Following Your Passion.

I would say around 2009, I was on the phone chatting with a friend of mine regarding my quest to find another job using my college education and get out of the place which I am actually still working at. Well, he said on the phone “What is your passion?” I remember rolling my eyes at the time since that’s what I was trying to pursue ten years earlier (and one of the reasons I worked on all those local and state political races that gave me plantar fascittis). The truth is, by that point I felt that well, it wasn’t worth it. Yet, after that comment, not only did I apply for a few jobs at least until 2013 (and again last year with similar results it turned out), but still dabbled in what had become just a hobby, like gardening; writing stuff.

Anyway, the reason I write all of the above is to provide some background for the following. It seems that, despite everything, I am still passionate about my writing; at least creative writing. I say this because who in their right mind would take time off from the job that pays the bills a few hours early so he could hop on the freeway before four to drive all the way down to Stow Ohio (which is at least 45 minutes away) to read this manuscript he’s been working on for no real reason at A Writer’s Life NEO Read and Critique Meeting? As it turned out, I did and I don’t regret it which even more surprising.

The group met on Thursday and usually that is not a good day for me being in the week but I happened to have taken the next day off and it was a nice sunny day to do all that driving on I-271 and Route 8 so why not for once? After all, I haven’t been able to go to the Saturday meeting held once a month all year.

The point about doing something is the feeling as if you are getting something out of it. It also helps if you feel like you are producing something worthwhile. When I helped out with Transit-Oriented Development Committee in the mid 90’s worked on say, the Sherrod Brown Campaign in 2006 or took those screenplay courses at the Cleveland Playhouse around the same time, I had that feeling. Now, I have to force myself to find the time to sit at a Ward Club meeting where I have to listen to other people talk or decide if I want to spend $196 of my own money to attend a planning and zoning workshop or not (instead I used most of that money to clean my gutters, better investment I think). The fact is, for more than a decade I have just drifted and the few times I tried to change that scenario failed to lead anywhere. Despite the pros and cons, and what people may think, I write. Will I be able to take it to the next level? Well, knowing my track record, probably not. However, Thursday proved that I am still passionate about something and that’s important

Another Quick Little Post For April.

A couple tidbits from my Google News Feed while at the job that pays the bills today caught my eye. It seems that I am part of the Middle Class. I write this because Fox 8 News had a piece online called “Do you earn enough to be ‘middle class’ in Ohio?” and in the city of Cleveland, one had to have a minimum annual income of $24,300 to be at the low end of this social class. The national range meanwhile is roughly $49,271-$147,828 a year. Funny I remember when I was making a little more that $24,000 a year and to be honest was just getting by barely; and this is for just one person. Fortunately, over the past 15 years things have gotten a little bit better. I cannot lie, but let’s be honest many people out there who fit this category, especially along the East and West Coasts, they may feel they are just getting by as well; especially when it comes to housing. Now, NPR had a piece titled “Housing experts say there just aren’t enough houses in the US.” Hmm..while it may not be as bad as I hear it is up in Canada, affordable housing is something that is very much needed. This applies to ‘middle class’ households as well.

Of course, urban sprawl aggravates such matters but that is for another day to write about. It is getting late here and I have to start getting things together for tomorrow.

‘Unleash’ The Power of LinkedIn.

There can be various ways someone undertakes ‘spring cleaning’ and, while did work a bit in my garden despite the March like weather we’ve had here the past few days, I also decided to clean up one of my old social media accounts. Last week, there was something on my Google News Feed from a Canadian paper which made me laugh. I haven’t found it since but it was apparently a piece written by a CEO of a consulting firm I think. She extolled the use of LinkedIn for people for their career endeavors, how to market yourself, and things I have heard about so many times before. While it was probably new to her and a great help, as the man who read the book “What Color Is Your Parachute?” more than twenty years ago, had a career advisor at my Alma mater for a good five years, and have had a LinkedIn Account mind you for more than ten years, and recently celebrated 27 years at job I got to pay for my graduate school education, it’s all rather funny to me.

One thing I did recently is look over my ‘network’. These were people who for the most part I invited because they asked and never heard from again. One of my contacts is a cousin that I’ve haven’t had any direct contact with in decades. A couple are in fact friends which are also on my other Social Media feeds and so will remain once I clean up all these dead connections I now have (let’s just say I won’t have 146 connections to share a friend’s campaign content in the near future). The truth is, until I read that article, I pretty much ignored LinkedIn for since before the pandemic.

Will this effort be for an equivalent for this blog to that “Julie and Julia” thing which led to a movie? I fully doubt it. However, we will see for a month or two how this career tool lives up to its name. Perhaps I will get those unrequested job offers again for customer service gigs that popped up in previous years.

In the meantime, I might get a few views in Europe or India for the blog so we will see.

