Categories
short stories

C.S.I blog origins

      I have said this a few times within my writing and even in my profile, within a couple of places these post show up. Yet, I have not told the whole story of how and why this website (readcsi.com) came about. As I sit here trying to figure out what I should post about for you, my readers. I have decided to tell the story of how this blog came about. This may or may not be something that interests you, and either way is okay. Since this blog is starting to gain steam, I think it’s time to share. You may not see it on your end, but some things have happened recently, that is about to affect my writing in a good way. As a matter of fact, I may be expanding my writing to include another website where I will be working on short fictional stories. I also have some surprises coming to Common-Sense Interaction that I believe will be good for the old school thought movement going forward! Without further rambling, let me dive into my story.

       Some of you may know that I was injured while working in a copper mine. If you don’t, that’s alright and not of importance at this time. That’s a story I may write about in the future. The main takeaway is that because of this accident,  I became disabled and unable to continue to work. After so many years of working, I became what I feared of as a useless man. That was my first mistake, I had never become useless, that fluff was all in my head. I felt the world come tumbling down around my ears, and I was putting undue stress upon my family as well. The doctors preformed this treatment and that treatment with little result. Finally, it was decided this was something I would have to live with for the rest of my life.

        The pain was pretty bad, and I was prescribed morphine for it. I was in and out of doctor’s appointments, and I was prescribed a higher and higher amount of morphine. With this drug, I got to the point of being a blubbering idiot. I didn’t know if I was coming or going. I was driving my family crazy and I couldn’t see why. Furthermore, I didn’t realize how bad that opioid was making me. What made sense to me was gibberish to everyone around me. The worst part was, the drug didn’t help the pain at all. I was basically a jellyfish sitting in front of the television all the time. (Talk about useless, there it was).

Man acting drugged

       Finally, I got off morphine (I went cold turkey. One day on, the next day off for good) with help from my family a great physician and psychologist at the Veterans administration. It was a surprise to find the help that I needed at the VA. Once I was myself again without the opioid poison coursing through my veins, I once again wanted to be of help somewhere. I couldn’t work at a normal job, (for me) and I wasn’t ready to lie down and quit. My wife helped me start a small farm to keep me busy. What I could do, I would and what wasn’t possible, my daughter’s helped me with.

       I have always been a nighttime person, but after the accident, this became acute insomnia. Watching television night after night became boring and it wasn’t helping my IQ any either. I needed something to keep my mind busy and off my pain. Finally I starting writing a little. I started with a personal blog (The Billy thoughts) and it got me nowhere. I’m not the kind of person to do something without making it better than before. I wanted others to read my stories and if nothing else, feel sorry for me. I know that’s horrible, but that’s where I was at during this time of life. So, I decided to start writing of my experiences and things that I had learned through my life. I wrote a few things, had my wife look over them to check for spelling and punctuation errors, and posted them on my new blog Common-Sense Ideology). People started reading and I found out, I was helping others as much as myself. What once was personal therapy, now was therapy for others as well!

Man typing on a laptop holding a note pad

I continue to make small post on my blog, and the more I wrote, the more people read. It was such a surprise that I started getting excited. I have always been good at teaching others hands on work, but teaching through my little post about life skills, who knew? All of a sudden, I’m no longer writing for myself, I’m writing for my readers. I have to get busy and make this something to be proud of. I worked on different little things, like colors and making different pages. Furthermore, I looked at the name Common-Sense Ideology, which was the whole name to log in with (Commonsenseideology.com) and thought, something isn’t right. On my page, it actually said CSI because I thought I could get some alien chasers to my blog. I did it as a joke, but it caught on! Then as I was reading the definitions of common sense and Ideology, I discovered they were complete opposite. They worked against each other and made me look like a moron.

