Category Archives: Blog Post
The End?
Folks, since getting back from all those vacations I took over the summer, and not doing 5 a Day With Jay during that time, I’ve done a LOT of thinking about it. Mainly stopping doing it.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I still enjoy making the videos and chit chatting with everyone, even if there isn’t any chit chat back. If I didn’t enjoy making the videos and doing this blog, I’d stop in a heartbeat. Why keep doing something if you’re not enjoying yourself?
What it comes down to is fairly simple.
Time.
There aren’t enough hours in the day. Currently I’m getting up early for work because we’re losing another team member. One of the senior team members. Losing him will be a challenge. We have calls that start at 6am (my time as he’s on the East Coast) so we can start transferring his duties to others on the team. We also record those sessions as he won’t be around for questions and we’ll need some sort of knowledge base to deal with everything once he’s gone.
That’s put a lot of stress on me as my boss also left the company. Currently, I’m the one running the team until the replacement takes over. That person will be starting next month. This means on top of getting people on the team up to speed on the person leaving, I need to get the new supervisor up to speed on everything that’s happening with the team currently as well as giving him a history of what the team has been up to getting to this point in time.
It’s a lot to deal with.
When I posted last night that I was tired, I was. Mentally completely exhausted. I always said I’d be transparent with this blog and the video series. My goal is not to ghost you any more. I also want to keep blogging daily as it helps me keep my mind clear.
That all said, I’m going to stop 5 a Day With Jay for the time being. I do plan on switching to a weekly format, perhaps 30-45 minutes. I don’t want to stop making the videos, but I cannot keep doing 5 a week as I once was. There just aren’t enough hours in the day right now. I’m falling behind on my writing, my bass practice, and my reading. Yes, I love doing the videos, but something needs to be cut to help me get back on track.
I will keep doing the blog. I’m having fun writing these up every day and now that I’m telling stories from my past, perhaps they’ll even be more interesting. My overall goal is to make this a blog worth coming to and reading and not just me posting random ramblings.
That’s all I’ve got today. Over the coming weeks, things will start to lighten up around here. I’m glad you’re here and I hope you’ll stick around.
Until Next Time!
Stay Awesome!
Tired…
I’m wiped out gang. Going to bed early. Busy trying to shift to a new sleep schedule and train two new people at work. It’s been taxing.
No 5 a Day tonight.
Ramps and Jumps
As a child of the 70s, one of the most interesting things to do was watch stunt men on TV doing death-defying stunts. They didn’t always go well. Probably why I was a nervous kid when it came to doing stupid things.
That doesn’t mean I didn’t do stupid things.
When I was really young, probably 4 or 5, I had a Big Wheel. If you know, you know. I would get going fast, pull the hand brake and slide to a stop. If I was feeling adventurous, I’d get going really fast and go over the speed bump in our apartment complex. Jumps weren’t high enough to do anything.
When we moved from the cities (that’s what you called Minneapolis/St Paul when you lived in Minnesota) up to McGregor, I got a bike. Took me a long time to get my training wheels off. I was never very coordinated or agile or smart. I was pretty much a scardey-cat kid who avoid pain as much as I could.
That didn’t stop me, once the training wheels were off, from riding down the dirt roads and jumping through all the little pot holes in the road.
Growing up, there were two kids that lived nearby, Dan and Jodi. I had an older brother and an even older step-brother (Jon and Doug), Jodi had an older brother and Dan also had an older brother. There were sisters for both Dan and Jodi, but we’re not talking about them in this story.
The other brothers decided to take a 2×8 we’d found and put a cinder block under one side. We each took turns going over our makeshift jump. Many times the board would slip and many crashes happened.
One time we took a sheet of plywood and two cinder blocks and put a ramp at the end of a dock where we’d go swimming in Big Sandy Lake. I was the most nervous about this. So, unlike the other kids who jumped their bikes into the lake at full speed, I went a little slower. The front tire went over the end of the ramp and I flipped over the bike into the lake.
Yeah, not very graceful.
We had a surprise ramp appear one day on a trail we would sled down. A tree had fallen across a path during the fall and gotten covered over with snow. We’d go down the hill and SURPRISE! End up in the trees, flipped over, or, if lucky, jump and keep going.
That leads us to the last ramp I remember from those days.