Another Post For This Month.

For some reason, Luigi Pirandello’s play Six Characters in Search of an Author popped into my head as I stared at this screen I’m typing at just after I clicked on new post for this blog. One blogger in search of six subjects to write about? After all, I am definitely not a local influence who will be on any upcoming list in Cleveland Magazine that’s for sure. Considering the things I did more than 25 years ago as a volunteer and grad student hoping to make this city a better place, it has been such a waste of time and money. It’s funny, how people say I am excellent writer (I remember Grace Drake saying that very thing in 2010 when I signed up for the Mentoring Program there…I needed mentor I thought to get my career going), but it never moved beyond a time consuming hobby. It’s kind of like how I started out as a political activist to becoming a political junkie. However, talking about myself should really go into my journal (which I rarely write in these days at night) or for support groups. After all, a blog is a blog, and it is part of a bigger picture.

To be honest, when I get home from the job that pays the bills during the week, take care things around here, and get things ready for work the next day, I just want to relax. Even then, I am writing, that ‘novel’ or whatever the hell it is that’s now over 40,000 words and growing (working title, A Book in Search of A Title). If this was 20 years ago I would write that this going to be something sent to a publisher eventually, but experiences since then make me say I won’t hold my breath. But, I keep writing, as I write other gibberish. I haven’t had a short story published in two years. Then again, there’s no more Anthology to submit them to.

As of Saturday, April 20th, 2024, I have received so far. for the month, 60 views. While 56 of them naturally came from the United States, 2 were from the United Kingdom and 1 each from India and Portugal respectively. Considering how moribund this all has been over the year, it’s rather surprising to me.

I do have something as a topic to work on for a piece, but admittedly of the ‘snarky’ variety but still worth noting about a piece I’ve read in a Canadian newspaper last week. I just have to figure out if it’s worth the time and effort to spend 30 minutes or so during the week typing it. After all, I can always watch television and pet my cat.

Cultivating My Garden.

I was toying with the idea of driving to the Euclid Public Library for the first time in a year and renew my membership in the Euclid Democratic Club which meets there. However, there is always next month since I received an email in the meantime. It was from Old House Gardens of Ann Arbor Michigan notifying me that the spring bulbs I ordered through them had been delivered. Sure enough, a box was waiting for me when I got home. After all, I already renewed my membership with my own ward club and the Cuyahoga Dems so I got things pretty much covered, as if it really mattered anymore.

This is the first time I worked on anything regarding this site since August 8th, and it was even then a brief post. Well, what can I say? It’s not like I am a professional writer or something. It’s basically hobby, just like my gardening, to do when I have the time..or so it seems.

If I remember, without the book in front me, that Voltaire wrote in Candide in the end of his tale of the pursuit of happiness that one should ‘cultivate your garden.’ OF course, this came about after everything our protagonists in the book did had failed. But I digress.

My little corner of Cherokee Avenue is coming alive now, and the birds at my bird feeder are loving it. Today, my lilac bush started to bloom and the scent was what the doctor ordered.

Photographs by James Valentino.

A Quick Little Post.

The 2024 Eclipse has come and gone. Hopefully, traffic will be fine driving to the job tomorrow morning. Actually, it really wasn’t bad at all today driving out to Willoughby Hills on I-90 and I only had a three-quarters full worth tank of gas in the car. Seriously, the talk about stockpiling food and gassing up because of the onslaught of people converging to the area for today was too much.

On the other hand, it was rather amazing to see the middle of the day become practically pitch black for four minutes starting at 3:13 P. M. and then suddenly get light again. Within a few minutes, the squirrel was back under the bird feeder eating sunflower seeds and I resumed making dinner.

It was a good day for Cleveland.

Happy Easter From Mad Man On A Great Lake.

It seems I only get myself together to do holiday greetings for this blog these days but so be it.

I was busy at my job that pays the bills so I couldn’t attend Mayor Justin Bibb’s State of the City Speech at Playhouse Square this past Thursday. Then again, with taking time off for medical appointments later in the month, and pay day being this Friday, there was no way I had the time or funds to attend a City Club Event. Anyway, from what I see from the footage that was shot by the local media for this, it doesn’t sound different from what Jackson, Campbell, and Mike White (remember him?) said at the same event before.

However, the daffodils blooming at Lake View Cemetery this morning were beautiful. It may have been a cold, damp, drizzling day it didn’t matter to me at all and I wasn’t the only one walking the slopes of Daffodil Hill or stopping in front of Wade Chapel today. After all, it’s not like I haven’t been there before, having written about this more than once on this blog. In fact, I didn’t have to be somewhere by two in Lake County I would have stayed even longer than I did.

We will see what April has in store for the North Coast. So, on that note, Happy Easter from Mad Man On A Great Lake.

