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Guiding Light

Most folk who know me, know I lost my father when I was 14 years old.  However, before he passed, he shared a timeless secret with me—a practice that would shape my life in ways I could never have imagined. He didn't teach me meditation in the traditional sense, with incense and crossed legs. Instead, he showed me how to meditate by gazing at a lone light on the ceiling.  When I was very young, I had night terrors that would wake me in the middle of the night. I'm sure it was terribly frustrating to calm a child from that. But my father had the way. I never understood how he came to the practice. But over the years, I've come to understand that my father's unique approach to meditation was, in fact, a profound lesson in mindfulness and presence. In a nearly pitch black room, he would tell me to find a speck of light, not unlike a star. Then focus. He would say, "Just watch the light, like you're watching a story unfold. Be the observer, not the thinker." I...

New Life

  It's weird, sad and slightly freeing. I've been headed towards a completely different life for a lot longer than I even knew. It took me a while to catch up to realize it was happening.  Thankfully, I was cognizant enough to see it finally and mostly ready for it. It's amazing when you have the rug completely pulled out from underneath you. The adjustments are jarring.  I made mistakes, but like most I learned from them, adapted, and tried my best to do better. The reason you see that truck next to a storage place? That's the sum of my life right now.  Never take for granted that you will work hard for something or someone, and it will end up meaning very little. You are guaranteed nothing, owed nothing, promised nothing. Anything and everything can be taken away in a heartbeat.  I wrote this to my kids a while back: I tried to be the best father I could be based on what I knew when I knew it and how I could. One of the lessons for your life needs to be: you n...

Check out my appearance on the The Toddcast Podcast

Click and watch the podcast recording of my appearance on the Toddcast Podcast  Such a fun time! 

Thanksgiving 2020

 

The Necessity of Journaling

I've undergone a radical change in my life recently. I'll leave the details for another time, but needless to say- it was not entirely desired, anticipated, and completely different from the road I thought my life was going to be on for the better part of the last two decades. I've read tons of self-help articles. Watched myriad YouTube videos about self-compassion, self-love, self-care...  Three things have stood out in previous experiences and this one that have made a huge difference from the last time my life diverged as much as it has this time. 1. Mediation, self-reflection, is a total game changer. I did this before and it works. How you do it doesn't matter. There are plenty of places that talk about how, but the first time I knew this and it worked- which is probably why I am relatively sane this time around. 2. Completely different this time. I have my dog. Zuri, the yellow lab. She has been a life-saver in many ways, but the main is to illustrate and remind m...

A #New365

Well, I was sort of looking for my NEW 365daysofHappyforTodd. I found it. Today, starts a new clock towards towards the end of another year. A New Year. I'll be kind, but for those that know- please help me celebrate.  I could get all #cliche and talk about #newme #startingover #yadayadayada But, I don't want to. I just want to commemorate. Not a lot of people looked or cared about #365DaysofHappyforTodd That's okay. I was doing it for me.  I would like your best "getting through" song though- that would be cool!  Just like this #NewTodd sounds lame right? 

Working Yourself Out of Job

I wrote this blog post a few years ago:  https://www.toddlyden.com/2011/06/my-job.html Wow, how times have changed. One has graduated from a radiology program is a gainfully employed human being. Amanda, keep doing what you do.  One is about to go to college for a program he loves with friends he loves. Josh, you are going to do GREAT things.   One is entering her second year of high school in one of the most turbulent times of ANYONE's life- and she is still one of the most caring and optimistic people I've ever met. I like to think as a parent I had a role in all of this.  In my old post, I describe being a parent as the toughest job you'll ever love. I love that I can say that these three made it easy.  The sad job about being a parent? You work yourself out of job. That kinda sucks. But look forward to being there for these awesome humans as they continue to do their best.  Will touch up my tattoo soon, but it like these guys isn't going anywhere s...

Takes a Lickin'

I want to tell you a story, but I am going to show you the result first. You can see on my largely shorn and large cranium in the picture toward the back left is an indentation. That little dark line that's about an inch long. The story is from a late 70's winter in Northwestern Pennsylvania where I spent my grade school years. One winter, as the kids in the neighborhood did, I went out to play across the field to play next door in the snow. It was typically cold and snowy as you would expect. Like feet deep. Not the wimpy precipitation of eastern North Carolina (which is exactly why I live here and not there). My mother bundled me like that little kid in "A Christmas Story." I had the snowsuit on. Multiple layers of socks. Gloves, a toboggan. I began to step out into the cold from our back porch where there was an old screen storm door. As I opened the door and stepped out, a GIGANTIC icicle came down and landed smack on my head. Now I was pulled int...

Locked Out of Linkedin?

I hate being a nitpick. But you Linkedin users who are using your business email to signup and use the platform might be in for a rude awakening. You DO NOT OWN that email. You WILL LEAVE that position someday. And when it happens, man... I'll let Andrew Brandt explain it much better than I , but how hard is it to just use your personal email?

#365DaysofHappyforTodd

I like to think that most people think of me as a pretty happy person. I am, for the most part. I went through some 360 Leadership training earlier this year and did some goal orienting and yada yada yada. Anyhoo, the end result was some good introspection. One thing that occurred in the outside looking in was that I actually have a lot to be happy about and gratitude is something to be shared and enjoyed. Not to be bragging, not to be a show-off, just to say "I'm happy, and thankful." Did you know that they can tell if you are depressed by analyzing your Facebook? https://www.wired.com/story/your-facebook-posts-can-reveal-if-youre-depressed/ So, I saw something call the 100DaysofHappy and of course there are 365daychallenges, you name it. I decided to challenge myself to share at least one thing every day that makes me happy. I'd LOVE to know what makes you happy too. Use the hashtag #365daysofhappyfortodd (seriously, no one is using it). Shar...

