A better hiking adventure.
The Mrs and I went hiking again today. This time went took the Palm Springs tram up to the top of the rim where there are many, well-marked trails. Far less stressful than yesterday’s learning mishap.
So that’s what 25000 steps feels like.
The Mrs and I went for what was supposed to be a 4 mile hike. The start went well. We had 40oz of water and felt prepared for a couple of hours on a hike.
Then we got to the destination and took a wrong turn and wound up in an unmarked area. In our defense, the last sign we saw notes we could go in either direction.
Needless to say, we ran out of water and it was quite a painful struggle getting back to the truck
But make it we did. We ran into a gentleman and asked it had any water to spare and bellesedly he did.
We will take it much easier tomorrow.
Thank you.
Thank you all for the support! I’m even more excited to start dropping content!
Here’s a better picture of the Yellow-backed Oriole that hangs out in the tree outside my windows.
I feel like I’m swimming upstream.
It’s a feeling that difficult to shake. That feeling of moving in a direction and getting no closer to the finish line. Running in place. Swimming upstream. Swimming against the tide.
In high school, I ran track and cross country. Long distance running. Each day we’d run 6 miles for practice. Then do sprints. Now, I’ve got short legs. I was chubby in high school. I didn’t run quickly. But run I did. I was never the fastest on the team, but once I got my legs in motion, I could run for a long time.
One of the only things that held me back were underdeveloped bronchi. In colder weather, it would be difficult if not painful to breathe. I was never asthmatic and I couldn’t imagine what that’s like, but I had problems.
Suffice to say, I know what a long painful struggle something can be.
That’s what I’m feeling now. I’ve run the race a few times and I never got any where. Now, here I am again. At the starting line. Getting ready to run the race once more. I keep asking myself, am I prepared this time?
It’s why I’m spending far more time getting prepared. I don’t think I was ever fully prepared last time. I didn’t put my best work out. Good stories, yes, but not well edited. So I needed to revisit what I’d done. Check it all again. See where I failed and where I succeeded. Make certain that the ground I’ve covered before hasn’t changed since the last time I was there.
Guess what. Some of it has changed. Things are different. There are so many other people out there running the same race. Trying to do the same thing. I’m just another fish in the stream trying to get ahead and there’s an entire school ahead of me.
I’m not going to let that be a deterrent. Quite that opposite. I’m using that as inspiration to push ahead harder than I ever did before. This time around, I’m not just pushing books out and hoping for the best. I’ve got a plan. For me, it’ll be slow and steady. For others, it’s bold and aggressive. However you view it, it’s a plan and I’m ready to carry it out.
There will be no 5 a Day with Jay until next week, but there will be blog posts.
Until Next Time!
Stay Awesome!
Audio Only: https://anchor.fm/jr-murdock/episodes/5-a-Day-With-Jay—0118-eus4d4
Rebuilding.
One of the many things I thought about over the weekend, while relaxing by the pool, petting dogs, and enjoying the Southern California sunshine, I knew what I needed to do.
I’ve said this many times over the course of this blog and on 5 a day with Jay. Yes, I know I’m becoming a broken record, but it needs to be said over and over.
I’m rebuilding the relationship with my fans.
Back when I was podcasting, I had an audience of around 200. That doesn’t sound like a lot in the grand scheme of things, but when I look my number now, I’m lacking. I’ve had to think why am I lacking and what can I do to fix that.
One word I’ve used over and over has been consistency. Doing this blog every day. Posting 5 a day with Jay on week days. I need to get doing my newsletter to my email group monthly. I need to get my books and short stories scheduled so they’ll drop on time without fail.
Why? Why do I need to be consistent? What is it about doing this regularly that I’m hoping to achieve? What does this do with the relationship between the reader and me?
It rebuilds the trust.
When I disappeared, several times over the past decade, I proved to readers I wasn’t to be trusted. Sure, I put out a good story, but I didn’t put them out in a timely manner. I didn’t keep the content flowing. Why keep following someone who isn’t going to keep their head in the game?
