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Preamble ramble

 “Hi.”

My name is Happy Harv since the late 1950s.

Writing this page, I realized that I had forgotten in my old age some the details that appear here — thus this opportunity to relish and preserve for my future read is enjoyable but seems many times laborious work.  But, “To write, I must, for whatever the reason.”

I was knighted with the title Happy Harv by my bowling team of the 1950s — the ‘kids’ team in the Men’s League. 

As the team’s anchor, we won the Men’s League championship !

In my late teens, I worked in various bowling alleys since age 14 with a government work permit which I self accessed.  As Happy Harv I was tending bar, maintaining the pin setting machines, with league bowling paid as well as match play bet backing (that kept the crowd drinking).  

My league average was very near 200, my league high-set was 699, never had a 300 game, although my best was a string of 14 strikes in practice.  I did not have that final sharp skill edge to advance further in the bowling sport.  A different set of ‘bowling kids’ once drove from Milwaukee WI to New York city for a ‘bigger $ payout’ tournament — I bombed.  However, in another instance, Karl, who was the alley groomer where I was first pin setting, apparently fit his delivery to take on another establishment’s tournament lanes.  He took me as a doubles partner, he shot a cool mid 600s, combined with my solid a bit over average — we won $100 each.  He sought me out and proudly presented me, in mid teens, with a crisp $100 bill. 

I was irritated that night, eager to spend in celebration, but not knowing in my limited culture, where or who had change for such a big bill, even in the bowling alley. I don’t remember where I spent it over time, but surely I pinched it to many places.

Before being ‘knighted’ Happy Harv I spent high and elementary school with diocesan priests and nuns as teachers, mitigated tuition with janitor work and major refurbishments in summer.  Major janitor work in the high school led to the associated Cathedral decoration — 50 foot scaffolding, gold leaf, etc. …. I was the lead-worker, and was offered a job by the consulting professional artist but declined.  College graduation loomed and a different life awaited.

For several summers previous to high school, I worked on a Central Wisconsin dairy farm of 50 head with mother Connie’s sister Alice and uncle Frank, who also owned a tavern and dance hall Sherri Land Ballroom Milladore WI that on occasion hosted a Big Band.  The regular weekend dances however kept the family hopping.  I tapped beer kegs on busy nights, carried either four cases of wood-crated soda or five cases of beer at a time up from the basement storage and restocked both the dance and tavern bar coolers — many times twice in a night.  Even in those elementary school days I was smart enough to take up the heavy up-the-stairs lift challenge by the leg doing the lift to the next stair, thus dramatically reducing the number of trips to the basement.  Lift stories as badges of honor and subsequent horror were universal in farmland — and they sure drank and danced up a storm.  But, although among them, I never did fall into their dark side, probably because I had already experienced the ‘big city’, or I was already ‘spoiled’  by my earlier parochial education.  Mother Connie fled the farmland ‘city’ of Marshfield for the big city Milwaukee.

My youth enjoyed work — later, I consciously concluded that I was  worker.  I had the focus / concentration somewhere in the brain to be my never-lost trait whether learned or inherited. 

I consider write (read, scribble, and publish) positively ingrained in my character — although I was not prolific at write in school, yet I was measured but an unrecognized prolific skimmer from college on.  I took some sort of initial reading improvement seminar for college.  I had scored reading exercises probably in front of a computer screen — I would be timed and the instructor would over look the score results,  At one exercise he looked over my shoulder and muttered encouragement over my ‘300’ — probably words per minute — I immediately looked around and said, “No — that’s 1300.”   No comment from him — recognition or even comment.   For me just another instance of no-talk — my tradition, and bane.

Skimming is usually seen more in adults than in children. It is conducted at a higher rate (700 words per minute and above) than normal reading for comprehension (around 200–230 wpm), and results in lower comprehension rates,[8] especially with information-rich reading material.[9]  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_reading#:~:text=Skimming%20is%20usually%20seen%20more,with%20information%2Drich%20reading%20material.

Perhaps skimming got me through to a Marquette degree in Mechanical Engineering after an extra quarter — and although I knew not of MENSA, I found college interesting to brush with a different cultural set — the Jesuits and a few of their high school graduates were particularly impressive to me.  I walked to college and spent two years in NROTC.

I was in the bowling men’s league at anchor, then entering college I was in the adult skimming league but I didn’t realize my skim skill status thus my self was maintained at ignorant naif status.  In general, I consider not ever having a mentor, although life experiences give us those functional ‘mentor-like’ lessons IF we are able to put it all together. 

In my eight decade, I specifically acquired a set friends and friendly acquaintences.  One is now nicknamed my “on-minute mentor” — my life-long mentor issue is considered closed, and critique from wherever is digested as I come to it, which is quite frequently !

I retired from job.work at age 52.  Many retirement phases came and went.

