2023 Creative Process

I started this blog on WordPress in 2013. Ten years later the world has changed in so many ways. My life has changed in so many ways. Based on the multiple endings and re-starts, many would’ve expected that Cat Lady Prophecy (of me) to have come to fruition. But as it sits today, just the two felines reside in my home. However, I’m simply a modest lotto win away from adding to that number to create a fluffy, spoiled Pride.

In 2013, many people read blogs on the daily. In today’s world, I think that practice is not very likely to be happening. It seems that everyday life moves too fast and no one has time to invest in reading a 8-15 minute piece about random riff-raff. Most digestible ideas and concepts need to be meme ready or reeled in by TikTok videos. Our society as a whole is so geared towards instant gratification that I fear at some point, the old ways will soon be lost to the current generation because the process(es) takes too long or there simply is an APP that does the task quicker (and better) for you. Some of the tasks made obsolete were perhaps better for our daily lives, but within those tasks sometimes there were life lesson on patience, discipline and attention to craft. Anyone, who ventures out into a public venue on a daily basis, should easily be able to see several examples of those three things being short-changed or short-cutted with regularity…and it’s a sad thing to behold.

I have always been stupidly optimistic. Ultimately I expect that quality will figure into my death somehow. Stay tuned. It took me quite a long time to understand my most effective internal process when it comes to being ‘creative’. Sometimes you have to release or put down what you’ve been holding onto instead of rolling it over and over in your mind. This can allow the next idea or concept to come along and not compete with the distraction of the other thing(s). Sometimes you may actually be able to get to the next level of an idea by purging the first phase that wasn’t able to cohesively come together. Just a little tip that has helped me decompress and get to new (better?) ideas and thoughts.

In closing, let me share with you, one of my favorite expressions over the years (one that I’ve used in many job interviews). It is:

If I got hit by a bus tomorrow, I’ve left the person following me a map of how to pick up my work or what was still needing to be accomplished. This fatalistic scenario is utilized to infer that everything can change in an instant, for good or ill. If the world internet got hit by a bus tomorrow, what would we be left with and how would those left move on?

Make me the 11th Commissioner of Major League Baseball

Anybody wanna play ball?

Hello and good day. Here we are well into the month of February of the year 2022 and the start of the 2022 spring training has been delayed. In my estimation, Rob Manfred has failed to be the leader Major League Baseball needs and thus he needs to be replaced.

Let’s look at the man’s recent activities in relation to his job duties, shall we? Last year he spearheaded a political play to steal millions of revenue dollars from the city of Atlanta, Georgia (hey Denver, Colorado! Would you like 10’s of millions of dollars?) over a political play that was essentially none of Major League Baseball’s business. Eventually the city of Atlanta was able to recoup some of their losses by ultimately being triumphant in the fall classic aka The World Series. How did good old Rob parlay this great underdog story into momentum for the offseason? By not being proactive in the slightest and sitting on his hands for literally months whilst the franchise teams engaged in a lockout with their players’ union.

Strike one.

Manfred and his focus group of bean counters are worried about the length of games being 45 seconds too long. His fix-all solutions are to try to curtail mound visits and other insignificant rules that add about six minutes to a game. True baseball fans (aka baseball’s core customers) will watch a baseball game if it last 2 hours and 30 minutes or 2 hours and 45 minutes or 3 hours and 6 minutes. He needs to stop obsessing over the micro when the macro is fine. His agenda is letting the sponsors dictate how the game (product) is presented and portrayed. Does anyone remember when the St Louis Cardinals of the National League played the Minnesota Twins of the American League in a daytime World Series game in 1987? That was 35 years ago by my count. Stop making everything about primetime advertising leverage and trying to squeeze an extra 50 Cent, er…50 cents out of each telecast.

Strike two.

