All Posts Tagged With: "perspective"

January was a big month for me both personally and professionally. And the result will be that you won’t be seeing as much of me for a while — and in some ways, hopefully it will be permanent.

First, you won’t be seeing as much of me because I’m on a weight loss plan to drop 100 pounds by the end of this year. I started the day after New Year’s Day. And the first month was a big success. I’ve lost more than 20 pounds! The best part is that it’s not from any radical or fad diet. It’s from a sensible, balanced and healthy change in eating habits that can be sustained long-term, reducing my daily calorie intake to a level appropriate for my current weight and age for healthy, managed weight loss. A couple of weeks ago, I started my exercise regimine, which again is nothing radical or extreme, but something that’s achievable, sustainable and enjoyable enough that I won’t give it up as easily as other exercise programs I’ve tried. For the first time in nearly 20 years, I’ve found a weight loss plan that I can stick to and found a willpower to keep going forward to my next goal and to my ultimate goal this year. With less than 10% of the year gone by, I’m already 20% toward my goal. (You can track my progress here.) By this time next year, I’m hoping that everyone will be seeing a lot less of me.

Second, my professional life continues to grow. My responsibilities at work continue to expand and the time commitment continues to increase. Consequently, I have less spare time to devote to other outside projects, including this blog. Success in one area often means that other things in our life may have to make sacrifices. Since my family comes first and they would be the last area to sacrifice, the only areas left are my hobbies, one of which would be this — blogging. I enjoy it (most days), but it can consume a lot of my time. And it’s the easiest for me to adjust (even if it is a bit of an addiction). So, those who follow me here on this blog will be seeing less of me — a lot less of me over the next few weeks.

I’ve decided to take the month of February off from blogging. It will help me take the time to reprioritize my life and also help me concentrate on one of my primary goals this year — to lose weight and get fit. It will also allow me to get back to one of my other goals this year, which is to become increasingly proficient in a second language. Both of those goals take a significant investment of time, leaving less time for other things outside of work and family.

After February, I’ll resume blogging in some form. I don’t know what that will look like as far as content and frequency. Hopefully I’ll come back more focused, rejuvenated and many more pounds lighter!

I stumbled across a really cool video that fellow Okie blogger Brit’ Gal Sarah will surely enjoy.

A new BBC series makes use of satellite technology to create stunning images of Britain from above.

Watch it here.

Click to Enlarge • (Image courtesy of NASA)

This image is of dunes of sand and seaweed, sculpted by the ocean currents, in the Bahamas. “The fluted, underwater dunes are formed in much the same way as sand dunes in deserts.” It is my absolute favorite of 30 images posted by Environmental Graffiti that the resurrected from an exhibition in 2000. They explain:

The images you see below were taken at the turn of the Millennium, when NASA’s scientists had a brilliant idea: to scan through 400,000 images taken by the Landsat 7 satellite and display only the most the most beautiful. A handful of the best were painstakingly chosen and then displayed at the Library of Congress in 2000.

We thought that it, in case you missed the exhibition, it would be amazing to dig up these images and provide some wallpapers for you to download. All images are used courtesy of NASA.

The authors made this observation:

At ground level, one can only imagine the sheer beauty of mountain ranges, deserts and deltas seen high up from NASA’s satellites. One can imagine - yes - however, they wouldn’t be quite prepared for the fact that from 400 miles away, the earth transforms into abstract art. The global landscape is impressionist, cubist and pointillist. Mother Nature is an abstract artist.

You can see more images here.

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* Wordless Wednesday became Wordless Thursday this week because somehow I missed that yesterday was Wednesday — how embarrassing. It’s been a crazy, crazy week, which seems to be becoming the norm, unfortunately; sometimes I feel like I’m losing my mind… or at least a day here and there! I suppose it’s appropriate since Wordless Wednesday wasn’t any more “Wordless” than it was “Wednesday.”

Sarah over at BritGal in the U.S.A. wrote about her observations as a British transplant to Oklahoma about our political process. I like to hear the perspective from “outsiders.” We tend to get myopic about the world that surrounds us and that can taint our perceptions and judgments. I almost always benefit from getting another’s perspective to help me fine tune my own viewpoint.

In addition to exploring the differences between the U.S. and the U.K. in their national elections, she also offers some of her own insight about the current American candidates vying to be our nation’s leader. The entire post is worth reading, but one paragraph stood out above the others, and it’s something that’s discussed very little in the campaign… Continued