Saturday Evening Post

It has been a quiet week at The M3 Blog, but that does not mean the week has had nothing worth reporting. Clyde has a question, as you may well expect. It is already dark, so grab a cuppa and snuggle into a rocker. Let’s talk.

Silence

In an unprecedented turn of events, M3 was dark most of the week. Features long scheduled were left in place so the M3 Readers would not think the place had blown away. I enjoyed reading the spirited discussion with Robin this week, and hope everyone enters again for an autographed copy of REDUCED.

While the series which is drafted remains on only my laptop, I have had much input as to its destination. When I can use the keyboard better than I am at this point, I shall unleash it on M3.

Flash!

Oh. My. Word. This week’s unveiling of the new words for the winter Flash in the Pan sparked the creativity of a few writers. Right out of the gate there are already 24 flashes in the new book! The first one has 78, with a handful more editing.

As redundant as this may be, I am compelled to say it.

The M3 Blog has the most talented audience in the blogosphere.

Bar none, you are the most prolific and talented group of writers and authors with which I have ever worked. I appreciate your talent and effort.

Counting Down

One thing I could never have foreseen when I set the launch date for Redmund Productions was the ten days I would lose to my hand. While the burn is not an issue, the paralysis of my hand is. I have had to regroup. At this juncture, one of two things is going to have to happen.

Sleep will not occur. I strictly do not have enough hours remaining to pull off the coding and the content for launch. Alternatively, I will need to trim the amount of content, which is not something I am readily willing to do.

Before anyone panics, I am not talking about cutting books from the launch. I am talking about the ancillary support documents and public interface for Redmund. Since a large portion of the site will be for members only, it is necessary to create a public area where there will be information available to surfers.

While I am comfortable trimming the members’ area, I am not the public areas.

Recruiting. I may be to the stage where I must enlist outside (possibly uninvested) help for the site build. Clyde is going to talk about why later, so I am going to give the orang some space.

Books!

Let me say it again. Oh. My. Word.

The rewrites are rolling in, and they are wonderful. I am the first one to admit editing can be painful. Despite press releases to the contrary, it is just as painful for the editor as the author.

Based on knowledge which is not readily available, most authors are blissfully unaware their effort to make their manuscripts “pretty” is really, truly, honestly a

PITA

All of the work authors go to making their manuscripts look great on their computers has to be deleted. Most of it one character at the time… that means by hand. I have broken the delete key off of my computer in removing more than 26,000 words from manuscripts. Most authors cannot look at what I send them back and see any difference.

In the realm of the known, notes being sent to the authors have been well-received. The editors and beta readers have been making constructive suggestions and the authors have said, “Oh, wow! I missed that.” This level of receptiveness is wonderful. It lets me know we are all on the same page, knowing everyone involved wants these to be the best books on the market.

Mantra

Of the things missed this week by readers, Friday Follies and Muse for Monday were the ones which got the most mail, not hatemail, mail. Over the course of the last three months, Mantra has taken a turn to the dark side. I have been unwilling to expose much of what she writes in this genre. However…

Next week, you will get a taste of Mantra’s next book. If you had asked me when MFM was released if I thought I would pull off another book, especially another book of verse, on top of the two in the launch, I would have checked you for fever. Leave it to Mantra to not adhere to human conventions.

Mantra’s Midnight is the name of the new book of poetry. Its subtitle is Dark Poetry.

With more than a dozen poems already on pages and another dozen in her notebook, Mantra is well on the way to finishing another book.

Right Turn, Clyde!

Right turn, Clyde.

It seems there are people who are invested and those who are uninvested. As is often the case with humans, some people are both. Orangutans do not seem to think this is wholly plausible.

We have talked extensively of emotional capital. We invest in our endeavors emotionally and financially, with time and resources. When we do, we are completely invested.

When we are uninvested, we have put nothing into a project or venture; therefore, do not feel there is anything to lose.

Where we muddle between uninvested and invested is in far more instances than we want to admit. No? How about the largest example? Occupation.

Our jobs often become our primary identity token. The only way to assume our jobs as a moniker is to invest ourselves in them. We do it. We all do it.

  • Stress about deadlines.
  • Get angry about missed opportunities.
  • Call on personal experience to solve corporate issues.
  • Employ empathy and sympathy for coworkers.
  • Forgo health concerns to accomplish corporate objectives.

