C.S. Robadue's Blog, page 2

Market Swings

SEPTEMBER 2024 – Life, love, creativity. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s well… not, haha. You have to be prepared for the swings, to have the strength to manage both the loses and wins. It is pretty stock, standard advice to invest in yourself and I would agree with that. By continuously developing yourself and learning you will gain a lot of much needed perspective and resiliency to take on the tough times.

Personally, I always like to have a vision for the future. Goals to be working towards, something larger than myself to be supporting, that helps give me purpose and drive to keep going day in and day out. Is it similar for you? What motivates you to continue to push and make the most of each day?

And it really is about the swings as sometimes it is not easy to handle when everything is going your way, haha. A funny problem to have I know, but success comes with its own obstacles to cross. I read an interesting piece lately about how life in the 21st century on one hand has never been easier, so many conveniences, so much abundance and entertainment. But that the main struggle now is navigating the complexity of thousands of choices and maximizing everything all the time. That definitely feels true, especially when you need to clear your mind to do creative work that requires day dreaming and visualization.

The answer always seems (to me), to spend more time in nature and with family. That is a surefire way to pull your focus to the moment. And for all other times, I will continue to engage with the juggling act of the 21st century. I also have this concept in my mind of choosing good long-term plans and doing lifestyle design to make choices that lead to more peaceful outcomes in the future. Gotta play that long game sometimes!

This month I read ‘Airframe’ by Michael Crichton on a recommendation and quite enjoyed it. Crichton kept the chapters and action fast paced and crafted a very intriguing industrial thriller out of a topic that few authors could pull off as well. Haha, but I would have been interested to know how the stock market viewed the circumstances of the plot as an aside. Could have seen it being a big swing for sure! Cheers!

~ CS

In Training

AUGUST 2024 – Improving mile-splits, chasing PRs, in my view, pretty much any time spent on the track will be well rewarded. Definitely made a committed effort in 2024 to improve my cardiovascular health and now roughly three quarters of the way through, I’m seeing a fair amount of improvement. Always amazes me what can be achieved with consistent, dedicated effort + time, that really is the secret sauce to much of success, whether in writing or fitness. Just keep going.

You might end up somewhere you didn’t expect, but progress will be made and you’ll discover things that you never even knew you were looking for. That is one of those things in life I’m constantly reminded of, you don’t know what you don’t know. How many times have you learned something new that felt so obvious, you can’t imagine not knowing it? I think that is why a lot of what is true feels so intuitive, as it helps complete a larger picture. And there is that “Ah, ha!” moment when you see the picture more clearly.

And I think fitness has always been one of those “ah, ha” type things for me as I can see how it fits into the bigger picture of my life. The effort associated with it stacks over time (another thing I really like, cumulative gains) and you only ever need compete against where you were yesterday, so it can be an up and to the right type progression if you stay consistent.

Keep building, that is the only way to get where you want to be.

~ CS

Creative Freedom

JULY 2024 – Free expression, free speech, freedom of inquiry, all of these things are absolutely essential for a healthy society and future, but also for creating anything creatively meaningful. This may seem painfully obvious, and yet, somehow it has become a question mark in the minds of a lot of people on the national and global landscape. The antidote to bad ideas and thinking is not censorship, rather good ideas and a healthy discourse and debate. Without the opportunity to speak your mind and test ideas, you’ll never be able to understand others and find ways to coexist and push the bounds of human knowledge ever further.

Political correctness overreach and efforts to sanitize the creative works of past authors and artists, like what happened to Roald Dahl’s books in 2023 is an absolute crime against history, culture, and art. Literature, paintings, architecture, statues, fashion, poetry, these are all waystones and markers of our cultural history. To covertly rewrite books and police the language of past eras is an affront to not only the artistic legacy of the author, but to the richness of society and the historical record. It steals perspective, originality, and vision from the creators and turns that which is original and unique into a watered down mess of banal compromise and nothingness.

Imagine a world where comedians have to be politically correct, musicians/poets can only use approved melodies and words, artists & designers have to create one-size fits all solutions and pieces. What would that look like? Is that a future that you’d want to live in? Where the heart and soul of everything has been removed and replaced with generic, unoffensive, sameness? I’ll leave that thought for you to ponder and draw your own conclusions. But as someone driven by the creative spirit, that is a painful path to tread, and one that leads to a very dark place for humanity.

Took some time off from work to travel this month and visit extended family. Did a bit of hiking, campfire cooking, and a lot of relaxing. It is so rewarding to see some of my favorite people doing so well and making progress on their respective journeys. Lots of happiness, stories, and smores were shared and it was fantastic. And for the chronically online, a good reminder that getting away from screens and having real-world interactions is so vital.

