Musings and Elucidations

NickSilly’s blog.

What is it about TikTok?

Wednesday, November 3, 2022


TikTok is a short-film production app that allows talented humans of all varieties to show off any and all conceivable talent they may possess. 

As you use TikTok the algorithm learns what types of short films you like to watch and tailors the experience to your interests. 

I resisted the temptation to be on TikTok for the longest time because I inherently knew that once I started I’d be hooked and was afraid I may spend more time on it than was healthy. 

But I finally conceded. And now I kinda regret I hadn’t gotten into it sooner. It’s life-changing. 

While I was correct where spending too much time in the app is concerned the time I DO spend there is not nearly as wasted as it was when I first started and was basically just watching a bunch of hot girls dancing and people lip-synching to content other people created. 

This is what turns a lot of people off in the beginning I’m sure. They don’t get the appeal of that and I don’t blame them. 

But that kind of content is just the extreme tip of the iceberg in terms of what is out there to discover and the more I use it the more really interesting content I find. 

Here is a rundown of the stuff I watch on TikTok now after having used the app for a while, ranked in no particular order:

1. Awesome comedians, mostly skilled at impressions. 

2. Impressionists who teach you how to do impressions. 

3. Musicians who teach you how to play instruments. 

4. Professors who teach you music theory, languages, history, etc. 

5. Chefs who teach you how to cook anything and everything. 

6. Famous actors and others from all walks of life who got sober and how they cope without drugs and alcohol. 

7. Women talking about relationships and all types of emotions they have about things going on in their lives. 

8. Live broadcasts from around the world of anything from newscasts to jet flights to airline traffic control and beyond. Basically if it’s happening in the world, someone is live-streaming it on TikTok. Santa live streams from his workshop! Lol.

9. Magicians who do all sorts of tricks that amaze me. Some explain how the tricks are done and that amazes me even more sometimes because it’s hard to pull many tricks off. 

That’s 9 really cool and fun things I watch on TikTok but the list goes on. 

It’s enough already to explain the appeal of TikTok but for me personally there’s also the whole aspect of entertaining, which I love to do. 

My content is not nearly as polished and consumed by thousands of people as other performers but it’s getting better and better and extremely fun to produce. I can’t overemphasize how much fun I have making TikTok videos. 

And when those vids get talked about and shared between friends it makes even more fulfilling.

I’m conclusion, TikTok is amazing. 

The End. 

Nick Druga II aka NickSilly

What the maid did

Sunday, October 23, 2022


Before I get into what the maid did, let me explain what you are looking at in the photo above. 

It’s a makeshift computer workstation constructed using two blocks of wood, supported by an electronic keyboard stand, along with a mini electronic keyboard strategically situated in the middle for added support. 

The idea behind the mini keys in the middle is to allow the two wooden boards to be stretched out much further than shown in the picture without collapsing. 

The desired configuration works well and provides more table space but is a bit tenuous. If one were to knock the legs of the stand the whole thing may come tumbling down. 

This is where the maid comes in. She did exactly that earlier this morning and it all came tumbling down on her. From downstairs we heard a loud crash, which was the sound of my big monitor, etc. hitting the floor. 

It alarmed my roommate and I somewhat but not enough to actually want to investigate what had happened, we just thought she was really aggressively cleaning. Lol. “She’s really getting after it up there!” we remarked. 

But then she came downstairs and communicated to us (as best she could without speaking English) that a situation had occurred in the bedroom. 

So I went upstairs with her to see what happened and found the table in the configuration you see in the pic sans mini keyboard. She tried. 

Luckily the only damage that occurred in the crash was a small piece that broke off of the monitor on the right side. Nbd. Everything still works fine. Hooray!

I reassured the startled maid that everything is all good and told her it’s my fault for setting up such a precarious workstation. She understood none of that. Lol. Except that I wasn’t mad and for that she was happy and went about her cleaning. 

Now I’ll go recreate the unorthodox work environment again but make it way more stable this time. 

