New Thing 209, New Thing Every Day: Buy a Sword Cane

It seems to be that if you have to use a cane, then you absolutely should have a sword cane. Sadly, I have been lacking one, and today I have remedied the situation. I feel fairly sure that anyone and everyone already knows that I am a badass, but this seals it.

New Thing 208, New Thing Every Day: Buy a Pair of Tom's Shoes

This is another New Thing that has been on my list since I first started the project. I have read about Tom's Shoes and admired the company for quite a while -- it is so cool that they donate a pair of shoes to someone in need for every pair that is purchased. Also, they are pretty nice shoes.

New Thing 207, New Thing Every Day: Go to Sturgeon

Yep, today was the very first time I had ever been to Sturgeon. Leigh and I went for a little excursion (and pretty much any excursion would be fun with Leigh). We started by checking out The Pinnacles park. That was fine, but it is not really accessible at all, so we did not really get to see anything. So we went to lunch at Heuer's Country Story and Cafe. That was fine, too, although I would not recommend going out of your way to try it.

The individual pieces of the trip were kind of lack luster, but Leigh was there, so it was awesome.

New Thing 206, New Thing Every Day: Try a Plant Protein Drink

[Note: This is actually yesterday's New Thing, and I did it then, but just did not get around to doing the post.]

One of the interesting aspects of my New Thing Every Day project is those days when I feel like I need something easy to do that is not already on my list for later. Sometimes when that happens, I just go to a grocery store or someplace and find something I have never eaten or had to drink before.

That is how I stumbled upon PlantFusion Complete Plant Protein shakes, at Clovers. Everything in it is really good for you, with no gluten or pretty much anything else that causes some folks a problem. And it is pretty tasty, a lot like the Carnation Instant Breakfast drinks I used to have when I was younger. The one I got was vanilla, and I am sure I will have it again from time to time.

New Thing 205, New Thing Every Day: Create an Original Recipe

My goal was to create something delicious (to me, anyway), simple, quick, and inexpensive. Also, I wanted it to be healthy in the context of The Wahls Protocol (an MS-centric diet for health that I follow). Here is what I invented, and officially shared on a Wahls site just a few minutes ago. I hope you enjoy it!

Super Tasty Sulfur Bomb

Ingredients

Kimchi

Portobello Mushroom Capa

Fresh Avocado

Instructions

1.              •  Take the stem out of the mushroom cap.

2.              •  Fill with four heaping tablespoons of kimchi.

3.              •  Cook in the oven at 425 degrees for 15 minutes.

4.              •  Put ¼-1/2 fresh, sliced avocado either on top, or to the side.

5.              Gobble it up!

With three sulfur rich foods and nothing else, this is great for those of use enjoying The Wahls Protocol, and totally delicious!

New Thing 204, New Thing Every Day: List Ways I Waste Time

Over the course of my life, I have spent a great deal of time and effort to make myself more productive, and this includes finding ways to waste as little time as possible. Oddly, with all of the reading and thinking and eliminating ways that I waste time, I have never sat and made a list. Without a list, how could I ever address whatever issues remain.

So, today I sat and made my list. I started by just thinking about it, and that took care of most of it, and then I read a few different articles on the Web to help me get more ideas.

I consider myself fairly productive, so the list is short, but it is long enough, and the things on it are important.

Here they are:

1.              Watching TV

2.              Mindlessly surfing the Internet

3.              Taking too long to do things

4.              Procrastinating

5.              Driving unproductively

6.              Mismanagement of e-mail

7.              Looking for things I have misplaced

8.              Not prioritizing my time enough

9.         Doing things that are not the most important

What are the ways that you waste time? What are you going to do about it?

New Thing 203, New Thing Every Day: Start Reading Columbia's One Read Book

The Columbia One Read program, hosted by Daniel Boone Regional Library, is such a cool program. I love the idea that the community has chosen one book and is reading it together. This year's book is The Turner House, by Angela Flournoy.

Here is a summary of the book (from the library website):
“The Turner House” is a moving and celebratory portrait of a family and a city in transition. The house on Detroit’s Yarrow Street has been home to the colorful and complicated Turners for more than 50 years. The family matriarch’s failing health, the declining neighborhood and an underwater mortgage force a family meeting to decide the house’s fate. Cha-Cha, the oldest son and unofficial head of the Turner clan, wrangles with his family’s past and the varied demands of his 12 siblings in this entertaining and vividly drawn family saga. In Angela Flournoy’s novel, the story of the Turners is also the story of Detroit, the Great Migration and this country’s recent economic turmoil.

