30279

I think my neighbor upstairs bought a 3D printer At first I thought it was a video game, but now I’m almost 99% sure it’s a 3D printer. He runs it around the clock and it’s driving me bananas. I probably won’t complain though. ...

Am I the only one who has noticed the Etsyfication of everyone's hobbies? Not one to be a hypocrite, I'll admit I've done a fair amount of this myself: why? One: because most unskilled or soft-skilled jobs today don't pay enough to live on, and two: you don't have to be on any social media platform for more than five seconds to see everyone in your feed promoting their service/product/creation. There's no shame at all in being excited about something you're doing or making, on the contrary! Let'...

So I passed this little free library as I took a walk today. I actually pass two of them when I take my usual route through Los Feliz, and this one said "BOOKS ONLY" plainly on the outside of it. I had to pause for a minute and ask myself: What did someone do to make them feel that they had to put that on the outside of a little library? Like what happened that caused them to need to do that? What did they put inside that library that wasn't a book? Of course, my mind instantly went to shit. L...

So, how's it going? (asked no one, ever...)What I did:-removed all social media apps (except BeReal) from my phone-removed email apps (except Gmail, which I couldn't delete because I switched back to an android)-only posted on social media on the weekends-only viewed social media for 5 mins in the morning and 5 mins at night (no posting)-downloaded the Opal app for my other devices (iPad, laptop)-started using a lightphone 2 part-time, and a Kindle for reading-used a gift card to buy a paper pla...

...and here's why (or: The Case for Not Clicking "Like") Cal Newport, the author of Deep Work and many other books, lays out his idea of a life in a utopian digital age in Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World : "Our current relationship with the technologies of our hyper-connected world is unsustainable and is leading us closer to the quiet desperation that Thoreau observed so many years ago...we require a philosophy that puts our aspirations and values once again in ch...

I swear I will never ask a friend who is a doctor or a friend who is a lawyer for free advice again. I know what it must feel like, because as a former English teacher and current copy editor, I get asked to read people's shit ALL. THE. TIME. Sometimes, they don't even ask me if I'll do it: I just get documents or a google drive link sent to me in a messaging app (IG or Facebook, usually) like I have nothing better to do than read your paper/essay/manuscript/ screenplay/resume/application/thesis...

I'm addicted to the internet. Not as bad as some other people seem to be (not that I'm trying to feel superior), but it's at a point where I feel like I'm headed in that direction. Mostly social media, but just internet distractions in general. It's affecting my sleep (yes, I take my smartphone to bed), my ability to concentrate at work (my job requires tremendous mental focus and attention), my posture (hello, tech neck), and my creativity (not cool when I sit down to write or make art and I s...

100Days Day 16: my job I think 22-year-old me would have been thrilled with this job I have now. I wonder what I would have said if someone told me then it would only take 36 years to get it. When I graduated from college with a BA in English (and a dual concentration in creative writing and publishing), I had no idea how to go about getting a job in my field. My dad, a graphic artist, had some experience in advertising; my mom was insistent on trying to get me to be a teacher, which was the l...

#100Days Day 11: my paintingWhen I was a sophomore in high school, I took an art class. It was pretty good: the teacher, who was about seventy (or that's how old she seemed to me) let us use a very wide variety of media, including acrylic paint. We had just been studying abstract expressionists; and of course, being the rage-filled teen that i was, I fell in love with that style. So, I took every color of paint I could, covered a large canvas in black, and attacked it with these short, furious s...

#100Days Day 1: my recent trip back to NYCIn October, I traveled back to New York for the first time since January of 2020; in other words, the first time since pre-pandemic.(For context: I was born and raised on Long Island, just outside of NYC; I went to university there, and aside from a short six-year residency in LA, lived there all my life up until 2012 when I returned to LA)I was fully aware that I would be coming back to a changed city; I just didn’t know how changed it had become.The ci...