Becoming a better writer and Homo sapien.
(I’m sure I meant to say more with this. Clearing out the drafts folder and couldn’t bear to delete this.)
Talking with Button at lunch, I asked him if he wanted to live on the Moon.
“Yes! See Moon!” he answered. Then he got quiet for a second and pointed to his head.
“Hat!” he said, realizing that if he was going to go to space, he needed an astronaut hat.
I laugh more often now, I cry more often now,
Peter Bjorn and John, “Objects of My Affection”
I am more me.
A few weeks ago I started the process of switching medications for my depression. I’ve written about my reasons for seeking treatment before, but I want to go back to an analogy I made about how my medication was working for me:
The fun thing about medication and mental health is that it’s not like treating a headache or fever. You’re decreasing a physical symptom in order to allow yourself the ability to do the work of overcoming the mental obstacle.
It’s a 1-up mushroom, not a warp pipe.
“Medication is a 1-Up, Not a Warp Pipe.”
It was difficult to see for a while, because of a lot of external stressors, but the medication I was taking no longer had the same impact. It was like when you already have a fire flower, then you bonk another ? block and it gives you another fire flower.
Initially my doctor thought increasing dosages of my current medications might do the trick. It did not. So now I’m making a switch. It’s still a little early to say if this is the right choice, but I’ve noticed some things:
Reading a post from Tracy Durnell, I’ve been thinking about what I’ve done with this blog in the past, and what I do with it in the future, because in the current environment it seems that sharing thoughts intentionally is best done in your own space on your own terms. It’s the what to share part that’s been tripping me up, because of that voice in my head that says I should only share something when I know it’s absolutely the best version I could ever make of it.
There is some relationship between writer and reader in blogging, even if it’s chiefly one-directional besides the occasional comment. The trick is finding the sweet spot of vulnerability for a general, unknown audience. I enjoy reading about other bloggers’ and writers’ personal lives and have benefited from others sharing about their challenges, like mental health; I also want to be able to be known as a person from my writing and pay it forward if sharing my experiences can help others.
Tracy Durnell, “Blogging’s emotional obstacles”
It’s easy to forget the ways that blogging used to be social. It used to feel like a conversation instead of a branding opportunity or a platform. It can feel that way again.
It’s the first time in months I’ve felt the urge to get out of bed before the rest of the house is up and sit down at the keyboard. That’s not all because of the medication shift, because I’ve changed some other things as well.
Maybe I’ll have more to share on that later.
Sameer Vasta made a list:
Albums I listen to regularly with no skips because they are perfect:
It seemed like a great prompt to work with, especially because there are plenty of albums that are top 10 favorites that still have one or two tracks that I don’t need to hear every time. So here we go.
This whole newsletter issue about identifying what’s keeping you stuck is great, but this part kicked me right in the feelings:
Often, when I’m stuck, it’s because I’ve made up a game for myself and decided that I’m losing at it. I haven’t achieved enough. I am not working hard enough and I am also, somehow, not having enough fun. These games have elaborate rules, like “I have to be as successful as my most successful friend, but everything I’ve done so far doesn’t count,” and I’m supposed to feel very bad if I break them. It’s like playing the absolute dumbest version of the floor is lava.
Adam Mastroianni
There’s a Northern Exposure episode guide somebody made back in the early days of the web, and it’s still up.
It reminds me of the days when my friends and I would pull up the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant to read lengthy text files breaking down all the references and gags in episodes of The Simpsons.
We knew a web that was full of enthusiastic people sharing the things that excited them.
And that’s still there! I’m not about to say there aren’t plenty of cool people putting out great stuff on the internet.
But there’s also a lot of desperation.
I’m thinking about every local news site I see with ads disguised as articles telling you How to Watch this TV show. Or when you search for tips on how to do a task on your computer and find that the first few how-to sites are longform ads for a specific app.
Yeah, I feel like an old man yelling at a cloud when I type this all out.
When I think about the metrics people and companies shoot for with what they post on the web, there’s a hunger for clicks. This isn’t new.
But when people put out into the world things that they’re passionate about, and that they genuinely feel a connection to and a desire to share? I just think that’s neat.
And I hope that when you see it out there, you notice it.
This Builds Character