👋🏽 Reminder Fun Time 👋🏽
I, and subsequently this newsletter, will be on break between Aug 1–Aug 31.
The next issue will be Friday, September 5, at 12pm EST.
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All that Shall Come to Pass
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Welcome to the last issue before my four-week break. Over the next month, I'll be working on so many juicy choice cuts things, but first:
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👋🏽 NEXT ZETTELKASTEN COURSE COMING SOON 👋🏽
The next cohort for "Build a Zettelkasten for Creative Expression" will be launching in September. I'm still working out the date details, but if you'd like to stay in the loop, please click on the link below. This is how you'll get updates:
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Aside from that, here's some of what I'll be up to during my August break:
Recording "How I Write" videos
I've just finished my first "live" "here's how I do it" vids, and will be posting and checking out the response over the next week. These vids will highlight how I go from notes to essays, with an emphasis on breaking rules; being free to change one's mind about the direct of the piece when writing; and letting wild, unconventional relationships between ideas inspire the writing process. I posted a quick Twitter thread on one aspect of my process [[HERE]] if you'd like to peep.
Essays
I've got a slew of new essays in the line-up, and a few that are catching my attention. One, "Good Teachings from Unappealing Teachers," deals with a subject that has long been dear to me: the fact that our most significant teachers rarely manifest in the visage we expect them to. In fact, none of my spiritual teachers look like I thought they would, nor are part of spiritual traditions I wanted them to be.
On a more mundane level, these days I'm finding myself learning a lot from capitalist-posi, "social media is what you make of it," marketing, productivity people, who by every metric should be my mortal enemy. Nevertheless, my first spiritual teaching back in the day was, "Sit at the feet of the teacher who has the teaching." So, here I am. The question I'm hoping to answer in the essay is: How do we remain open to teachers we feel shady about?
Writing as the Soft Appreciative Gaze
I'm trying to find a way to achieve the "soft appreciative gaze" I had while writing as the clandestine The Babarazzi, and bring it into my "real" personhood. For those who remember the Babs, you may not think of it as "soft" anything. It was rather poignant. But, what you may not know is that it was the first time I was able to write sharp, direct assaults on capitalist culture, but maintain a balance of love and carefree humor in my mind-self. I never took anything personally. In part, because I was performing a character. My practice now is to remember that the self IS a character, and that it too can be enough of a veil to allow me to rest in love and carefree humor. I can do it. But, I'm also very aware of when I ain't doing it.
Building as a Practice
I'll also be working on trying to approach the material that comes up in this newsletter as things to build on/off, rather than tear down.
📦
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👋🏽 LATEST UPLOADS AND PUBS 👋🏽
"A PSA FOR SOCIAL MEDIA"
A short about the psychosis that is always wanting to put yourself and your corporation between two or more people. I believe that someday in the far future we may come to see this behavior for what it really is: psychotic. (This was from a few months back).
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Honesty in Journaling
Few things: 1. There is the perceived observer "out there." The one we think may *someday* read our journal and then all will be exposed. We will be exposed. 2. And, then there's the internal observer. The Judge. The voice in our head watching what we're doing and criticizing it. 3. But, then there's the witness, the neutral observer. The aspect of our being that is aware even when we are not. When we are asleep and dreaming, it's the awareness of having a dream.
From "Self-Dialogue as a Journaling Strategy"
"I must be completely honest and make no attempt to hide from thoughts or feelings that arise. This can only be done (for me, personally) when I'm sure that no one's eyes will ever see it. Only then do I allow myself to be completely open."
I like that the author acknowledges that there may be a spirt to be in contact with. The Lucumi religion I was a part of would have very much recognized that these voices were in fact spirits (some of them at least). Part of the work I was doing with my padrino was teasing out who was most dominant, who was the ring leader in my band of spirits. Apparently, there were too many vying for my attention.
"Sometimes, I really get into it and words just pour out of me. I end up revealing things I don't expect and coming to conclusions that actually satisfy me. It almost feels like automatic writing, but instead of channeling a spirit you're channeling your thoughts."
https://sadgrl.online/blog/entries/selfinterview.html
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Break Tetris / Build the Future
When I think of how different the future will be, how our perception will change to the point where today's undisputed truths will seem silly, I think of kids breaking Tetris.
"In March 2018, only five months after picking up the game, Saelee maxed out for the first time. As The New Yorker reported, he set records for most lines cleared in one game and fastest time to 300,000 points. Then he started to achieve what other experienced players had deemed impossible. He survived past the game’s kill screen, becoming the first player to make it to level 31 and 32 — then 33 through 35. No other player had even made it past level 30, not even seven-time champion Neubauer."
https://www.polygon.com/23269073/competitive-classic-tetris-ctwc-jonas-neubauer-andy-michael-artiaga
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WHAT I'M LOVING
River swims.
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WHAT I'M TRACKING
My Italian-American family has always taken both a humorous and "life sucks" approach to aging. This take also encompasses their approach toward Alzheimer's, which a number of people in my family have had and ultimately died from (they were not blood relatives, don't worry). We laughed, we cried, we were shocked, we were "what is life?"
"Now, a research team at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum has developed a new sensor that is able to identify signs of Alzheimer's disease in the blood up to 17 years before the first clinical symptoms appear, according to a press release https://news.rub.de/english/press-releases/2022-07-21-biology-early-alzheimers-detection-17-years-advance by the institution. The device detects the misfolding of the protein biomarker amyloid-betta that causes characteristic deposits in the brain."
https://interestingengineering.com/sensor-detection-alzheimers-17-years-advance
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WHAT I'M PRACTICING
Using Twitter as anything other than what it's typically used for and how others are trying to counter that. Admittedly, I am failing left and right.
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WHAT I'M READING
"Learn in Public: The Fastest Way to Learn"
What I love about the above piece (and others that suggest the same "open garage" approach to learning/ being/ creating) is that it vibes hard with my whole "put it out there" / "get it off your desktop" mentality. De-precious your work. Join in the circus.
There is, however, a major problem with learning in public *online*. That is: "learning as a form of branding, which leads to 'learning' what is brandable."
Writers on LIP ignore the fact that the mediums on which we showcase our LIP are not neutral. Social media platforms are heavily unbalanced mediums, where affirmation currency is the name of the game. Because the mediums are basically branding mechanisms, it becomes really hard to post in a neutral fashion. It can be done. But, if you run on default/autopilot, you're quickly veering into Like/Followers acquisition mode.
Nevertheless, I'm still pretty excited about LIP. there's defs a communal aspect that vibes with me.
https://www.swyx.io/learn-in-public/
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WHAT I'M HEARING
Thee Headcoats' "All My Feelings Denied." Billy Childish is brutally vulnerable in his songs.
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WHAT I'M WATCHING
MLB dugout clears and players getting tossed. I grew up playing baseball. It's a game that has *a lot* of behavioral codes. For the newbie: note how the umps always signal a toss in the same, dramatic fashion.
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The biggest complaint people have about baseball is that it's boring and too slow. I'd suggest that it's like soccer. Lots of tension released in spurts. This should be a familiar experience by now, as social media is based entirely on this spurting effect.
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And, that's that! See ya next week.
Please share this newsletter far and wide. Without social media, you are my reach out into the world. Help me extend my reach.
What people are saying:
"It's one of my favorite things to see in my Inbox." —JS
"I love everything you speak on!" —MA
"I'm fine with it." —MG
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