Photography on Greg Higgins

Sun, 28 Jan 2024 10:15:17 -0500

Got to broadcast a pair of Southland Conference games yesterday. The men’s game was crazy. Went to double overtime before Nicholls finally won the game. The women saw another back-and-forth contest with A&M-Commerce getting the win.

Tue, 16 Jan 2024 06:42:34 -0500

I started doing this at the beginning of the year. Excited to see what the difference is over the years.

Sun, 07 Jan 2024 17:41:48 -0500

Some journals I picked up over the past couple months at a several different renaissance festivals.

Sun, 03 Dec 2023 22:23:10 -0500

Scrooged

Thu, 30 Nov 2023 10:38:03 -0500

My Christmas phone setup.

Sun, 26 Nov 2023 09:16:42 -0500

Texas Renaissance Festival yesterday! We had a great time. I even wore my Kilt.

Mon, 30 Oct 2023 05:31:43 -0500

It was in the 80’s here on Friday. Welcome to Texas weather.

Sat, 28 Oct 2023 17:35:29 -0500

I haven’t watched this movie since I was a teenager so I decided to check it out today.

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes

Sat, 28 Oct 2023 08:21:22 -0500

Saw this little guy on the trail yesterday while out for a walk.

Tue, 03 Oct 2023 21:27:55 -0500

This little guy was hanging out on the mailbox this afternoon.

Sun, 10 Sep 2023 09:42:46 -0500

Ready for the new season!

Wed, 06 Sep 2023 19:51:39 -0500

This did not end well for my neighbor’s shed. Winds snapped this oak tree.

Tue, 05 Sep 2023 14:06:22 -0500

Not a forest, but I love the way the trees look on this part of the trail.

#mbsept

Mon, 04 Sep 2023 19:32:32 -0500

orange

#mbsept

Sun, 03 Sep 2023 20:24:13 -0500

precious

#mbsept

Sat, 02 Sep 2023 17:52:24 -0500

The buildup to cuteness!

#mbsept

Fri, 01 Sep 2023 16:55:41 -0500

Photo challenge day 1: abstract

#mbsept

Mon, 28 Aug 2023 13:58:08 -0500

The L10 column is all you need to know!

Sun, 13 Aug 2023 20:31:30 -0500

Some photos I took on my walk this morning.

Sat, 12 Aug 2023 20:49:05 -0500

I got asked to help work on some parts for a helicopter that’s going to be displayed at a local veterans memorial. These are a few of the parts I have to 3D model so they can be manufactured

Let’s Talk about Journaling (Specifically my workflow)

Thu, 03 Aug 2023 08:00:00 -0500

Seems like I have spent quite a bit of time and posts where I mention journaling. From bullet journaling to keeping a gratitude journal I seem to keep bringing up the idea of journaling.

Obviously journaling is not a new concept and has been around for thousands and thousands of years. As a matter of fact if you do a quick Google search on the word journal you will see almost ten billion results. That’s a lot of posts about journaling.

Although an old concept, this is something relatively new to me. I have only recently started journaling on a regular basis. So today I thought I’d write a little bit about my journaling workflow. And as skoo.bz points out here I am writing this for me and for my future self (more on that later).

I have four different journals I use. Why so many? Glad you asked. The four I use are as follows:
1. Day One
2. Field Notes Bullet Journal
3. Notebook for Morning Pages
4. Notebook for evening journaling

I read a post by Tim Nahumck (the Drafts guy) on his journaling workflow. I really liked this setup. So I reached out to him and asked if I could borrow this. He sent me the shortcut and I installed it. I made some modifications to it and personalized it for my needs/wants. I had shortcuts run the action to start the journal at 3 every morning. Then at 11:50 at night it would automatically file it away to iCloud in a .pdf file.

It wasn’t until a month or so back that I started really playing around with Day One. I’ve had it installed for a long time. I don’t pay for the premium features. Because I originally paid for the app I get a few extra features that seem to suit me just fine. I could pay for it and I may in the future (waiting to see what the Apple Journaling app is going to be like first). One of the things I love about Day One is the “On this Day Feature”. You click this little button and it shows you all the posts you created on this day in the past. So before bed every night I would send my journal (from Drafts) into Day One before it created the .pdf.

Yesterday I was talking to ChrisJWilson on here and he mentioned why not put this in directly into Day One and not go through Drafts. I got to thinking about this. I have never gone through those .pdf files to read them. So why not have it go into Day One and bypass the drafts action all together. So I set that up and this morning it worked perfectly. Below is my template that I import:

As you can see there are some presets that automatically come in with the shortcut action. Things like the forecast, daylight, etc. Then there are some things I can go in and fill out like wake-up, exercise, and weight. Wake-up is mainly how I felt when I woke up. Did I sleep good, etc.