Dan lived at the top of a hill with a road that went down to the lake. After a turn to the left, and a turn to the right, you’d be at a boat launch. During the winter, this was where snowmobiles would ride out onto the lake. All of us were paid in hot dish (yeah, that’s MN food) to shovel the road because the snow plow wouldn’t go down there. We piled the excess snow on the sides of the road and the older kids had a bright idea.
We made a curved bank on the left turn.
We made a curved bank on the right turn.
A three-foot ramp was made at the bottom, because we had a LOT of snow.
Then, we took turns heading down the course. Well, all of them did. I was the youngest and the scaredest. I wasn’t about to go down that alone.
My step-brother, Doug, said he’d let me ride in front of the sled and he’d hold onto me. Well, if he’d keep me safe, why not, right? I pulled my hat down over my face and got in.
The “sled” in question one one of those roll-up plastic sheets with handles on the front. We took the left turn, I nearly fell off the sled, but Doug held me on. We took the right turn. With my hat pulled down over my face, I had no idea how fast we were going, but I knew it was fast because I could feel every little bump on the road.
We hit the jump.
I had that moment of weightlessness that felt like it lasted forever. I could hear all the boys screaming and cheering. I knew some of them had made big jumps, but no idea how far I was going or how high in the air I was. Thankfully I was well-padded from all my snow gear and there was about two-feet of snow on the frozen lake. I landed softly.
I jumped up and turned around. Now, I was much smaller back then, but I looked back and I was quite a ways away from the ramp. And the sled. And my step brother. The sled had stopped on the ramp. Doug went about two feet and landed on his face. Me? I shot off the ramp like a rocket and kept going across the inlet and nearly made it to the other side. Again, I’ve no idea the distance, but I went much further than any of the others had gone by themselves.
Yeah, I still don’t like ramps or jumps.
Until Next Time!
Stay Awesome!
Audio Only: https://anchor.fm/jr-murdock/episodes/5-a-Day-With-Jay—0157-e14do9o
That time I found the Hindenburg Plaque.
I graduated high school in 1987. In August of that year, I joined the Navy. I spent a couple of months in Boot Camp in Orlando before heading off to me ‘A’ school in Pensacola, FL. At the time, the Navy needed people to go into my rate. Because of that, there was an incentive to sign up. I was what they called a “push button” 3rd. Meaning once I completed my ‘A’ school, I was awarded the rank of E4, a 3rd class petty officer. I was proud of that accomplishment.
I wasn’t, however, excited about the fact I was about to go on a Navy vessel. I was terrified of open water.
So, Jay, why did you join the Navy? Isn’t that kind of what they do?
I’ll cover that another time, it’s not important to this story.
Upon completion of my ‘A’ school, my either class, and the class behind us, were told there were now too many 3rd classmen of my rate. Therefore, the fleet didn’t need us at that time. Instead, we were all to be sent to security guard duty and we would be relieving the Marines that were currently doing security guard duty on Naval Weapons Stations.
Whew. No ship for me!
Some of my classmates and I climbed into a giant car, six of us if I recall, and we drove from Pensacola to Pittsburgh, PA. One of the guys was from there and wanted to stop off and live it up before we reported for duty in Lakehurst, NJ where our Security Guard School was going to be. I’ll tell a story about PA another time. Yeah, everything was a story in the Navy.
The lot of us spent a month in Lakehurst. Now, being 18, I knew very little about Jersey let alone Lakehurst. I didn’t know the history. I knew nothing about the place. I was young, dumb, and ….
Every day we’d walk from the barracks across the large field in front of two massive hangars. Inside of one of the hangars was an entire flight deck of an aircraft carrier. When I say massive hangars, I mean wow were they big. It’s difficult to describe their size or how small you’d feel walking past them.
The field was mostly concrete with patches of overgrowth all over. One day while crossing the field, I tripped on something. I had no idea what it was. Being early as we always were, I took the time to rip up the grass over what I’d tripped on. Color me surprised when I uncovered a plaque.
Now, if you look at the plaque online, you’ll see something very different than what I experienced. The plaque had been placed in the spot where the Hindenburg went down 51 years before. The plaque commemorating the 50th anniversary. I don’t know why it was overgrown or why it was allowed to become overgrown. All I know is what I tripped over.