Thanks for reading and have a great day!
--
Nick Druga II

I have to watch The Princess Bride again

Friday, September 23, 2022


Yesterday I was playing Jeopardy on my Amazon Echo device like I do on days when I remember to and don’t worry about how dumb it’s going to make me feel when I only get 2 or less out of 6 answers right. 

A clue came up about Princess Bride. I was immediately feeling confident because this movie is one of my all-time favorites and I can almost literally recite every line. 

Of course you probably already know what happened. I missed the question. Wtf?!? Omg, I was horrified at myself. I let out a pretty loud F-bomb when I ran out of time to say the question. 

The answer was something along the lines of “I was the name of the princess in The Princess Bride.” 

Who is Buttercup!?! Duh!

It came to me about 5 seconds late. I was legit mad at myself for not knowing that in time. Like really?!? There are MUCH harder Jeopardy clues about that movie than that one. C’mon Nick!

Anyway, it’s the next day and I’m STILL reeling about getting that wrong so the only way to solve the problem is to watch the movie again and try to feel better about myself.  

Have a great weekend! Have fun storming the castle! 

Mother nature healed my hand

Saturday, Sep. 3, 2022


Throughout the summer, I've had this cut in the middle of my palm on my right hand that's been bothering me quite a bit. I've tried different methods of fixing it, from wearing gloves at work, to using this lotion/medicated shit called "Working Hands" to triple-antibiotic ointment, etc. Nothing has worked very well. The cut would start to close and then just open back up again and cause me grief. :-/ 

But finally, the last couple of days, the cut has closed up and feels like it may be closed for good now. I didn't do anything different than what I've been doing, so I believe it may be just because the weather changed. I live in Dallas, Texas and we've had a long, hot, VERY dry summer season this year. The lack of moisture in the air certainly hasn't helped with my hand. Now that there's been a good amount of rain the last week or two and the temps have started to come down my hand has miraculously healed up. It's not a coincidence and kinda interesting how the weather can affect your physical well-being.

Thank you, Mother Nature, for fixing that annoying cut on my hand. :-)

In other news, this is the first blog entry I've written in forever using my laptop. I haven't been able to use my laptop in quite a while because my eyes got so bad I couldn't even see the screen, but now that I've had two successful cataract surgeries on both eyes I can see the laptop better than I've been able to in years, even better than I could before the cataracts really got bad, which is an incredible blessing. 

Thanks for reading and may incredible blessings come your way as well the rest of 2022.

Peace.

A story about taking out the trash (literally)

Wednesday, August 17, 2022


When I got to work today many were contributing to the trash problem (by stocking inventory) but nobody was taking it out. 

So I took it upon myself to take out ALL the facility trash. Here’s a list of places at our U-Haul location where trash accumulates and must be taken out:

1. Big trash can outside the front door of main showroom. 

2. Three small trash cans in the main showroom and customer bathroom. 

3. Shop trash can where hitches are installed. 

4. Shop trash can in front of shop office. 

5. Small trash can in shop office. 

6. Large metal cart in shop garage near overhead door. 

7. Trash bag on truck cleaning cart. 

8. Two small trash cans in break room. 

I emptied the trash from 7 out of these 8 places, skipping only the trash in front of the store because I just emptied that out yesterday. 

Ridding the entire site of trash felt good. And that’s what life is all about. Have a great week!

Brutal Recovery

Sunday, July 31, 2022


I found this Instagram account which is so great. It’s called brutalrecovery. Above is one of the memes posted there. It rung so true for me I wanted to rank and blog a little (or maybe a lot) about how I fit into every sober category. 

Let’s go from least applicable to most applicable.

#6 - fitness sober 
I just don’t love working out. I know a TON of men in recovery who fit squarely into this category almost to a fault. I could use more gym time bit at the same time I get plenty of exercise on the job.

I never take mirror selfies (although I do take regular selfies.) 

It has taken me much longer than it should have but I’ve finally developed a relationship with dad that works for both of us. 

I don’t think I’m “absolutely furious” but I have to admit that I have it in me to get more upset at stupid shit than the average person. 