The most recent retirement routine is to take the train from DeBary FL and the bus from Lyns Central Orland to Disney World, requiring much walking with a walker — a practical matter in that I am pushing a rest seat wherever I am, and I use plenty of arthritis gel for non Dx old-age aches.

My life psychology began as illegitimate — birthdate full term 1938dec01 with mother Connie’s wedding certificate dated 1938nov transmitted through my daughter Susan by Connie before Connie aborted me in her retirement home hallway in 1999?  In 1938, Harv’s abortion was debated as reported by father Harvey Senior’s sister and friend of Connie’s.  Obviously, many people lost.  Connie was angry all her life with son Harv (Connie’s blue-baby daughter died), most as a working single mother.  Grand daughter Susan inherited Connie’s temper.  Senior was a functioning alcoholic until his liver gave out — making him uncomfortably ill if he drank.  He turned to all-day sugar Coke and died of a smothered heart.  His then wife took all.  Connie gave all to her retirement home. 

In my old age I can usually converse with any newcomers, however, he becomes ever more aware of many who are not of friendly persuasion.  Thus, through his continuing study of things more scientific than not, moves on to things of Joyful-Loving-Freeing and away from things Sad-Hateful-Fearful.

His single sentence life-sum.

"I wish you and yours, Joy-Love-Freeing, away from Sad-Hate-Fear, for Self+trust-Another-Others, in the context of a longer and more productive lifetime and life.time, facilitated a nano by HarvOtto.com"

My life psychology theme bases upon individual universal human needs fulfillment hierarchy — (1) fulfillment of Existence needs, (2) fulfillment of Relatedness needs, and (3) fulfillment of Growth needs.  For example, occasionally when I check my fulfillment / satisfaction / or other life issue, I go (1) (2) (3).

Life is good, although I stumble, yet most importantly, I persist.

persistent: adjective; 1 existing for a long or longer than usual time or continuously.  https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/persistent

Thus I talk, blog, read, curate, study, and sporadically write — these are functions of my lifetime, and in retirement I measure my productivity in sleep (also one of my functions) wholly hours and non-sleep hours (association with others).  I sleep a lot.  The day before I wrote this paragraph — 17 hours.   In retirement, facilitated by car-living, I sleep almost anywhere and at any time within reason.

Not by coincidence, reason centers in my life.  In my youth I realized that I was a worker, and enjoyed being so.  In retirement as a writer I can express and publish that I am a reasoner as the following dictionary quote concludes.  I enjoy being so, ie, the reasoner.

reason:noun: 1a: a statement offered in explanation or justification. b: a rational ground or motive.  c: the thing that makes some fact intelligible : CAUSE.  d:: a sufficient ground of explanation or of logical defense.  2a(1): the power of comprehending, inferring, or thinking especially in orderly rational ways : INTELLIGENCE. (2): proper exercise of the mind.  (3): SANITY.  b: the sum of the intellectual powers.  intransitive verb:  1: to use the faculty of reason so as to arrive at conclusions.  2a: to talk with another so as to influence actions or opinions.  transitive verb:  1: to discover, formulate, or conclude by the use of reason. 2: to persuade or influence by the use of reason.  reasoner: noun.  https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/reason

Thus I retort the critique, “I think too much.”  To the contrary, I enjoy being a reasoner, and I pursue write in my interest of Joy, Love, and Freeing — my all encompassment of the positive polarities of all human emotions / feelings.  My all encompassment of the negative polarities of all human emotions / feelings is Sad, Hate, Fear.  As far as I can tell so far, I created that conglomeration — it leads to my definition of the universal human self as POCTA — Point Of Choice To Action.

I blog my life action using Blogger.  And I attempt betterment in light of my new blog title ..WHAT’A..MESS..  which I kinda like.  And remember — I persist in my enjoyable life.mess.

And in the spirit of me getting it all together, whatever “it” is, welcome to the blog beginning and end — My world in one sentence — , and all that follows..  Stay tuned.

— :: — rewrite thoughts

A preamble is an introductory and expressionary statement in a document that explains the document's purpose and underlying philosophy.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preamble

self-understanding — this org ends — but it has function — tasks — action choices just like a multiple person org

human behavior in relation to organizations is as applicable to diagnosticians, whether working alone or in teams, as it is to their clients.  clayton alderfer    latest book 2010    The Practice of Organizational Diagnosis: Theory and Methods (Amazon.com)

functional organization science (logical argument) applied to the self as an organization — FO v formal organization v informal organization 

“tell me the way to what not why not” and the fists clenched

“illegitimate” (2024sep09am11:45 response to Ray in visit)
(Harv’s postPhD case study = his human condition lifetime finale)
 (‘outline’)
[Anti Naif Growth]
[Understand One’s Self]




