Culmination

I was standing there and looking at my shadow. I thought to myself, what would you be if you were a caricature? You have this habit of meeting me wherever I touch the ground. No matter where I go, you are there. Where ever I am, there you are. It seems to me that you have a way of triangulating my place in the world.

So where would I be without you dear shadow? I can walk towards you and you are only in front of me to try and sway me to travel another direction. If you are behind me, you are secretly holding me back and maybe even manipulating me in some way when I’m not aware of it. When you are to my side, you agree with the direction we are both traveling. I could jump but you would only be there to pull me back down to keep my feet on the ground and my head out of the clouds.

I feel like your reasons for behaving the way you do should have some form of logic—but maybe that way of thinking is just you being behind me again. I think I’m on to you now dear shadow. I have figured out who you are. Who are you? You are Fear. You get in my way or hold me back only when it suits you. You keep me from doing the things I truly want to do in how you triangulate my place in the world.

Well, I guess this is me…the me who is tired of you holding me back and holding me down. This being -my- story, I don’t think I like you being a part of it anymore so I intend to write you out of it. I guess you can start considering your other options. I mean to kill you off in the coming episodes so you won’t be making a return appearance next season. For whatever value that you have added up until now—thanks.

Book writing is going to be expensive! I’m not talking about the process of publishing, I’m talking about how most of my writing is done at Starbucks and how I have to have a venti something every time I’m there! lol Curse you coffee habit! :)

culmination7 asked: This adds a whole new perspective to talking to yourself! lol

Hey don’t judge me! You’re better than that. I expect more of YOU at least :)

Last night, I was laying in bed and thinking about Money problems. I wasn’t thinking about problems of my own, just Money problems in general. I think it is safe to say that when people run into Money problems, they feel that more money is the solution. Unfortunately, Money isn’t the name of the solution, it’s the name of the problem. Plan would be the name of the solution. When net income rises, the expenses tend to rise with it but when pay cuts find us—we still find our way; it just might be harder until we adjust.

I’ll be the first to tell you that plans are not the be-all, end-all and you probably won’t meet your plan or financial goals every time—heck, probably not even most of the time. Don’t let that discourage you though. If we fail to meet a goal, we know that failures equate to experience and experience better prepares us for the next attempt. Just learn as you go and don’t sit there paralyzed, wishing that you had a little more money so you could solve all your financial problems—because you won’t.

Adjust what you do with what you have and then when you do net more, don’t expand your expenses to consume it. Life’s vicissitudes can be bumpy. It’s better that you keep your feet in the stirrups as opposed to being pulled along the ground while you barely hang on to the reins.

Ok! I realize that I am way ahead of myself but I have been thinking of some other story ideas for a while now. There is one concept in particular that involves Pandora’s box. The original idea was to give back story to a story that a friend of mine was working on. It didn’t really fit into his story so I held on to the idea. I was considering it being another story entirely but I’m now seeing ways it can be an alternate beginning for a follow on story for Culmination 7. This will definitely be a new spin on Pandora’s box so I’m pretty excited about the ideas of it all! I’m looking forward to the point where I can work on that!

I was talking to a friend last night. We were talking about Culmination 7 and I was telling him some of the things that are going on. I told him some of the concepts that are in play, inspirations behind certain things, and some details about a few of the characters you meet a long the way. Of course the sum of all these things adds up to a story that is not immediately visible to the reader. He asked me where this would end up in a book store as in what classification or genre. At the time, I didn’t have an answer for him. It’s not that I haven’t thought about it and I have read that a lot of authors find their books fit on several different shelves.

I was reviewing some of the chapters in Culmination 7 when I decided to take a break and mentally stopped in a book store. Now, I can tell you were I found Culmination 7 in this store. I walked into the store that was filled with tall book shelves. I walked into the maze that the shelves had formed. As I walked down the isles, looking at the different genres, I journeyed deeper and deeper into the book store. I remember passing some sections of books on personal success, the mind and the brain, leadership, business, psychology, fantasy adventure, love, loss, creativity, motivation, do it yourself, wealth, happiness, technology, dreams, language, writing, and the last book I remembered seeing was a book called Quadrivium which was somewhat of a philosophical view of numbers, geometry, music, and cosmology. Then I turned the last corner and found myself in the center of the store as well as the center of the maze. That is where I found Culmination 7. It was shelved by itself. You just had to pass all the other genres to get to it because they all lead up to it in some way.

It was an interesting visit. I plan on visiting again soon to see if it’s in the same place. Who knows, maybe the shelves will be a few copies lighter next time :D

I don’t know if my “To Read” shelf serves more as motivation or intimidation but it is growing rapidly all the same! Said shelf is now several books heavier to include Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki, and How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster.

I finished both Infinity and Drive a few days ago and I started The Art of the Start today. I think I’m going to finish up the other things I’m reading before I get started on How to Read Literature Like a Professor. I’m looking forward to that one so I’m going to focus on it when I get into it.

I’m also intrigued and looking forward to Outliers. A peer mentioned something very interesting dealing with doing a thing for 10,000 hours. I believe the book mentions that once you do a thing for that amount of time, you become a genius at it. That is fascinating and all but what pinged for me was the number. There is something else that I think the number might be relevant to so I’m excited to get to it and read about it!