Sometimes I get into dry spells here at RJsCorner where I just can’t think of something for my daily posts. When that occurs I usually pull up a quote that strikes me from my list at iHearts143Quotes.com. That is the … Continue reading One Small Thought…
This post is going to be about how robots have replaced humans in a significant segment of our industrial complex. I will say up front that I deem this as progress. Human dexterity is just not a precise thing. We are incapable of producing the accuracy of today’s workplace. We are imprecise creatures and in some way that makes us creative creatures and that is something that machines won’t soon replace. When I bought my first new car in 1970 the saying “don’t buy a car made on a Friday or Monday” was something to take seriously. The reason for that … Continue reading Human Dexterity…
This post is a continuation of the discernment period I recently spent on thought of where I go from here. I retired from the corporate world fifteen years ago and from my own business nine years ago. Since then I have struggled with my retirement years. Part of that struggle is due to the very different approaches to life between myself and my spouse. I love her dearly but we are two very different people. She is content with living a simple life of computer games, puzzles, TV, and naps. It is all she needs to have a fulfilled life. … Continue reading Insight 3 — Personal Time… Doing Your Own Thing
One thing that helped me during my recent discernment period was a book by Ernie Zelinski entitled: How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free. Ernie has written several very popular books about retirement. I don’t really know what drew me to this one but it was worth the effort as it addressed many of my concerns that other books on retirement have not. It seemed this book was mainly a collection of clichés but that was ok. It was what I needed. Let’s talk about a quote from that book: Regardless of how talented you are and how successful you are in the workplace, there is some … Continue reading Insight 1 — Waiting For Fate…
I seem to talk about boredom pretty frequently on this blog but I have never tried to specify just what that means to me. So let’s do a little of that for this post. As usual we will go to Wikipedia; here are some bits and pieces: Boredom is an emotional state experienced when an individual is left without anything in particular to do… The first recorded use of the word boredom is in the novel Bleak House by Charles Dickens, written in 1852 There are three types of boredom, all of which involve problems of engagement of attention. These include times when we are prevented from engaging in … Continue reading Just What Is Boredom….
The title of this post is a quote from a not very famous person but it has some deep meaning for me. Actually it is something I wrote in my personal journal about a year ago. 🙂 I often times like to look back to what I wrote about the previous year just to compare to where I am now. Last year I was just getting over some rather troubled times. I often wonder if I am living my life as fully and fruitfully as I desire. The feeling of a lack of personal accomplishment often drives me to various … Continue reading A Bored Mind Is A Moody Mind….
This is a continuation of my previous post about boredom and apathy. In high school not much changed as far as a lack of a challenge. One of the things I did enjoy there was writing essays. That activity gave me free rein to say what I wanted and I always easily got A’s for my work. Unfortunately I was never guided toward an avocation that would have exercised that talent I definitely showed even in my early days.
After high school college came. That is where I came upon the first real challenges in thinking. Again I excelled in English Comp classes without much effort and the electrical engineering classes I took were challenging but not particularly enjoyable to me. That should have given me a clue that I was in the wrong major but being a naive farm kid that I was that just didn’t occur to me that I had options.
Here are some words from a fellow blogger’s page that I kind of borrowed. Thanks Syd for the idea: York University professor John Eastwood explains that boredom is just “wanting to, but being unable to engage in satisfying activity.” He goes on to distinguish boredom from apathy. “The [bored] person is not engaged but wants to be. With apathy, he said, there is no urge to do something.” The above quote really got me to thinking about my life so I am going to spend the next couple of posts on the topic of boredom. Boredom and apathy, where to … Continue reading Boredom, My Personal Journey — Part 1
Source: The jobs are there, the education is not – USATODAY.com. This disparity has come to be known as the “skills gap” — the divide between the jobs American businesses need to fill and the jobs Americans are qualified to do. Research shows that approximately 90% of the jobs in the fastest-growing occupations in our economy require some level of postsecondary education and training. And 80 million to 90 million adults today — about half of our current workforce — do not have the skills needed to acquire or advance in jobs that pay a family-sustaining wage. Where once we had … Continue reading The jobs are there, the education is not…
Yes, even we seniors should embrace most changes in our lives. For one thing it keeps our times on earth interesting. For another it keeps us out of potentially harmful ruts we tend to get into. Change seems by nature to be something that humans adamantly resist. We tend to most often fear it rather than embrace it. This fact leads to nothing but varying degrees of misery in our lives. Change is going to happen whether you want it to or not; that is just a fact of life. How we handle it is what is important. As I have said … Continue reading Embracing Change….
After such a heavy post the last time this one just must be lighter. Back in November I announced that I was starting up a hobby room in my barn to set up a slot car track with Lego buildings. I did quite a bit of research but the planning it seems was more rewarding than the actual doing. 🙂 I got the basic tracks all built and put together a half dozen Lego projects and then pretty much abandoned the idea. I haven’t been out there in almost a month now! This project started with the remembrances of my Dad … Continue reading I Tried but……
I like most people I guess, seem to go through my life concentrating mainly on the giant leaps. Getting my driver’s license, my first legal drink, the first job, getting married, retiring, etc, etc. These always seem to be things I am waiting for. But I have come to realize that by far most of life is the little steps. Those things we choose to do day in and day out are mainly what defines the quality of our lives. This is a difficult lesson for me to learn even in my retirement years. I by no means have … Continue reading Life is Mainly Little Steps…
RJ's Corner 