, at work injecting and bandaging and suturing frantically. 2 medics, 80 casualties. 4 hours later we were done and the local SAP trucks arrived to take the refugees back to Mozambique for processing by their own government.