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Life is like being on the internet; there’s lots of good stuff but there is also a lot of garbage. There’s lots of places you can get information; various news sites, social media, opinions, blogs, and videos. Unfortunately, there is no one place you can look to for plain, direct, and objective information. Each source has its biases, slants, agendas, objective, and focus.
You are bombarded with information all day from numerous sources. You have to pick and choose what you pay attention to. Spending your time with garbage takes you on a path to nowhere. However, focusing on the good stuff can boost your attitude, provide lots of worthwhile information, and enhance your pursuits.
Have you ever been having a conversation where the other person is going on endlessly about some topic you have no interest in? What did you do? You tuned them out while your mind drifted to other thoughts. You can use this same strategy when dealing with the daily information onslaught.
Each day you subconsciously tune out whatever you are not interested in. You don’t have to pay attention to everything you see, hear, and read. You can just focus on whatever you want. It’s your decision as to what’s important.
Tune out the negative while tuning in the positive. Be selective in what you pay attention to. Although it’s easy to become fixated on all of the negative around you, it infects your attitude. Always look for the positive aspects of each day. One positive component displaces many negatives.
Selective perception keeps you focused on the positive. You learned the skill of selective perception as a child. When you were younger, you became an expert at utilizing selective perception when you only paid attention to those things which interested you. You regularly tuned out anything which you didn’t want to hear.
When deciding whether or not something is worth paying attention to, determine how the information will benefit you. If there’s no clear positive benefit, tune it out. Be very selective as to what you focus on.
Don’t absorb other people’s problems. You are not responsible for them. Each person makes their own decisions and must live with the results. If asked, you can offer suggestions or insights as to how they might best deal with a problem. Other than that, disconnect from the problems of others.
Limit the amount of time you spend around negative people. Negativity is highly contagious. Negative people get stuck on problems and have little interest in solutions. Constant complaining is a characteristic of negative people.
Don’t read, watch, or listen to anything upsetting. Turn off the news. Avoid social media gossip. Don’t visit web sites which are purveyors of doom and gloom. Don’t watch upsetting movies or shows.
Tuning out the garbage becomes easier when you limit the amount of garbage by unplugging. Turn off the T.V. Get off social media. Put down your cell phone. Take some time for yourself. When you remove yourself from the garbage, it becomes much easier to spot it.
You don’t need to feel guilty for tuning out the garbage. Time is precious so you don’t want to waste it. You have an obligation to yourself to filter out negative influences because they make everything seem worse.
Spending time with other positive people is a nice escape from the garbage. Positive people have a will do, can do attitude. They focus on solutions, not problems. Positive people are possibility thinkers who rarely complain.
Always tune out the garbage. If something doesn’t help you or make you feel better, you can probably do without it. The less garbage there is in your life, the happier you will be.

Mr. Ronald Darby is married to Mrs. Janice Hebert Darby.
They are proud parents of several children and grand children.
Mr. Darby has been a part of the Vermilion Parish Police Jury representing district 4 for 18 1/2 years.
He is currently serving on the Louisiana Police Jury Association Executive Board of Directors and serves on the insurance committee, chairman of the Rural Development Committee for the State Association. “I serve on various committees of the Police Jury, finance, public works, general needs, Costal Restoration & Protection, 911 Courthouse, rabies & animal sub,” Darby said.
“I’m an Ordained Elder at Lighthouse for Jesus Ministries in Abbeville LA, under the leadership of Pastor Donnie Bolden Sr. and a minister at St. James Church of Christ.
I have served on various boards, past and present, such as Acadiana Planning Commission, Acadiana Crime Lab, Workforce Development, Christian Service Center, Council on Aging, Tourist Commission Board, Assist Agency, Herod Village, Vermilion Youth Planning Board, Fire & Police Civil Service Board, St. Mary/Vermilion Board of Directors for Head Start, NAACP, Louisiana Police Jury Black Caucus Association. I’m also a Red Cross Volunteer.
I attended Abbeville High, Jack Yates High School, Crowley Technical College ( Computer Literacy), Lafayette Technical College (Ac/Ref), NTCI ( Service Line Tech), ICS School (Electrician), USA Training Academy and for 8 years I worked for the City of Abbeville as an Apprentice Lineman and for 16 years with Cox Communications as a Service Technician.
We have a beautiful community and I want to continue fighting for lower electricity, better drainage, better roads, create new jobs and work with our Fire & Police department to make sure we get the proper training and tools to do their jobs and to keep Abbeville safe. Abbeville is a place where more retirees want to live ( Abbeville is the parish seat). I believe we should keep the vision of our founder father Pere’ Antoine Desire Megret alive, making Abbeville a beautiful place to live in. We need to teach our community about our history, many don’t know who father Pere’ Antoine Desire Megret is. I’m asking you to please vote for me in March 2022 as you next Councilman at Large.”

Nicholas will continue to weaken as it slowly moves through the Houston area on Tuesday.
This is according to the 10 a.m. update from the National Weather Service in Lake Charles.
Tonight it will slowly turn east and head towards the Beaumont region, before slowing down or even stalling in southwest Louisiana Wednesday into Thursday.
Wind gusts today will be in the 25 to 45 mph range for southeast Texas and southwest Louisiana. A few power outages will be possible. Gusts will be 20 to 30 mph across the remainder of the region.
Rain totals will be 4 to 10 inches, with locally higher amounts possible. Be aware of the road conditions. Traveling is not recommended during flash flood warnings.
Tides will be 1 to 2 feet above normal today and tomorrow. Minor coastal flooding is possible during high tides.
There is only a marginal 5% chance for tornadoes today across most of our region.

Nicholas made landfall overnight in Texas as a Category 1 hurricane and quickly weakened to a tropical storm.
A flash flood warning is in effect through Wednesday afternoon. A coastal flood advisory is currently in place in Vermilion Parish until 7 p.m. on Wednesday.
Nicholas made landfall about 1 a.m. Tuesday near Freeport, Texas, on that state’s central coast.
On Monday, Gov. John Bel Edwards requested a pre-landfall Federal Declaration of Emergency in a letter to President Joe Biden in advance of Nicholas.
On Sunday, Edwards declared a state of emergency, allowing the state to begin its preparations and to assist local governments as they respond. A pre-landfall federal disaster declaration would allow Louisiana to mobilize federal resources the state already has in place as well as to request additional resources if needed.
Louisiana continues to recover from Hurricane Laura and Hurricane Ida, with many homes and businesses still damaged from these events. Heavy rainfall could complicate current storm recovery.
“Nicholas will likely be weakening into a depression as its center slowly moves into Louisiana early Wednesday morning and will exit into Southern Mississippi by Thursday morning,” Edwards said. “Life-threatening rainfall is our primary concern Tuesday through Thursday, with between six and 10 inches likely across Southwest and South Louisiana with locally higher amounts possible, especially given the slow storm motion.”
Flash flooding will be the greatest threat of this system, the governor said.
“It also has the potential to cause river flooding in southwest and southeast Louisiana,” Edwards said. “The ongoing storm recovery will be a compounding threat because homes are already damaged, people are already displaced and storm debris from Ida could be blocking drainage systems, causing rainwater to accumulate more quickly than normal, which will potentially enhance the flash flooding threat.”
Edwards said the relative weakness of the winds from Nicholas shouldn’t lead people to believe that it’s not dangerous.