"My Crazy Kids"

  Reflections on 17 years By Allan Olson For the last 17 years I can honestly say that I have lived my dream job. Was it perfect and glamorous? No, but it was my dream job. I remember as a young kid back home, how I admired the editor of the local newspaper. His job was super cool… he was everywhere with his camera, covering what seemed like virtually every single event that happened in town, including little league games. One day I told him I wanted to do what he did. His response was, “Why? It doesn’t pay very well.” He was right about that, yet he continued to do it, well past my youth.  As a kid I was always taking photos. My goal was to someday work at a small town newspaper as a photographer. I didn’t think I would write because frankly, my grammar, etc., wasn’t high scoring, and I just liked taking photos. I ended up as “editor” at the college newspaper in Thief River because I kept showing up and doing the work. Fast forward a few years… with a college degree ...

Mindset By Allan Olson I guess it's been awhile since I've put a few thoughts down on anything like this - most of the time my thoughts are banging around my head like a pinball in an arcade game - until it either finds its way out or just get's stuck or lost somewhere.  Lately I've really been working on my mindset, really it probably started back in April or May of 2021 when I read "The Energy Bus," By Jon Gordon. But beyond all of that, everything I've read or listened to in the last few weeks has come back to mindset. Where is your mindset, personally, I can tell you -mine has definitely been on the struggle bus lately. I'm not sure what all it is, the cold days, the early darkness, it doesn't matter - what matters is what I do and I work myself out of this - shall we say, "slump."  In New Years day, I went out for a walk, feeling a little restless and a little downward in my mindset, what a great way to start the New Year. But then I...