Selfie Week 21: 100 posts!

Okay, so technically this is post 102, but there was an announcement here and there, so I’m building in a little wiggle room.

April 18th, 2017 was post number 1. “Everything starts somewhere”. And it did, though posts began haltingly at first. For the next six months I posted just 15 times – a combination of some pub reviews I’d written previously, a trip report for my Lassen/Yosemite trip last year, and a few odds and ends.

Then came October.

I just want to say, I absolutely loved doing “31 Ghosts” last year. If you don’t remember what I’m talking about, I committed to writing a ghost story for each day of the greatest month of the year, October. And I did it! That I did, right there, that’s one strong reason for loving the project so much. But I’ve gone back and read some of the stories and, you know what? They’re a lot of fun! I’m generally my worst critic, but I’m proud of a lot of the things I wrote. Some of my favorites? If I had to pick a favorite it’s probably a tie between “Day 5: Ghost In The Machine. LOL.” and “Day 12: Hell Hath No Fury…” Fern would be mad if I didn’t mention her absolute favorite, “Day 3: The Ghost You Know”. I am planning on doing something to celebrate the most wonderful month of the year for 2018, I just haven’t decided whether we’re going to have 31 more ghosts, or… something else. We’ll see…

After October… posts dropped off again for a while. I’ll chalk it up to “creative burnout” after October. But other than Thanksgiving posts and a post here and there, it was quiet until the January “2018 Resolutions” post where I set a posting schedule – a schedule I’ve largely kept to, which has brought us to this point – 100 posts!

If you’re wondering why I’m breaking my arm patting myself on the back here for racking up an ultimately arbitrary number of posts on a site so far in the backwoods of the internet that even Google Spiders don’t spin webs, well, you bring up a good point. By virtue of reading this, you’re part of a particularly exclusive club that reads these posts (believe me, I’ve got the Google Analytics to prove it!). Last week, I published the Selfie entitled, “Up In The Night,” because, well, I’d fallen off my posting schedule, I hadn’t written a story for a few weeks, things just felt pretty rotten and disjointed. Oh, and I published that late – last Thursday!

But here’s something that I didn’t write in that piece: I woke up the next morning, Friday, and I felt… lighter. I had a spark again. That wasn’t much of a post, but it was a post. And, you know when your phone dies and you have to bum someone’s charger just for five minutes of juice? And they’re taking their charger back right after your screen came back on showing you’ve got 5% battery life? And instead of saying, “I’ve only got 5% battery life!!” you say, “Thank god, I’ve got 5% battery life”? Maybe that’s a little too specific. Okay, this isn’t a “glass is half full” vs “glass is half empty” scenario. No, there’s barely two tablespoons of water in that glass. But when you’re thirsty? That’s an awfully valuable gulp of water. That is something to work with. That was me Friday morning. I went back and I read some of the things I’ve written here – some of the 100 posts. Then I went back to my alpha-draft of my banshee novel, and it made me smile. And then I read my notes about January June, and I need to get back in touch with her world.

Friday was just another Friday. But I felt great again. It was Friday, too, that I noticed that that “Up In The Night” post… was actually the 100th post. Fitting. Fitting.

Let’s see what it looks like to hit 200 posts. 300? 500? I promise you I’ll do my best to not bore you (and if I do, please drop me a line and tell me so!). A little over a year ago, I wrote that first blog post on Think Dude Think as “a tentative step forward, a statement that this is officially further along than it was before, if ever so slightly.”

And so, here we go again! As I wrote then, “May there be more steps forward. May these posts move me forward. I hope you (and I!) enjoy the journey!”

Couldn’t have said it better myself.

Five Things This Week: week 20

Yes, this was supposed to be up on Friday. It’s late. It’s up now, though. For that, I’ll do a little Steph Curry shimmy (which I totally couldn’t have shared Friday). Let’s get into it, shall we?

