After last week’s Tangents, let’s get back on topic this week, shall we? Facebook has been reminding me this week of the vacation Mrs Stroke Bloke and I took in Thailand this time five years ago.
That was kind of the last hurrah for Ricky 1.0, before returning once again to the stresses – and fun – of my NYC life, and shortly thereafter, a massive haemorrhage stroke. I still picture the Maikhao Dream Resort when a guided meditation leads me to my happy place.
[Make your happy place the Apoplexy Tiny Litter. Or summat.]
And I guess that’s where I went during my recovery, too. Although I seem to recall spending more time looking forward. That was one of the keys to recovery, trying to get back to a version of what I was – so I could do different new fun things. Even where going for a run in Prospect Park would be something new and different and impossibly exotic for a stroke patient.
But thoughts like that were what drove me on.
What is it that makes us do the things we do? It’s strange hodgepodge, I suppose. This week, I watched the new BBC Scotland documentary about The Proclaimers, This Is The Story.
During the show, Tenth Doctor Who David Tennant asks Craig and Charlie (or is it Charlie and Craig) when they decided that being The Proclaimers was a career.
Notwithstanding getting a gig in Family Guy, the answer was, It’s still not a career. It was just something that took them; something they had to do. Of course, the Reid brothers are really talented, they’ve had a bit of luck, and they’ve made a whole lot of their own luck through hard work. And the impression you get is that they know it’s easier to say it’s still not career when you’re not standing behind the bar pulling pints for a Hearts fan. After all, they’re from Auchtermuchty via Leith, and their first song I remember getting huge airplay when I was a kid name-checked Bathgate, Linwood, Methil, and Irvine.
Oh, look – another Doctor Who star, Nardole/Matt Lucas. He was in this last weekend’s episode, featuring Mondasian Cybermen! And they had human hands! I was very excited.
Now, when I hear a Scottish singer-songwriter singing in an American accent, I wonder, Why are they doing that? When Letter From America came out, people were knocked sideways by the fact that the Reids were singing a song on the regular hit parade in their own accents. On Top of the Pops! It’s amazing how things have changed. (Although Alex Harvey and his Sensational Band did get a namecheck for getting there first. Or at least, on the Old Grey Whistle Test.)
Not his broadest, but his Brellest.
Yes, times change. If it’s five years since Thailand, it’s almost time for my five year strokiversary. There’s still a lot to do. So, more on these thoughts next week…
Nice post and hi from Alaska
Only one comment. I did an eichenwald/tentacle porn scan of your tabs just in case there was something you didn’t want to share and all I’ll say is check out inbox zero! http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/inbox-zero
Ha. Be well.
He needs inbox help, big time. All I can say is in the time I’ve known him, 2000 is good. It was a struggle for a while to keep it to 4 digits.
I love the idea of Ricky 1.0, 2.0, 2.1.4, etc.
There something fantastical about the idea of our Selves as operating systems we’re constantly working on, debugging, introducing new bugs into during the process of supposed upgrades. And the names…Mountain Lion, High Sierra….the glosses we used to refer to each new iteration of the OS.
Imagine the complaints from all the people we know. “I hate this new CrossFit Ron. Why can’t he go back to the way he was before? He runs a little faster, but now he’s so self absorbed.”
DISCLOSURE: There is no CrossFit Ron.