Day 1 (maybe)

OK, so. I'm not sure if this is going to be an every day thing or not. Maybe. We'll see.

Here's why this is, and why it's called what it is. My friend Webster says that one of the definitions of entropy is: "a process of degradation or running down or a trend to disorder."

Er . . . yeah. Anyone who knows me will agree with that last part -- a trend to disorder. My house, my classroom, my career(s), my whole life basically. There are times when I take a certain amount of pride in my disorder, my scattered bits of creative non-conformity. Other times, it's a little embarrassing. Still others -- a lot embarrassing.

Rather than being some self-serving excuse to whine about my existence, I've decided that this blog is going to be a self-serving excuse to shrink the amount of entropy in my life. Now, I'm not going into this with any sort of plan (are you kidding me???) but at this point I recognize I need to do something. Here's the deal: I look at every part of my life, and I see how it could be better if I was just a little more organized and less, um . . . not.

Examples:

Weight. I'm not huge or gargantuan, but, like many middle aged men, I've been investing in personal real estate for a number of years, and the acreage has definitely increased in the belly area. I know this, but I've not organized an effective assault on the extra twenty-odd pounds.

House. Yeah. I'm horizontally challenged. If there's a horizontal surface, I will place something on it and promptly forget about it.

Writing. What? I've written the books, why aren't they on the shelves at our local bookstore? Because I haven't marketed them effectively, that's why.

Those three are enough to get the point across. Let's just say that the rest of my life is in the same shape. Imagine how much more fulfilling it would be to be able to point to any one area and say, "Yes. This works. This is the way it's supposed to be."

My motivation: Three weeks ago I went to the Emergency Room. My blood pressure was through the roof. Seriously through the roof. 207/130.

(blood pressure chart)

Yeah. The last three weeks have been a blood pressure teeter-totter as my doctor tries to find something to get it under control. It's been headaches from too high, to dizziness and near-passing out from too low. It has not been as high as 207/130 again, however, thank goodness. But the medical issues aside, what got me here? Entropy, a trend toward disorder. I want to fix that, even if it's only in a few areas of my life.



So, this blog is about finding the direction for that. Just looking at it right now, I see that some of it is just laziness and procrastination, but is it innate or can I break out of it and reach farther? I don't know. Right now, there is no plan, but I'm hoping as this progresses, one will form that I can live with . . . literally. Right now, my goal for the day is going to be to do one thing that I would normally say, "Later, not right now," to, and do it anyway.