The farce that is the Hall of Fame selection process is EMBARASSING. Your all-time hits leader and all-time home run leader are not inducted into the baseball Hall of Fame. Regardless of the speculative circumstances surrounding a player’s accomplishments, if their stats are in the record books and acknowledged as the yardstick for the sport, then these players are legit and should be considered on their accomplishments (period). Case and point, recently the besmirched designated-hitter David Ortiz was inducted into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. In 10 category comparisons (seasons played, hits, runs batted in, home runs, walks, runs (scored), doubles, Gold Gloves (defense), stolen bases and strikeouts) between Ortiz and Home Run Champ Barry Bonds…Ortiz only is above Bonds in one of those categories (career doubles 632 vs 601). What is missing here is the ‘good guy’ double standard MLB and its coverage crusties employ. Ortiz, despite getting caught with his hand in the performance enhancing cookie jar, is a personable and likeable personality. Bonds on the other hand was viewed as kind of a ‘Richard’ throughout the sport and thus is not given the same chance to rehab his legacy. As far as the All-time Hits King in Pete Rose Sr…he should 1000000% be in the Hall of Fame as a player. If the sport wants to permanently disbar him from the Hall as a manager, I’d support that no questions asked. As a manager, Charlie Hustle was middling at best. But as a player, competitor and recordholder (for a record that was set three dozen years ago that will never be touched again), the now 80-year-old Rose deserves to be pardoned by Manfred and enshrined.

Strike three…YOU’RE OUT ROB!

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Top 10 List of ill-advised times or moments to shotgun a beer

(as heard on the Chuck and Dave Podcast)

Chuck and Dave Podcast – Episode 91 – Business Jargon III

** Note: Shotgunning a beer definition – Taking a can of beer, turning it sideways and using a key or sharp instrument to puncture near the base of the can. Then, using the tab on top of the can to open, drink from the punctured area while tipping the can upright until the contents of the can are consumed. It is basically a party-way to ‘chug’ the beer.

10) “I’d like to call to order, this meeting of the Cub Scouts…”

9) When drinking from a glass beer bottle.

8) At the front of the line to pass through the metal detector to go into the court house.

7) After receiving Communion. (to lose the wine aftertaste…and possibly a chance at the afterlife)

6) To conclude your job interview (job applicant).

5) To celebrate your friend’s one year of sobriety at the AA meeting.

4) On a float trip with a beer found at the bottom of the river.

3) To successfully complete the 12th beer in the 12 Minute Shotgun Beer Challenge.

2) Before heading out to walk the tight rope at the circus.

1) To kick off the baseball game…as the home plate umpire. Play ball!

Enjoy. Have a great evening. Peace. #33 – The Freak <<09-26-2021>>

The Postal Service in 2021 (02-16-2021)

Good evening y’all readers! Hope everyone is staying stay and warm during the Snowmageddon Polar Freeze (SPF -75) event presently underway in the Midwest of the United States. As bad as it is here (Missouri), I imagine it must be infinitely worse up in Michigan, New York et al and on into Canada. How do human beings acclimate to such harsh temperatures? I feel sorry for the people that live in places like Texas and the nearby states who are completely caught off guard by stuff like…snow.

With The Pandemic still motoring on, like a dude on a scooter holding up highway traffic, I have found a tad more time to blow some life into the embers of my blog. Over the last 12-14 months, I’ve noticed a huge change in how a particular institution has performed.  That institution that I am referencing is none other than the US Postal Service!  (cue the dramatic reveal music!)

If we take a look at grocery stores, big box stores and the other online giants – they have had to modify their day-to-day operations for Covid. But for the most part, they are still selling things and people are buying them pretty close to on-par with before Covid time if not performing better, sales-wise. Meanwhile, smaller mom and pops shops along with dine-in food restaurants and bars have taken huge losses or been forced to close permanently. The main difference between these two groups and their survival has been the online presence. Larger corporate based entities with online capabilities have thrived, while local sole proprietors have shuttered their doors or barely kept afloat. Even with the online companies being adaptable, there are still glitches in the matrix.

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Can We Have A Little Debate? 02/14/2021

Riddle me this: Is Debate class even part of school teachings anymore? As someone who is (eesh) 31 years removed from high school, I am a bit out of the loop on whether or not Debate is taught in junior high or high school anymore.

For those who may be wondering, I had this topic settle into my brain probably about five to six months ago after mindlessly falling down an online thread rabbit hole. This topic should go hand-in-hand with the freedom of speech concept, which sadly that is all the notion of freedom of speech can be considered at this point…how can you have any sort of real debate without examining both sides to an argument? This is not to say there isn’t a third or fourth side to arguments, but in principle there are usually two stark opposition positions to a topic. I would have to think that there would have to be something along these lines because there are still thousands of students in law school and many newly licensed attorneys over the last two decades. But is this only something that occurs when students go off to college? Enquiring minds want to know!