I still wanted to keep CSI, but needed to change what the “I” would mean. I literally got out a dictionary and started going down all the words starting with the letter “I”. This may be simple for you, but for me, it took many hours to decide what to go with. I finally decided to go with “Interaction”, and it seemed to fit. So now my paid domain would read “Commonsenseinteraction.com”. Still seemed wrong, too damn long. While I started thinking what to do to fix that, I decided I needed a catchphrase, and it hit me like a ton of bricks. “Old School thought” was exactly what I wanted. It all fit, except for the outrageously long domain name. It took me three months to come up with something simple for others to remember. And so “readcsi.com” was born! I still kept the “CSI” that I wanted and came to be known by. Short, simple and to the point, I had it all figured out.

Now the only thing left was a logo to fit all my ideas into. How hard could it be? Crap, a lot harder than I thought! I’ve had a few different avatars. (see avatars at bottom of post) Some looked okay, some looked terrible! Six months and I finally made one I like. I sure hope you like it as well because I’m not changing it again, too much writing to do to worry about anything else. I will continue to update my site and welcome any ideas you might want to shoot my way.

Well, if you kept reading to this point, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart. As I said before, there are a lot of exciting things on the way, possibly even a sister site. Thank you for reading and being a part of this community. If you haven’t signed up for emails, you are welcome to join this community for free. Let’s get together and spread “Old School thought” using “Common Sense” with our “Interaction” and watch it grow! Stay tuned and take care, my friends. Great things are on the way!!!

Categories
poetry short stories

She said yes

  • I bought her a house
  • She made me a home
  • She gives of herself
  • I’ve no need to roam
  • I give her my seed
  • She gives me a child
  • I pound on my chest
  • She calms me with smile
  • I’m never in dark
  • She is my light
  • If not for her, mess I’d be
  • I give thanks each day
  • She said yes to me
Married couples hands showing their wedding rings
For my wife “Nicole
Categories
short stories

I’m Enjoying a Happy Day Today!

     Today, I can say, will be a happy day!

     Do you feel as though you are in an endless cycle of time? You wake up, go to work, go home, eat dinner, go to bed and then start all over again. Unless it’s the weekend, days just seem to drone on. The weekend goes by like a flash, then back to work we go. I’m not saying that you don’t enjoy your job, but isn’t there more to life? Of course there is! The problem is, most people never find out what life’s about until age becomes a factor that slows the process down, yet tends to speed time up. The time on the clock doesn’t actually speed up, but it does feel like it as we grow in age. We want to savor everything more, and yet there is no time left to do so. We have wasted so much time while young, that we try to catch up in our later years. These are things we all will experience and learn from. We must learn to be happy with the time we are in to truly enjoy what time we have left.

Retired husband and wife enjoying the day together with a cup of coffee

     Why do things appear to be so different when retirement shows up? When we are working, we look forward to retirement. When we retire, we wish we once again were back at work. This may not be the feelings of all who read this, but a great majority will agree with me. We rush through life to that small part of our life when it becomes available,  then we take a look back. All of our conversations start by talking of things in our past.

      When will civilization figure out to enjoy the part of life we are in, and stop trying to rush though it? I myself ended up retiring early because of an accident at work that left me disabled. Every day I think of how it was to go to work, and do what I was so good at. Here I am, retired, and yet my enjoyment seems to be in the past. I tell my stories of things I did, and witnessed back then. I forget to enjoy the day that I’m in. Furthermore, I wonder if my best days of happiness and being of use are behind me. There seems to be a fog, or veil in front of me with the sun always at my back. I’m not a rich man, so I can’t go do things I would like to do. All the time I have wasted to get to this point, and the best I can think of is what movie I may watch. When did I lose the enjoyment of life?

      Then there are days like today. Nothing is really different except for my perception of the things around me. I walk outside and there is a light breeze with small clouds moving through the sky. Birds are singing and the leaves on the trees are rustling. What is different about today? Why is it today I feel so alive and happy? Were these same things happening yesterday and the day before? Yes, almost exactly as today. Why then is today such a happy day? Why is my heart beating a little faster? Why today, I ask myself, why today? For all the questions I ask myself, the answers are in my perspective of how I will greet this day.