To further celebrate Summer, I snagged a book I hadn’t yet read from one of my favorite authors, Rafael Sabatini, titled ‘Fortune’s Fool’ (a sentiment I can relate to a little too well sometimes, haha). Following the exploits of a flawed hero in historical London during the outbreak of a plague, it is an enjoyable read and fed my interest in honor, stoicism, and swashbuckling!

Here’s to living true to ourselves and protecting the ideals of creative free expression for future generations!

~ CS

Origami of Life

JUNE 2024 – Learning how to unfold complicated tasks into simple, actionable steps is so key for progress. Take any large goal you’ve ever had. Was there an easy to follow road map for it or did you have to improvise and figure things out along the way? I swear so much of the internal resistance I feel for being creative daily comes from not knowing where to start. And the bigger the goal, the bigger the push back that my mind is able to muster. Before I’ve even figured out what the first step(s) would be towards getting where I want to go, I’ve thought of a dozen reasons why the ultimate goal would not work out or is a mistake.

Figuring out how to disarm this reaction and convince yourself of the validity of an ambition then becomes a necessary skill to develop. I’ve read other creatives making the suggestion to just do something, anything towards a goal and that will help break down the resistance, no matter how small the first step is. And I like this approach, but when the goal is something that I actually don’t know how to do, that makes it less of a no brainer to act and more of an exercise in resilience and problem solving. And that is where things can get tricky.

What to do? Seek expert advice? Trial and error? Give up and do something else? I tend to favor a combination of expert advice and trial and error myself, but the point I am driving at here is that it is important to know that when going into large goals it is going to get messy. Compromises will need to be made, there will be loads of uncertainty, and while it would be awesome if there was a step by step set of instructions on how to get to where you’re going, it is almost never like that in life. And that if you are a perfectionist and expecting life or your pursuits to have a simple step by step guide like origami, you are in for a rude awakening. And how well you thrive in that chaos will determine how much work you are able to produce.

This whole post is a reminder to myself (who might be at that stage of the creative process at the moment, haha) of this reality and a friendly suggestion to you fair reader to be patient, keep trying, and expect it to be a rocky road at times to get to where you want to go. And you better get used to taking chances and backtracking if things don’t work out. As it is inevitable that you will end up there, likely more often than you’d like.

Picked up and started reading the book ‘The Devil in the White City’ by Erik Larson this month. It is a genre, true crime, that I have never read before and it feels very different than any other book that I’ve read before. It lavishes the audience with facts and descriptive text of the setting to establish the world in which it was written (nineteenth century Chicago) and I quite like the narrative style, it is refreshing. It feels like reading non-fiction though so it has been slow going, but the story is building and I’m keen to see how the plot gets woven together as thus far the stage has just been set.

Cheers all!

~ CS

Thought Experiments

May 2024 – Did the recent geomagnetic solar storm bring the Northern Lights to a sky near you? My efforts to see it were thwarted by heavy clouds and light pollution unfortunately. It definitely felt like a missed opportunity as I would have loved to see them over the local landscape. What an amazing phenomenon and my sense is that the photos don’t begin to even do it justice. Like how the camera lens can never quite capture the magic and expanse of a spectacular sunset over open water.

This time of year is always particularly busy at work and it takes a strong reminder to remember to slow down and enjoy life and the show nature is putting on (with or without the aurora borealis). Thankfully running and long walks offer up a dedicated outlet for connecting with the great outdoors and dialing back any work related stress. So win-win right there! One of my favorite routes currently brings me along the water and it can appear absolutely endless when the fog takes hold.

One of my friends recommended a book to me this month, ‘Pebble in the Sky’ by Isaac Asimov. Published in 1950, it is his first novel and I find it fascinating to read sci-fi material from that era (prior to the personal computer and internet) as it is super cool to see how they envision the future and technology. It is a very clever take on the fish out of water story and the language and characterization of humans is right out of the 1950s, which when combined with the futuristic setting is quite a marvel in and of itself. It provides a very compelling thought experience and tale of ethics within its pages.

Imagine what the humans of 75 years from now will think when they read/see the sci-fi works produced in the contemporary era. The modern culture and politics always seems to find its way into literature, tv, and film, making it a time capsule of the day it was created. And for the year 1950, you can tell that nuclear war was definitely on the minds of the collective cultural conscience. I guess some things don’t change.

~ CS

In Totality

APRIL 2024 – Adventure often comes to call when you least expect it. Speaking of which, I had an awesome time venturing north to the path of the lunar eclipse this month to see the spectacle for myself. For the uninitiated, a solar eclipse occurs when the Moon’s orbit passes between the Earth and the Sun, partially or totally blocking the view of the sun. It is an infrequent occurrence and creates an exciting visual if you are in a location where the sun is fully obscured by the moon. Northern Maine in the United States provided just such a viewing opportunity!

