January 2020 – HELLO, I'M SETH WERKHEISER

Deadspin Writers Are Back for the Super Bowl

So Dashlane asked the former writers from Deadspin to write a blog for Super Bowl Weekend.

But wait, a BLOG?!?! IN 2020?

I think we’ve had over 1,000 comments now on the site. It wasn’t supposed to go live until today, but then it got leaked last night. And after that happened, our traffic spiked so much that we had to get upgraded on WordPress to a dedicated server just so that it wouldn’t crash today.
Tom Ley, founder, CEO, and publisher of Big Cool Tom Media LLC

Just remember – all those social media posts are pointing to WEBSITES. Buy tickets, pre-order an album, read an interview, watch a video – they’re all on websites, and websites are still plenty relevant in 2020.

Social media posts come and go, QUICK. But the web sticks around forever.

And it’s just the CONTEXT of the web. When you’re scrolling on your phone it’s usually to kill some time, or unwind, zone out. Not saying these things don’t have happen when you’re sitting in front of your laptop, but serious work happens on the computer; coding, producing, editing, researching.

Just 53 Days Until My First Marathon

In July it will be four years since I started running. Since I started eating better and making the choice to get out the door every other day to go for a run. And now, in a few months, I’ll be attempting to run my first marathon.

Back when I started with the Couch to 5K app, I started off running for a minute. I looked ahead and saw run for five minutes, run for 10 minutes. How was I ever going to do that?

And now later this week, as part of my training plan (courtesy of my virtual coach, pro runner Grayson Murphy), I’ll be running 14 miles. Then next week it’ll be 16. Yikes.

I haven’t stuck with anything like this since learning how to play bass in my teens. Something that I worked on day after day, week after week. It’s something that I was horrible at (here’s one of my first 3+ mile runs back in 2016), trotting along at a 12:16/mile pace, and now I’m pretty comfortable with it (I ran the 2019 River Ramble 10k at a 8:36/mile pace).

All just by being choosing on most days to go for a run, ease off the cookies, and get enough sleep.

And it’s the hurt. The suffering. Like, I remember some of my races in the second half of 2019, really making the choice to just run faster. At first just for a smaller 5K, because I knew I’d only have to be uncomfortable for three miles, but then later for the 10K. To push into the hurt, sustain a pace, watch my breathing, stay focused and looking ahead, and then… actually hold a 8:30-ish pace? Me?

Mind you, no lofty goals for this marathon coming up. This is my first stab at this distance, and I just want to survive. It won’t be easy, or comfortable, but I want to suffer for all those hours. I already know it’ll hurt, but I’m looking forward to it.

The Unending Scroll

Well, if this doesn’t hit between the eyes…

Each night I lay in my bed beside my boyfriend with one eye closed against the pillow, the other eye open, and wheeled down Instagram’s infinite scroll. Each morning I woke up to my phone alarm and rolled over to tap it off and, if I had time, looked at Instagram half-asleep. I easily spent an hour on it a day — in bed, on the subway, or at my desk during lunch. Compared with the hours I spent elsewhere on the internet, it felt like nothing.
DAYNA TORTORICI

Catching myself more often, though, asking myself “why?” What am I gaining? Am I learning? Growing?

It’s far easier to pass the time on Instagram that it is to write (like this), or to create music, or do 20 minutes of stretching.

Mind you I found my run coach via Instagram. I find inspiring quotes from runner friends, which gets me out the door some mornings.

It’s just wild how Instagram has become my routine, my habit, my ritual. And not just for me, for so many others, too.

Time with Creeks

A walk along the creek always does me good, getting close to water. I’m not much of a swimmer, not really a beach person. Just get me next to the water, though, and I’m content.

It reminds me of 2010, when I was getting ready to leave New York City. I had time to bike around to various parks on the water front, up and down Brooklyn. I remember my heart was troubled around that time, but the rivers helped me navigate. The East River heard a bunch of drama and never judged me for it.

Today, a small creek was enough. Just a casual stroll before lunch, in the cold, but it worked. Time in nature isn’t just there for the troubling times, but for the upswings, too.

Just Start Driving

I’ve been following Matthew Luke Meyer for a bit on Instagram (here). From his IG Stories I found out he likes metal, and he’s always pushing the posi vibes, so I guess it was just the universe at work.

