My New Blog – The Beagle and the Courtesan

An introduction to my new blog.

The Beagle and the Courtesan

There are several questions you may have: What is this blog is about? What kinds of posts will you do? Why the name ‘The Beagle and the Courtesan’?  Before I get into all that, I want to tell you what happened to me and my old blog.  I will get to those questions, just bear with me.

According to WordPress I haven’t written a blog post for the purpose outside a class for university since August.  I am not sure how to explain it other than the loss of my long time muse – my pet beagle Gabriel – affected me more than anticipated.  You wouldn’t think the loss of a pet would affect me so much but it did.  In particular I never realized how much that dog really calmed me down and put me in the right frame to write.  It was so unconscious, I never noticed.  I…

View original post 1,208 more words

The List Method of Pursing My Roles

I have been racking my brain trying to figure out how I can get some steady consistency toward my goals and I have to admit the only method that might fit my role oriented system is making lists each day to check off things that will take me closer to my goal.  This means running through my list of roles each day and writing down one thing I have to do that day to fulfil that role for the day.  As a way of working out how this will work I want to do my first one here and then I will probably use a separate notebook for this task.

I thinking there are a few rules to follow here as well.  1) Make the list the night before so it is ready to go for the next day, 2) I can also cross off a task that day if I add another task to another area.  This second rule might be a good response to a day that gets too full or a role that is simple going to require more work that particular day.  There I also the fact that on some days, some roles are just not engaged.  For this one I want to also add some of the other things that could be there

Here We Go for August 14, 2016:

Leader – Send email to school superintendent asking if there are any plans to have town hall style meetings for all of us candidates.  We have seven of us trying to win four seats so I would like to know what role the current school board would be having in helping the process.  I want to do it tomorrow so it is waiting for him on Monday morning.  Other things that could go here – blog entry for the Rabyd Libertarian, going of over meeting notes for the MOISD and any other thing that involves me in politics ad leadership/

Minister – Two things.  Sunday School (teaching) and service. Because this is two things I have a free thing to pull form somewhere else.  Other things that cold go here are prep actions and planning.  Going to Ministerial meetings, etc.  Anything that involves me being the pastor of the church.

Theologian – Catch up in Sermon Redux posts.  Because there will be four of them I will count this and two activities which means one other area will have a free space.  Mostly this will be blogging on All Things Rabyd.

Writer – Write for a half hour – either book idea can be worked on.  It may be that some homework will be here from time to time as well.

Scholar – Check school email.  Not much to do yet but it will probably include homework that needs to be done that day plus reading tasks.

Steward – Clean of dinning room table. Small job, but cleaning and organizing for a fixed rate of time plus looking around and seeing things can be simplified or minimalized as an everyday process could be tasks here.  It may also involve money tasks.

Weightlifter – Nothing.  This is one of the task freed up so that I can be the Minister and Theologian tomorrow. Normally though this will be where my workout is scheduled and laid out.

Hiking – Nothing.  The other task freed up so Theologian and Minister can be executed.  Normally though this will record what hiking I will be doing with what.  It could also be used to state tasks involving hiking research and acquiring equipment.

Nutrition – Need to make up a daily meal plan and then a shopping list based on it for the week .  This might include taking my sugar in a special way or reminders of nutrition classes and research but mostly it will involve my meal plan and food journal.

After all things have been checked off for the day, it will be time to make up the next days list and then call it a day.

Blessings and Cheers!!!

The Body Rabyd – Rebalancing and Reassessing

In almost every other area of my life this has been a week of distraction.  Blogging has not gone well at all because of these distractions.  Mostly I think my spirit and soul know that I am about to transition back to school mode and the time for relaxing as much as I do will be most definitely over.  I definitely think it is better for me to be busy with things I have to be busy with so.  The one exception this week has been the Body Rabyd but even that has its quirks as I am trying to retool my nutrition,

Next week will necessitate some changes and some readjustment to getting my life in order so once school gets going my other goals do not get sidetracked. The thing is in the area of my health I am rebalancing things because now that I can lift again, other things that were being done to compensate can be dialed back a little.

I have two meetings with health care this week.  One is a nutritional seminar on diabetic nutrition.  The other is a doctor appointment which will require some blood work.  I am sure the issue is has my A1c level dropped?

