Writer, musician, wizardly guide to platform independence
It’s 2019, and I hate cords. No matter what, they’re always getting tangled, snagged, or in the way. Sure, they always work, and never need recharging, but wow, the reviews of the AirPods Pro are great.
I forget where I read this, but someone was saying how this is ushering in an audio augmented-reality. Instead of wearing weird glasses that display images and such, the voice-controlled nature of Siri, especially when you’re out and about, is really something to think about.
A few friends inspired me to start running. Years later, I hired a nutritionist. Soon that person will probably be my strength coach.
I’ve been a freelancer since 2006. Years later, it’s just me. But that’s changing, too. Since signing up for Seth Godin’s Freelancer Course, a flood of changes have come in, washing away a lot of my old thinking.
Sometimes no matter how many books we read, or inspiring articles, or watching amazing videos, sometimes it’s the conversations with other people that we don’t even know that rattle out the breakthroughs.
Met up with an old friend for lunch recently. We met via our faith, more or less, something we’ve since walked away from. We’ve been through some low points and – at least for now – we’re seeing some good stuff.
The bad times don’t last forever, and dammit, we just enjoy the good stuff when it’s front of us.
“And hey, is everything perfect right now? Nope.”
So much isn’t perfect, but we can work with it. And that’s what we’ll keep doing.
Social media gave us LIKES, a quick number to show that people saw, they clicked, the engaged. But remember, the LIKE or FAVE is simple. It’s not a of effort.
So now we set up our blogs again, after years of neglecting them. Of course the traffic isn’t there. Why write a 200 word blog post when a Tweet can get 10,000 likes?
Why? Because that Tweet will be “gone” tomorrow. Another Tweet will come along, and we’ll keep feeding the Twitter beast, pouring our work and our attention into a social media website filled with nazis and trolls and Russian operatives.
Just write, share, blog, whatever. It’s yours. Get a few people and write about music. Congrats, you’re now a music blog (and we can honestly use some more of those these days)!
Enjoyed this episode the Love Drive, “How to Change Your Life with Dr. Jeremy Goldberg.”
The one thing that stuck out for me was choosing your outlook. If you think the universe is conspired against you, that nothing is going to work out, generally that’s sorta gonna happen. I had that mindset for a few years, with clenched fists and carrying lots of stress in my shoulders and face.
Then I started running, because being mad wasn’t getting me anywhere. Running led to autonomy, dignity, self-respect, achievement. Things that a grumpy attitude weren’t able to provide.
So like Dr. Jeremy Goldberg spoke in this episode, if you can choose the negative, you can also choose the positive. If the negative can lead to the grumps and “nothing ever works out,” then the opposite must be true, right?
It’s what I believe, and it’s led me to some pretty damn good times.
I had fun putting MetalBandcampgiftclub back together again. I had been tasked by one of the helpers of the thing to take over the Twitter posing over the summer, and I totally dropped the ball.
What the heck is MetalBandcampgiftclub? Well, back in 2016 some friends of mine were having a rough time, and instead of wallowing, they decided to gift some wishlist items to friends on Bandcamp. Positive motion, you know? We were all interviewed for it in Bandcamp back then about the whole thing.
And I happen to know on good authority that the whole thing generated tens of thousands of dollar in revenue.
I’m relaunching it via an email list (you can sign up here) because not everyone is on Twitter these days. And, I really didn’t want to grow this again by expanding into Facebook and Instagram. My thinking; if you have a Bandcamp wishlist, you have an email address.
Now whenever there is a birthday (or a few birthdays), I will send out an email with links to those wishlists, and a recommendation or two.
The site was built using WordPress.com. New logo images from Vecteezy. For the emails I’m trying out Revue instead of Mailchimp since I wanted to play with something new (try it for yourself using my referral link).
Today it was rainy and gross, but I set out for an hour drive to run the 7th Annual “Pound the Pavement Purple” 5K race. This is my third time running it, and it was my fastest time yet (26:41, around a 8:25/mi pace).
Like I said, it was rainy, and windy, and running at this “new” pace is really something. Putting the pain somewhere is the challenge. Like, I’m an adult and can make choices, right? Ouch, this hurts, I should just walk. But… nope. Kept pushing the pace, and passed another runner half mile to finish ninth (out of 70).
Mind you, it’s not all about results, and winning, and placing, until…. it is. This is new territory for me, actually being able to compete. To focus. To actually get nervous before a race. Not so much to perform, or anxiety about what’s gonna happen, but an excited sort of nervous, the kind where you’re excited to find out what’s gonna happen.
There’s an app on my phone that tells me how much time I waste on social media, which is why I know I can definitely take 20 minutes and go for a walk.
For me, that’s positive. It’s movement, fresh air, and gets the blood flowing. Twenty minutes worth of inspirational Tweets ain’t gonna do that.
Tiny choices, seemingly small decisions, made and re-made over months and years and decades gets you to where you are.
I think I found this via someone’s Instagram Story, but just like all of social media, it’s hard to remember sometimes, right?
When feeling anxious, I tend to remember to pull everything back to the present moment. It’s easier in the car, since paying attention is imperitive, but really to shake off the feelings of terror and dread, and replace them with “right now nothing is happening.”
I’m not being attacked, or mauled, or threatened. In this very moment I am alive, breathing, and handsome. Hey, it’s my self-talk, dammit!
But it’s so true, as Cleo Wade points out, above; the anxiety is not you. It’s a feeling, and we aren’t our feelings. I credit the Headspace app with a lot of help with that in my life.
Wade’s new book “Where to Begin” looks pretty great, BTW.
My friend Dino sent me this video, “YETI Presents: John Shocklee | A Fairy Tale.”
Stuff like this used to weird me out. Like, sure, just live in a 215 sq. ft shack and be a ski guide! WHATEVER!
But bike adventures in my 30s, and now running in my 40s, like… it’s not so much about “quit everything, cancel your cell phone, and do what you love,” but… bits and pieces.
You gotta run three miles before you can run 10.
Gotta write one song before you write an album.
Have to camp for two nights before you can disappear into the woods for a month.
Nothing is zero to sixty. We’re all on course for something, somewhere, and sometimes we don’t realize it until 10 years later we’re left scratching our head and wondering, “how’d I get here?
