Welcome to day four of the 2023 Challenge Project. The updates are building, and the personal growth is growing.

Today was spent deep in the programs, challenges, caves, and chapels. Interesting how similar all that time was. Out of the cave, just long enough to add a relevant interview with Ted Kopple about a divided America and a story about new media. Before that, a few thoughts on age.

This is the 21 Day Challenge Program.

If you are reading this newsletter, and if you read several newsletters, books, and even a newspaper, if you can find one, you are a learner. Rather than watching or listening to content, it takes patience and discipline to read. A person willing to put the time in and find things to read and explore the areas the reading takes them is a student of life.

Other forms of media are not wrong; at best, they can be a relaxing break from reading and research, depending on what you do during the day. Some of the best ideas can start from things we see and then move to find more information about them. There is a downside if the only info a person receives is being told to them by a TV, Radio, or social media video; it takes away some of the balance needed to understand different points of view.

The teacher(s) I plan to seek out over the next year will be readers and community contributors to With A Shout!

This is the 7-day happiness challenge, focused on relationships.

Chat up with a stranger. This tip is essential coming out of a global pandemic. It worked out for me - I met seven strangers in the virtual caves in Program #5 (read on to see about the shelter). I am going to mass and a rosary tonight for a friend whose mother passed away last week, and I plan to talk to more strangers. Another good day on the Relationship Happiness Trail!

Working with a journal allows you to slow your own thoughts, and meditate on your days. Sahil Bloom does it again, and adds to the January projects. This project will be the daily cherry on top of all the others. Here’s the write from Bloom:

Caveday is a virtual focus community. You signup, schedule time in a "Cave," and start a Zoom call with a quick introduction and then off on your Sprint to work alongside others.

Notes from the Cave 01:

Good focus works forced me to write during the time in the cave. I still got distracted by a promo code thought that took me away from writing for twenty minutes. Prompts to stretch while sitting in the writing chair were also a nice change. The time was well spent.

Caveday is a digital focus program with a virtual community of digital cave dwellers. I had reviewed this program before and signed up for a trial in the past. After signing up for three and half other challenges this weekend, I put Caveday in the maybe later pile. Adding new work with unique challenges and writing a daily newsletter is forcing an hour-by-hour optimization strategy to get everything done.

Writing and editing the newsletter requires the most focus - Caveday will require planning, and once I'm in the cave, I can spend one to two hours writing. Today was the first cave; I signed up for the service and scheduled my first cave within two hours of signup. I am writing this in the cave and plan to send out today's newsletter soon.

A person's chronological age is the age from birth to the present date.  A person's achievement age is defined as a standardized test score and displayed as a number.  Several physical factors, weight, height, body fat, etc., can make up a body's age.  Some people say age is just a number.

How about a person who has lived a full life, managed a business, maintained a successful professional career, raised a family, and is stable financially.  What if that person wants to take that knowledge and return to the risk of a new startup or career the same way they did in their 20s, before family and more significant obligations?

If I knew then what I know now…

In an interview Ted Koppel did with Walter Isaacson a couple of years ago, Koppel talks about journalism and democracy.  The conversation continues as the U.S. moves into day four without a Speaker of the House.

The site Journalism.Co.uk published by Mousetrap Media put together several predictions in the journalism and media space.  This section of the 2023 predictions focused on Audience Expectations.  Kellie Riordan, a founder of Deadset Studios and founding editor of ABC Audio studios, thinks quality will overtake quantity in 2023.  Consumers are overloaded with media and could begin to pull back and reduce subscriptions in the coming year.  Quartz, another company with several online publications, has removed its paywall and changed it to a registration wall.  Quartz instituted a dynamic paywall in 2019, which would activate after the system determined so many articles had been viewed.  Many Quartz publications rely on advertising in addition to a paywall.

Song by Fun Boy Three

… The lunatics have taken over the asylum

The lunatics have taken over the asylum

The lunatics have taken over the asylum, take away my right to choose

The lunatics have taken over the asylum, take away my point of view

The lunatics have taken over the asylum

The lunatics have taken over the asylum, take away my dignity

Take these things away from me

The lunatics have taken over the asylum

The lunatics have taken over the asylum, take away my family

Take away the right to speak

The lunatics have taken over the asylum take away my point of view

Take away my right to choose

Songwriters: Lynval Golding / Neville Staples / Terry Hall

The Lunatics lyrics © BMG Rights Management

Words | Music | Art | Unknown

I’ve been in a cave.

Click on the Apple Music image to listen to the song on Apple Music or on the Spotify Image to listen to Spotify.

Thank you for spending a few minutes with us!

With A Shout newsletter is written by Johnny Christian with the support of a thousand idea bits and the help of many people.