Here is a link to the One Read program -- http://oneread.dbrl.org/

New Thing 202, New Thing Every Day: Visit oddee.com

Of all the sites I have visited for my New Things project, www.oddee.com is maybe the weirdest. Probably better than any site I have visited, it aggregates totally weird articles from all over the web. Decent time waster.

New Thing 201, New Thing Every Day: Read from the Bhagavad-Gita

The Bhagavad-Gita, one of the most important texts in the Hindu religion, translates to "Song of the Lord". To tell you the truth, I can now tell you that reading sacred Hindu texts is not really my thing. In this case, I read bits and pieces throughout the book, and I am glad I did, but I think it probably ends there. Should I spend more time expanding my spiritual horizons? Probably, but I probably won't, at least not any time soon. Reading from the Bhagavad-Gita was good though , and maybe it eill even help me be a better person.

Thanks to Greg Soden for loaning me the book and encouraging me to spend time with it.

New Thing 200, New Thing Every Day: Watch Judo Competition

Judo has always seemed kind of interesting to me and I saw that the Show Me State Games has competitions here in town this weekend, so I went and watched for a bit.

It was fine.

I think maybe I expected something more exciting, like in the movies, In real life, there really isn't any throwing someone across the room or flipping them over your shoulder onto the floor. The competitions I watched were for all ages, so I saw some real variety. My favorite was watching the 10-year-old boy totally get his butt kicked by the 10-year-old girl who was maybe six inches shorter than he was.

New Thing 199, New Thing Every Day: Give Leigh Money to Spend on Her Kids

Leigh is a public school director of counseling, and one of the things that means is that she often spends her own money to benefit the kids. Over the years, I have seen her buy clothes, pay ACT test fees, and otherwise spend money on things her kids have needed. When I first made my list of New Things, one of them was to give Leigh some of my money that I have saved, to spend on her kids. I did that today.

New Thing 198, New Thing Every Day: Attend the Very First Tribby Awards

Tonight was the first annual Tribby Awards, an event hosted by the Columbia Daily Tribune and celebrating high school athletes. It was held at Missouri Theater and we got there early to make sure we got good seats. Several of Leigh's Kids from Battle High School were nominees and one of her favorites, Brevinn Tyler, won in the football category. It was very cool to see so many kids, all dressed up, celebrating their hard work and success. I am not much of a sports person, but I am glad I went, and am proud that I was able to support a bunch of great kids.

New Thing 197, New Thing Every Day: Help My Friend Apply for a Grant

Today I helped my friend apply for a big grant that will hopefully support an excellent social program. I have written a lot of grants over the course of my life, but I have never spent significant time helping someone write their first government grant. It was interesting, and a good experience. Fortunately, my friend did an awful lot of the writing, and he was really good at it. Now, we just have to keep our fingers crossed until we get our notification.

New Thing 196, New Thing Every Day: Write 20 Nice Things About Someone and Send Them the List

I gave this one an awful lot of thought. For one, I am not sure I have that many people, even ones I really like, about whom I can think of 20 things I like. Seriously. Think about it.

Then, I can be a mushy guy, but there are several people for whom I could create the list, while sending it to them would just be weird.

So I needed someone with 20 things, and I needed to feel like we would both be happy that I sent the list. Oh, and I did not want to be totally stereotypical and send it to my mom or someone like that. I thought of someone, though, and it was fun to write the list, and I hope the person likes it.

New Thing 195, New Thing Every Day: Donate Rice Through http://freerice.com/#/english-vocabulary/9748

FreeRice.com is a site that, among other things, seems to donate rice for correct answers on a vocabulary test. It donates ten grains for each correct answer to the World Food Programme. It also provides great information and offers additional ways to help those in need. Is it a real thing? Maybe. I am hoping the ten minutes I spent on this fills someone's bowl.

New Thing 194, New Thing Every Day: Eat for a Day Without Utensils

One of my wiseacre friends suggested this back when I was creating the original list of New Things to do and I was not sure it would actually happen, but here it is! The fact is that it has actually been kind of interesting.

Here are a few thoughts from a day of eating without utensils.

