March 2023 – HELLO, I'M SETH WERKHEISER

CAMILLE HERRON IS EPIC

Camille Herron (41) ran 270.5 miles in 48 hours.

“Herron, 41 of Oklahoma City, ran for 148 miles the first day and 122.5 miles in the second day, averaging a pace of 10 minutes, 39 seconds per mile, according to her Instagram account.”
The Oklahoman

The most I ever ran in one day was 18 miles, while I was training for the Queens Marathon. That was about a week or two before COVID shut everything down, just three years ago.

I’ll say this – running 18 miles was magical.

It doesn’t hurt less, you just enjoy it more.

Sort of this theme of “seek discomfort.”

I’m not saying starve yourself and run for 48 hours.

For me, it’s running in the rain. Or running hills. Running in the cold and the dark.

That’s the discomfort that I love. And damn, running for 48 hours? That’s amazing. Not sure I’m ready for that, but I know I can run for two hours.

THERE’S ALWAYS MORE WORK

My Sunday morning was going to include catching up on some work.

Then I read this:

“If you must work hard and be efficient, consciously pick that work. Constantly ask yourself why are you working so hard on this damn thing. If the answer is: “so I can get ahead“, remind yourself that it’s a treadmill and you’ll always stay at the same place, no matter how fast you run.”
The Anti-Productivity Manifesto

There’s no getting ahead, because there’s always more. (via Hacker News)

WINTER SEEKERS

Found this clip awhile on Instagram (of course), but finally dug it up and found it on the real internet, for everyone with a web browser to see!

Yeah, I know it’s just shilling for Nike running shoes (which I own two pairs of these days), but I think it’s fun, and lively, and adventerous, which is why I love running so much in the first place.

Fuck the big corporate races, or the booze drenched events that seem to be all my region cares about (please, do we need more brewery runs??!) – give me running adventures down alleys and around cities.

JAMES CAWTHORNE

Found this art via this post on the Dungeonlust Instagram feed, but it turns out it’s just half of the original artwork (which you see at the top of this post).

More here.

DJ SETS RULE

I’ve gotten super into watching DJ sets over the past few years. Yes, I still love my metal, but man… there is just so much music out there to explore. How many 1000s of songs have I still not heard? How exciting!

Love this nugget I found about these DJ sets:

“All of the gear you see in this and the upcoming episodes, from turntables to pre-amps & speakers – new and used, are available in @audiogold store.”

Just look at this amazing shop:

You can hear more from GUiNNY here on Mixcloud:

FLIP SAMPLES, MAKE FRIENDS

This looks absolutely amazing:

Producers show up to the venue, a folder of samples culled from old jazz and soul records to use as source material is passed around and each producer gets to work transforming the sample into a brand new piece of music. From there, each producer will play their new track, receiving encouragement and feedback from their peers onsite and around the world as the sessions are broadcast via zoom each month.

Yes, online communities have their place – the Discords and email lists, but in-person is where it’s at, even if I’m still hesitant to get out there (I’ve been to three shows since 2019).

The magic is isn’t just in people, but finding the right other people.

Read more of this article about Philadelphia’s Flip A Beat Club here.

CHATGPT IS YOUR ONE PERSON WRITING ROOM

Throw it a prompt, get a result, and tweak it. Edit it. Ask it to reword a sentence, or a concept. Have it summarize the last two lines, reword the intro.

Since you’re leading the writer room, you now hack it together with tape and glue.

You’re not just copy and pasting the results into an email to your client, or a pitch to your boss – you’re using your years of experience and wisdom to pull out the best parts, get your mind moving, and hopefully get to a few “light bulb” moments during the whole process.

I’ve been writing online since 2001, and chatGPT is a great automated computerized writing partner, and I’ve used it for my newsletters, small bits of client work, and some emails here and there.

For me, my biggest obstacle in starting any written project is the EMPTY PAGE.

So even if you just use chatGPT to start a written project, it can be huge.

– Write five social media captions about my new music video
– Write how this new video “hit me in the face like a ton of bricks”
– List some keywords I can use on YouTube for my project
– What big technology thing happened in 2007 (see attached image)?

Now, for anything factual (like big technological things in 2007), make sure you fact check! It’s not perfect, BUT, it’s a starting point.

Just like when things get thrown out in a writer room, you’re not going to put everything on paper and publish it the next day.

So yeah… try it out, at least to just get past the “staring at a blank page” problem. Edit. Rework things. Have fun!

NO MAGIC IN ALGORITHMS

The local university has a radio station, and I finally looked it up and of course found HEAVIER in their Mixcloud archive.

Letting a radio show just play can be hard, as DSPs and social media has made me so impatient. But I let it play, and to my pure delight Kublai Khan TX came on, which is one of my client’s bands, and a band I saw a bit ago on tour.

Over the past few years I’ve danced with the magic of the radio, mixes, and DJ sets, watching chemists mix together tracks like potions. I’ve watched hours of ambient drone made in real time using equipment I’ve never heard of.

All this stuff is harder to find, harder to “consume” while on a bus or whatever. But I grew up in a home with a music room.

There was a stereo, shelves of records, and that’s where you listened to music. I have memories of mom dancing to the Rolling Stones, Abba, Kris Kristofferson, and Dire Straits.

Some nights I just never want to go to bed. Hopping from one YouTube video to the next, looking up something on Wikipedia, then digging for a track on Bandcamp. On Spotify. Whatever.

A whole world of music is out there, still waiting to be discovered, and it’s so fun to just dig through so much of when you discover it from other people.

WE’RE TOO AVAILABLE

This from Codie Sanchez:

Each day the average person gets:
• 41 texts
• 100 emails
• 5 calls

If responding to each takes an average of 3 minutes…

That’s 7 hours a day.

Yeah yeah yeah, give or take the three minutes number, but still – each one of those things is a distraction from what you’re doing.

So while it might not take 3 minutes to answer one text, I bet having that phone in your hand leads to checking out Instagram, or scrolling through Google News for 10 minutes.

We’re all too available, too often, and much time is given to being distracted instead of doing work.

Partly why I’m so glad I’m a freelancer and have nearly zero meetings every week.