The power list is a list of things that I want to get done every day. I want to read at least 10 pages every day. Write something everyday (journaling doesn’t count). Spiritual Discipline involves a meditating, scripture reading or something similar. I try to drink a gallon of water every day, workout for 45 minutes and stick to a particular diet. If I get those tasks done I put a check mark next to each one. Goal is to tick them all off everyday.

Quick hits is just that. Perhaps a quick line to say that I ran into so and so at the grocery store and we talked about his new job, etc. Today’s quote is whatever I put on micro.blog for that day. Before posting it, I copy it and paste it here. Gratitude is just that. Three things everyday. A couple weeks ago, Aaron Aiken told me on here that gratitude “is a requirement for each day, at the start of each day, otherwise I just feel off.” I haven’t forgotten that so I’ve made it a conscious effort do this everyday.

Below that is a line I can write whatever. Sometimes I journal here at the end of the day. Sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I prefer to use a notebook (more on that in just a minute).

The thing I like about doing this in Day One is because I like the ability to look back on past day for sure. But I also like the ability to add pictures to my journals. Sometimes I just want to add a picture to remind me of something that happened on that day.

I have two other journals in Day One. I have one for Bible Study where I use a template to recap what I read about during that day’s study.

This gives me another way of looking back at what I read/studied for that day. I’ve thought about starting a journal for books I’m reading and doing something similar with that for notes.

The third journal is called micro.blog. Here I have an IFTTT rule set up that will take any post I make to my blog and put import it to this journal. I use this often. Everyday I check there to make sure the quote is am using isn’t one I’ve already used on that day in the past.

The other way I journal is in notebooks. I have a couple different notebooks I use and they all have their own purpose.

The notebook on the right is a moleskine. This is the notebook I am using for Morning Pages. Every morning when I wake up I grab this notebook and a pen and write three pages. I’ve been doing this for 42 straight days and love it. Easily one of my favorite things I do every morning.

The other notebook is a book I picked up at The Earthbound Trading Co. in Hot Springs similar to this. It looks like a journal and I love writing it in it. This is the notebook I will use at nights when I want to hand write about my day instead of using Day One.

As I said, I’m kind of new to journaling but this has become a big part of my day already. I’m sure I’ll learn more techniques and I’ll tweak this some here and there. I’d love to find out what you’re using for your journal. Do you have multiple journals like I do or do you keep it all in one place? Hit me up and let’s discuss it.

Wed, 02 Aug 2023 16:03:53 -0500

First of the month Home Screen(and Lock Screen)

Let's Talk About Mental Health

Fri, 28 Jul 2023 05:37:57 -0500

This is a topic that gets a lot of attention and it should. Maybe I’m not remembering correctly but I feel like this topic has grown more and more over the past ten years or so (but I could be completely wrong on that).

I’ll be 100% honest here too. This is not a topic I am an expert with nor do I claim to be. I know very little about any of this. As a matter of fact, depression and mental illness is not something I’ve ever really experienced. I know people personally who battle this but, thank the Lord, I have never dealt with this personally.

Now, that being said, I am aware this is a real issue and something a lot of people have and are dealing with. I want to say all of that to make sure it’s understood I am not making light nor trying to diminish this in any way by something I may say in this post.

A quick search on the word “Depression” in Duck Duck Go came up with links such as these:
- Top 10 Mental Health Services - Depression Symptoms - Depression (major depressive disorder) - Symptoms and causes

The list goes on and on. Why? Because this is a very real issue we are dealing with in our society. As a society it seems we are more depressed than ever. I have zero reason why (because I’m not a doctor or scientist or anyone who studies this).

I love how big tech companies are trying to make changes to combat this though. Speaking mainly from the  ecosystem here since that’s what I use. They have added “Mental Wellbeing” to their health app. This is in the new iOS 17 that will be releasing next month.

It’s nothing major but it’s something simple that they have put into a device you are already carrying around to just check in mentally. The new mental health features allow users to log their momentary emotions and daily moods, see valuable insights, and easily access assessments and resources.

Our goal is to empower people to take charge of their own health journey. With these innovative new features, we’re expanding the comprehensive range of health and wellness tools that we offer our users across iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. Mental health and vision health are important, but often overlooked, and we’re excited to introduce features that offer valuable new insights to provide users with an even better understanding of their health. These insights help support users in their daily decisions and offer more informed conversations with their doctors.