The Body Rundown:

Weightlifter – It was simply good to be back to the weights again.  I don’t think you appreciate something you enjoy until it I taken away from you.  That said, I spent a lot of time working on form and testing the waters to see how the weights felt more than actually pushing myself.  The weight levels were about half of what I had been using and I reduced the maximum reps from 15 to 10.  This wasn’t about strength or even endurance, it was ‘how does this feel?”  Next week I plan to start reaching toward working on my muscles more while keeping great form.   It will be time to wade out at least to waist deep and see how that feels. The issue is if something feels wrong or it is clear I am overdoing my scar tissue from surgery than its time to back off a little.  I also am still on what I would call ‘don’t bend the torso’ restriction.  In short, no crunches or anything similar probably for another month.

Hiker –  Now that I am back to the gym, for practical reasons of time and such I am going to dial this back.  I had been walking two hours a day but I think that will go back to one hour and then with the lifting I should be alright.  It is a way of achieving balance again.  An hour walk with pack is pretty good cardio five days a week.

Nutrition – This is the problem area and that is mostly because I have more nutritional counseling this week in an all day session on Thursday.   That will mean early morning lifting and hiking but I need to get ready to do that anyway for school.  My hope is to find a way to mesh diabetic diet with weight lifter diet.  I think it is possible but now I don’t only have to worry about protein levels but carb levels so they are steady all day long. Hopefully I will get some practical advice at this meeting and start coming up with meal plans and a diet journal to keep track of things based on it.

Blessings and Cheers!!!

 

The Rabyd Writer’s Soul – Reaching My Goals

It may not seem like much is going on right now on either of my blogs but the truth is I am planning things out in far more detail than normal for both blogs so writing posts will be more automatic (hopefully).  Tomorrow on this blog will be Sermon Redux Day and then I will be turning to The Rabyd Libertarian to get some basic stuff out of the way. These things take time but I am involved in many things right now that need to be planned out.   It isn’t just blogging right now but getting back into the routine of lifting, I need a full nutritional plan.  I am trying to start a new blog and write a book.  In addition to all this I have to order things so that when school start I can keep going. The reality is far harder than the plan.

What I must have in place by Saturday is a comprehensive plan that covers all my roles and hits all my activities leaving plenty of time for school when it starts back up.  I suppose the nice thing is with the Labor Day holiday I won’t really get a true while week of class until week three.  In any case my plans need to be in place so that Sunday morning and following I can be on task.

Writer – While my non-fiction book is important, I am realizing the need for a second project of a fictional nature.  My greatest obstacle to writing success is that sometimes the flow is not there of the non-fiction book and I am thinking that the second fiction project might be a good way to take a break from it from time to time.

Scholar – Reading fiction mostly right now but when school starts some of my reading a course work will be featured here.  Just to give everyone a quick foretaste of next semester. I have my accounting class, macroeconomics, three political science classes. and the television and digital media introductory class. I am not sure about how easy or hard this is going to be but I know in the political science arena I will be starting to eat some meat.

Steward – Yeah, need to get everything cleaned and dejunked this coming week so that my slate is clear for school.  When that starts I won’t have too much time for anything in this role except for maintenance.

Blessings and Cheers!!!

The Rabyd Spirit – The Old Blog/New Blog Dichotomy

Just in case some of you do not follow me on Facebook or Twitter I have started a new blog called The Rabyd Libertarian. In large part this is an expression of being an educator but it also fulfils a part of my aspect of being a leader.  Leaders need to know how to educate people in simple ways that are truthful.  If your interested in libertarianism and libertarian politics, The Rabyd Libertarian is a good place and will hopefully become a great place over time.

This of course gives me two blogs of importance but seeing I am using one to express my Theology and the other my Politics, I feel it will work out.  It is after all time for me to embrace the fact that I don’t think God has called me to just ministry alone and there are other things that need to be done.  The Theology and Politics dichotomy that exists in my life simply needs forms of expression.

The Spirit Rundown:

Leader – In addition to the new blog, I am running for local school board again, trying to be involved on the MOISD Board and at the same time trying to advocate voting for Gary Johnson the Libertarian Party candidate for President.  I am seriously thinking of running for office under the Libertarian Party banner in two years.

Ministry – I fell great when I am preaching, praying, teaching in my bible study and praying with my prayer group.  Outside of that I feel like I am climbing uphill all the time.  The church’s ministries struggle and we need change in a big way.  Part of it, I think is that we need to achieve something real and not just be active.

