Over the past couple of weeks, I've been working on a spreadsheet (with formulas) which will allow one to compute the approximate real per-person cost of a cruise. My problem with creating the spreadsheet is that I've never had to build something this complex before in Excel. My thought processes towards computing values are akin to programmers who use procedural programming languages, where one could use "IF Statements" (IF test, true condition statements, false condition statements) to do the work, where in spreadsheets, it is often easier to put key tests into separate cells. So, when I find commonality between cruise line calculations, I reorganize the spreadsheet to simplify processing and make it easier to manage.
This work has been a tedious process, and is still subject to revision. It has kept me busy to the extent where I've decided not to go outside when the weather looked nice, and instead focused on the work that needed to be done to complete basic work to fix known bugs, so that it can be used by others.
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Why do something like this?
In retirement, people still need challenges to keep their brains alert. Current day politics strain my sense of well being, as I react poorly to falsehoods in the news. The Orange Snowflake and his cronies do not care about objective truth. They change the lies they tell and do not back down from their lies. So, listening to the news becomes a soul suck for me, as well as something that can make me get angry. As a result, I have to find ways to distract me from paying too much attention to the lunacy going on in the world, and focus on something which depends on objective truths and falsehoods.
My next step with my cruise blog still depends on objective truths - going back to the online classes on video production, and starting to record VLog entries to post on YouTube. I do not intend to post anything with Marian's image for now. It will be hard enough for me to post things as Mario, as I do not yet have a screen presence or screen personality. But that will come with practice and experience.
In the end, I will maintain my sanity by doing things which allow me to maintain a healthy balance in life. The outside world is going nuts, and I need to maintain a healthy mental balance to maneuver in today's insanity. One has to see truth, and stay off the radar of the lunatics in charge of the asylum, while making plans to get as far away as possible before everything burns down around us.