When you look at pictures of the plaque online, you’ll now see it surrounded with anchor chain and a long stretch of concrete and lots of nice landscaping. Back when I tripped over it, that wasn’t the case.
That’s how I found the plaque.
Until next Time!
Stay Awesome!
Audio Only: https://anchor.fm/jr-murdock/episodes/5-a-Day-With-Jay—0156-e14c0ni
The Simpsons Vs South Park
I know I’m way WAY behind on my cartoon viewing. Like, holy carp am I way behind. But then, I don’t really watch too much TV to begin with so I’ve had to pick and choose what I watch. normally I’ll see an episode if someone says “Hey, you need to check this one out” and that’s about all I’ll see.
That said, I never started watching South Park or the Simpsons.
I did watch the Simpsons when it was a short on the Tracey Ulman show way back when, but that was about it. I’d catch an episode here and there. Saw the movie. That was about it. Really didn’t feel like my kind of show with laugh out loud moments. I got the humor, but it was never my kind of show.
South Park, on the other hand, is horrible irreverent and crude with its humor and seemed geared more toward my sense of humor. But again, I didn’t watch it with any regularity even though it seemed something I would enjoy more.
That said, I am now subscribed to Disney + and HBO Max. I have all the episodes. I decided that now was the time to give both of these a real chance. With no commercials, in one hour I can watch 3 episodes. So in the past few weeks, I’ve gotten through season 1 of each series.
Let’s start with one thing, the Simpsons have been on the air for 31 years whereas South Park has been on the air for 24. The Simpsons would have really hit their stride by the time South Park came on the air. Also, Simpsons is on network television and subject to more rules that South Park would have been hit with.
That said, I find the first season of the Simpsons, though interesting, rather dull. I’m sorry to all the die hard fans. Honestly, I was able to put on an episode and listen to most of the episode without watching what was happening on the screen. Sure, during the opening credits, you need to see what Bart is writing on the blackboard and what happens when they all hop on the couch, but there are long moments where you don’t really need to be paying much attention to what’s happening.
South Park, on the other hand, is a show that demands your full, undivided attention from start to end. I found myself laughing out loud several times and going “Oh no they didn’t!” at least once per episode. I realize that the Simpsons had a lot of influence on South Park. You can easily spot things that are almost a direct rip off of the Simpsons. Like the kids watching a TV show that the parents don’t understand and don’t approve of. Sure. I see that. Easy enough.
I think what makes South Park stand out more for me that the Simpsons is it’s a collection of kids doing and saying things that kids would say not really knowing why any of it was wrong.
Again, I get the humor of the Simpsons. As far as the first season is concerned, it’s really like Garfield (the comic strip) for me. It’s funny enough without being too funny. I know there are some episodes that will come later that I may get to, we’ll see, but overall, I think I’ll be mainlining South Park first and watch the Simpsons when I need to fill time.
What do you think? Did you watch both? Neither? Like one over the other? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Had a dream last night.
I’m a vivid dreamer. I also remember many of my dreams. Some almost as much as they could be memories they’re do detailed in my mind. I know not everyone does this and I’m giving strong consideration to making some of my video ‘stories’ from dreams I’ve had.
For example, last night, I dreamed I was in a pool. Not just any pool, but a massive underground pool. Think an old bathhouse from back in the day, except people were wearing swim suits and the water wasn’t cloudy. Dark, but not cloudy. I was there with the Mrs and My Favorite Daughter. There was laughing and echos of voices in the underground area. Each pillar was carved with various scenes of ancient times and different gods from different eras and areas. That wasn’t the strange part. The weirdest part was something was in the water with us and only I was seeing it. Every time I’d point out the large shape, it’d disappear. It wasn’t quick, but quite slow.
Finally it swam up to us. It was a sea turtle. We fed it some greens and it swam away. That’s where I woke up.
These are the kinds of dreams I have and this is one of the most normal dreams I’ve had.
The rest of the day, spent the day resting, relaxing, coughing, and watching TV with the Mrs. We saw The Tomorrow War and for all the bad reviews I’ve seen, I thought it was a good movie. I had some issues with the monsters, but it got explained well. I also thought there was some good foreshadowing. I think I watched most of this movie as a writer because of the bad reviews I’d seen and was looking for some major plot holes. All in all, I was happy with the movie.
