Isaac Sinnett

The question that I pose to myself, to any other person out there, is why is it so difficult to put a few coherent sentences together.  It doesn’t seem to matter whether it is in speech or written/typed somewhere.  The art of fluent language is something that I admire and strive for in my own writing.  I think that I have some good ideas, but when the time comes to writing it down, it’s as though I get “word salad”, to quote the great Alan Shore from Boston Legal. It’s as though writing creates a feeling that makes me lose all coherent thought.

When I am taking my drive to or from work, it’s a time where thoughts rum rampant with ideas for blogs, work and life in general.  One thing that my brain usually never does is shut off.  There is always something going on up there.  Sometimes its a blessing and sometimes its a curse.  The one thing that I have learned to do is to hit the pause button. If you have a very active brain than it’s imperative to learn the skill of the infamous “pause” button.  Without it, it would be as if you were torturing yourself to get information out of y0urself.  However, never giving yourself time to put the information into coherent thought to give the answer.  In the end, the torture would just continue.

Back to the drive.  Forty-five minutes to work one-way may seem to some as painful.  Sometimes it’s all about the perspective that is brought to the plate.  For me, I have turned that drive into moments of solitude and reflection, mixed with my daily chats with friends and family.  With everything put together, I would really miss that time if I didn’t have it.  This doesn’t mean that I’m all gun hoe about sitting in the traffic.  It’s simply the fact that I have turned a time that could be torture into something that I get a lot of meaningful things accomplished.

This blogged has stemmed from a conversation that I just finished with my roommate Paul.  I was explaining to him my thoughts that were mentioned in the first paragraph.  He mentioned that he had read that a blogger had written that he too sometimes felt it difficult to write a meaningful blog based on your intentions for that particular piece.  This blogger had then forced himself to sit down and write 2000 words a day no matter what.  What a great idea!  and to think that something of this nature had never crossed my mind before.  Such a simple thing, but yet, necessary for success.

If you want to succeed in something than you must practice.  You would think that having played the viola for most of my life that these things would be obvious.  But sometimes the most obvious things can be discovered last, after time spent meandering to no where.  If you want to get better at something than one must practice.  I’m not suggesting that the 2000 words a day is for me, but I’m not going to rule it out either.   The point is that I must consistently write to get to a point where a desired comfort level is reached.  In addition, reading everyday is another way in which skills can be improved.  Read all kinds of different things and then you can start to pick up on what you like and what you don’t like.  From the writing practice and the reading, then I can begin to develop my style and feel comfortable.

Learnig is something that I enjoy a great deal.  I have always enjoyed learning new things, but as I get older I enjoy it more and more.  In fact, a week ago, we had a staff retreat at work and we had a strengths test that we took.  Some of these strengths, for those of you that know me may or may not come as a surprise.  The first is futuristic, meaning I like to look to the future and what it brings.  Meaning that I look to where things are headed.  I don’t just take the particular program as it is, but look to see where it can be taken and where I see it heading.  Responsibility was another one.  All of the strengths seemed to fit into my personality as a whole pretty well.  Deliberative and one more that is similar, but is escaping my mind at the moment and I don’t have my list with me, round out the list.

Learning is the one that I’m most excited about at the moment.  I just can’t sleep at night if I haven’t learned something new that day.  Now, it’s not that this learning has to be monumental.  It can be as simple as reading an article in the Wall Street Journal, a new word or simply realizing something that I hadn’t before.

To finish off this rampage of thoughts, I’d just like to say that I’m really enjoying everything right now.  I enjoy work.  I enjoy the drive and everything that comes with that drive, of course, minus the traffic.  That is something that I don’t know that I could ever grow to enjoy.  I really enjoy my apartment.  In fact I love my apartment.  It’s so awesome that I have such an awesome place and live in an amazing city.  (Don’t worry Paul, if you are reading this, I enjoy my roommate too…that comes as part of enjoying the apartment…a bonus package if you would)  Of course, this could always go with out saying, but most of all, I enjoy my friends and family.  Would be nice if some of you could move to Chicago.

Thanks for stopping by and taking a read.

  The Trump Tower in Chicago is now open for business.  I have to say that this is a pretty impressive structure that they have come up with.  It is for luxury residences, for both hotel and condominiums.  They have finished the hotel part of it and continue to work on the top of the building, nearing completion.  I believe that the completion date is in 2009, but the hotel is open for business as are the lower levels of condo purchase.  Just thought I’d share this with you.

So today started out warm, just like any other non-typical January day would.  In fact, i believe it may have even been towards the 40 degree side of temperature.  Then as the day progressed it has gotten drastically colder.  At some point there was rain that turned into freezing rain.  All of that turned into snow with lots of wind.  I have never seen anything like this.  Barely needing a coat in the earlier part of the day, turning into freezing while be blown over with wind and snow.

Fortunately for me, I have made it to the comfort of my apartment where I can watch the weather out the window as I type.

So maybe I was a little to hard on the “stupid” people last time. I won’t go back and edit the blog now, but let’s just say that “clueless people are annoying”.

Now, let’s move on. Yesterday morning I realized something. I don’t know if it’s good or bad, but it is what it is. I have 40-45 more years of waking up every morning and going to work. That seems a bit daunting when you think about it like that. Instead I decided to break it down into more manageable chunks and say, that if you like what you do, does it really matter? That would make for a two part answer: Yes, it does really matter if you don’t like what you do and you don’t enjoy it. Then nearly all of those mornings will be miserable, and NO, it doesn’t matter if you like what you do, cause then it will be fun to wake up and go to work for the next half century.

Yesterday was quite the day filled with stupid people.  It might sound a bit callous that I refer to these people as stupid, but sometimes, there are no other descriptors.  The first come from that lovely place known as Starbucks.  One would think that they would have the system down pat and would welcome a larger order.  But, they have hired people that have yet to learn how to think. I was ordering a “box of coffee” to go and after I had told the dear employee what I wanted, she promptly asked me “when I would like this box of coffee?”  Well, dear employee, “now would be a great time.”  She proceeds to tell me that I would have to wait a while.  “ok.”  The box of coffee is ready and they bring it out, after having spilled coffee all over the box.  The box was sitting there and it had no handle.  So I ask them if this particular model of a box comes equipped with a handle.  She tells me that she didn’t know but it didn’t look like it.  Well, I could see that there was not handle at the time, but I let her know that I found it hard to believe that they would offer a box of coffee without any way of carrying it.  So, I took it upon myself to unpack the box and find the handle that they just didn’t unfold the handle and put it through the hole for use.  Ok, problem one from stupid people diverted.  Next they ask me if I would like fat-free or whole milk?  Well, I’m taking it for a group of people so I would like both please.  They put them into cups and proceed to place the cups, full of milk, into a paper bag and not a drink carrier. Huh?!…  Ok, There is no way to end a blog about stupid people than to ask a question.

Who, in their right mind, would put two cups full of milk into a plastic bag?