One Year Podcast Anniversary

In this episode, Our First Podcast Anniversary.

Wow! It's hard to believe the first episode of On the Fly went live one year ago yesterday!

In my subconscious, the seed for this project was planted many years ago, listening to the radio program Our Changing World by Earl Nightingale.

When challenged with the question, "What would you do if you knew you could not fail?" Without hesitation, Host a radio show. Then we discovered podcasts. An On-demand radio program. How cool.

Was it easy? No. It took many years to refine my writing skills, purchase the right equipment for a working studio, find the right music, learn to record and edit my program. And - find a way to deliver it.

I'm proud to say; this podcast became the medium to express my voice. The absolute joy of discovering what motivated me. An exciting, rewarding, life-changing experience.

Was it fun? Absolutely! Preparing a weekly production kept me learning, growing, and encouraging myself to explore just who I was becoming.

Since the beginning, we've meticulously delivered every week. And we're not finished yet!

My listening friends, I challenge you to go back and listen to episode one; funny, this all started with a letter.

Be safe, keep the faith, enjoy the spring blooms, and challenge your dreams. “If you can dream it, you can do it.”

"Won't you be my virtual neighbor?" If you enjoy our visits, please share them with a friend.

This is Patrick Ball; thanks so much for listening. I'll see you in the next episode.

Comments

Boy on a Beam

In this special bonus episode, Boy on a Beam. In a world long ago, when the days moved quite slow, Before buzzes and beeps and the fast things we know, A boy sat quite still on a very fine day, Just staring at nothing . . . and thinking away. No tablets! No gadgets! No screens shining bright! No earbuds stuck in from morning till night. No lists, no charts, and no chores to be done. He just sat there thinking—that's quiet-time fun! His name was Young Albert. He sat in his chair, Thinking of things that weren’t really there. “Suppose,” said Young Albert, with eyes open wide, “I ran super fast with my arms by my side! Suppose I ran faster than anyone knew, And caught up to sunshine that zoomed past me—too! If I hopped on its back for a light-speedy ride, What secrets would I find tucked away deep inside?” “Would stars look like sprinkles, all shiny and small? Would UP feel like sideways? Would BIG feel like Tall?” He giggled and wondered and thought, and he dreamed, Till his head fel...

Un-Work the Old-Fashioned Way

🎩 In this special episode. How to Un-Work the Old-Fashioned Way It’s 2026! Yes— this is the year! A different kind of start—you feel it right here? No lists! No demands! No fix-all-your-flaws! No “New You by Tuesday!” No rules! No laws! Those resolutions? Bah! Dusty and dry! We’ve tried fixing everything —so let’s ask why. Why rush and correct and improve and compare, When noticing quietly gets you right there ? So here’s a new project—no charts, no clocks, No boxes to check in your mental inbox. It’s bigger than busy and smaller than grand, It’s called Un-Working —now give me your hand! Un-Working’s not quitting or hiding away, It’s setting things down that shout “Hurry! Hey!” The hustle! The bustle! The faster-than-fast! The gotta-win-now or you’re stuck in the past! That’s the work of Un-Working— plop! —set it free! The titles! The labels! The “Look-At-Me!” The crown that kept sliding and pinching your head— You never looked comfy . . . let’s try this instead: Pick up a tel...

The Thought Experiment–Revisited

In this episode. The Thought Experiment–Revisited The Boy on a Light Beam In 1895, a sixteen-year-old boy did something we rarely allow ourselves to do anymore. He stared into space and let his mind wander. No phone. No notes. No “Optimization Hacks” for his morning routine. Just a question: What would happen if I chased a beam of light—and actually caught it? That boy was Albert Einstein . And that single act of curiosity—a Gedankenexperiment , a thought experiment—eventually cracked open Newton’s tidy universe and rearranged our understanding of time itself. Not bad for an afternoon of daydreaming. Imagine if Einstein had been “productive” instead. He would have logged the light-beam idea into a Notion database, tagged it #CareerGrowth, and then promptly ignored it to attend a forty-five-minute “Sync” about the color of the departmental logo. He’d have a high Efficiency Score—and we’d still be stuck in a Newtonian universe , wondering why the Wi-Fi is slow. In a post I wrote back in...

The Great Un-Working

In this episode. 2026—The Year of the Great Un-Working Welcome to On the Fly . If you’re new here, this is a place for noticing—the small, easily missed moments that quietly turn out to matter. It’s part reflection, part curiosity, and occasionally part grease-stained bicycle rag. If you’re searching for life hacks, hustle culture, or a seven-step plan to optimize your morning coffee, you may have taxied onto the wrong runway. But if you’ve ever felt the itch to slow down and look around—welcome aboard. We begin 2026 by analyzing the blog post below. Traditional resolutions are often just "re-work"—tasks we assign ourselves to become more efficient cogs. In the 2026 era of Un-Working, a resolution isn't a goal; it’s an unlearning. Join Jim & Chloe, our AI analysis team, with the help of NotebookLM, as they unpack, explore, and expand on this blog post. Happy 2026! If you’re like us, you spent the last week of 2025 doing three things remarkably well: Avoiding unfinish...

On The Fly

Search This Blog