Escaping with music

I am one of those individuals that sometimes needs to hide and enjoy some relaxing music to refocus and be able to get back to everything that life has been throwing at me.

Today is one of those days when I am sitting and listening to some of the music that helps me forget about everything around me and regain my focus. I do like a variety of music but when I am feeling a little lost you will hear me listening to:

      Il Divo

      The Tenors (originally named The Canadian Tenors)

      Josh Groban

      Michael Buble or

      John McDermott

The other thing that I have found very useful is having a nice pair of ear-bud noise-cancelling headphones. I have used my headphones sometimes when I just need to focus and don't even have music playing because it cancels out a lot of the difference sounds that are going on around me.

Everyone is different in how they can regain their focus, and for me, it is my music. I have known individuals that will go for a long walk to regain their focus, and other people will exercise or just sit quiet. For me, listening to the music and escaping all the other sounds around me has helped me learn how to relax and how to tune out all the other things.

Whatever your escape you need to figure it out and when life gets a little crazy you just need to do it.

Dealing with none IT individuals

In the IT field, there are always times when you have to deal with someone that has no understanding of computers or internet.

Even now, there are individuals that do not own a computer and never will because it is something they just don't want to have to deal with.  I understand this as my mother doesn't want to use a computer because, as she says, at her age why bother learning it.

For people that work, a computer is something that they have to deal with almost on a daily, if not daily basis if they work in an office environment.  A computer is something that is now part of ever office, and knowing the basics is very important.

Yesterday I got to hear a very interesting comment from someone that uses a computer but has no understanding about a computer and where things are stored.  This individual wanted a new monitor because she was having problems with her existing monitor.  A new monitor was found for her, and then she says, "I can't change my monitor because all my bookmarks and files are on the old monitor."  I was only hearing this comment and have to admit that I was surprised to hear that comment and I ended up laughing because of it.

Yes, nowadays if you have an all-in-one-computer, you can't just replace a monitor, but most computers still have an independent monitor, and it is not where the files and bookmarks are stored.  So yes, we get to hear different comments from end users, and we have to understand that there are generations that grew up with computers and there are some generations that didn't have computers until they were working for a while.

Mobile devices

I have noticed lately that more and more people are walking while looking at their mobile devices.  It gets very frustrating to deal with this type of person.

If you need to deal with a message, step aside and deal with and don't try and walk and type as it doesn't work.  I am saying this because this morning, a man reading his mobile device walked into me and blamed me for not watching where I was going.  I was trying to avoid him, but it is hard when someone cannot walk straight.

At least years ago, when people were only listening to music when they were walking around, it wasn't quite as dangerous to other individuals.  These people normally had their heads up when they were walking and listening to music. 

Now it seems that the constant flow of emails or instant messaging seems to be more important than the actual movement of the individual.  Yes, I do carry a mobile device, but if I get a message I will try and step aside to read it instead of trying to walk and read.  I know that the police were trying to get people to stop reading/texting on mobile devices while crossing the road because people were getting injured.  I have seen people start to cross the road against the light because they were too busy on their mobile device to pay attention to where they were.  I have yelled a few times to get someone to notice that the light is against them.

Yes, everyone is busy nowadays because we seem to have more demands on us, but when moving around, please remember you aren't the only one moving about.  A message can wait a couple of minutes, and it will be a saver for you as well as for others.

2013 Goal review - midpoint

It's hard to believe, but the year is half over, so I figured it was time

2013 Goals:
1. Blog four times each month: 4 months of 4 posts and 2 months of 1 post each
2. Complete 3 course toward Fundraising Certificate: have completed 2 and currently taking 2 more
3. Write a minimum of 15,000 words a month.:  have writing lots and as of June 30 have exceeded the 15,000 per month total
4. Take time for myself on a regular basis: still working on this

I am working hard on my writing, and I want to ensure that I am getting into the habit of writing most days.  In May, I was very happy because I only missed writing one day that month.  Some months have been better than others, but at least I can say that overall, I have exceeded 15,000 words a month.

Now to see if I can get my blogging up to 4 posts a month.