Category Archives: Deep Thoughts

I think…therefore I’m dangerous.

Battling Irrational Beliefs

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Some comments related to an excellent blog post about the ABC model of Rational-Emotive Therapy and being a writer.

One of the blogs I’ve included in my RSS feed reader is called Writer Unboxed. It presents anywhere from 5 to 10 blog posts related to writing each week. Some are extremely specific, such as a recent post about including blurbs with published books. Others are more general, such as the one I’m touching upon today, which discusses psychology.

If you’re serious about writing, whether for yourself or for publication and (hopefully) profit, this is a great blog to follow. I won’t say that I read every post in detail, because I don’t. But I find that many of the ones I do read give me lots of food for thought. I usually share my thoughts in a comment on the blog post — that’s why I really like blogs that allow commenting — but sometimes those comments will trigger a blog post here. That’s what happened today.

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On Wasting Time Preaching to People Who Won’t Read What You Write

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I read and skimmed the latest Joan Westenberg blog post and am left wondering two things: are most people as clueless about what’s important in life as she seems to think they are and why is she wasting her time writing pieces they’ll never read?

Although I usually enjoy Joan Westenberg’s blog, reading the first quarter of today’s post reminded me that a lot of people just don’t get it. She’s describing people I know exist — people who focus their lives on trying to impress others or follow the advice of social media “influencers” rather than pursue what really matters in life. I can’t understand or identify with these people and I have to hope that they aren’t as prevalent as she makes it seem.

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Social Media Posts I Didn’t Share Today, March 21, 2025 Edition

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I decided to take a break from social media and need someplace to put my posts. Here they are.

Yesterday, I realized that because of filtering on my preferred social media account (Mastodon), I was only seeing about 5% of the posts being shared by the people I follow. I’ve been using filters extensively to block out posts that mention most political and controversial topics, and those filters work pretty well. Every once in a while, I need to add a new name or phrase or hashtag, but, for the most part, I’m simply not seeing the “doomscrolling” crap that’s out there. And that’s fine with me.

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Opinions and Theories are Not the Same as Facts

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Please understand the differences in what you’re finding online.

It’s March 2025 and eggs — the kind that come out of chickens and are a staple in American breakfasts — are not only in short supply, but more expensive than ever. This is a fact that you can confirm for yourself by visiting any supermarket or grocery store that sells them.

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Stop Making Excuses. Make a Plan.

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In which I attempt to encourage you to follow your dreams and try to tell you how.

Personal Philosophy

Lately, it seems like I’m on a personal philosophy kick — I keep writing blog posts that reflect the philosophies that drive my life. This isn’t new in this blog, but it does seem concentrated these days and I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s because I’m trying to avoid thinking about what’s going on in the world around me? And I’m doing that by looking inside myself?

The reason doesn’t matter, though. What matters is that these things are important to me. I feel a real need to share my thoughts on these matters, hopefully to help others who are lost or without focus.

Remember this: there’s only one person in your entire life that you can always count on to take care of you: yourself. Make yourself the best you can be and you’ll have a great person you can rely on for the rest of your life.

Like most people these days, I spend time socializing on social media. In my case, it’s Mastodon, a system remarkably like Twitter in the early days, where you can post short “toots” with text, images, links, and/or polls and then discuss them with the other folks who have seen them. There are lots of differences between Mastodon and other social media, and because that’s not really what this post is about, I’ll skip a deeper discussion. Let’s just say that because there’s no algorithm determining what you see, you see all of the toots posted by all of the people you follow, as well as the conversations between the people you follow, even if you’re not involved in that conversation.

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