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MLB Names – They’re All Offensive!

Good afternoon to one and all! Also Happy New Year!!

I have uploaded a project I started working on several weeks ago. It’s a spreadsheet of all the Major League Baseball teams. This spreadsheet contains their origins along with the status of how long their current nickname has been in use. To poke a little fun at my favorite team, the Cleveland Indians, (because they chose to cave into financial peer pressure) I set out to compile a list of why each and every other franchise should be forced to change their names as well. I hope you enjoy the post and as always, I look forward to your feedback. Have a great weekend!

blog_offensive12252020_oDownload

Peace. <<01-10-2021>> #33 https://scottlatta5000.weebly.com/ – Don’t forget to check out my website for links to all my social media and other projects!

Why don’t you write more?

Hello all. As I type this I am three days into a head cold, yes it’s just a head cold. This sucks. I’m not majorly debilitated in any way, I just have head congestion and a little scratchy throat. In years past, before the C word spread over the globe, I would’ve taken some Sudafed and boldly gone out into the world to carry on in spite of the sickness. Ah but this is the broken year 2020 and all the rules have changed. In the last 9 to 10 months, the old world has disappeared like the ice in a fast food cup sitting on the asphalt during the noon day sun of summer. Gone are the days of ‘toughing it out’. Replacing those sickly souls slogging along coughing and wheezing, are the devout hand-washers and toilet paper hoarders. We are sitting at three weeks to go until the end of this blasted year. I had remained virtually (ha, see what I did there?) sniffle-free for most of the year. Almost made it to the end. Oh so close.

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December 2020 Picture Purge

Good morning! It’s that time again to assemble a random assortment of images that have accumulated on my desktop over the course of the weeks. As you can see, some are personal and some are just memelicious! Hopefully you find something to suit your mood in this stew of snapshots. We are less than three weeks away from Christmas and less than four weeks away from 2021! What awaits us on the other side of that December door? Stay tuned…

Have a great week and rest of the month!

Peace. <<12-05-2020>> #33

Biden vs Trump – 2020 Aftermath Notes

Hello all! Happy days leading up to Thanksgiving!

As I did in 2016, I would like to do a little post mortem review of the now ‘completed’ presidential election. Why? Mostly because I love crunching numbers and secondly because I detest the out-dated concept of the Electoral College system of awarding ‘votes’. If you really are hard up for Saturday night entertainment, go back and read my post on the breakdown of the 2016 election results based on the data provided via the web at that time.

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Election Weak

Is this thing on? How do we do this again?

Thanks to my previous blog post pieces on All Saints Day and All Souls Day plus the piece I did on the post 2016 election mess, my hits for the blog this month so far have been pretty impressive. It’s also great considering I seem to jolt back to reality and realize that it’s been weeks upon weeks since I was last able to sit down and blog. As we sit today, we are looking at approximately 8 weeks to go until the end of 2020 (good riddance). But the real hoopla at present surrounds and is shrouded by the outcome of the 2020 United States presidential election. Our cliffhanger teeters upon whether or not incumbent president Donald Trump will be able to sweep the balance of the states still hanging in the balance…even multiple days after election day to try retain his title (WWE reference intended).

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September 2020 – What’s Next?

Hello and thank you for coming by to cyber see me. Hopefully everyone is doing well and avoiding the pandemic maladies that have crushed most things in this calendar year.

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Natty Bumppo Redux

I’m slowly scanning the living room of my home. Nothing. Nothing around me looks anything like my sophomore English classroom of 1987. But yet, here we are. A very small handful of people on social media might remember me from Grandview High School. Of that tiny handful, probably only one or two may have been with me during that fateful day in the fall of 1987.

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May the Fifth Be With You

Hello and Happy Cinco de Tuesday! For all the Star Wars people with hangovers from yesterday, I shall try not to shout in ALL CAPS. Sorry, just had to show a for example moment instance.

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Desktop Picture Purge – April 2020

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No rhyme or reason here…just random shtuff!

Every so often I need to clean up my laptop desktop area. In doing so I tend to notice quite a bit has accumulated there. For your review and judgement, I present the most recent weeks worth of clutter. Enjoy. Stay safe out there.

Peace. <<04-22-2020>>

Cabin in the Wood Addendum

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