2024sep11        A substantial number of Republican voters are losing faith in science.    In April 2020, 14 percent reported to Pew Research that they had little or no faith that scientists would “act in the best interest of the public.” By October 2023, that figure had risen to 38 percent.    Over the same period, the share of Democrats who voiced little or no confidence rose much less and from a smaller base line — to 13 percent from 9 percent.    “Empirical data do not support the conclusion of a crisis of public trust in science,” Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway, historians of science at Harvard and Caltech, write in their 2022 article “From Anti-Government to Anti-Science: Why Conservatives Have Turned Against Science.” But the data “do support the conclusion of a crisis of conservative trust in science.”  https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/11/opinion/republicans-science-denial.html

Notebook Export
Thinking, Fast and Slow
Kahneman, Daniel


Part V. Two Selves
Highlight(yellow) - 35. Two Selves > Page 385 · Location 6465
the fact that it ended badly does not mean it was all bad.” “This is a bad case of duration neglect. You are giving the good and the bad part of your experience equal weight, although the good part lasted ten times as long as the other.”
Note - 35. Two Selves > Page 385 · Location 6468
… the fact that it ended positive does not mean that it was all good. There is still bad of whatever duration.
Highlight(yellow) - 36. Life as a Story > Page 386 · Location 6477
There is a sense that it is immensely important for him to join his beloved before she dies.
Highlight(yellow) - 36. Life as a Story > Page 387 · Location 6483
A story is about significant events and memorable moments, not about time passing. Duration neglect is normal in a story, and the ending often defines its character. The same core features appear in the rules of narratives and in the memories of colonoscopies, vacations, and films. This is how the remembering self works: it composes stories and keeps them for future reference.
Highlight(yellow) - 36. Life as a Story > Page 387 · Location 6489
Caring for people often takes the form of concern for the quality of their stories, not for their feelings.
Highlight(yellow) - 36. Life as a Story > Page 387 · Location 6500
The results provided clear evidence of both duration neglect and a peak-end effect.
Highlight(yellow) - 36. Life as a Story > Page 388 · Location 6504
integral) of happiness over the duration of her life.
Note - 36. Life as a Story > Page 388 · Location 6505
Figure Me-Self is an integral. “integral) of happiness over the duration of her life.” Kahneman, Daniel. Thinking, Fast and Slow (p. 388). Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Kindle Edition. In the opposite, the previous note “duration neglect and a peak-end effect.”

Brain vs. Mind: What are the differences?  https://www.jagranjosh.com/general-knowledge/difference-between-brain-and-mind-1671691029-1#

At its simplest, mind refers to our ability to think, feel, and engage in physical activity. The brain, on the other hand, refers to the physical organ in our head that supports these functions. Here are three key differences between the two:

  • The brain is composed of neurons and blood vessels; on the other hand, the mind is abstract and is not made up of any neurons or blood vessels.
  • While the brain controls a person's movements, emotions, and various bodily functions; the mind alludes to a person's morality, reasoning, and understanding.
  • The brain is a physical organ; it can be touched or seen; however, the mind is intangible; it can neither be touched nor seen.

Attempts to write Applied Psychology case study of 86yo taken as a Functional Organization, specifically end-of-life retirement issues..

Applied psychology is the study and ability to solve problems within human behavior such as health issues, workplace issues, or education.  https://www.gmercyu.edu/academics/learn/what-is-applied-psychology#:~:text=Applied%20psychology%20is%20the%20study,medicinal%20psychology%2C%20and%20forensic%20psychology.

In contrast to Applied Psychology, General Psychology emphasises more on theory and underlying concepts than actual problem-solving strategies. Whereas, Applied Psychology focuses on the application of these theories in the real world. Applied Psychology is less theory-driven and more based on practical experiences.   https://www.brainwareuniversity.ac.in/blog/general-psychology-vs-applied-psychology/#:~:text=In%20contrast%20to%20Applied%20Psychology,more%20based%20on%20practical%20experiences.

Applied Psychology: An International Review seeks to publish work that rigorously develops, tests, or advances psychological theory, research, and practice in work, organizational, and other applied settings. Articles submitted should possess well-articulated and strong theoretical foundations. Although the journal has recently focused mainly on work and organizational psychology, it upholds a broad and inclusive scope. We welcome research published in all domains of applied psychology. This includes not only work and organizational psychology.  https://iaap-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/14640597

The Journal of Applied Psychology® emphasizes the publication of original investigations that contribute new knowledge and understanding to fields of applied psychology (other than clinical and applied experimental or human factors, which are more appropriate for other APA journals).    The journal primarily considers empirical and theoretical investigations that enhance understanding of cognitive, motivational, affective, and behavioral psychological phenomena in work and organizational settings, broadly defined.  https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/apl

Perhaps a journal submission in 2026 just for kicks.