Category: Life

STOP BLAMING TECH FOR MISSING OUT

We don’t need a new platform, we need to fucking regain focus on allocate time and attention to the people we say we love and want to follow.

“Oh, I never see my friend’s posts anymore!”

Well fucking bookmark their profile and set a reminder!

Subscribe to their newsletter or RSS or podcast, set a recurring alert to email / call / send a letter.

There’s so much technology available to us to find, re-find, and remind. “Siri, remind me to…” is the probably 85% of the answer to all this.

We don’t need another login, we need to fucking grow up and choose our damn destiny, retake our agency, and dictate our own flow of time and energy.

Another platform run by a bunch of strangers probably ain’t the answer we need.

BE ON SOCIAL MEDIA IF YOU WANT

If you want to be on social media, be on social media. I am not here to convince anyone, or “win” a debate. I don’t want to challenge anybody. I’m not starting a vertical video show called “why the fuck are you on social media?”

But if you’re tired of social media. Worn out. Depleted. Losing hope. Yeah, let’s talk.

Like social media? Cool. Be on social media if you want.

HELLO AND GOODBYE

“A honey bee flew into the house. My dad let it roam the halls, following along, watching as it flitted through sunlit rooms and played among the curtains, before finally slipping out through the front door. He insisted that it was you, visiting, telling us you were okay, that you had moved on. Hello and goodbye.”

From “the saturdays we have left,” by e.

NO STORM IS COMING

When it’d get “too quiet” during the week I used to default to “oh no, what’d I miss? What’d I forget?! WHEN IS THE OTHER SHOE GONNA DROP!?”

Then a wise friend suggested, “maybe it’s so quite because you remembered everything.”

STOP WAITING FOR PERMISSION

As a young punk rock kids we made zines and stared music blogs (instead of complaining that the major music outlets wouldn’t cover our bands), booked our own shows (when “real” venues wouldn’t book us), and released our own music (when labels wouldn’t give us the time of day).

I CAN’T BELIEVE WE GET TO DO THIS

What’s better “marketing” than this? Screaming fans, tender moments, so many smiles – who wouldn’t want to be on that train ride, you know?

And the fun part is this; you don’t need to be as big as Hayley Williams to live this. To be this. Today, make your magic, put it into the world. Big, small, doesn’t matter, it all counts.

MOVING TO KEEP MOVING

Doing my best to get back to walking 10 miles a day. Time on the road, looking at the clouds, it helps me deal with the loss of my cat. For seven years I revolved my life around being home at 4pm to feed that little bugger, and usually it was around 2pm that the screaming and yelling would begin, when Blue would awake and start demanding to be fed.

Tonight it’s chilly. A rainy, cold night. The college kids are notably absent, too, so it’s quieter than normal. We would have settled in nicely this evening. Maybe made some tea, which he’d always sniff and recoil from the smell. Then he’s burrow between my legs and sleep like it was his job.

So seven years of that… of a familiar presence when I was home, going about my day. I didn’t realize at the time how much that little buddy felt like home.

BLUE IN PRINT

From Raj Kaur, “Blue is immortalised in my sketchbook, from a session with wonderful Beth Spencer.”

I submitted a photograph as source material for Beth’s online drawing session, and this is from Raj’s sketchbook. I took the file and sent it to a local printer, and they made me a nice print.

I miss my buddy.