A group of friends and I ventured up to Mooselookmeguntic Lake in Rangeley, Maine to see the solar eclipse for ourselves. And what a scene it was(!), there were tons of people up there, solar eclipse festivals in the nearby towns, thousands of people gathered along the roadside and scenic overlooks waiting for the totality to occur. Happily we were able to reach an excellent vantage point ahead of the totality and enjoyed a fantastic view of the lake and surrounding mountains. The duration of the total eclipse was only around two minutes, but it produced an amazing affect of a 360 sunrise, it was quite stunning. Another reminder that sometimes in life you just have to say yes when a cool opportunity presents itself. As it was well worth the effort to trek up there.

A Maine trip of course wouldn’t be complete with seeing the rocky coastline of the Atlantic. This particular adventure included a several day stay in Bar Harbor, ME and hiking in Acadia National Park (Photo above is the aptly named ‘Sand Beach’). Where the mountains meet the ocean is a recipe for majestic visuals and Acadia did not disappoint, it truly is one of the East Coast’s greatest treasures. The mountains rise up out of seemingly nowhere and present fun hikes to the summit (which we of course undertook with a careless attitude towards the challenges the early Spring weather might produce) that are not to be missed.

Really was a great trip and made more so by the top-tier company! Outside of adventuring, I gave ‘The Alchemist’ by Paulo Coelho another read this month, which seems fitting in a world where the value of pursuing your personal legend still rings true.

Cheers all!

~ CS

Renewal

MARCH 2024 – Life doesn’t always give us second chances, but it does give us new beginnings. Not the same, but still vital to remember and make the most of every chance we do get. It’s definitely one of those life lessons from nature, that you always need to keep trying to defy the odds and put in genuine effort to whatever you are pursuing. Make the most of your mistakes, learn from them, become better, improve as a person, recognize where you went wrong and discern how not to make the same errors again. So much of life is learning and it is important not to let the process trip you up permanently.

Each new writing session or block of time spent in the art studio is a fresh opportunity to express yourself and generate ideas you didn’t even know you had and simply improve your craft. The more resiliency you have the greater your chances of achieving a higher level of mastery. I’d be curious to know if the most creative people are also the most stubborn people, haha. I’d be interested in seeing a study done about that. Look at the world around you, life is constantly trying to find a way. So take the lesson from nature, be resilient, start each day fresh and with optimism about what you can achieve. And even a tiny amount of progress is still moving you closer to your goal, whatever it is. Like that saying, be 1% better. Make time your ally.

Sources for optimism are all around us, they can just get lost in the chaos of the world, so take a minute to slow down and find them. They’re there, I promise you.

As per my way, I go back and forth between reading fiction and non-fiction and right now I am wrapping up the book ‘Timeline’ by Michael Crichton. Have been trying to limit myself to one of his books every six months or so as there are only so many left that I haven’t yet read. This one involves science (of course!), history, France, Knights, and technology that transcends the multi-verse. Went into it without any background on it and it has been a fun ride. There was a film adaptation of it made back in 2003, which I’m curious to see next and see how they interpreted the source material.

In the meantime, you’ll find me outdoors and embracing the possibility of what comes next!

~ CS

Artificial Intelligence

FEBRUARY 2024 – AI, AI, AI has been all the buzz lately. And I think deservedly so, we are entering new territory and the realm of science-fiction is becoming more real by the nanosecond. I’m sure many of you have already tried using one of the LLMs (large language models) or some of the generative tools for creating graphics. It is quite remarkable what can be created from a simple prompt, such as ‘futuristic biophilic city’ or any number of design related topics. The models ability to create visuals that are grounded with an understanding of the laws of the universe is quite impressive. Where a car or dog will actually look like a car or a dog and not just some random collection of pixels that could be considered complete by definition only of its individual components.

Time will deliver more and more use cases for automating so much of what would have been out of the realm of possibility only a few short years ago as engineers, programmers, and designers adapt these new tools. From education to medicine to entertainment, everything is going to change with the advent of AI. For art, I wonder if it is going to be like the introduction of photography, where previously capturing someones portrait or a landscape was the exclusive domain of the painter and artist. Will this democratize creativity? Where you can create a beautiful image without even having to spend a second with a paint brush in your hand. Honestly, that is not where I thought AI was going to be first taking shape, I always thought it would start more in areas of basic logic, calculations, and simple repetitive functions. Where it could analyze data sets and be used with programming, but apparently the leap towards words and arts is more of a first order challenge for the current crop of generative AIs.

