NO WATCH

As I descend deeper into the undoing, I’ve landed on my watch. Earlier this year I bought a nice Coros watch to monitor my elevation gained in real time on my runs. These last two months, though, I’ve been deep into “just walking,” even though I’m covering 10 miles per day (I believe today is day 56 of 10 miles per day).

So for each walk, I hit a button on my watch, which has to calibrate the GPS and my heart rate. At the end of each walk, I have to hit stop on the watch, let it sync with the Coros app on my phone, which then syncs with Strava, which is where all my running and (lately) walking data is stored (since 2016).

Today, though, I left the watch at home. For each walk today (a total of four) I tracked the activity on my iPhone via the Strava app. Hit start, lock my iPhone, and throw it in my bag.

Now instead of two apps to track my walk, and two devices, it’s just one. This also means keeping track of charging one device, rather than two.

This season of undoing has me rethinking everything. It sounds small, but I’m out there nearly 24 hours a week, and every bit of mental clutter adds up. Simplifying what I have to manage for these walks feels like reclaiming a little peace at the end of the day.

THE LONG GAME

Started a music blog in 2001.

Launched a metal blog for AOL Music in 2008 (7 years later).

Starting posting metal trivia on Twitter in 2011.

Sorta co-founded Metal Bandcamp Gift Club in 2016 (and so broke I didn’t have a checking account).

Got back to blogging again in 2018.

Started doing D2C email marketing for a record label in 2020.

Started writing on Substack in 2021 with 19 subscribers.

Changed the name to Social Media Escape Club in 2023.

Stuff takes a minute, friends!

THE MATRIX COSM

I’m a big fan of The Matrix, so a few friends have sent me the clip of the movie being played at Cosm, which is a “massive dome theater that wraps the audience in a 360° projection — basically IMAX meets planetarium meets concert visuals.”

My take? Pass.

I saw The Matrix in theaters, when it first came out, and it blew my mind. It blew all our minds, so I’d rather hold onto that experience than add something flashy like this on top of it (and I can only imagine the cost).

If I was in LA and someone was going, sure, I’d go. But I’m not making any special trips to see something like that.

THE UNDOING

I’m in a season of undoing, as in, I’m hitting Ctrl Z on a lot of my possessions. This is partly because of rumors surrounding the sale of the building I live in, and also the expected 90% rise in my health care premiums in 2026. Fun!

These things are very much out of my control, so I’m ridding myself of excess, unused, and un-needed, and making way for what’s next, though just a bit more nimble.

This is happening both digitally, by removing my files from overpriced cloud storage, and physically, as in donating multiple bicycles and such.

ELECTRONIC TICKETS SUCK

Electronic tickets are awful, and this just proves it even more.

One out-of-state fan shared her frustration: “We pulled up the tickets on Saturday through the Detroit Lions app, Ticketmaster, and even the wallet, but no barcode showed up. They told us to go to the box office after security, but there’s a long line.”

JUST GONNA KEEP WALKING

I’ve been intentionally walking 10 miles per day for about 42 days now. By “intentional” I mean not just walking around the grocery store, or picking a parking space very far from the store entrance, but by clicking start on my watch and walking 3-5 miles at a time, a few times per day.

When I worked my first job in the city, and walking a mile from the apartment to the 7 train (and back) every day, I didn’t track that. Heck, the iPhone didn’t even exist yet!

But these days I am getting up early or getting up away from my computer and going for a long walk as often as I can.

I try to get in three miles before 8am. Five miles by noon. That makes it easier to get in a smaller walk in the early afternoon, and wrap up the days walking by evening. Somedays I have to get in 4.5 miles after 5pm, which I don’t much care for. Other times, though, I get out for two extra miles after 6pm, hitting 11 or 12 miles for the day.

Today is the 19th, and I’ve walked 209.8 miles, an average of 11.05 miles per day.

CHANGE IS CORE

This theme came up in a recent Zoom meeting I was in:

“I took a sabbatical from my work as a photographer last year but I have a feeling my time as a commercial photographer might be coming to an end. I’ll always love photography and I’ll always be a photographer, but I feel my life force pushing me in different directions. When I tell my friends I might stop being a commercial photographer, they ask, but what will you do! And I realise how interesting that question is, and how we can limit ourselves and others when we think change is hard and things always have to be a certain way. In fact change is core to a vibrant, meaningful life, and we should expect change at any moment, without notice.”

From “reprogramming” by Rebecca Toh.

DEAD TELEVISION

I was gifted a 60″ television, something I would have never bought for myself.

It was older, which is part of the reason it was a gift, but it didn’t age well. It died this past week.

You don’t just “toss” a 60″ television though. It’s not really something you can leave on the curb, and there’s also e-waste recycling things to deal with.

Today, though, the TV is gone, and my life feels a little bit lighter. When off, it’s just this black monolith taking up space, mentally and physically.

I used the 1-800-GOT-JUNK folks, and they were great. Sure, a wee bit overprices for the TV and the other few items they took away, but it’s all gone, and the guys were super nice. Literally like, had a good laugh with them.

In a round about way, thinking less about televisions and “entertainment” and more about people. Bummer that it took the death of this giant TV to arrive at that place, but it was a good lesson learned.

Say no to gifts over 60″ in size.