We are ALL Dr. Babooner
Dear Dr. Babooner,
I believe in setting goals and taking positive action to achieve them, so I have great ambitions for 2015. I want this to be the year I learn to crochet and finally finish my Master’s Degree in Applied Physics.
And I also want to walk a tightrope across a narrow part of the Grand Canyon.
I’m very linear, so I’m going to get to work on the crocheting first. Once I’ve perfected that, I’ll brush up on my math, and after I’ve got that Master’s Degree in hand I’ll start with my balancing practice.
But I’ve also realized that achieving new things feels pointless unless you can share them with the world, so I’m wondering if having a camera crew follow me around might be a good idea.
Having a production crew to document your activities just seems to make sense in the age of digital media. Me reaching my tightrope goal will be a dramatic video event all by itself, but I’m thinking it will be great to have some martial music playing in the background while people watch me work on my math and crocheting.
Something like the music Kim Jong Un uses in this new video about him flying a plane is exactly the thing I have in mind.
The subtitles help too! I’ll add subtitles to my crocheting video for sure, since they speak a special language in that field that only a few people know. We’ll probably be fine without subtitles for my other achievements, since everybody pretty much gets it about Applied Physics and gravity.
Dr. Babooner, I’m excited about my 2015 goals but I’m not sure I should reveal them to the world right now. Declaring my intentions will force me into action because avoiding embarrassment means there can be no turning back. But I know it would be much less stressful for me if I set my goals quietly and announced my magnificent achievements only AFTER they were actually achieved.
What would you do?
Excited But Already Exhausted
I told E.B.A.E. that quiet goal setting is much less stressful, but often it ends right there. If you really want to reach a difficult goal, you have to corner yourself into doing it by declaring your intentions to the world, or at least to the people whose approval you crave. That said, I think documenting your life with a video crew, martial music and subtitles is a great idea even if you don’t achieve remarkable things.
ESPECIALLY if you don’t achieve remarkable things.
But that’s just one opinion. What do YOU think, Dr. Babooner?
Trail Baboon 
Good morning. My goal for 2015 is to manage to complete the year without too much excessive stress from things not going well. That would be a great goal to achieve in my opinion. I am not oriented toward doing great deeds as you seem to be, EBAE. It is my experience that most, if not all of us, would very much like to reduce the amount of stress in our lives. How about working toward stress reduction instead of possibly adding stress to your life by having a filming crew following you around as you seek to add new achievements to your life.
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It is quiet as a tomb in here this morning. Is everybody nursing a hangover?
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Took me a while to figure out what WordPress was up to!
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im with you dr baboo
the video is a great idea. kind of a documentary of the life you lead. you can edit it later. the new technology that assists in making it possible is so exciting that it almost calls out all on its own. the subjecy of drones is in the news today. I think there should be a video of me going to the meeting about drones to discuss why it is illegal to run them outside. there is a cool new little video camera that attatches to them and gives great movies of illeagal shots of the roof of you house, the birds eye view of the world withan edit button on the video component of the computer makes it possible for you to be better than 60 minutes just a few short years ago.
im trying to decide on my music. bob Dylan, tom waits, joni Mitchel, gershwin, maybe you chose the music first and do the video around that.
maybe I should make a resolution to make a resoloution.
waddaya think?
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My life in video would be as dull as network TV.
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Truth be told, Clyde, so would mine.
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All I can say is, if the video is as boring as all the selfies I see on FB, please spare us. The drone does look like a fun toy or tool, though, and it would be fun trying to fly one. Bu you’d have to have a house a lot bigger than mine if you’re going to fly it inside. Can’t really see the point of that.
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Yes, tim. Of course you should be followed by drones everywhere you go – your own drone and maybe some other drones operated by members of your family and/or your harshest critics. Then we’ll see how much interpretation comes out in the editing.
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Stress-reduction is the goal for all of my family. However, almost all the stress factors are out of our control. A cave mentality might work but the stressers come find me.
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I am afraid that those stressers would also find me even if I tried hiding in a cave, Clyde.
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If I had a camera on me today, you eould see me delighted, enthralled snf intrigued by the beginning of the Italian fashion exhibit at the MIA, frustrated by the glass cases.
They let the clothes out of the boxes just about when I start to lose interest, so I doubled back and looked at the exquisite of the 50s and early 60s again.
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Something I find strongly appealing in others is an ability to be enthusiastic. Your lovely response to the MIA exhibits is like sherrillee’s love of books. It is the perfect opposite of “Meh.” I like that in others.
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If you just made your mental list and you’re now feeling overwhelmed and depressed, does it mean you’re perhaps taking on too much for one year?
I just answered my own question: narrow down your list, EBAE, and don’t tell others only the items you feel are really important. A video with a sound track? I don’t t think so.
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Count me out – if reality tv has taught us anything it’s that 99.9999999% of us don’t have enough to fill an hour with. No video, no subtitles.
Spent the morning watching the Rose Bowl Parade and am now thinking of writing a letter to the organizers to tell them to keep up the good work. All the focus was on the parade, the good works of those involved, the kids in the bands. No lip-synched wanna-bees on every single float and no Broadway musical numbers. Loved it.
Happy 2015 everybody.
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I’ve been reflecting on the matter of what it would take to make a video of my life. My humbling conclusion is that–at my age, with my health issues–filming me would not require a drone or even a camera on wheels. You could set up any old camera on a tripod, and it would cover me pretty well in one shot. And if your whole video is just a shot of an old guy in a chair, it is hard to make it dramatic!
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No worries Steve.
If you get the same editor, narrator and sound guy as the Supreme Leader, it will be thrilling.
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I think a video of my life would be mind boringly numbing. punctuated by short episodes of great silliness. New Year’s Eve was fun. I got to judge the karaoke contest. Husband’s lipis all bangedup due to wild harmonica playing. It was a most sober night.
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or mind-numbingly boring–take your pick.
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evening–
Remember hearing about Babe Ruth pointing to center field and then hitting the ball there?
Can we make some correlation between that and setting goals?
How much worse would that have been with a drone hovering over Babe the whole time?
I’d like to imagine he would have pointed at the drone and taken it out.
We had our last Christmas gathering over in Trempealeau, WI today.
And last night Kelly and I shared a glass of Honey Whiskey.
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I like the idea of quiet goal-setting. No one need know.
I rang in the New Year somewhat early last night with a couple of glasses of red. Staying up till midnight would have required too much effort, so I set my goal for 10:30.
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