1. It really made me think about what I would be eating.
2. There was something I had been looking forward to having for lunch that I ad to put off to another day, just because it would have been too messy (portabello mushrooms in curry sauce).
3. More than once, I started to eat something with a fork and stopped myself before I blew it.
4. Leigh reminded me that a straw would count as a utensil, just in time, and I had to drink smoothies without one.

New Thing 193, New Thing Every Day: Can't Tell You

Yeah, I get that this is a little anti-climactic, but today's New Thing is a surprise for someone else and I do not want them to know about it before it happens (I ordered it today). Then, once they get it, I do not want them to know it came from me. So, they may figure it out from this post -- on the off chance they see it -- but I am doing the best I can to just do something nice and not get any credit. We'll see how it goes.

New Thing 192, New Thing Every Day: Try Blood Sausage

Leigh and I went to Barred Owl for dinner tonight and I inadvertently ordered blood sausage as part of a meat plate. I probably would not have ordered blood sausage on its own, but it was right there in front of me, so I tried it. Honestly, it was really good, really just like any other sausage. I am happy I tried it and would be happy to try it again.

New Thing 191, New Thing Every Day: Vist the Omar Bradley Statue in Moberly

Yesterday, I was in Moberly to speak to a group for BBB and to talk with business owners, so I took a few minutes to check out the Gen. Omar Bradley statue there. Bradley was born in rural Randolph County and later moved to Moberly, where he went to high school.

Here is an excerpt from what one website had to say about General Bradley:
Omar Nelson Bradley was one of America’s greatest generals. He commanded the largest American force ever united under one man’s leadership during World War II. Afterwards, General Bradley became the first chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He served as a five-star general and had the longest military service in U.S. history.

For more information -- http://shsmo.org/historicmissourians/name/b/bradley/

The statue is pretty cool and there are several other military/veteran memorials in the same area. It is definitely worth a visit.

New Thing 190, New Thing Every Day: Send Someone an Anonymous E-Mail

Did you even know that it is possible to send someone an anonymous e-mail? I didn't. It was just something I stumbled across while I was on the Internet, trying to figure out something I could do for today's New Thing, without getting off the couch; and this is the perfect thing.

Here is the e-mail I sent:

Hi XXXXX!

No, this is not a hoax or a scam or something like that. I am just sending you an anonymous e-mail to tell you how awesome you are. Long ago, you made a tremendous impact on my life. Because of you, I am a better person; I am doing at least a little bit more to make the world a better place.

Even better, this e-mail could be coming from one of thousands of people, all over the country. You have made a difference for so many people, and for the world. You are a truly special person.

In the event that you figure out who I am, it is not a secret, so you can say so. Otherwise, just live with the mystery and realize that there are many, many of us who could have written this message to you.

Take care, XXXXX. You are awesome.

- Me

Don't you want to send an anonymous e-mail now?

New Thing 189, New Thing Every Day: Take an Internet Test to Determine If I am a Psychopath

I scored a 3 on a 20 point scale, and part of me feels like this is saying that I am very boring. I mean, have you ever known a psychopath? I probably have not, but I have known a few sociopaths very well, and they could be incredibly fun (until they weren't).

Three out of twenty. I guess I am just destined to be boring.

Here is the quiz -- https://psychcentral.com/cgi-bin/psychopathy-quiz.cgi

New Thing 188, New Thing Every Day: Read Teddy Roosevelt's "Duties of American Citizenship" Speech

A speech given by Theodore Roosevelt in Buffalo, New York on January 26, 1883, it probed into the theoretical reasons why every citizen must be involved in politics and the practicality of serving in that capacity. People must not excuse themselves from politics just because they are too busy and then blame the government for its ineptitude.

Here is the list of speeches I am using -- http://list25.com/25-speeches-that-changed-the-world/3/

Here is the speech --  http://www.theodoreroosevelt.net/p/duties-of-american-citizenship.html

I warn you, this is a pretty long one!

New Thing 187, New Thing Every Day: Try that Kimchi I Made a Few Months Ago

Back on May 2nd, my New Thing was making kimchi here at home, for the very first time. Since then, I have not touched it, letting it ferment and letting the flavors meld and develop. As it turns out, some of it had escaped the sealed jar because of the fermentation; Leigh had found that and put the jar in a zip-lock bag. This evening was the official opening of the jar, though, and it was packed to the top, even with the bit of spillage (which, by the way, was apparently pretty smelly -- thank you for putting up with me, Leigh).