#5 - slutty sober
If I really needed to be “desired to exist” I’d be in real trouble. 

This one is geared toward women but I can definitely make “her” my higher power. Any woman who shows the slightest interest in me I get much too excited about. 

I never cry in the shower. I don’t do anything in the shower except shower and maybe occasionally sing. 

#4 - baking and crafting sober 
I enjoy cooking, but not so much baking. I do zero crafts. 

Peace and quiet I am lucky enough to get quite often. Probably too often. 

Mom used to be my BEST friend until the dementia and Alzheimer’s took hold. I miss old mom. 

I don’t do Etsy. 

#3 - weirdly spiritual now sober 
I truly believe surrendering to God was the most powerful thing I did to restore my sanity. So for me it wasn’t as “weird” as others. 

I *did* start talking about God one day but it wasn’t random. 

Serenity is just a way of life now. 

Idk what she means by “chaotic advice friend”. 

#2 - cigarettes and coffee sober
I don’t smoke and never have but I drink coffee like it’s going out of style. 

I’m doing a LOT of different creative things in order to finally get my genius discovered. 

I really don’t have a sleep schedule to speak of so in that way you can say it’s “fucked up.”  A regular schedule wouldn’t kill me. 

I’m not burnt out quite yet but I’m definitely going in a lot of directions creatively. I need to pick one and do that really well instead of trying to do everything. There’s not that much time in the day. 

And finally…
#1 - memeing through the pain sober 
Comedy is absolutely my go to in order to stay on track. 

ALL I would do is cry if I weren’t laughing. 

People love me regardless of whether or not I make them laugh but I def believe they love me more when I give them a good chuckle. 

I’ve started making a concerted effort to stop with the “lol” after almost everything I say but most shit I say is funny as hell so it’s hard. Even the most serious thoughts my brain will construe as funny or come up with a way to *make* it funny. 

I hope you enjoyed this rundown and have a beautiful day!

Recovery is brutal. 

Peace. 

Why I can’t drink

Wednesday, July 20, 2022


When I drink I make questionable decisions. Actually, that’s a lie. I make bad decisions. 

But my addict brain tells me drinking is not my problem. My problem is gambling. Therefore, I can drink just as long as I don’t gamble. Sounds logical, right?

Wrong. 

Here’s the huge problem with that faulty thinking. As I said, when I drink I quickly start making bad decisions. Eventually one of those bad decisions will be to gamble. Maybe not right away, but I’m barely strong enough with a clear head to resist temptations to gamble. Cloud my head with alcohol and that will send me over the edge. I’ll end up putting money down on something. I won’t even think twice about it. Depending upon how drunk I am, I may even think it’s the best decision I’ve ever made.

Then. My friend. It’s game over. Down the tubes I’ll go. Again. And this time it will be worse than ever before. The progressive nature of the illness makes certain of that. It’s doubtful I’d survive. 

A friend in recovery is fond of saying he has another relapse in him but not another recovery. No doubt. 

It may sound extreme and overly-dramatic to say that if I have a beer I’ll wind up dead in a week but it’s not beyond the realm of possibility. 

So that’s why I can’t drink. I won’t drink. I choose life. 

Thanks for reading and God bless. 

I can see!!!

Sunday, July 17, 2022

Imagine looking down this road and not being able to see that Dallas skyline or that beautiful moon over it? Not even being able to clearly see those American flags hanging off that building on the left. 

Before the cataracts were finally removed from my left eye there’s no way in hell I could or would take a pic like this for multiple reasons, not the least of which is that I was scared to get run over. 

Now, with my new 20/20 vision, not only is it possible to take this pic I can tell you that the light down there is green and there’s a car with its right blinker on. NICE!

And it’s not even just my far vision that was so bad. My near vision was bad as well. Like I couldn’t look at that pic even as close as I got to it and see those same details. 

Thank God for the eye doctors and modern technology that has restored my eyesight to a level I’ve never experienced even before the cataracts took hold. 