      Today is different from yesterday, for I am different today. My perception of things around me has changed today. I am happy, because I choose to be happy. I am enjoying today, because I choose to enjoy it. Furthermore, I am living to the fullness of life today. It is a beautiful day. Today, I am a happy person in all parts of my life. I write to you, and I can almost feel your eyes upon these words, and I feel the wander in your thoughts. The more I write, the more I feel a little more of my soul being poured out over these words. Will I be this happy tomorrow? This I will decide tonight. Should I be as happy as I am today, tomorrow? The answer is completely up to me. If I choose to be happy, I will start the day happy, and that is the way it should be. Most of the time, our feelings are in our control, this does not hold true 100% of the time, but I would venture to say, 85% of the time, we feel how we want to at any given moment in life.

There are always variables, such as a sudden death in the family. This may throw your feelings into a tailspin. However, if you started the day choosing the more positive approach, you will be able to handle this tragedy with a clear mind. Whereas, if you started with the negative, you may fall into a place with no sense of direction. Your feelings were already in the toilet, and when the tragedy hit, you just flushed them. One scenario allows you to function, while the other has you with a complete loss of control. In both instances you are sad for your loss, but in the positive case, you are able to help others instead of being the basket case needing help. How you start out the day is in your control, and nobody can choose this for you. You have a decision to make, what shall you choose?

Are you willing to wake up happy tomorrow, or will you choose to have a rotten day tomorrow? Things may go bad tomorrow, but if you choose to start off in a good mood, you can weather the storm. On the other hand, if you decide it’s going to be a rotten day, it will be a terrible day. And what if something great happens tomorrow? If you have chosen rotten already, you won’t be able to enjoy it because you have already decided it is going to be bad. Negative people rarely have a good day because they choose not to. On the opposite side, a positive person has very few bad days because they choose not to have them. Am I getting through to you yet?

Lady smiling at herself in a mirror

      Life is too short to live it, one miserable day at a time. Try to make it a happy day, and see how much better things can be, even if there are bumps along the way. Let’s all have a great day tomorrow and continue this trend every day. If you want a little saying to help you, just remember, positive thoughts will lead you to positive things, whereas, negative thoughts can only lead to negative things! Take care, my friends, and stay positive. There are better things in store for you tomorrow.

Categories
poetry short stories

Choices

  • Reach for the stars, all shiny and bright
  • Stuck on the earth, so firm it holds all weight
  • Fly like the eagle far up amongst the clouds
  • Slither with the snake under foot on the ground
  • Life carries on with day and with night
  • Living and dieing, where do we end our plight
  • Our lives will carry destiny with the choices we make
Homor Simpson with good angel on one shoulder and bad angel on the other
Which one will you follow?
Categories
short stories

Sometimes love isn’t enough

       People fall in love and usually get married soon after. Is love the leading factor in marriage? Of course, it is, but is love the only thing that is needed in a marriage to make it work? This I believe would be a hard no! There are many other factors that are necessary to make a marriage work and last.

Man and woman just married, embraced

       What are the factors that add up to a good marriage and are needed to hold it together. As we grow and change as people, do we need more than what was first given? How are we able to hold the vow of better or worse till death? When the worse shows its ugly self, do we have what it takes to stay within that vow? As the marriage grows in age, what once was plenty, now is not enough.

       A married couple that has been together for many years, know each other’s good and bad sides. The problem lies where the bad tends to grow faster in one’s soul if not taken into great depths of consideration. There may be something that he/she did that was cute when you first married, but now becomes a thorn in your side.

      Many long term marriages end and both the husband and wife will say, “We just grew apart.” Is this reality, or is this just a way of saying they no longer have any new to look forward to? It’s like working on an assembly line putting that one little part in a toy over and over again, a million times. After the hundred-thousandth time, you tend to get bored. Where do we go from here when it’s the same routine with no end?

      If you don’t keep your marriage fresh, it will wither and die like the lettuce in your refrigerator. When it gets to that point, do you continue and let the love die the same way everything else in the union has, or do you allow your partner to leave with love still a factor? The song by the “Beatles” states, “all you need is love”, but we must remember, it’s just a song and doesn’t fit real life.

