Not another Silly Blog post
It is Saturday March 2nd. The blog post concerns training and the reason I am writing. In my schooling, being dyslexic was not a happy experience in my English or language classes. The reason was my spelling. My spelling was a disaster. It still is. Even if I wrote well, my paper would fail due to spelling errors. So I gave up sadly. Finally with modern spell checkers in word and on computers this has changed the dynamic for me. I could on a computer write great programs. I could turn out readable documentation. Significantly, it felt like no amount of work in my early English classes could improved my writing. My ex-wife would say this is silly of me writing this blog, because I was not a natural. She would say these are silly blog post and wasting my time! Well, that does not effect my life now.
The myth of the natural
We are not born knowing science, math, languages, art or physical exercise. There is no such thing as a natural. At the end of the fall football year in the 9th grade. My time running the 100 yard dash was 12.5 seconds. I was not the fastest nor was I the slowest on the team.
I learned a great lesson – Training helps
Over the winter, I trained after school daily in the weight room at school. The coaches would then tell us to run 10 stadiums. Most of the players hated this! I did this and later added ankle weight. Most would walk down after running up. I decided to run down as I could go down faster that way. It felt good. Later, in life I would learn this was a running training technique called fast foot work training from Dr Martin. Was I a natural? No, I just trained harder and moved my body quicker. I then upped my level by running 20+ stadiums.
Therefore I improved beyond my wildest dreams!
Being ADHD, the count got lost. That spring I ran the 100 yard dash in 10.1 seconds and lettered in track. Unheard of for a 9th grader at any school back then. I went from being average to being the second fastest in the school. Only Rusty Miller was faster!
So when I do these silly Blog post
So as I write, I am in training. Making up for the lack of writing experience I did not learn well in school. Most of my writing in the past was in passive voice. Because of math, I used the verb “is” which to my dyslexic/ADHD mind means equal. I learned this when my great math teacher Mrs McKee taught us how to solve math word problems. With my 12 week year plan, I devote several hours a week to writing now. Training to write opens up a new world for me. Yoast SEO helps me correct my poor writing skills but telling me to use especially good transition words. When I started writing, I was at like 50% passive voice and no transition words. Consequently, what took hours is now down to a few minutes for some posts and article rewrites I do.
Many people buy the natural myth
Evidently, many people buy into the natural myth. They don’t train. They don’t improve their skill levels. I stopped painting on portraits. The reason, “to practice mixing and blending oil paints better. Because I was not happy with my skin colors and the subjects eyes I was painting. Then I researched and found Scott Waddell on YouTube. What I saw of him painting, I liked his technique. I got his training videos to help learn better techniques, Thus, I knew training would help me make art I liked. He also was a fan of William Bouguereau. Thus, training to be a better painter takes practice. I saw in one of the art history books that French painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir destroyed all his practice painting once he was happy with his look after school was over for him.
The value of practice
This is the value of practice. My daughter took lessons and did a lot of practice paintings. She really improved once she took lessons from the very skilled artist Shana Levenson. Now this is what she does. Wow!
In summary, I will continue to write these silly blog posts. I will do them until I can’t get my writing wrong. Writing well helps me to market my skin serums, gem stones, books and jewelry! I also need it in my fight to make science easy to read on another website I write on. As for A.I., if everyone is using it, chances are it will become rather boring and bland! Slowly, I am braking the old habits of starting my sentences with “I” and using “IS”.
Dedications – This post is dedicated to Russell “Rusty” McLarin Miller may you rest in piece Rusty. Also the following artists Scott Waddell and Shana Levenson who taught my daughter more great painting techniques.