Post-Endgame MCU Team Theory

I've got this crazy idea. I think Marvel left the playing field open in the post "Avengers:Endgame" landscape for a new super-team. Back in the pre-Netflix days, there was a super team called "The Defenders." It's not much of a spoiler to disclose that Dr. Strange has come out intact after Endgame (they've announced a sequel movie). So right out of the gate you have the first member of this team up as you can tell from the comic cover. The second member, who always has trouble being in Marvel films due to rights issues with Universal is Mark Ruffalo's Hulk. He is a little different after the movie, but still available and would be a fantastic addition. The odd-man out in the cover is Namor the Submariner. Marvel has claimed that they wanted to make a version of this for years, but it was buried in the Fox deal because he was always lumped in with the Fantastic Four. I have never liked the idea and now that DC has their Aquaman...

My 2018 Movie Review Post

I have not done a movie review post since 2016, but I thought I would take a look back at 2018 and see how I did with the US movie box office. I posted in order the movies by US take and was amazed how many I did not bother or haven't seen as of yet.  1              Black Panther -    while we shouldn't be surprised considering the pedigree and the resources behind this picture, it is still remarkable how successful this movie is on virtually every level. Yes, it does have some shoddy CGI towards the end and the finale battle doesn't quite work or feel quite right, but otherwise as the recent Oscars bear out- the individual parts all worked in such concert it is amazing to think that this was only the third feature from the director.    2              Avengers: Infinity War - a multi-year exercise over different franchises and...

Rural Voters HATE Hillary

via GIPHY I can't believe I'm finally writing this but why not? Hillary is so tone-deaf to how she lost, I don't need to read her book to understand how Trump was able to beat her with or without Russian assistance. Let's just look at the county where I work which is quintessential rural North Carolina and increasingly representative of rural America. At the end of the post, you will find the results of the last six elections going back to 2000. EXCEPT for Bush's re-election year in 2004 (which you will notice was VERY close), the DEMOCRAT has carried the county by at least a "clear majority." UNTIL this past election. That's right. A county that clearly went for Gore in 2000, Obama TWICE (with even an increase in votes for his re-election), CLEARLY rejected Hillary Clinton. Now before you turn this into a Clinton thing. Be clear: Bill Clinton CLOBBERED Bush in 1992 in Bladen with 55% of the vote and then repeated that statistic against D...

Paraphrasing, Re-Wording, Copying, Stealing

Seriously, there are times when I wish I weren't so jaded about the state of what happens on the internet. Here are the results when you run that sentence through Google:  https://www.google.com/search?q=I+wish+I+weren%27t+so+jaded+about+the+state+of+what+happens+on+the+internet.&oq=I+wish+I+weren%27t+so+jaded+about+the+state+of+what+happens+on+the+internet I ran that same sentence through several FREE online plagiarism detectors. Thankfully, Quetext did not find a copy. Searchenginereports was 100% clean. Even NoPlag.com came back ok. Why do I ramble about this? Because I have found yet one more example of "re-worded" plagiarism of one "business consultant" of another's work.  I won't tell you where I found these examples, but based on the dates of the sites, this paragraph came out first in 2015:  "The definition of success is a very personal one. It’s unique to each individual and only they can know if they’ve reached it. Unfort...

Dear Founder, Don't Be the Bad Waiter

Photo by Alvaro Serrano Dear Founder/Marketing Head/Product Development/Customer Funtime Lead, I am just writing this vague and boilerplate email to repond to the Nth Billionth email I've received from one of you with regards to your freemium, SAAS product/app of choice. Look, if I had questions or concerns about your product, I am a smart enough guy to find the email, contact page, or bot that you call a chat module to get an answer. If you want feedback, you really do need to give me enough time to actually use your product. Emailing me a mere day or two after I have only signedup for the product is not enough time for me to evaluate something. It finally occurred to me that you are like the waitress who comes back to the table right after dropping the food and asking if I like it before I've even begun to chew. So please, stop. Just don't bother. Use your email for advertising or something else, but pestering a potential client like this is a pretty good ...

Clean Up Your Linkedin

909. That's how many "connections" I had amassed on Linkedin since January 2009. Well, I just "Hoovered" my connections. I went down the list, bit by bit, and removed a whopping 203 from the pile. Sadly, some of the folks had passed. I'd say about 1/4 never really used the platform at all even if I knew them well enough. I'd say another 1/4 might have meant to use the platform, but switched jobs, lost interest, or just didn't bother. It was surprising the number who had duplicate and even triplicate accounts (?) I was really surprised by the number of what I would consider "high profile" people I know that have poorly executed Linkedin accounts. I'm not in an area where Linkedin is perceived as a networking opportunity, but it is. I get requests DAILY from people I have no clue who they are. Somehow they found me. For some reason, they deem me important enough to get in their circles. I suspect it was just because it looked li...

2016 in Movies

Somewhere back when, I used to talk about movies on this blog. I thought I might take a look at the box office winners this year to see what I have seen and give you some of my thoughts... I went down as far as 25! 1. Captain America: Civil War - Did exactly what it needed to do. Wish that we could have seen the movie without the "civil war" that was PROBABLY planned BEFORE they got RDJ involved.  2. Finding Dory - Not a bad sequel, but really added nothing to the overall appeal of a much better predecessor.  3. Zootopia - One of the gems of the year. This will be rewatched if not rehashed with the eventual sequel. 4. The Jungle Book (2016) - Sorry, I could NOT get past the CGI backgrounds. I don't care what people say, the animal effects were largely ok, but I could never see past the GREEN SCREEN on this one. And a sequel?  5. The Secret Life of Pets - STILL HAVE NOT SEEN. Good or bad?  6. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice - Edit about 45 minutes and th...