At this time, I should mention, for those who may not know, that I was born without a sense of smell. I literally can't smell anything. So any negative repercussions of my preparing and then eating the homemade kimchi were entirely Leigh's to bear. Yes, she is an angel.

My plan was to open the kimchi, taste it, and get rid of what was left. But, you know what? I actually liked it. So back in the jar, and back in the bag, it went. I look forward to trying it as part of a meal. Sorry, Leigh.

New Thing 186, New Thing Every Day: Buy a Fedora

At 46, I figure it is about time I own a fedora (following in the footsteps of the great Dan Scotten, Steve Smith, and Tom Trabue). Today, with Leigh's help, I bought my very first one, at Dillard's. I probably will not be wearing it a lot, but like the way I look in it, and Leigh does, Or maybe I'll become Mr. Fedora?

New Thing 185, New Thing Every Day: Eat Pickled Green Beans (Yuck!)

I do not like green beans and, in fact, have never liked green beans. It is well known the world over that I do not like and do not eat beans of any kind. Tonight, Leigh and I went to Barred Owl (where everything else was delicious), and I ordered pickled vegetables. There was one cut-up green vegetable that I did not recognize, so I ate it, and did not like it. When the waitress came back to our table, I asked what the vegetable was and discovered my error. I stand strong in my lifelong conviction that green beans are yucky.

New Thing 184, New Thing Every Day: Visit http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/

Add this to my growing list of weird websites I have visited for the first time -- http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/

Check it out!

New Thing 183, New Thing Every Day: Try Cauliflower Rice

With my new way of eating, Leigh and I are looking at all kinds of new foods. My entire life, I have eaten cauliflower, both cooked and raw, but Leigh made us "cauliflower rice" for the first time tonight and it was delicious. Basically, cauliflower rice is finely chopped rice that is cooked, seeking to emulate rice. Honestly, it does not taste at all like rice, but it can serve the same purpose and be totally delicious, depending on the accompaniments. and Leigh served it with Tomato-y, hot Mexican spices, which was delish.

New Thing 182, New Thing Every Day: See "The Awakening" Statue in Chesterfield, MO

"The Awakening" statue in Chesterfield is one of Missouri's great underrated sights. It is a giant statue of a man, buried in the ground so that it looks like he is trying to dig his way out of the earth. It is a second version of the artist's original work, created in Maryland. Google it and be sure to swing by the next time you are near Chesterfield. It is absolutely worth the quick detour.

New Thing 181, New Thing Every Day: Watch Horse Races from the Clubhouse Box at Ellis Park

I grew up going to the horse races at Ellis Park in Henderson, KY. It was a regular after-church activity that we did several times each year for the first twelve years or so of my life -- a fun little Spence family outing.

We never, ever sat in the clubhouse box, though, probably because it was too expensive. We were sit-in-the-cheap-seats kind of people and that was just great. As a kid, there was so much to do and see, and  my dad always gave me two dollars to bet on each race, letting me keep my winnings and covering my losses.

Yesterday, I went with my mother and brother, and Mom got us seats in the clubhouse box, with its air conditioning, buffet, and beverages. It was just as fun to be there with the three of us as I remembered (although it made me miss my dad a little extra). Setting aside that I lost $60 (as opposed to my always-lucky brother winning about $60), it was a wonderful day.

New Thing 180, New Thing Every Day: Read George Washington's Acceptance Speech

This is another from my list of "25 Speeches that Changed the World",

Here is that list -- http://list25.com/25-speeches-that-changed-the-world/

Here is the speech -- http://msa.maryland.gov/msa/stagser/s1259/131/html/gwresign.html

It was pretty heartwarming to read something from one of our greatest leaders that was so selfless and committed to the betterment of our country.

New Thing 179, New Thing Every Day: Try a Virtual Reality Room

Earlier in the year, I tried virtual reality (VR) glasses at Best Buy, and that was pretty cool, and this was worlds ahead of that. This was a little room totally dedicated to VR, and I wore the glasses, ear phones, and had a control console for each hand. I was given several option -- space travel, video games, scenic vistas, and swimming in the ocean. I went with swimming in the ocean and it really was incredible, with little fish everywhere, stingrays, and a hump back whale that came right up to me to say hello. The whole thing was an amazing experience and I highly recommend it to you.