Who do I still think I am??

This one's about solace, vacations, and the 3rd.

30DBC PROMPT: "Where do you find solace? Is it through a quote or by some other means? Take this anywhere you want and be creative.", courtesy of Prosperous Snow celebrating .

Hey folks! It's Friday, meaning we've survived another week and managed to save enough energy to talk about it...unless you're me and are lacking the motivation to accomplish anything more than the bare minimum for the rest of the weekend. Yup...it's been one of those "let's see how much stuff we can blow off" kinda days.

But that's good, because it means I can complain a little bit with a fresh summer weekend to back me up. How many of y'all just wanna kick back this Saturday and Sunday and not do a damn thing? That's what I thought...and the rest of you are liars!! The only thing is...I don't really have anything to stop me from gettin' my nothin' on.

And that leads me in a roundabout way to finding solace. Now, just because I don't get all worked up externally about the times that life has decided to hit me with a taser, that doesn't mean I'm not dealing with the pain internally. I find that there's way too many people walking this planet who want you to care about their problems, but forgot who you are when the opportunity for reciprocation presents itself. Funny how society works, especially when you're the kind of person who gets caught pretending to care often enough that you eventually find yourself caring too much   about situations you probably should've stayed as far away from as possible in the first place.

That's not to say I regret helping people out in the past, even when they've turned around and it's bitten me in the ass. I take comfort in knowing I try to do the right thing by people, and I'm very aware that it could just as easily be me in their kicks. It sounds so cliché, but everybody goes through struggles and needs a hand once in awhile (that wasn't what I was gonna say, but I took a sip of water and totally forgot where I was goin' with that sentence...if it happens again, I'm banning the practice of drinking water when I write). Ah yes, solace...yeah, no matter what you're going through, chances are someone's always got it worse off than you. I know that what I say should apply to me too, and I get that it's not always easy to understand, because we see our problems on a 24/7 basis and with more scrutiny than, say, a coworker or a teacher would. It's hard to put aside what we're going through long enough to try and help somebody else, but sometimes helping out others is the best way to fix some of the things that are broken with us. And the rest of the stuff that isn't taken care of right away? Hopefully there's enough karma saved up that your troubles are never as bad as they first appear to be.

BCF PROMPT: "For vacations, do you prefer middle-of-nowhere or urban areas?"

It depends...where do I wanna go? I've stayed in some decent cities, but I've also had the "get out in the middle of nowhere" trips, and as long as you're not punchin' a clock, both have their merits. I think another thing to consider is this: is your primary reason for going away so you can visit someone, or are you merely sightseeing in a less-familiar location? That's huge, especially if you're staying with the people you're visiting...you're not just on your own time; you're as much on someone else's schedule as your hosts are dealing with someone else using their bathroom in the morning.

Since I prefer things like minimal confrontation and the desire not to put anyone out, I guess that means I'd rather be in the middle of what's "nowhere" to me...somewhere that I've never been to, but that has the ability to be explored. Mainly because I need certain amenities like running water, electricity, wifi and decent restaurants to eat at, and if I'm travelling by myself then going out into the middle of "true nowhere" is pretty much asking to end up as the victim of a serial killer. If you're lost in an area where nobody knows you're lost, I think that means nobody can find you. That's like a dead zone of wilderness; the fell-through-the-cracks scenario of not knowing where you are in an area that most of the rest of the population considers "nowhere". At least if you get lost in an urban area and somebody tries to jack you for your wallet, you can try to ask the masked bandit where the nearest Starbucks is, and he might tell you (if you're in an urban setting of lesser hostilities and moderate manners). In the wild, you know you're screwed when the animals and foliage start shrugging back at you.

MUSICAL BREAK!!

Rest in peace to a musical legend, Mr. Bobby Womack.

THE DAILY BOX SCORE:

"Third time is the charm. What does that mean to you? Tell us about one of those times."

It means I'm the charm, yo. I share the exact same name as my father and his father, making me the guy who signs his name with the Roman numeral for 3. Sure, like most of you there were others before me but there'll never be another one quite like me afterwards...and no, there will not be a fourth (if I had a dollar for every time someone asked me that, I probably could've biologically engineered a me of your own that you could christen anything you damn well please).

There are many different ways of thinking and looking at this prompt, but good things come in threes (in my opinion). Except feet. There's problems if ya got three feet. How many things do you know of that are sold by the dozen, or in a thirty-day supply? Twelve and thirty are both multiples of three. Nirvana was a three-piece band, as was Run-DMC. Christmas has the Three Wise Men, and three outs ends a half-inning in baseball. This blog I'm appearing at you in happens to be my third on WDC. What isn't the number three good for?

You might be waiting for me to tell you.

Nobody remembers who came in third place, or prefers being the "third wheel" on a date. I've had three different surgical procedures on my left ankle, and now the longest I can walk without pain is about three blocks. I played third base for less than one inning of freshman baseball in high school...and I made three straight errors on balls hit to me. Most of the popular movies made in the seventies, eighties and nineties that warranted a second sequel (thereby making it the third movie in the franchise) were terrible (except for Rocky III...that was pretty bad-ass).

So what does it all mean? Numbers are arbitrary when using them to judge something. Except me. I may be Norb #3 on the family tree, but (well, unless you know other Norbs, which is a possibility I guess), I'll always be the #1 Norb to you.

I've been meaning to post this link all week about the real reason for the 40-hour workweek  , but I've kept forgetting...further proof that the odds are usually stacked against you unless you can find something you love doing, in which case you'll never have to "work" a day in your life.

I shouldn't say I've lacked motivation the entire day...I did manage to go down to turn in my old college transcript (finally) at the college I applied at (although there might be concerns that it won't be considered an "official" copy because the program that helped me obtain it had to unseal it in order to mark it as "received" on their end). That means I'm one step closer to going back to school in the fall. If all goes well and there's no flap over the "officialness" of my less-than-stellar community college grades from twenty years ago, I should be able to register for classes around the second week of July. And what's even better is the local extension of the school I'd be attending is only two blocks away (as opposed to a 25-minute bus ride)...and according to the schedule they had posted near their entrance, it's possible some of my classes could be held there this year. That would very much be ideal, especially in the winter.

And just like that, we're at the end of another entry...I think I'm gonna skip out on trying to catch up on all the things I meant to do this afternoon and cash in my tired eyes for hopefully some meaningful rest with the idea that I'll be able to tackle everything I've got lined up for the rest of the weekend during the day tomorrow. That includes making some selections for this coming month's Blogging Bliss newsletter, which is coming out on Monday (so you should probably subscribe to it now if you haven't already...ask me how and I'll show you the way)...I was supposed to do that today and by the time I realized it I nearly shut off my laptop and declared today over by a landslide. I'll knock that out as part of the first thing I do tomorrow. Anything else? I don't know...it's bedtime for this kid. Peace, this love is electric, and GOODNIGHT NOW!!