Often, we are so close to the job, we fail to see what stares us in the face. In those instances, it is best to call on someone who is completely uninvested to fix the problems we either do not see or do not want to admit are our own work product.

Upside Down

The most common fallout to this behavior is the neglect we show to other activities. We allot time and emotional capital to our occupations. While emotional capital can be rechargeable and can be borrowed, time is finite. Of all the resources at your disposal, time is the only one for which you cannot bargain.

In order to devote time and energy to all of the events which fall outside our corporate worlds, we have to do it by budgeting. In order to budget, you must prioritize. Think about your finances.

In order to afford a vacation, you know you have to have an extra $500. To get it, you know you cannot spend money on extra laziness (stopping for take out) or leisure (extra buckets of balls) or luxury (pay per view). You sacrifice the “want to”s in favor of a much bigger “want to”.  You have to make the choice: To spend money on a vacation I must prioritize saving money as the only vehicle to do it.

Why are we not applying that principle to the rest of our lives?

Cue Ape

What happens when we are uninvested in the places where we really should be invested?

The biggest example of this is taking for granted. We invest in pursuing a relationship and get distracted by all the shiny things. Once we have Mate, whether to have and hold or merely to lie beside on occasion, we do not continue to invest at the level we did during conquest.

Why not?

We have prioritized getting Mate is important, but failed entirely to prioritize keeping Mate. All of the saved investment is being spent elsewhere. We take for granted: Mate is here now. Why would Mate not stay right where we put Mate? After all, didn’t we go to all that trouble to hoist Mate up there onto the shelf where we can admire and worship when we have time? Didn’t we do a great job of accommodating Mate’s feelings during courtship? Why is Mate distracted and nagging for attention or even acknowledgement?

Because Mate is human.

When you moved into your house, you had spent months/years arranging the money for the down payment; being certain you earned enough to pay the mortgage and the taxes; and even making budget adjustments for insurance and minor repairs.

What happened the first time a pipe burst destroying three rooms of carpet and a bathroom subfloor? Did the air conditioning freeze up in July or did the furnace decide to retire in January? Or was it the garbage disposal doing a Linda Blair impression which subsequently involved replacing a ceiling?

When the repairman arrived the very first question he asked after “Check or charge?” was:

When was the last time this was serviced?”

Did you stand there shifting from foot to foot?

Clyde is curious. In your relationship, when was the last time you serviced it?

Until next time,

Red Signature


I hope you have had an enjoyable week without me. 

© Red Dwyer 2012
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19 Comments

  1. Serviced?? Um, every day I don’t choke them for doing things to annoy me on purpose?? Does that count?

    I was beginning to think I was going to have to read this one when I woke up in the morning. Can you tell patience isn’t my strong point??
    Laurie recently posted..Flash in the Pan: FlashMy Profile

    Reply
    • I know that. I was typing as fast as I can with one hand 😉

      Reply
      • My fingers hurt so bad writing is a chore after a few words, pens are not my friend anymore. I think it’s time to hunt down my voice transcription disk and install it on here. It’ll be hell to train, if I can find the registration information again. Tiny hands make losing things easy. I’m not paying that small fortune again unless I have to.
        Laurie recently posted..Flash in the Pan: FlashMy Profile

        Reply
  2. Interesting comment about investing in the pursuit of a relationship but then losing focus on the maintenance of it. Not very different than the dieting and weight loss craze. People put in time to lose weight, but then after achieving a goal, oftentimes fail to focus on the maintenance objectives.

    On another note, I was wondering why I wasn’t seeing much on M3 the past few days. Seems to me you’ve got your hands full. Not that it has ever stopped you Red. 🙂

    Reply
    • Great to see you, Phil. No, what is keeping me out of the loop is my left hand. At the moment I am restricted to using only my right hand. It makes coding and typing time consuming. All of the voice recognition software is more than five months (at 8-10 hours per day) away from being taught enough to keep up with me, and none of it is geared for php, html or javascript. Short form, I need new hands 😛

      Great example with dieting. Offhand, I can think of quite a few more.