        So where are the answers that we need to continue what so long ago was wonderful and fresh? This is not an easy question to answer, but if you wish to keep things together, it must involve both sides to want it. If one side decides, the marriage must end, the other side is better off to let them go. Holding on will just cause more problems when the time has finally come to call it quits.

Married man and woman, both with crossed arms, discussing divorce

      Have you quit doing the things that made your significant other fall in love with you in the first place? If this is true, and you want to save your marriage, it’s time to bring those things back into existence. This is not a guarantee by any means, but it is better than giving up what you don’t wish to lose. Is there one cheating on the other? In this case, the marriage has already headed into the depths of destruction, and the chances of a reconciliation is extremely hard. It is very difficult for the other side to e ever trust him/her again, ever!

      All marriages go through rough patches, and only the strong survive. People are naturally selfish and want what best for themselves. The hardest marriages to keep connected, are those where the two people are of different religions. This puts a great weight on the marriage and there must be a true respect for one another, more so than those of the same religion.

      Once married, the two become one and, if you do not believe this, your marriage is already on the rocks. If one tries to have control of the other, this is slavery, not marriage. This is where people make their biggest mistake. It’s all even between the two until the honeymoon is over, then both wish to have control. If this is you, you are already failing in your marriage. This is something to be thought of before you ever get married. Are you willing to share your life with this other person, and are they willing to share theirs with you?

       Arguments are going to happen, but abuse should never even cross your thinking, even during the worst argument. Abuse can be physical as well as mental. Belittling your spouse is almost as bad as striking them. Have you ever considered this?

       So love is a huge part of marriage, but there are other aspects to it. You must think through all aspects if you wish to celebrate your twenty-fifth or fifty anniversary. It’s a long haul with many bumps along the way. A long marriage consists of two strong people willing to give, even when you would rather take. And last of all, if there are kids involved, don’t ever make them feel they had anything to do if a divorce is immediate. Make sure you both are civil with one another when you are around the kids. Also, don’t ever say anything bad about your ex, or soon to be ex, to your children. This is the number one course of action to follow.

Woman and man's hand together shows wedding bands

I have now been married for twenty-one plus years, and we have found a way to make it work through the good times and bad. Marriage takes work and complete respect for each other. Without this, we would never have lasted five years, guarantee. When I started writing this post, I was deep in an argument with my beloved. I can say the finishing touches of this post has ended with the argument over and peace in our household. If you wish to ask, which one of us won the argument, the answer is both of us. We are one and will be until death do us part.

I hope I find all of you that are married, or thinking of marriage, in good spirits and with peace in your home. If there are those reading this that are going through a divorce, I wish you well, and I hope you both find what you are looking for. Take care and God bless.

Categories
poetry short stories

Mr. Shadow Man

Man standing on a pier, looking at his long shadow
Sometimes it takes some darkness to appreciate the light

Mr. Shadow man…. I turn, and you are there, watching my every move. I cannot hide unless the darkness envelops me. The world keeps moving, spinning to and fro. I try to follow, but am slowed in curiosity of the one who watches my every move.

How can I be alone when you are always there? I do wrong and you show the world. All I want is to be myself, but you won’t leave me alone. Who am I? Am I your shadow, or are you mine? Am I in control, or just a figment of my own imagination? Why do you keep an eye on me, even when I’m not watching you?

Are you the darkness swallowing me whole for my wrongful deeds, or will you lead me to a better world? With strength of heart, I continue, even with thoughts that follow my every move. I will try to do right with hopes you will go away.

Am I a part of you, or are you the part that rules? Are you my shadow or am I yours, Mr. Shadow man?

Categories
short stories

A Writer’s life within

     Only a writer knows what he/she will put down on paper. Whether it is fact or fiction, the writer must enter the pages before a word is even spelled out. To live in a writer’s mind would be unnerving to most. To take all the threads of thought and be able to string them together for the reader to understand, is a miracle in itself. How do these people function in the outside world with so much yet to be written? How do we put aside our writer’s thoughts to function outside the pages of his/her next great work spelled out for you, the reader.

