PATRONS!

Hey, how are you? Happy Friday! I'm getting really antsy about not having left my city since the end of January. Mostly, I want to get back into the water. See stuff like this.

I've been working too much again and last night at 8:09pm my body hit the mat. I was catatonic, staring at the wall until about 11pm, then I made it to bed. My brain didn't manage to turn off until the valerian root kicked in and I stopped writing in my mind.

What about you? Still experiencing the waves of existential stress that I am?

Maybe I'm outputting (or off-putting)

Why ladybugs? Because that was my introductory anecdote on the live stream below. Photo by Jill Heyer on Unsplash

This morning I was dreaming that I needed to break into Harvard and steal back a blarney stone. Not the Blarney Stone, a blarney stone. Legend has it that kissing the real Blarney Stone at a castle near Cork, the second largest city in Ireland, will make you eloquent. Let's see if that dream pays off, shall we?

Yesterday evening, I did live streamed and chatted with some folks from an organization called Kiron Education. They provide open education to refugees, and I lie there mission, so I said sure to an informal chat. I didn't prepare anything, didn't even really know what we were talking about. Throughout the chat, one of the hosts seemed unconvinced, skeptical, aversion to what I was putting down.

After the streaming, the Averse Host said that I "can't just" talk about open the way I do:

Like this?

or this?

or this!?

and that I "have to"...actually, I don't know what he said I have to do or be or whatever. When he said "You can't just..." my brain kinda shut down. He said something about open sounding "soft", though I clearly articulated that there are processes and methods and structures. In any case I can, actually, and I don't have to do anything. Seriously, why are dudes still talking to me like this!?

Is it because of executive functioning? New research shows that more conservative people tend to be better at response inhibition, while liberals are better at response updating. Cognitive science for the save? Maybe, but I'm still going to give you this protip:

Don't tell grown ass people you don't fucking know what to fucking do, especially when you are talking about their expertise.

Maybe I'm inputting

The Library at Wortley Hall cc-by Laura Hilliger

For a long time I thought I wanted a GoodReads alternative because I'm not a fan of Amazon and I like to read. This week I was introduced to LibraryThing, but I don't know what to do with it. Who wants to know what books I'm reading and why? At any given moment I'm reading more than a couple books. Some I don't finish for months, others I read in a day. My current reading list (books I've picked up and read words in this week):

Untenrum Frei, Margarete Stokowsi
How will you measure your life?, Clayton M. Christensen
Feminism for the 99 Percent, Cinzia Arruzza
How to Do Nothing, Jenny Odell
The Body: A Guide for Occupants, Bill Bryson
Rules for Radicals, Saul Alinsky

And I finished, for the second time, Erich Fromm's the Art of Loving. Now you know. Of course, I'm not giving you reviews because my book reviews are generally:

"Well I hated this and that about it, but I loved this and that. I find it interesting that the author chose to this and that they didn't say anything about that..."

as opposed to:

"This book is a well rounded grouping of insights into the business management methods one might use to set attainable goals and principles in their daily work..."

I don't need to keep up with another platform, I think. My books are on my shelves and in my Kobo H2O. Oh, and if you haven't read this article "The real Lord of the Flies: what happened when six boys were shipwrecked for 15 months", do. It's nice. If you haven't read Lord of the Flies as an adult, do, it's f'd that I read this before my frontal lobe was fully developed.

So I'm done now because I believe in a 4 day work week and I haven't had a 4 day work week in months. I've been working too much and my body and brain are not enthused about it. But before I can shut the computer, I need to make some open source contributions.

Maybe I need help?

I've added the Offset Earth logo below. Click if you want to help plant trees and offset carbon emissions. Or, if you would like to support all the work I do for free (e.g. this newsletter, my books, my writing generally), have a think about supporting me on Patreon or just buying me a coffee with Kofi :)

As always, hit reply if you have ideas, feel lonely or just want to see how I'll respond to your personal brand of outreach.

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