CH-H-Changes - Come and Face the Change-

 David Bowie aside - this month has been one of the changes.

First, the Sunday Journalist Tag has been added to Cole's Notes. Due to many things, my blog has languished for the last couple of years. I could blame the usual suspect's Covid, etc. However, I have yet to be highly impressed by the blogging community, journalism, and social media places, especially with the nonsense around AI. 

For ages, I have used an AI-like service, Grammarly, as a grammar and spelling checker. I dislike the standard Editors and spellcheckers on apps and the web. As Grammarly moved into the AI space, I found it's a powerful tool that helps me catch spelling and improve my voice on the page.  

So it was with the last while—I've been experimenting with AI imaging and writing with systems such as Chat-GP, Bing, Gemini, et al. I even went so far as to take a course on AI from LinkedIn Learning on "How to Research and Write Using Generative AI Tools." While attractive and informative, its primary value to me was to help me rewrite my LinkedIn profile to make it more punchy. And, of course, I cleaned up some of the posts and material I added to various social media. 

However, playing with these apps has yet to advance my writing career. If anything, having to earn a living has kept me away from Cole's Notes more than anything else. It was not an excuse, but a recent event galvanized my resolve to start again. Recently, an old friend came to me for a repair job on some equipment, and I had to access my old invoicing software to send him an invoice for the work done. 

Back then, I freelanced in writing, photography, and IT systems support. I wrote about Hardware, Cameras, and automobiles and collected other ephemera. At the time, I used Freshbooks to manage my books and issue invoices. You can imagine my shock when, when accessing the software, I found that the last invoice and price list of services had been used in 2013. So, of course, I accessed the software, updated my price lists, and sent the invoice I needed.

It got me thinking—what had I been doing since 2013? Well, I'm not writing for a living—I'm just slogging along in a couple of unrewarding jobs in large corporations to earn enough to live on and pay off the massive bankruptcy I entered into in 2017 following the failure of my consulting business. In 2014 - I paid off that bankruptcy - but lost my paid-for house, my pensions from years working and most of my assets. And I admit - I got lazy - shutting off my mind and working as a drone, just paying the bills and keeping a low profile. And spending more time on the couch in the evenings consuming social media and not touching base with people. My social circle collapsed to almost nothing - but co-workers and occasional bar-hopping.

Then, at the end of 2023 - I got laid off - fired - made redundant - whatever you want to call it - and found myself on the job market again at the age of almost seventy, with no pension other than CPP and OAG - with all of the opportunities open to an old straight white male past retirement age. 

So Now What?

Today, June 23, 2024, I returned to my computer to pick up where I left off—but with a difference. I'm older, fatter, and less fit than ten years ago, but I have no major health problems—nothing that can't be treated by returning to a regularly managed health regime of mental exercise, fitness and eating right. Too many days as a working drone not taking care of myself are to come to an end.

What are the Changes

• Simplifying my finances. - Paying down my debt, mainly back taxes and interest on small operating costs - almost like any government you can name - except that I can't raise cash by printing it. The sad thing is that in my "retirement" years - I'm only working to pay my taxes. Today is the Tax Freedom Day (June 23) touted by the Government - I still have, by my estimate, about $35,000 to pay out all of my debts out of the pittance of my CPP and OAG allow me. Not to mention EI - which is slated to run out soon.

• I'm getting caught up on my Medical background. Although I came through the COVID fiasco uninfected—all of the jabs did nothing for me—I did start to put on weight and get more sedentary being stuck at home.

• Finding time for Fitness and Stress Reduction - Major changes include documenting health using the iPhone and the Njord Gear Smartwatch with fitness programs.

• Finding Time to Meditate and re-centre myself spiritually, mentally, and religiously to find out where I am.

• Learning to Cook—not just figuring out how to make food, but how best to organize a diet—no crackpot vegan or paleo diets, please—which includes how best to use food services like Heart to Home for us Seniors, but how best to provision and organize a healthy kitchen and pantry. Although I am a bit of a foodie - my preferences tend towards plain fruit, vegetables, meat and fish in the rural style I grew up with - and occasionally side trip into Asian, Indian and Japanese cuisine.

• Last but certainly not least, get writing again. I have the tools and am getting the motivation again. This article is a promise to myself to get back on the disciplined track of writing a column every Sunday and finding a place to publish it. Although this rant is initially in my Cole's Notes Blog, I will cross-post it to my Substack and social media that will take it.

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