Prompt driven music, movies, and video games are already springing up. Given another year or two, it will be remarkable to see how quickly it adapts and grows in scope and capacity. I hope it allows more people to be creative and doesn’t steal opportunity from existing animators and creators. Maybe it will allow smaller teams to make larger more personal stories for less $$ and open up an era of unknown creativity.

Massive topic to discuss and I’ve enjoyed listening to podcasts and reading about the subject as I think even the most engaged programmer and futurist doesn’t know what will happen and that is a wild place to be in history. Hopefully it doesn’t go dystopian and steal the magic of imagination from people (or worse), but I guess we are getting closer to having a new virtual realm to explore. From robots in the grocery store or vacuuming your apartment to discussing homework problems with chatgpt or grok it is a new frontier.

In the midst of all of the AI excitement, I have continued to make time for my love of reading real, physical, print books. This month I picked up ‘Cat’s Cradle’ by Kurt Vonnegut, went into it with no insight as to the subject matter or plot and in true Vonnegut fashion things aren’t always what they might appear to be. He has such a unique voice as a writer, I’m wondering what he would make of the current LLMs and their ability to write, edit, and create poetry, etc. I’m sure it won’t be long until the first fully AI written novel is released. There already was a fully AI generated children’s picture book created and published on amazon, so I’m sure the former won’t be too far behind.

But yeah, as I said before, wild times. Don’t forget to escape the digital realm and touch grass as they say from time to time, haha. Take care all. Cheers!

~ CS

Engage Your Senses

JANUARY 2024 – Pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, board games, spending time with family and friends… sometimes life is just good like that. Nothing else required. The joy in simplicity is so overlooked in modern life, take it from me, someone who all too often spends an abundance of time and energy trying to maximize efforts and achieve peak efficiency. When sometime all you need to do is step away from the screen and reconnect with the real world. Like that saying to go touch grass (or in this case snow), haha, there is a lot to be said for getting outdoors and engaging with your senses and connecting with nature. Find your version of it, whether that be going for a long walk, scuba diving, climbing a mountain, sailing, whatever it is, make the time for it, you won’t regret it.

I touch on this message a lot I think, because I’m also making the case to myself, to remind me to get outdoors more and really live, versus miss that element of existing and connecting with the world outside of myself. I heard this sentiment the other day, about having a life that you don’t need a vacation from, and it definitely resonated with me. That continues to be my target as well. As I really like being active and working and having goals, that makes me feel energized and useful. What is then important to do is make sure connecting with friends and family is one of those key goals, so that it doesn’t get lost in the shuffle of everyday life and achievement. So thank you to everyone who has reminded me of this, it is an important message to hear.

Aiming towards an optimistic 2024, I snagged a copy of ‘Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress’ by Steven Pinker. A very thorough book on a whole manner of pivotal issues of the 21st century, it is awesome to read a book that infuses perspective and hope into the biggest challenges of the day. With the corporate media cycle and intense focus on soul crushing dreariness and disaster, it is important to come up for air and see the bigger picture. There has been many, many monumental leaps forward in the success and well-being of civilization and reflecting on that unlocks the possibility of optimism and investment in the future. That is what I want to be a part of and focus on, so look for more of that from me as I plan my next moves.

Keep after it everyone, cheers!

~ CS

A Wild Life

DECEMBER 2023 – Welcoming the new year with a sustained sense of optimism and dogged determination to keep pushing forward in all pursuits. A lot of ground was covered in the last twelve months, with so much work still to come. But this is a time for happy reflections and being thankful for the journey itself. Hit a lot of milestones this year and made so much progress towards life goals. In a given day it can be so difficult to see how it fits into the grand picture of your life, but collected together they create such a rich and varied picture it is wild to think about.

A thousand steps forward, a million, oh the places you can go! Whenever I go for a long hike up a mountain and you get that first glimpse above the treeline and see how far you’ve come (and often how far you still have to go, haha), it is such an eye-opener. We get glimpses of that in life too, they are just different, and much less expected when they come.

I have so much to be thankful for in life and I want to thank everyone that has come along for the ride with me. Your enthusiasm and encouragement is so appreciated and there is so much more to come!

Taking time off from work for the holidays has also opened up a lot of free time for reading, which I have been thrilled about. This month’s read has been ‘Wild Problems’ by Russ Roberts, an exploration of how to tackle the difficult questions and decisions in our life. He analyzed the tactics of great thinkers throughout history and how they dealt with making the vital decisions in life that define us (career, marriage, life’s purpose). It has been such an interesting read and I can tell it is the type of book that you will gleam different answers from depending on which stage of life you are at yourself. As you will value and evaluate the cases differently depending on your own stage of life.

Raising a toast to 2023, for the lessons it has taught me, the successes it has held, and for the adventures it sustained. My best wishes to you all for the coming year, cheers!

~ CS