Theologian – I have about three Sermon Redux posts to write to get caught up plus I am trying to find a theological theme that I can write about these days.  Fiction writing on this blog is slow because of the theological footing.  It will come but school is coming and then it will be harder for me to pull that off.

Blessings and Cheers!!!

The Body Rabyd – The Weights are Calling to Me. (Recovery Ending)

Yeah, and I have missed four.  Thankfully that is about to come to an end.  I come off weight restriction on the 8th and I am back to the gym that morning after my morning walk.  The routine will return and I am sure I will feel much better.  I still have to watch it though and do the gradual work up thing until I am back to normal.

The nice thing is that I covered 2 hours of walking every day this week covering six plus miles each day.  I feel good and have probably lost some fat.  The next trick is to gain some muscle and get the nutrition thing under control.

The Body Rundown:

Weight Lifter – I will be back in the gym in a few days and that excites me.  That excitement is however tempered with the fact that I must start light and slowly build back up.  That means starting with just the bar in many cases and then working up over the next few weeks back to where I was.  Where I was though is going to change to less reps and more weight very soon.  I am thinking 3 sets with 8-10 reps very soon.  Like in three weeks.

Hiker – I have been compensating for lack of lifting through hiking more.  I will probably scale back to one and a half hours a day the next two weeks before school starts.  After that things are going to get interesting as I need to fit everything into a smaller amount of time and eventually the weather will get colder. but that won’t stop me.  I probably won’t stop until the snowmobiles are allowed on the trails and they can’t do that until there is four inches of snow.  I haven’t picked up my pack for a month either so it will be interesting to see how that affects my hiking.

Nutrition – My big issue right now is coming up with a meal plan that keeps my sugar steady and falling while at the same time getting the protein I need for lifting.  It creates all these grams of carbs issues.  I have a full day of dealing with this on August 18th and then a doctor appointment on the 19th.  Hopefully my A1c has dropped or this is going to be a difficult discussion.  Hopefully the next two weeks will be truly effective on all levels.

Blessings an Cheers!!!

 

The Rabyd Writer’s Spirit and Soul – New Blog on the Horizon

I do apologize for not having written in a while but I have truly been wrestling with some important issues and this has dominated my thought time hiking or even browsing the web.  It has really interfered with my writing at this point as my thoughts are very disjointed at times because of it.

Mostly these days I have taken a very libertarian and pro Gary Johnson stance politically these days and many of my family and friends have reacted strongly.  I must say it is disturbing to see people are so ignorant of things that once were so followed in this country back in the beginning or how if you don’t believe that people can be coerced into good morals or ethics but need to be persuaded in a context of liberty and free discussion that somehow you must be an idiot.

This has led me to thoughts of a new blog that deals solely with issues of libertarianism in a Christian context.  The thoughts I have about why Christians need to give up the sinful desire of control in favor of the more righteous desires to pursue freedom and peace.  How bombing the Muslims and killing them might not actually bring peace with them.  etc.  It seems that there is a strange irony that some people who have read “Blessed are the Peacemakers” have no real plan for peace with those they disagree.  In short a blog to demonstrate that libertarian philosophy and Christian thought are much more compatible than Christians believe.

I am not sure what I will call this blog yet or what direction it will follow.  My plan now is to fire it up at the beginning of the week after I have organized my thoughts about it.  What will happen to this blog?  It is like I said earlier I think this will remain my theology sight for my own theological expression and development.  My happy-go-lucky blog where the new one will be a little bit more about the serious work of education of people and myself out of their ignorance.

The new blog I am thinking is just the first step on what I think might be much more effort politically.  I am now starting to see why I might be adding a Television and Digital Media minor to my degree as this might also lead down the road to a YouTube channel or other video forms of digital expression.  I have a lot to learn so I am prepared to learn first and then act second when it comes to the rest but blogging is something I know about and have proven I can do.

The Spirit and Soul Rundowns:

Leader – I now know I will be running for the local school board against six other people for four seats.  Last time I was in a contested election like this I lost.  Therefore, I have made a commitment to make much more effort this time.  That said I look at this new blog as my first step on a larger picture of leadership down the line.

Minister – I am the least sure these days about this part of my life.  After bearing my soul about the issues I saw in the church I have heard nothing and I have had to shut down one ministry temporarily for the month of August.  I have other weak ministries trying to survive and I am feeling that if I am going to turn things around I need to look outside the church for help.  Very discouraging but hopefully things will turn around soon.

