Jericho: Other Plans

"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."

John Lennon

For those of you that don't know, I'm participating in that most American of yearly rituals: I am dieting.

I'm keeping a little blog about it. That blog is very different from this one. Early on as a bloggist, I built a hatred of those blogs that A) people magically found time to write in everyday and B) were about the inane stuff that we do everyday. Really, do people actually want to know what you had for lunch and when you went to bed? It turns out that in many cases, yes, yes people do want to know. Regardless, I didn't want to write that way.

I've always tried to write in this blog about larger subjects: Politics, Science, Entertainment and my gripes and opinions. I've wanted to tell the story about larger things that happen in my life. Turns out I lead a very small life, so I don't write out here as often as I would like. But, when I do write, I usually write some big post about the big thing that happened.

The new blog is very different. As of this writing, it has fifteen entries, written the last fifteen days. I have cataloged my food intake and if I got in any exercise or not - doesn't get much more inane than that. Do people care if I have powdered eggs for breakfast or not? Maybe they do - but I don't care if they do. I write in IWDC for public consumption. I want everyone to read it. I write in the new blog to help keep me on my diet. If a few people read it and get something out of it - great.

It's just a very different outlook on blogging for me. I've spent the last five+ years trying to figure out a way to make a blog pay for itself and maybe a little more. I've completely failed at this. This new blog is just for me and anyone else that can stand reading it.

The diet itself has had a rocky start. I'm still on it, two weeks in. I've had several diets not make it even this far.

A friend of mine, nearly twenty years ago said, and I'm paraphrasing, that time passes no matter what you do. It's what you do with that time that counts. Sounds a lot like the quote above from Mr. Lennon. These two wise people were trying to teach me a lesson, a lesson that I have struggled to learn. I still struggle with it. I am a child of Mtv. I want everything to happen in the length of a sitcom. I want life to start, climax and resolve problems in a half hour minus commercials. Real life doesn't work that way.

So, if I'm on a diet and can stay on the diet as time passes, I am likely to see results. If I start a diet, it doesn't mean anything. I have to follow through. Buying a drum doesn't mean I know how to play drums. There are hours of practice, trial and error to come. Same with my writing and other studies I want to pursue. Yet, my brain is programmed that if I start something, I've accomplished that thing.

I need to start fewer things and finish more things. I need to learn that once some things are started, for them to work, they will NEVER finish. I need to learn patience and discipline.

I still have a lot of growing up to do.