When talking with Tim Niederriter this evening for his podcast, that’s the one thing we kept coming back to. Consistency is key, but it helps build trust with readers.
That’s what I’m working toward. Rebuilding the trust I once had with readers.
I’m off to go make some magic happen
Until Next Time!
Stay Awesome!
Audio Only: https://anchor.fm/jr-murdock/episodes/5-a-Day-With-Jay—0117-euq5ci
And a Lazy Sunday…
Today was more of a half-and-half day. A little of this, a little of that.
The ‘that’ part was relaxing with my father-in-law watching baseball.
The ‘this’ part was getting introductions and blurbs written for the 1st 9 short stories that I’ll be releasing and getting those assembled into Volume 1 of Murdockian Tales.
The geode picture is only because I think geodes are neat and wanted to add a picture to this post.
Until Next Time!
Stay Awesome!
Lazy Saturday.
What did I do today? Little to nothing. Biggest thing I did? Got a haircut from My Favorite Daughter. I’m about as lazy as this lizard I saw sunning itself today. Felt good to do nothing all day.
Until Next Time!
Stay Awesome!
Music fills my brain.
Out of everything that fills my brain, music is by far the easiest for me to remember. From way back when I was a little boy listening to School House Rock and TV Theme songs, until today when I can listen to screaming thrash metal and know every word. For some reason, music and lyrics stick in my brain.
Sure, we all get ear worms from time to time. Many of those can be annoying. For me, it’s different. I can hear a couple of notes from a song I hadn’t heard since ’73 and BAM! There’s the song, in my head as if I’d just heard it a few minutes ago. I don’t get it.
I’ll walk through the supermarket and I’ll start humming and it’ll be a polka tune. I haven’t been to a polka since I was 5 or 6. Why? Why are these songs there? How did they take up residency in my brain and refuse to leave?
I wish it worked like that with things like…spell? Math? The plots of my books. Grammar rules!
But no. My brain decided long about that it was a repository for music and that’s what it does. It remembers music. <sigh>
At any rate, on the writing front: Still progressing.
On the reading front, I picked up Scott Ian’s I’m The Man. I appear to be on an autobiography kick. I’ve got Suzy Quatro’s book in my queue as well. We’ll see what happens there.
I watched Q: Into the Storm this week while working out and finished it. I’m still letting that one soak into my brain before I think about if I want to write a review on that one or not. That’s all I’ll say about it for now.
It’s been a long week. I plan to get much done this weekend.
Until Next Time!
Stay Awesome!
Audio Only: https://anchor.fm/jr-murdock/episodes/5-a-Day-With-Jay—0116-euk2qt
A couple of books I recently read.
Back in the day, I was in a punk band. We weren’t very good, but we had fun. In between those fun times, there was in-fighting for creative control. I wanted more, the lead singer didn’t want to give it up. These things happen in a band. For us, it was minor, but I knew I’d never get my way in the band and I chose to leave.
Is this in any way like Dee Dee Ramone leaving the Ramones? Oh, hell no. Not even close. First of all, we weren’t anywhere close to being successful and likely would never be successful. It wasn’t in the cards for us.
For Dee Dee and Johnny, they were destined for worse. Sure, they had success and fame to go along with playing in a band, but there was always control issues with all 4 members of the band. Combined with heavy drug and alcohol abuse by all of them, it wasn’t anything destined to last.
It’s interesting reading both of these books and seeing the tone each of them takes. With Johnny’s book, Commando, you can feel the control issues. The anger. The passion he felt for the music and the complete desire to put up with anyone else’s BS.
From Dee Dee’s book, you can feel the anger of a person denied his childhood and wanting to find a way to express himself. The passion he put into his writing of songs and music both on guitar and bass. Where he brought the passion for music, Johnny brought the drive for success.