By The Numbers – June 2021
Hey Howdy Hey Gang! This will be a short post. The video is also short cuz I’m a dummy and the camera died on me. <sigh> Were I a smart YouTuber, I’d have just swapped out the battery, but didn’t have it handy. Next time.
Let’s start with MONEY! Yes, I’m selling books to make money. That’s sort of the entire goal here. Bear in mind I’m doing almost no promotion other than my newsletter and a blog post that I share on all the social medias. The fact I’m selling anything at all amazes me. I won’t lie.
So, I’m happy with last month. I won’t be buying a new car any time soon, but I made $12.75 for the month of June. Given that I made only $3 in May, I’ll take that as a win. As I said, I’m not a rock star supermodel author with six figure book deals. I’m starting over from failing the last time I tried to get things going. I need to rebuild my brand from the ground up and regain the trust of readers I’ve lost over the years. This isn’t going happen over night. I need to keep repeating that more for myself than anyone else. The fact I sold 3 copies of my latest book and a couple of copies of back titles means I’m doing as well as I can.
Yes, there’s a lot more I’d love to see happen, but for right now at this moment in time, I’m writing books, and publishing on a schedule. Nothing more, nothing less. Once I get deeper into each series, say, with 3 books in each series, THEN I’ll start doing a lot more because those 4th books will blow people’s socks off and I’ll be crazy excited to get them out there.
One thing I’ve been thinking about doing and I should have thought about this sooner, is put the first chapter of the next book to read in the series in each book. Because I’m a dummy, I didn’t think about that until I was recording today’s video and then the camera died. <grumble>
At any rate, if you’re curious about the numbers, check out today’s video. If you were following along with my ‘story’ idea from yesterday, that will be starting on Monday! I will reserve Friday for getting folks caught up on what I’m doing on my writing. I think that’ll be a good point to do it.
I’m off to make words happen that I didn’t make happen this week.
Until Next Time!
Stay Awesome!
Audio Only: https://anchor.fm/jr-murdock/episodes/5-a-Day-With-Jay—0155-e147769
Story Time.
I think I finally know what I’m going to do with my YouTube channel. I got to thinking, as I tend to do. I’m an author. I’m a story teller. There are enough people who ramble daily about their daily writing grind and handing out writing advice. That’s not what I ever wanted this blog or the YouTube channel to be about.
What did I want it to be about?
Me!
That said, I’m going to start using this blog and my YouTube channel to start telling stories about me. From my childhood, high school, Navy Days, Band days, my family. Yes, I’ll still talk about my writing and where it’s going. Just not as the main content. I’m going to branch out from what I was doing and tell more stories. Honestly, I think that’ll be far more interesting than “I wrote 3000 words today.”
I think that’s what’s holding back my ability to grow my audience. I’m not putting enough of ME into the content. Sure, there are some who are hear to listen to me ramble about what I’m doing and where I’m going. I’m not forgetting about you. Honestly. I do plan on talking at length about my writing. Only once a week and not every single ding dong day.
My goal is to get back to 5 minutes a day. Short stories about things I’ve done, where I’ve gone, dreams I’ve had, stories I wanted to tell and didn’t and why. I’m going to do a better job of putting out shorter content so it’s not so much for one sitting. Seems everyone has ADD these days and I need to keep the content length down.
That said, I’m also going to resurrect Murdock Minute. I’ll get those up on YouTube and TikTok and YES it will be one minute reviews or less. I plan to keep my face out of the videos and put pictures up instead. I’ll still record audio for them, but I’ll be far more brief. I feel these will do better on TikTok than YouTube, but they’ll go in both places.
I’m going to keep this one short this evening. There is much to do and I need to get after it.
Until Next Time!
Stay Awesome!
Audio Only: https://anchor.fm/jr-murdock/episodes/5-a-Day-With-Jay—0154-e145et8
Getting back into a habit.
It’s weird sitting down and typing an actual blog post after a few weeks away. Now don’t get me wrong. I’ve been away from this blog for MONTHS and come back, but this time was different. I did smaller posts while I was away so I didn’t break my streak, we’re up to 167 days including today. Also, this blog is quickly reaching the 1000 post mark. I’ve been blogging irregularly for 10 years now. You’d think in all that time I’d have a lot more posts than that, but it goes to show how random I’ve been with my writing and my writing career.
