Tag Archives: Advice

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Those Lazy Hazy Crazy Days of Summer

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It’s that time of the year, summer time.  The kids have gained freedom from the interminable routine of school and oppressive tests.  Parents are left suddenly adrift without their routine.  The year has its comforting cycle for those of us with kids in the middle to high school years.  The shorter public holiday breaks are mere pauses of the cycle.  The slightly longer breaks at Easter and Christmas fall into time slots that generally have a rhythm and traditional routine of their own.  But summer is different.  It’s a really long break.  How can you use the changed routine of these ‘lazy hazy crazy days of summer’ to your advantage.  Read on.

Boat Kids Summer

It was the great Nat King Cole who in 1963 scored a hit with the song that gives its name to this blog post title.  I love it for the mood that it captures.  Even reading the main chorus and first stanza you can’t help but have a smile on your face as you think of your summer antics.

Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer, those days of soda and pretzels and beer.  Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer, dust off the sun and moon and sing a song of cheer.

Just fill your basket full of sandwiches and weenies, then lock the house up, now you’re set.  And on the beach you’ll see the girls in their bikinis, as cute as ever but they never get em wet.

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Its Time To Be Tested

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My kids are always a source of inspiration for me in my life and, more specific to this blog, my writing. I have pages in my journal with blog post ideas. However, the best posts always seem to come out of the answers to my question, “Hey kids, what should I write about this week?” This week, as always, the question they suggested surprised me. However, what really got me thinking were their answers. Read on.

Tired schoolboy

“Write about our tests, dad,” was their immediate answer. On my end I’m thinking, really? What could be so interesting about a test? I hated them frankly. I was what you would call, a poor test taker. In hindsight I think that was a guidance counsellor euphemism for ‘David is a lazy procrastinator who waited too late to cram for his exams’. But, enough about me. I had been thrown an idea by the kids. To expand on it I did what I have learned to do when presented with a thought that at first seems unworthy. I asked a few questions.

“So,” I asked. “What is it about tests that you want me to know about?” I got two wonderful gems in reply.

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3 Tips For Getting Your Goals Back On Track

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Have you ever felt like you have come completely off your tracks? Projects just not getting done in time, disconnected from your routine, commitments not being met? Of course you have. We all have, and I have too. In fact, I have been off track for the past few weeks (probably months) now. Let me tell you three tips I used to step back and take control again.  Read on.

accident of a wooden toy train

I read a ton of blogs across a wide spectrum of subjects. One could say they are my resistance. I like to think I am learning and fine tuning my research into procrastination. Seriously though, from these blogs I pull ideas that I want to apply in my personal life. I have written about a few of these and, honestly, I’m not doing that great in any. So many thought leaders in the world of blogging say that you have to be honest, real, and open in your writing. Well, this is me ‘fessing up.  It is also me passing on some steps that I am working on to get back to my commitments.  If you are in a rut and off track a bit, hopefully my experience is of some help in getting you realigned.

So, what happened?

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You Can Learn By Stealing

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My last blog post was on the value of a higher education. Now, lets flip the concept of a formal degree on its head.  I want to share with you some learnings from a book that has really inspired me. Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative by Austin Kleon is a wonderful collection of thoughts around the theme of developing your art through, well, the blatant copying of others. Sound like simple plagiarism? It’s not. Read on.

Steal Like an Artist

Reading the book you are struck by the fact that it is not a typical ‘self help’ or ‘productivity’ book. It is a compendium of thoughts and graphics and quotations that serve to illustrate the point that you can develop and create better art of whatever kind (writing, music, dance, visual, theatre) by actively studying and copying the work of the greats who have gone before you, the greats you may wish to eventually join ranks with.

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The Value of Higher Education

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My grandparents on my mom’s side were what my kids would now refer to as ‘old school’. Joseph and Cynthia Pereira, or Mama and Papa as all the grandkids called them, were strict, but in a kind way of strictness, if that makes any sense. They were also clear of their expectations for all of us, as they had been for their own children. One area that we all received guidance on was constant reminders to get a good education. Today I am sure of the smile that must be on their faces looking down on the family as their youngest granddaughter, my cousin, just completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Ottawa.  Their legacy has had a lasting impact.  Read on.

Joseph and Cynthia Pereira - 1937 - Wedding Day

Joseph and Cynthia Pereira – 1937 – Wedding Day

It really is a legacy in the true sense of the word.  This is not a legacy born out of being smarter, or being well off, or having a single minded focus on an educational goal. In fact, most if not all of us were the opposite on those points. Across the family in the Cayman Islands, Jamaica and Canada I am sure we are perfectly average in terms of natural gifted smarts.  Some brainiacs, some not so much (that would be me), and many in the middle, probably just like your family. Certainly growing up no one would call any of the family wealthy. And, to the last point, there was not that all-pervasive push for academic excellence that you sometimes read about in books like Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua.