(Note to the defenders of the English language: if I’ve used ‘irony’ in an incorrect way, I don’t want to hear about it. I am not in the mood)

By blogging and being all in and about social media, the entrepreneurial writer builds his brand, his platform, and the increased visibility and connectivity with the audience will pay off in the future (or so I’m told). Knowing that it helps the future (supposedly) I feel compelled to get here and blog it up, especially on a day where I am keenly aware of the need for ‘money’ to ‘ keep my chubby butt fed’.

And, as always, when I’m feeling the money pinch, my spirits plummet and my previous stockpile of sage observation/witty observations vanish into the ether. So, I need to keep talking to my faithful audience to keep our relationship strong and healthy, but I’m only able to talk about money woes and moping. Hardly seems fair to you, gentle reader.  Well, you’re already here, so settle down and I’ll try to scrape together something interesting.

I did venture out of the house to attend a general meeting of Emerging Leaders, a group dedicated to gathering potential leaders and teaching leaderly things to them (as well as getting them to network and maybe find them some jobs). Once again, this was a big social occasion with very few familiar faces, and I navigated it with relative ease. I’m on the cusp of being able to totally abandon the ‘socially awkward’ descriptor that I append to my character bio.  That counts as a victory.

I also got to hang out a little bit with my new tall friend Scott. Scott is about an inch taller than me, just tall enough that I’m not the biggest guy around at 6′ 2″, but not so much taller than me that I’m frightened. For some reason, there’s something comforting about lurking around in his shadow. I don’t get a lot of shadow-lurking opportunity.

In the subject of ethics: I don’t think I could ever lie as a part of an election campaign. My dad oath wouldn’t let me do it. Sure, you can be viciously incisive to your opponent, and you can (and should) mercilessly dismantle their policies, but trying to lie your way into power is absolutely shameful. There’s a local political enthusiast who volunteers for a candidate as their social media coordinator and when I read his twitter posts and facebook posts, I feel an incredible rage. He’s a new dad. He has the responsibility to teach his child that winning through dishonesty doesn’t count. By accepting and embracing these sleazy tactics, he’s waiving a portion of his parental moral authority, and his kid deserves better. I think it’s best that I never meet this man in person, because I won’t be able to keep my yap shut.

For my footloose and fancy free readers who currently have no small children in the house, there is a good chance that they have never read “Edwina, the Dinosaur Who Didn’t Know She was Extinct”, by Mo Willems. It’s a shame they haven’t read this gem, because there is profound wisdom within its text.

Here’s the story: Edwina is a well-loved member of the community, and she brings happiness and cookies to all of the townsfolk. There is one boy who has an issue with this: not with the cookies part, but with the dinosaur herself.  The boy with the fantastic name, Reginald von Hoobie-Doobie, is a lad of science and reason, and he knows that dinosaurs are extinct. He cannot understand why no one else seems to care about this. Assuming the townsfolk are simply uninformed, Reginald goes to great length to try to explain to the townspeople that they are friends with a creature who is supposed to be extinct, but no one pays any attention to his lecturing. Finally driven to a state of sullen moping, Reginald sits and pouts. Edwina, ever the good and friendly dino, tries to help him by sitting and listening intently to Reginald’s very long and detailed explanation. And when Reginald has finished talking, Edwina gleefully skips out of the classroom to go make cookies. The final line of the story tells you that Edwina understood what Reginald had said but “she just didn’t care.”

Chilling. well, okay, not really chilling. More adorable than anything else, but there is a message in there. There are going to be times when there is no value to correctly a matter of fact. You can champion reason and knowledge, but you’ll break your brain if you argue over every trivial point of order. Yes, Edwina is a dinosaur, and yes that means she should be a fossil in the ground, but the truth of the situation is that she is very much alive and non-extinct. Reginald is only making his own life harder by pedantically trying to convince people of a fact that is not relevant to the circumstances.

It’s a lesson that every intellectual or “smarty pants” has to learn: let some things slide. Some times, the popular perception is too strong to correct with a simple speech. And, above all, if every one is having a nice time while eating cookies and helping each other, it doesn’t matter who is extinct. And I speak from experience for you see, I have been that “smarty pants”. I have been Reginald Von Hoobie-Doobie.

I’m in the middle of a bout of insomnia, conveniently timed to mess up a good chunk of my weekend plans. To be accurate, it’s kind of a family affair. None of us have slept well in the last few nights, between the after-effects of a growth spurt, actual insomnia, snoring, stress, etc, etc…It would be great if one of us got ahead of the game and could be the cheery, well-rested example to the other two, but instead we’re a bunch of tired and grumpy gusses.

Since I’ve been effectively sidelined by stupefying fatigue, I’ve had a lot of time to think about the possible cause of my light sleeping/ sleeplessness. There has to be a physical component to it, and that part has me stumped. Unless someone mischievously switched our decaf coffee for full octane java, there’s no excess of chemical stimulus that could be causing it. And I haven’t made any sudden changes to my sleep routine.  So, let’s leave the physical part aside and focus on the circus in my head.

For possibly the first time in my life, I have a large list of activities and plans that I want to work on. I’m 2 chapters away from finishing the first edit o an old book I had sitting around. I’m working with one of my fantastic friends to get an interview with me on a major nerd website, which will give my book an amazing amount of exposure. I’m going to deliver some copies of my book to a local book store, so that people I don’t know could conceivably buy a copy. I’ve got a stack of politically-related tasks that I want to get done. And, I’m considering joining my condo board. With all of these things whirring around in my head, I’ve forgotten how to stop thinking about it and relax. I’ve never been this enthused about a bunch of things at the same time.I complained to the wife last week that I was missing a good, regular, brainless activity that would give me time to relax and be dumb with my friends. We used to have games nights, but the interest waned and no one really wanted to commit to getting together.

This leaves me with a lot of intellectually intensive things that are pre-occupying my mind, and no pressure release to get me ready for bed. Hence, my insomnia. It is a strange and terrible situation when you are lying wide awake in your bed at 3AM, writing your nomination speech. It feels like I’m getting the short of the stick, my brain punishing me because I’m starting to realize my potential. The ill effects of sleep deprivation feel a lot like a hangover, but I didn’t earn a hangover. I’ve been good, I’ve been involved, I’ve been physically active, I’ve been a good dad. Give me some slack, brain!