I don’t even need glasses to see far in the distance and that hasn’t been the case since I was probably 10 or so. 

I didn’t actually get contacts to fix my nearsightedness until I was in my early 20’s but I had been nearsighted years before that, it just wasn’t ever bad enough for me to justify getting it fixed. 

Many say you shouldn’t go through life with regrets and I believe that too but that doesn’t mean you can’t have them at all and not going to the eye doctor before I was 24 is one of mine. I guess mainly because I was a pretty damn good baseball player in my younger days and I just wanna know how much better I would have been had I had perfect vision. But eh. What’s done is done. No going back. 

I’m pretty excited to dominate the old man’s league pretty soon, though. Won’t happen until late August at the earliest because I still have another surgery and recovery to go through on my right eye as well but I’ll get out there soon enough. That’s really exciting to think about. I LOVE playing baseball!

But you know what else I love? Sight. Man, do you take it for granted unless it’s taken away. 

Every day I go out into the world and see all these wonderful things I knew were there all along but I just couldn’t appreciate anymore. Not truly. It’s really hard to explain how mind-blowing that is. It’s almost like being born again. It’s something I kinda wish everyone could experience. 

People are probably wondering why I’m going around so ecstatic these days and that’s why. A world that before was dark and cloudy to me in the middle of the day and completely absent at night has returned in all its clear and colorful glory. It’s AMAZING!!! 

In a couple of hours from now I will return to a church I’ve been to a hundred times before but have never been to. It’s going to be breathtaking. Praise the Lord! 

Amen. Take care and God Bless. 

Every day is a blessing to be cherished

Thursday, June 30, 2022

This morning I just wanted today to be over with. Because tomorrow I’m getting my eye surgery done and I’m so excited to get these cataracts gone and be out of the fog. To be able to finally see clearly again. Hooray! 

I hesitate to get too excited, though, considering the surgery has been canceled twice but I’m praying the 3rd time’s a charm. 

But that’s not why I called. I called to tell you that I recognized early this morning that I was throwing an entire day away in anticipation of the next and that’s not the way to live. 

I made a conscious decision right then to enjoy and embrace TODAY because you never know what awesomeness may be in store on any given day. 

And as it turns out awesomeness WAS in store in the form of a new beautiful person who is helping and guiding me in a direction of providing help to specific people in need. A segment I’m particularly interested in helping and who I believe God is directing me towards. Cool, huh?

So embrace each day, man. Ya just never know. 

Peace and Godspeed!

What a tremendous day

Tuesday, June 28, 2022

So many wonderful things happened today I just wanted to put them in writing. These are in no particular order…

1. Watched powerful Abraham Hicks vid about shifting focus away from that thing you want so bad that’s not coming. Doing so will allow other great things room to come in and bring you joy. 

2. Adam Tripp pulled strings at Parkland to get eye surgery rescheduled. 

3. Enjoyed free breakfast sandwich using McDonald’s app points.

4. Jerry showed me a sweet pic of him and fiancé kissing from his trip to Vietnam to see his future wife. 

5. Woke up early enough to afford myself time to write in journal before work. 

6. Got all laundry done including bath and kitchen towels. 

7. Took a shower and forgot I was washing bath towels. Dried off with red T-shirt. Lol. 

8. Rangers are MLB.TV “free game of the day” so I get to watch it. Never get to see games bc I don’t subscribe to a service that carries them. 

9. Rangers smoke Royals (see above graphic.)

10. Roommate Cory that works at Norma’s Cafe brings home chicken-fried steak dinner and entire chocolate pie. 

11. Tommy drops by work to say hello and we talk about staying spiritually connected. 

12. Amy agrees to be my person that I’m required to have stay at the hospital with me when I get my surgery Friday. So gracious of her. 

13. Mom’s birthday! Happy Birthday to my angelic mother. 

14. Gave neighbor laundry detergent since she was out.

15. Had apartment to myself for the entire day. Played Steve Winwood radio on Spotify. 

I guess that’s about it. Some days are better than others. God is great!