      Reply
  3. It is rarely enjoyable without seeing and reading some of your postings Red, I know that I should be reading all but you know me, I am always too far behind on everyone’s Spaces and it gets worse, no excuses though as it is something that each of us has to solve and hopefully one day I will do just that 🙂

    When you mentioned cutting back, or should I say trimming the content, well I am not surprised in the least as you have taken on a very demanding role at your M3 Space and with the launch of Redmund Productions just around the next corner is there any wonder how difficult it all is, and with the added upset of your burn and the paralysis that is ever present I can understand and appreciate everything that you have said. Actually you could trim the writings too, anything to help you out is a positive and I for one would not mind something being taken out, of course I know that I only wrote two FTP’s last quarter but if it had been more then my thoughts would be exactly the same, after all your wellbeing is much more important Red 🙂

    I think that the extra assistance required to finish the site build is also an optimistic route, I mean once that is up and running, completed, then it is just fitting everything else into the right places and away you go.

    The coding is always such a pain and luckily for us WP users we have none of that to deal with, so I will be pleased for you when all is finished for and then it will be a time to sit back and feel proud of all that you have achieved 🙂

    Have a lovely rest of weekend
    Red and get some quality time
    sorted out for a good rest 🙂 🙂

    Andro xxx

    Reply
    • I am hoping to have my allotted time this week. I have scheduled a day solely for my own benefit. Rigors of schedule be damned. I will also be keeping M3 to the short and sweet which serve my obligations only. I still have posts which were promised. Those will definitely go live.

      And now to find someone who writes the languages I need 😉 Have a wonderful rest of the weekend, Andro. 😀

      Reply
      • You should check some of my friends out, as there are many from different countries, perhaps they would assist? 🙂

        Have a lovely evening now and enjoy it 🙂

        Andro xxx

        Reply
  4. Dearest Red,
    Please do not take option one, no sleep. I am happy to hear that you will be taking a day for yourself. I support your work for us, but more your life and happiness. I hope you can find a balance.

    I learned not to take people for granted. Mate is my number one go-to for reestablishing connections every day. Some days I can only see or talk to him for a short time. But this time is of value to me, and I make sure he knows I haven’t forgotten what he has brought into my life. I don’t think I’ll change. If I do, I have learned from experience that I will lose and suffer the consequences.

    Gailxxx
    Gail Thornton recently posted..Poetry Book Review – Mantra for a Muse, by Red DwyerMy Profile

    Reply
    • I am in a much calmer part of the storm at the moment. Now for some hard core coding for a few days 😉 xxx

      Reply
  5. I hope you get back the full use of your hand soon.

    I think most of us take far too many things for granted. And like you say, we tend to invest a lot of effort getting or achieving something, and then once we have it end up ignoring it or moving on to some other objective, as if these things are merely something to check off a list.
    Binky recently posted..Run Away FrazMy Profile

    Reply
    • Oh, Peter, I wish I could. I lost 60% of the use of my left hand when I had a stroke. About the best I get is down to 40%, but it is often short-lived. I am just glad to be off burn restriction. The burn is nearly gone and will probably be unnoticeable in less than a year.

      I think you are right about the check list. So many people are focused on just getting whatever it is and not worried about holding onto or even caring about it once they have it. Sad really.

      Reply
  6. I must agree with Gail–taking the ‘no sleep ‘ option is a bad move. We all need rest. 4:00 am is not a good time to try to sleep as I have found out.
    Give that hand a rest, too, Red–it will pay off in the long run. “:)
    raymond alexander kukkee recently posted..In the Eye of the BeholderMy Profile

    Reply
    • The hand is long running all by its lonesome. Funny that. Paralysis has a way of saying, “I am not doing that,” which is a mite difficult to argue 😛

      Reply
  7. Get well soon my friend! 🙂

    Love and hugs!

    Prenin.
    prenin recently posted..Sunday – a little crushed…My Profile

    Reply
  8. Ah Red, don’t burn yourself out (no, I’m not trying to be cute here). Sleep, yes. Day off, please do.
    You mention ‘relationship being serviced’. What crosses my mind is you have so many irons in the fire, HOW will you keep them up afterwards? At what cost to you healthwise?

    Do take care, Red and congratulations on Mantra’s Midnight. Love the title too.
    Tess Kann recently posted..Grandma is a VAMP!My Profile

    Reply
    • I am doing better with the scheduling than I had been. Now, it is the coding which is making me absolutely bats 😉 Fortunately, most of these jobs now are not wheels I will need to continue to fuel. I am quite adept at changing the tires when need be 😉

      Reply
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