Photographs by James Valentino.

Another St. Patrick’s Day.

To be honest, driving down the Shoreway this morning the skies looked more like what one saw around Halloween than St. Patrick’s Day. In fact, for a few moments walking around Wade Lagoon at University Circle some snow briefly fell. This was kind of ironic with the laws around there blooming with blue Glory of the Snow flowers. As the media has already reported, we are about two weeks ahead of schedule with the spring flowers with what was a record warm winter and March we had until now. The next two weeks are supposed be well, normal, even a slightly below with one low this week being 25 degrees (just great for any magnolias in bloom). I hope this summer isn’t a going to be string of 90 degree days as a result.

It’s been at least five years since I’ve marched in a St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Yes, I have actually done that a lot in the past, for political candidates such as Sherrod Brown, Tim McCormack, or the late Judge Peter M. Sikora if I remember properly. The weather always was unpredictable, but usually with rain. My feet are so glad that I didn’t have to even think about doing that today, though thanks to a suggestion from a guy I know from Cleveland Height’s , I wound up late this afternoon going to Muldoon’s. This was on the way home from the Cleveland Orchestra matinee and it was everything I expected, packed is an understatement. So, I can say for once I did the St. Patty’s Day thing, and will be more likely go to a restaurant called Chez Francois to celebrate Bastille Day as a result. But I digress.

Actually, between the busy Irish Pub today and the fish fry at St. Mary’s of Collinwood Friday, it is nice to see that places in Collinwood are drawing so many people. That’s kind of encouraging.

Anyway, Happy St. Patrick’s Day from Mad Man On A Great Lake.

Photographs taken by James Valentino.

Just Some Thoughts.

It’s been awhile since I have written on this blog. Every time I think of something to do on this something else happens; and I can’t always use my cat meowing for me to get into the living room as an excuse. Well, so goes life, one has to work, take care of things, see doctors, and then well…do something fun that means not being on this computer.

And, I am on this computer, it is working on a few other things. Hey, it’s not like I am working on something for the City of Cleveland or Cleveland State University.

There will be a Writer’s Conference in my area soon that I am thinking about attending, having missed the one last year since it was snowing then. However, if the weather is like it is today, I should have no trouble driving up the Euclid Creek Reservation to get to that thing. I also saw when the next American Planning Association Workshop will be held this year, in Willoughby which would be very nice for me.

Of course, these fall now in the categories of ‘hobbies’ versus actual careers.

Anyway, since my eyes were not dilated by five I did manage to attend the Neighborhood Watch meeting. I did my duty, one has to at least put a presence at some of these things no matter how painful they tend to be. Councilman Polensek was not there, being in DC with so many of his colleagues for that annual conference, but some running for offices this cycle did stop by. I stayed for Terrence Upchurch to speak since he is a pretty good guy but then got the heck out of there. It is quite hard doing things like that after work, even though today I just happened to spent most of my morning at the doctors. You have to feel that you are contributing something positive, and getting something back in return, for clubs, organizations, even social clubs. It’s really hard for me to see how I fit in such things to be honest.

Yet, this is still a good neighborhood, if we only had a real development corporation again. I also managed to mail in my absentee ballot a few days ago. Yes, voting matters, and I hope that levy gets renewed and my candidates, such as President Joseph Biden and I must admit Sherrod Brown despite everything, get re-elected in November. My idealism isn’t entirely squashed; nor many others.

I think it will be a beautiful sunset.

Another Quick Little Post.

To my utter surprise, this blog has had 52 views this month and I haven’t been able to do a single thing. So, here is a new post of little importance.

Seriously, unless I have time to do this at midnight during the week there is no time for me to work on this and find a real topic to work on. After all, I found out only the day after it was over that there was a Waterfront Summit on February 8th. I am still waiting for the Cleveland Planning Commission to reply to the email I sent them regarding this. Odds are I can forget about it.

Today here on Cleveland it actually feels like winter in what has been fortunately a pretty mild one. However, it can still be unpredictable with lake effect bands. For example, this morning, I decided that I had to go down to Tallmadge Oho for that Writer’s Group meeting and to my surprise the freeways were nice and clean in Euclid Ohio. However, as I drove past the Cedar Road exit ramp on I-271 the snow flurries began to pick up. By the time my car reached Chagrin Boulevard there were white out conditions and the car in front of me even put their emergency lights on. So, I struggled to get off at Harvard, managed to reach the Richmond Road intersection, and drove twenty miles an hour north till about Fairmount Boulevard where, all of a sudden, the snow lifted and the roads became somewhat clear. By the time I got back on the freeway at Brainard, I could see patches of blue sky mixing in with the clouds to the north. Right now, as I look out my window, it is overcast but no snow flakes. It will be in the 50s by Wednesday.