"Things get bad for all of us, almost continually, and what we do under the constant stress reveals who/what we are."
— Charles Bukowski

5:05 a.m., I'm writing from my magical purple bean bag in our condo downtown Denver. Last night, we met a friend to chat about staging and got some pizza. My friend is like Elon Musk; he builds things, thinks like a person from another planet, he's into numerology, he's fascinating.

We worked from home yesterday, many virtual meetings; I got outside, the temperature warmed up to 20, but with the sun, it felt like 40. Parker Van Halen and I played a little, and we had a few deer stop by to say "hey!". After that, we took PVHT to Melissa for a quick getaway for a few days.

I'll work a little bit from here before heading out with my lady for some fun. How about that war in Europe? Full-scale attack, people are dying, a sad time for many, Putin seems to have some nads and might be a deranged lunatic. I guess the thing we should do is pray for the people of Ukraine.

We ran an interview with a man named Corky the other day. One of our teammates asked, how do you deal with stress? Corky immediately responded, "I drink!" Although I laughed, he said, "kidding, I get up and take a little walk; I'm not the kind of person that let's stress get to me."

Stress is a real thing, it happens to everyone, but some of us have found ways to cope. My friend Barrett shared a passage from the five love languages about dealing with stress. So the next time you feel stress coming on, here are some ideas. First, breathe, take a minute and do some deep breaths; you'll be surprised how calm your mind can become.

Another idea is to meditate or pray. There is something bigger than yourself you can lean on; it does not care; it is there for you; use it. Then, when stressed, get up and walk, take five or ten minutes to walk off whatever is bothering you, and return to face whatever it is that has you out of sorts.

Laughter is great medicine; pull up Youtube and watch Dave Chappel slay dragons and demons, and you will feel better. As a young man, I dealt with a lot of stress; I didn't know how to cope and was miserable because of my plight. As I grew older, I grew to the idea "who is to decide what is good and bad? Everything happens for a reason; lean in and take the lesson before you."

One of our team members is having a fabulous day today. She is taking the day off; her husband is officially adopting her son, making their family whole. It's a great story; I'm so happy for Dalays and her family. There are always positive things in life; sometimes, you have to seek out the good to thwart the bad.

I am at a place that has no coffee maker! My wife is making me some press pot coffee, it's delicious, but it is not as quick as a coffee pot. The flavor is fantastic, but my routine of coffee and Nicorette has been disrupted. If my words are not crisp, understand my plight.

I got a call from a good friend, she got hacked, and it didn't go well. They hacked her phone, called the local police, and she had a SWAT team attack her home, pointing 16 machine guns at her face when her husband was not at home. A horrific story; I'm helping her with some connections and some protection that will help her avoid another attack. Cyber attacks are real, and if you have not been on the battlefield, your time is coming. Personal Cyber Insurance is a must these days of douce bags with keyboards.

That's it; I have to get in the shower to start an adventure. Tomorrow I'll be writing from Sin City; I'm sure I'll have a story or two. Life is meant to be lived RFN. So enjoy this time, enjoy this day, dream a little dream and do one thing to make your dream life a reality. I did, and for me, it has made all the difference.

"Things get bad for all of us, almost continually, and what we do under the constant stress reveals who/what we are."
— Charles Bukowski

Word Soup

5:05 a.m., Dealing with Stress, Douchebags…