Graham Sedam Writes

New Posts To Consume Got Resolve? A New Year's Beginning Got Resolve? 2018 Goals Dissected I've published a few new posts so far this year, including the two linked above. They are related to resolutions and my commitment to both making and following through on them this year. I actually have never made New Year's Resolutions before that I can remember, at least like this, where I'm resolving to DO something as opposed to NOT doing something. Sure, I've made vague resolutions in the past that were as easily forgotten as they were made. Not this year. Maybe, perhaps, these goals are more meaningful, more accomplishable? One of my goals, and you'll have to read the second post for more information on it, is doing five minutes of karate daily. As far back as last fall, my wife and I thought it might be fun to watch The Karate Kid with our children. While watching a YouTube video that I was thinking about hyperlinking (and actually did) in the post mentione...

I did it. And, I did it sooner than I had expected. I wanted to finish the book I had been reading, Justinian's Flea , by the end of the year (2017). I finished it before Thanksgiving. This post isn't the first time I've mentioned this book, so read " Books, Life, and Punchlines " to get a little bit bigger of a picture about the book and my thoughts on it. * It took you all year to read this book? * Pretty much. If this is the first post of mine that you're reading and/or you haven't heard me mentioning this, here it goes. I actually read quite a bit. I just don't devour books. I'd love to be the kind of person that does, but I just never have been. Maybe someday. It's something I at least think about doing more of. So, in the meantime, I choose a book and then read it when I can. For the last two years or so, that time has been in the wee early hours of the morning before I head to my place of work. It's quiet, my family isn't ...

I stated in the post " Got Resolve? A New Year's Beginning " that I would be explaining the goals I outlined in more detail. If you want a little more background on my musing about goals, New Year's Resolutions, and the like, you can start with the post linked above. Or, you can start with a post I wrote in early 2017 entitled, " Not So New Resolutions For The New Year ." I'm going to try and keep this post more focused and answer nonexistent questions, to explain my rationale for setting the goals up the way I did. This post, no doubt, will still be plenty long. I've established some rules because having goals isn't enough, right? *Sarcasm* In this case, I felt rules were necessary to ultimately gain what I hope to get out of this project. It's more than saying, "I want to do this, and look, it's done." I'm not only trying to accomplish the particular item on the list, but also trying to change my brain and daily habit...

Last year around this time, I wrote a post entitled, " Not So New Resolutions For The New Year ." The post wasn't so much about my own resolutions for the year as much as talking about resolutions in general. I don't plan on repeating any of that in this post, so you're better off reading or rereading it. It could serve to make this post all the richer. Or, not. This year, I wondered if I should write about habits I want to break or make. It would be goals of a certain stripe, not everything I hope to accomplish. There are some goals too personal for this blog, and some of those are my financial goals and adjustments that I make each year. When it comes to projects and hobbies, I kind of already tackle those goals and their progress throughout the year with my blog feature, The R&D Workshop . And since a year is 365 days strong, things change and goals may need to be rethought somewhere down the calendar, or maybe new ones need to be put into place. Decembe...

Doctor Strange A few weeks ago, my family watched Doctor Strange . Once again, my daughter wanted to but my older son didn't. Considering that my wife and I wanted to watch Doctor Strange , that is what we did in fact watch. I came into this movie not knowing anything about this Marvel superhero. I've never been a "comic book guy," but I have always enjoyed watching superhero movies. To my knowledge, this movie is a first for the character, Dr. Stephen Strange. I look forward to the movies that we all know will obviously come. Make ONE movie and no sequels? I just fell out of my chair laughing. This is the reality we live in, and it's hard to argue with a good thing (until it's no longer a good thing). What I liked most about the movie and it's main character is the "mental ability" aspects of it. A lot (or most, in the least) of superheroes seem to have some form of physical strength as the basis for their super-ness. Sure, Dr. Strange has...

Arrested Development "Has anyone in this family ever even seen a chicken?" I've heard that this show will be coming back for another season. I'll be watching it, make no mistake, but I do have mixed feelings about it. The last season felt like a mixed bag for me, like it tried to do too much, too fast. I loved it, though, because it was still Arrested Development . I can only wonder what another season will bring. It seemed like the last season tried to finish the show off, perhaps unsuccessfully. Maybe that will be a part of the joke in it coming back. Either way, enjoy the clip below. A classic shtick from the show. Emailers—clickety, clickety, go. *   *   * MEA 2018 Last year, I wrote a whole post about my family's MEA adventures. Actually, the happenings of that week inspired three short posts. This year, it gets a spot in THE NOT SO DAILY DUMP. Did we do less? I don't think so. Do I have less to say about it? That's probably more acc...

Kubo Kubo is an animated film currently on Netflix. My daughter had talked about watching it for weeks. She had heard about it at school. I don't remember all of the details, but I know her teacher had watched it and recommended it. My older son, for whatever reason, was very much against watching it. We did end up watching the movie, partly because it interested me. We watched it over two days because of kids' bedtimes and school start times. My older son changed his tune pretty quickly. He likes it as much as the rest of us. Well, maybe not my daughter. It's been her go-to TV choice quite a bit since the inaugural watch. The toddler even stopped and watched most of the movie intently. Part of that might be from the "animation effect." Kids are drawn to animated movies. Pretty simple and not surprising to anyone, especially those who have kids. I recommend this film for ages young and old (and all of us in between). Email compadres, do me a favor an...