11/24/2013 53

Channeling...moving from -27 to +27
There has been significant progress on physical, electronic and psychological transition from the past 27 to the next 27.  Thinking of past work people, tasks, responsibilities...well everything was taking too much time.  There was no positive, progressive outcome to those backward looking thoughts but when you think about an organizational network every waking hour for 27 years it's a tough cycle to break.  

Rarely do I have trouble going to sleep and if I turn on the radio sleep comes within moments.  After a few nights where backward thoughts delayed that transition I had an idea.  I think about a lot of things but trying to transition at those more frustrating moments to thinking about any of a lot of things did not work so I made a mental list of three topics that I enjoy.  Now I just switch on the "three things" list.  This working well and is part of +27.

My personal network of other employees, owners, vendors and contractors has also been sort of a -27 disappointment.  I'm focused now on new people, new connections.  It's entirely possible that the key to +27 lies not in the past network (sorry LHH) but more in the future.  It's entirely possible that that is what LHH has been saying but it's taken a while to hear it.

Prior to 1982 I did not own any computers.  Most of us just went to work to do computer sorts of things (like programming).  Over the years a lot of PCs ended up here.  During the month of SEP I recycled all the dead, ailing and old computers and monitors and a cubic yard or two of power adapters and miscellaneous cables and drives.  That was good but I keep finding more.

In 1982 I spent no time at home doing computer things.  Now I spend hours per week, actually probably per day, doing real tasks, looking things up, writing (like this), managing money, etc.  I'm not sure I like this.  It detracts from things like outside activities, good books, stacking firewood, etc.  I'm seriously considering some sort of off-grid time.  It's really more an off-PC and/or off-smartphone time than off-grid but I did not want to load up Gimp ( a free sort of Photoshop tool) and create a new graphic.  I'll do that tomorrow after checking the job boards, making a few more connections on LinkedIn, tracking world events on Twitter and sharing pointless information and links on Facebook.  How much off-grid time do I need.  My former neighbor, a retired architect, was obsessive about his yard work but took Sundays off.  I might try a day a week.  Perhaps off-grid time would include time doing thing like this, writing.  Longhand is too tedious and I disposed of my typewriter probably in 1984, about two or three years into my PC life.  

I'm increasingly committed to +27.  The opportunities and rewards look much greater than -27.