I will get into the numbers for last month in my next post, but I’m excited that Almost-Super Heroes book 1 has already sold 4 copies. I’m selling a few short stories. I’m seeing page reads. Nothing that will pay a bill or buy a dinner, but I know if I keep at it, those days will come. Remember, my goal was to make $100 in six months. That means I’d need to make just under $15 a month to be on target. Am I? Heck no! But I do know that more will come toward the end, if I keep at it, than I’ll see at the start. The more books I put out and keep putting out, the more chance of success I’ll have.
This is why, even though I’m seeing limited success at this stage, I’m excited to see any growth. It means progress.
On a personal note, I mentioned this in passing, but I didn’t get the job I had applied for. I’m still not disappointed. It means I’ll have more time to commit to writing and publishing. That’s my goal. Put out as many books and short stories as I can.
Now onto something that was on my mind during all those weeks of vacation. It felt like I was away months. I had time to think about not just this blog and what I’m doing here every day, but also what I’m doing with 5 a Day With Jay. On top of that, I kept thinking about other social media and what I should or could do over there.
Being a writer and publishing my own work means I need to get eyes on me. That’s the biggest challenge I’m having right now. Getting people to notice what I’m doing. There are many people who do daily vlogs, and without a product or personality, there is a limited audience. I’m confident some of those viewing my videos or listening to the audio, want me to succeed, but going through a daily drudge can wear on an audience.
I don’t want to do that.
I’m thinking about bringing back the Murdock Minute. It’s of a format that’ll work on TikTok and YouTube. It’d be more entertaining that listening to me ramble about my life and writing and publishing.
But! I’d switch to a weekly format for 5 a Day With Jay. Perhaps doing 30-60 minutes once per week instead of 10-15 minutes 5 times per week.
Yes, I’d have to commit to putting more effort into Murdock Minute, but I’d be freed up from 5 a Day With Jay.
Let’s have an honest conversation, my YouTube channel isn’t growing. When I put something up on TikTok, I’m getting hundreds of views on something simple like a time lapse of the ocean or birds at the zoo. I feel Murdock Minute would work better over there.
Again, thinking out loud and as I keep saying, I want to be transparent about what I’m doing. For now, the blog will stay the same, but I think it’s time to mix things up on other social media sites.
I’m off to go make words happen.
Until Next Time!
Stay Awesome!
Audio Only: https://anchor.fm/jr-murdock/episodes/5-a-Day-Witj-Jay—0153-e143n6l
One More day until we return to 5 a Day With Jay
Oh my. I’m not recording 5 a Day with Jay tonight, but I’ll do a long post about where I’ve been the past 3 weeks. Well, the past week at least. If you follow the blog, I did a long post about Cabo and how amazing that trip was.
This past week, my brother was in town. By “in town” I mean he and his family met us in Sedona. We drove out to the Grand Canyon, spent some time by the pool, toured the town, toured the area. Much of it was shut down due to a local fire.
We drove back to San Diego. Did the Zoo, Balboa Park, the beach, rode jet skis, had a few dinners out. Watched fireworks from my father-in-law’s house. It was a VERY long week.
Oh, and my nephew is into trains. Like, so into trains you don’t know. Think how Sheldon Cooper is into trains and then you’ll have an idea how into trains my nephew is. We took a lot of train pictures and he’d ramble off all the stats on a given train, size, weight, towing capacity, radiator size, engine size, route information, and I think you get the point. The boy is wicked smart and can memorize facts like a sponge.
My niece is becoming a teenager and is very much into being a teenager. She was excited to stay down at the beach with My Favorite Daughter. They got up in the morning to walk the dogs on the beach.
Needless to say, we sent them all home exhausted.
That said, I’m wiped out. I did return to work today (i.e. turned on the work laptop in the computer room). It’s been a few days since I’d been logged in so there was much catching up on everything.
For those who’ve been following along, I did not get the supervisor position. Many good things were said about me and I’m confident this won’t be the last opportunity to come my way.
I will do some writing this evening. My head might not be into recording, but I can put some words down.
Until Next Time!
Stay Awesome!
J.R. Murdock 