It’s also telling reading both books that this band wasn’t a tight-knit group that liked to go out and party and do their thing like you might read about some bands doing. They all very much did their own thing until it was time to record or go on stage. They were successful despite the fact they all hated touring, hated dealing with fans, hated dealing with others in the industry. All they wanted to do was escape reality and that’s where they all fell to heavy drug and alcohol usage.
These books don’t have happy endings. If you pick them up, don’t expect an uplifting story of how they struggled for success and finding it, were suddenly better off. Money only creates new problems for all of them that carried throughout their lives. Each book is a difficult read for that alone. Their lack of education doesn’t make the books any less compelling.
I would only recommend these books if you’re a big fan of the Ramones and you’d like to find about them. Other than that, these are depressing trips into the minds of people that succeeded when all the odds were against them, and then still couldn’t find a better reason for their lives.
If you’re looking for a book like that, check out Duff McKagan’s book, It’s So Easy. He had similar lows in his life, but found his way out. A far more elegant read.
All the links are below.
Until Next Time!
Stay Awesome! (and don’t do drugs!)
Audio Only:
More on topic than I thought I’d be…
When I started tonight’s video, I thought I’d be talking more about blurbs and the short stories I’m adding introductions to.
Well, I did spend a good portion of the video doing just that. The trip down memory lane as I think back to when I worked on a specific story has been a lot of fun. Adding those introductions is fun and I’m getting into a good flow.
That wasn’t the main point of the video and I do hope you take the time to watch it. My main point is…don’t wait to get started on something. Don’t wait until what you’re working on is absolutely perfect before you show it to the world. Don’t spend your hours agonizing if someone will love everything you produce.
This doesn’t matter if you’re talking about short stories, novels, paintings, digital art, YouTube videos. Everyone must start somewhere. The more you do that thing, the better you’ll get. There will always…ALWAYS be bumps along the road to success, but if you never start down the road, you’ll never know what you’re capable of accomplishing.
The point is, stop worrying and start producing. If you create art of any kind, share what you have, know it’s a snapshot in time of your talent at that moment, and move on to the next piece. Someone will find and love what you’re doing. It may not be a million people for your first piece, and that’s perfectly fine and completely normal.
I started this blog over 12 years ago. I’ve been a bad blogger. My intent is to change all that. I’m now trying to blog daily even if it’s a picture from the bird in the tree outside my window. I want to blog every single day and I’m on a 75 day streak. Consistency.
I’m trying to post a YouTube video M-F when I’m at home and able to record. I’m up to episode 114. Consistency.
And when I start publishing on May 5th, I have a schedule of what I’ll be putting out and when. This is helping me identify which works I need to have ready first so I can get those prepared and upload, and then I can commit time to the next piece and the next piece. The schedule will keep me on track so I can do what? Maintain consistency.
For me, consistency is the key. I’ve said it SO many times in so many posts and videos but is needs repeating even if I’m the only one hearing it. It’s impossible to get worse at doing something if you do it regularly. It’s impossible to get better at something if you never even start.
This blog had 40 followers when I started my latest streak 75 days ago. It’s now up to 100. I saw that number and thought something was wrong. It had to be, but 100 people are following. Let me thank you for being here and following my story.
My YouTube channel started with 5 followers in October. I’m nearly at 40.
My Anchor audio only version of the YouTube videos has one follower. I’m so happy that person is there! Thank you.
I have the expectation that when I drop GRPC book 2, my first book in far too long, I’ll sell one copy on the day it’s released and probably 0 copies for a long time thereafter. That’s my expectation. If I sell 0, I won’t be surprised. It I sell 2, I’ll be shocked. Honestly shocked.
I’ve been away from publishing for long enough that people wondered “What happened to Murdock?”
I’ve been inconsistent enough for people to lose interest in a long series that will likely never be finished. I’ve lost reader’s trust in my ability as an author.
How do I regain that trust?
Consistency.
I’m off to go make sure I don’t fall down on my face.
Until Next Time!
Stay Awesome!
Audio Only:
J.R. Murdock 