- Sumbul Desai, M.D., Apple’s vice president of Health.

The following was pulled from the Apple Newsroom

Mental health is as important as physical health and affects people every day in how they think, feel, and act.

Research shows that reflecting on one’s own mental state can help build emotional awareness and resilience. According to Dr. Michelle Craske, a distinguished professor of psychology and psychiatry at UCLA, who echoes many in the field, “Identifying our feelings has been shown to help us manage difficult emotions, appreciate positive moments, and improve wellbeing.” Multiple studies by researchers have shown that identifying feelings reduces emotions like sadness and anger, and positively impacts our body by slowing our heart rate. Additionally, in a survey of participants in the UCLA Digital Mental Health Study, initial results showed more than 80 percent of participants found reflecting on their mood in the study app increased emotional awareness, and about half said it increased wellbeing.

This isn’t a sales pitch to go out and by an  device but it is a post to show how big companies are starting to take notice of this issue.

Think about it, we are constantly bombarded with information. And a lot of it is usually negative. Watch the news (any station) and you’re going to see nine negative stories for every one positive story. The news stations compete with each other to try and break the biggest and latest story. (I have relatives that will watch these news channels all day, every day.)

If it’s not the news, it’s something on social media that is bombarding us with negativity. Friends and family are griping about how they got treated at a restaurant or how they hate their job, etc. We are surrounded by negative feelings and negative energy.

We are also an extremely busy society. This is a subject I should probably not talk too much about. Between juggling a day job, four or five side jobs, and maintaining a home life I know how busy life can get. This doesn’t include any other projects that I’m currently working on like writing a book and church responsibilities. I am just one person and I know most people are just as busy if not busier than I am. That takes a toll on someone mentally if they’re not careful.

Then there’s the constant idea of I’m not good enough. I don’t have enough money. I don’t look a certain way. I don’t drive a fancy car. Social media has been terrible with this. People put on social media what they want people to see. Instagram is full of pictures and videos for people driving expensive cars or traveling to Europe. You see their big houses and fancy and you start wondering why you can’t have these things also. Facebook is just as bad. What you don’t see is the huge amount of debt they accumulated to live that lifestyle. You don’t see the hard work they put in every single day to have these things. You don’t know the reason why they are doing this is because they’re hurting inside and trying to find something to ease the pain and make them feel better.

Again I do not have the answers on how to fix this. I wish I did. I decided a while back that I wanted to start working on myself to try and make sure I didn’t get to a place where mental illness was something I had to battle. I have been taking advantage of the new mental wellbeing feature on the iPhone. I downloaded the beta and have been tracking things. Several times a day (usually 10am, 3pm and then 9pm) I will track how I’m feeling and why. It takes about 30 seconds to do.

I also started journaling. Every night I journal. Sometimes I do it digitally. Sometimes I write things out in a notebook. Just however I’m feeling that day. I’m not sure if it helps or not but sometimes it’s nice to just be able to vent and get everything out of your mind. Journaling allows me to do this.

Another thing I did is walked away from social media. I’m going to post this on all the social media platforms but I haven’t been on Facebook since the end of May. And I’m not missing it at all. Instagram is the same way. I have deleted them off my devices and I haven’t missed anything.

Something else I’m doing is working out every day outside during the summer. I have a gym membership but I’ve been enjoying the sunshine a lot this summer. I’ll get back into the gym this fall and winter but for now I’m enjoying the sunshine.

Now this is all stuff I’m doing but, as I’ve already said, this is also not something I’ve dealt with before. So I’m not sure if any of this stuff is helping me or not. I mean I know it’s helping me. I just don’t know if it’s helping my mind.

Lastly, I would like to say this. A good friend of mine who is a local radio DJ is constantly putting on Facebook and Twitter (and I’ve heard him say it over the radio), if you need someone to talk to, that his DM’s are always open. I think that’s a big key. Find someone you can talk to. If you’re struggling, call someone. There are hotlines out there I know. You can reach out to me. I will talk to anyone. That’s the important thing here. Find someone you can talk to. You are a here by design and for a reason.

Thu, 27 Jul 2023 09:20:37 -0500

Love this post by skoo.bz

On Having a Blog skoo.bz
skoo.bz https://skoo.bz/2023/07/27/on-having-a.html

Wed, 26 Jul 2023 21:33:39 -0500

Had a great walk tonight! I love walking on this trail.