Theologian – This blog will be my main outlet for theology and as such I am not considering this a working blog like the other one but more one for the therapy of thinking on and with God.

Writer – To be honest since last week I have not worked much on my book.  I have been to thoughtful this week.  To many ideas and to little time to sort them all out effectively.

Scholar – School will be here soon.  Thank God for that.

Steward – Yeah, not so much but I am hoping to get back to the dejunking soon.  I need to trim the fat of my life in terms of getting rid of stuff that does not serve me or just takes up space.

Blessings and Cheers!!!

Looking Back at July 2016

It has been a rough months from a blogging standpoint.  Either I have been recovering from surgery, not feeling like writing or just plain have other things pulling at my attention. I would say also that this blog also has been giving my some cause for pause over the last month as far a purpose.  Changing things over to a purely theology perspective again has been actually far more difficult that I imagined it would be a first.

That said the traffic stays decent except it revolves around stuff I wrote three years ago when I first started.  That is why I feel it is probably time to renew my efforts but I have been thinking about second blog with a more specific purpose as I am heading in a more political direction these days.  I am also thinking that politics and libertarian philosophy is something I can blog at least five days a week about and this blog can remain my more happy-go-lucky one.

In any case, thank you readers for putting up with my lethargic writing these days and for reading.

Blessings and Cheers!!!

 

The Body Rabyd – Child Like Moments (Recovery Day 18)

 

I had one of those moments that you don’t get often today.  I was doing my walk and passing near an open farm field when a plane crossed the field and passed right over my head.  I suddenly has a flashback to a time where as a child one of those old biplanes did the same thing one day when I was at my grandparents farm.  I still had that moment of wonder and joy for me.  Then I had to get back to walking.  The photo I took didn’t turn out too well so you get the painting instead.

The Body Rundown:

Weight Lifter: One more week of this stuff.  August 8th I am going to the gym and I ma doing Leg Day.  With sissy weights and working up but I am doing it just the same.  My surgery scar is not hurting or even itching at all and I have had to catch myself right before I lift something over the limit several times.  I am trying to be good here but I just live and things happen.

Hiking: I did a two-hour walk today.  I covered over six miles, burned pretty close to 3000 calories and had a pace under 20 minutes a mile.  I am considering putting my pack back on next week for more of the same, but I will have to weight it to make sure it is under 15 pounds and has only the essentials.  I am ready to really take on a longer hike at this time but I am going to have to plan something out in August to do solo probably before school starts back up.

Nutritionist: I had a long counseling session last Monday about diabetic nutrition.  They want me to take a longer class all day on the 18th of August.  The big issue is trying to keep my carb intake steady all day long so it levels out my sugar scores. This is going to require that I put together a meal plan and stick with it as much as possible.  I am going to also have to make sure there is enough protein in it so weight lifting will not be a pain.

Blessings and Cheers!!!

The Rabyd Writer’s Soul – Getting the Bigger Picture. (Recovery Day 16)

I am really having to rethink things much more than I thought and part of the issue is right now my world does not have weights in it.  I know that sounds weird but for me weight lifting was as much a meditative exercise as it was about strengthening my body,  The mental aspects of preparing to lift, lifting and then evaluation are gone right now so I am lift only with the chaos of thought that surrounds me when I walk although that is a good thing as I sort things out.  I walked of 1 hour and 40 minutes today covering over five miles so I definitely have recovered my endurance and ability to breath.  Spiritually speaking though walking is where the ideas flood my head, lifting was always the way I focused on those ideas that rose to the top in value.

The Soul Rundown:

Writing – I have had a lot of motivation and rational to write this book of mine.  The need grows more every time I watch my Christian brothers and sisters blindly follow a political leader because: “It’s the only way to defeat the other guy.”  The need for a book on the real connection in the Bible between politics and religion needs to be presented and this book will definitely turn some heads about that.

Scholar – I am feeling the need to get back to school more and more each day.  I miss the discipline of study and I don’t think that will go away until I am once again pursuing my degree.

Steward – I think I have come up with a plan for the whole Spirit, Soul, Body thing as far as staying accountable but also this will help make sure I keep pursuing simplicity and minimalism.

Blessings and Cheers!!!