Man typing on old typewriter
Trying to put emotions into words

      The paragraph above has truly been in my thoughts, as I to live in a writer’s world now. Before the accident that sidelined my career, I myself could never string two sentences together to help someone understand what I was thinking. I would’ve never been able to allow someone to look into my thoughts on any given subject, whether fact or fiction. Why now then am I able to do so? Why can I now paint a picture in someone’s mind using nothing but the words I put into print? I have a lot to learn to write a book and keep my audience engaged, but I can write short stories and keep my readers’ attention throughout.

     I have always been a good talker, (some would suggest, I am way too good at it) I can tell a story in casual conversation and make you feel as though you are living it as I speak. But, to write something and get the same reaction, now that’s a lot harder to accomplish. For you see, when I write, I have to imagine your expressions while you read. I cannot see how you are taking my stories while you are engaging in them. Face to face, I can adjust my emotions to help you get more from the story. But, when I write the story down, I can only use the words, without facial expression and imagine how you are taking my words in. How you are understanding what I am trying to explain is different and difficult.

     Everyone has their own imagination and without the help of the writers emotions being seen, how can I decide what words to use. Is there a universal set of words that all will understand? So what changed for me to be able to get through to you using only my thoughts and written words? I have found my answer to these questions, that satisfy my own mind, but I can’t speak for other writers and their thoughts on this subject.

Man studying papers at a desk, deep in thought
Finding the right words to use

     My adaptability to using the words on a page comes from speaking to myself within myself. I use my inner thoughts as an audience to my writing. I do ask a couple of family members to read some of my post before I publish them, so I can see their emotions as they read. This usually gives me confidence, however, I do get a feeling sometimes, they are just being kind. It takes the person I don’t know to give me a review before my confidence really goes up. I have also learned a lot from my wife with how to write down an idea and to explain it. (I am very thankful for her help) I have since moved on to using my own ways, whether they are correct or not.

      I began to have a lot of time within my own mind after my accident. I have gone through a bout of self pity, but have used that to help others. Depression has been a great part of dealing with myself, and I have been able to turn that into a positive through my written words. As I write, I feel a power of positivity flow through me and into my hands. This flow is what you are reading in my post. Depression is completely gone as long as I am writing.

     All in all, I have decided, the reason I have been able to write the way I do is simple. I have learned to spend more time inside my own thoughts and less time outside my own head. We all talk to ourselves from time to time, but I spend hours in deep conversations with myself, although not showing it on the outside. If I were to have my conversations with myself out loud, I would be writing with crayons inside a sanatorium. Best to keep my conversations quite, I think.

     I would like to hear how other writers are able to do what they do, or if they even know. Does it just come natural to some, most or all of them? Am I the freak amongst the crowd, or am I on the normal side of things with how I write? Of course, if this is normal, I worry about the great “Stephen King“. I would be afraid to discuss with myself in terms of the things he writes. I believe that would drive me insane. Furthermore, I know I will never be a great writer like Mr. King, but the thought that he discusses things with himself, the way I do, would be intriguing to know.

      I’m being selfish with this post because, it has been written as much for me as for my readers. I have been reading many post from many authors about anything and everything. As I read other post, it came to me about how they are able to write as they do. Are we the same, or am I a loose cannon? I would love to hear thoughts from other authors on this subject. Do you also talk to yourself and read to yourself to figure out how your audience will respond? Are the things you write about already a part of you, or do you have to go outside your mind to get your stories? Give me some answers here, so that I can better understand how I came about this ability to connect with others using printed words.

Bearded man in straight jacket yelling
Crazy to have conversations with one’s self?

     I suppose, if some guys with white suits show up at my door offering me a jacket with sleeves that tie in the back, I will have my answer of going crazy or not. Just in case, I won’t give you my address for now. Well, that’s it for now. I look forward to reading your thoughts. If you are an author, let me know if you write fiction or non-fiction and how you come up with your writing abilities. Take care, my friends. Until next time, remember, we are all in this together.