He recently did an interview with Tempo Journal, and I love this part:

“[Without running] I felt that I was just riding along with life, not really sure where it was going. But running gave me a way to move into the driver’s seat. Every day I’m waking up with a goal, something I personally WANT to accomplish, not just something that I have to do. That’s translated into the rest of life.”
https://tempojournal.com/article/the-brightest-stage/

Those early to mid 2010s were not kind, mostly to my bank account and career, which of course seeped into my mental and physical space as well. An inbox filled with automated rejection emails from jobs I applied to, or the build up of some interviews making it to the 2nd interview, then the 3rd, then a video call, then…

So lots of rejection ate away at who I was. Maybe I wasn’t actually good at what I thought I was good at. I slept later. I ate more cookies. I packed on the pounds.

But then I started eating better. Bought a rice cooker, and ate more veggies. Then I had more energy, so I started running. That hurt like hell, but… I was I was in charge. I was in the driver’s seat.

That was almost four years ago that I started running. Stopped waiting for approval, and picked myself, and it has found its way into other aspects of my life, too. Even the bank account.

Schedule Yourself First

Some thoughts from a book I’m reading, Free to Focus:

If a doctors appointment or a work call is on your schedule, nothing interferes with that. It’s a commitment, and you’re offline.

So as a remote worker / remote worker / freelancer / knowledge worker (as I’ve been since 2006), I believe you must schedule times throughout your way when you’re unavailable. Offline. When that last minute ask comes in, nope – your afternoon is booked.

Your afternoon is booked for your sanity, your health, and your mental clarity.

See also: “Focus is the art of knowing what to ignore,” from James Clear.

Switched from Revue to Mailchimp

When I started the Metal Bandcamp Gift Club email newsletter, I wanted to try something different, and I picked Revue. It turned out to be simple to use, and easy to manage, but as the list and my process has grown, I sort of outgrew it pretty quick.

Previously I was using a Google Form to collect people’s birthdays and other info for the Birthday Club. This is important stuff, as whenever there’s a birthday, an email gets sent out.

Even more important is people being on the email list! What good are these emails if half the people who sign up aren’t on the email list?

So I moved everything into Mailchimp, and set up the sign up form like the Google Form.

I just couldn’t add all that in Revue, which is okay, since they’re built more for growing a list and then monetizing it, or selling ads – and it’s great for that. I just needed something different.

Exporting my user date from Revue and uploading to Mailchimp was simple enough. I just needed to set up the extra fields in Mailchimp (Birthday, First Name, Last Name, etc.), and everything lined up just fine.

Now when people sign up to be in the Birthday Club, they’re on the email list as well. This removed an extra step from the process for the person signing up, and honestly not everyone who joined the club went and subscribed to the newsletter. Extra steps matter! So now it’s streamlined, which means I get to grow the newsletter at a better clip.

Another reason for moving back to Mailchimp is that the emails will look a little better now, too. Revue only had a few different templates, and didn’t let you add to much to the design, so it’s nice to have some of that control back.

Again, not a knock on Revue – their service is great for what they do! I’ve just been using Mailchimp since forever, so it was nice to “come back home.”

P.S. If you want to sign up for the Metal Bandcamp Gift Club Birthday Club, just click here to subscribe!

Running 11 Miles in the Snow

I knew a storm was coming, but that didn’t get me out of bed in time to beat the snowfall. Just as a left the house, it started snowing, and did not stop.

This ended up being two out and backs, with some spontatnous side streets and loops along the way. It wasn’t pretty, but it kept me close to home, so I didn’t need to drive anywhere.

The challenge with keeping it close to home is that you can quit any time. A warm house and coffee and dry clothes are literally just around the corner. But I knew I had to get these 11 miles done.

At one point I saw a fox run across the road. At mile eight a random dog started running with me, and stayed with me for a bit until his owners drove up with their mini van and he jumped in and bailed on me.

My feet were wet, my hands were on fire (new mitten gloves did their job), I was slightly chilled from my sweaty long sleeve, my glasses were fogged up most of the time, and there was about 2-3 inches of snow on the road – but I knew this run would make the next run that much more tolerable.

If I could beat this weather, these conditions, then the next run – or race – wouldn’t be such a nightmare, since I did it already.

A total of 26 miles for the week. A little over 60 days until my first marathon. There’s a part of me that thinks I’m not ready, I’m biting off more than I can chew, but I need to take the leap. Push some of my limits, get out of my comfort zone, and see what happens.

Write It Down

My to-do list app (Todoist) is worthless if it’s not the first thing I look at when I sit down to work.

This Christmas I got a nice Panobook (thanks, Bill), and it’s helped me finally take the plunge into a productivity concept that I’ve read about countless time but never put into practice; write down the most important things you gotta do tomorrow.

Now, when I finish up my work each night, I write down the 3-4 BIG THINGS I need to start in the morning.

Then, when I sit down at my computer, even before I wake my laptop, the most important things are right there in front of me.