The Atlantic
At the frenetic pace of the zeitgeist, much of the buzz about this piece by Ta-Nehisi Coates has largely boiled off. But it’s a thoughtful reflection on the pressures and expectations put on black artists by their own culture and the internal conflict between embracing that or striving for a white acceptance at the expense of community. An important article to read regardless of  the color of your skin.
Atlas Obscura
Unhappy with your job? Seeking something with a little less sunshine and atmosphere? Then maybe becoming a Saturation Diver and living in a tube for six weeks at a time when you’re not performing maintenance at the bottom of the ocean!
Superorganism
Credit where credit is due: Fern saw their NPR Tiny Desk Concert and immediately thought, “This is SO a band Jordy would like.” She’s totally right. They’re weird, they’re quirky, and they have a song about prawns. Need I say more? This is their debut self-titled album and it’s a lot of fun, using straws, noisemakers, and other unconventional instruments to construct a unique sound. Above link is Amazon, here’s a link to Spotify, iTunes, and some more YouTube links
Medium
Fern sent me this article, but it the subhead pulled me in: “His death broke his parents’ hearts and spawned a university. But who was he? Recent revelations suggest a different lad than many have imagined.” A different lad than many have imagined? What had people imagined? I kept waiting for “…then he turned to Satanism…” or “…he picked up the carving knife with ill-intent burning in his young eyes…” Fern suggested maybe people imagined Leland Stanford Jr. as a spoiled dilettante, and I suspect that’s likely what the sub head was referring to… or maybe Satan. 
YouTube
Finally, this. It’s Celine Dion, absolutely, unapologetically. And the song is on the Deadpool II soundtrack. Another thing I couldn’t say if this went up on Friday, is Fern and I got a chance to see Deadpool 2 over the weekend and — if you liked the first one — it was just as wonderful. I added that caveat about “if you liked the first one” because it’s just come to my attention that some people didn’t and have very strong negative (NSFW) opinions about it. To which I would offer a quote from the imminently quotable “Stripes” (you know you want to go watch it again!): “Lighten up, Frances.” Oh, and watch the “Ashes” video until the end. You’re welcome

Selfie Week 20 – Up In The Night

Selfie posts show up on Mondays, right? That’s the plan. Well, for the last week or two plans have been… Let’s just say I’m playing it by ear these days.

So what happened? You probably could see the fissures in last week’s Paisley Pig Selfie. I alluded to the meeting I had upcoming that week with a financial planner. I went into that meeting just as terrified as I expected to. She was nice, extremely knowledgeable and… not what I need right now. She pointed out that which I suspected – there’s no magic trick to get out of the situation I’m in. But that’s life, right?

She did give me a few specific strategies to consider. In addition, she wanted me to list what I like to do in a column, and then next to it what I’m good at and use that table to consider ways to better utilize my, as Liam Neeson would say, my special set of skills… whatever those might be (spoiler: it’s not rescuing people in third world countries while racking up a huge body count – though I can write that!).

I haven’t done it yet. Maybe I’m afraid of seeing where I should be and too terrified to go there?

The rest of the week sort of blurred out. Come the weekend, I wasn’t bartending, but I said yes to a lot of things without putting myself first. I’d love to tell you it’s because I’m an inherently selfless person, but deep down I think it’s because it’s easier to help someone else then deal with my own stuff.

Like, you know, updating my blog?

Yeah, that…

I put up a brief posting last week on Story day that I’ve been sort of spinning my creative wheels, and that’s still true. A funny thing, though: lately some of my characters from the two novels I’ve been working on (the first-draft Banshees story, and the I-need-to-get-back-to January June story) have been visiting me, asking when we can hang out. Not literally – please don’t think me that far gone – but, you know, their stories intrigue me and I do want to play in their worlds. If nothing else, maybe I’ll tell some stories there just until I can get creative traction.

But after that “Nothing to see here” post last week… nothing. I missed a Five Things This Week which is just… dumb. Those are fun! And I missed the mark on this selfie post…

Until now.

Potius sero quam nunquam – better late than never.

Feeling lost again today, I decided to take The Long Way Home. Of course I stopped at the ocean. Portuguese Beach. Normally I’m content to sit at the scarred picnic table at the edge of the bluff and watch the waves batter the shore, but today I decided to change into shorts (sorry any onlookers!) and head down to the waves. I took the above picture after making first contact with the waves. I’ve lived in Northern California for nearly my entire life, but when waves of a Northern Beach first hit my legs I’m always shocked how bracingly cold it is. Shocking. Refreshing. Nourishing. Okay, yeah, Nourishing, but you’ve got to get past that goddamn cold first.

I did. And it was – both cold and nourishing. I don’t go out there near enough, particularly seeing that it’s just 15 minutes away. But that’s going to change. After all, I could use all the bracing nourishment I can get these days. Also, it’s free – something that financial planner would no doubt approve of.

Potius sero quam nunquam.