January 14, 2025

Look 107: Start me up

Fellow angler,

It’s heartwarming that while I was on hiatus, people expressed to me how much they missed this blog. By which I mean one person commented in passing that they hadn’t seen a post in a while.

I immediately understood the sad truth of their comment: They were floating through a void, woebegone without my dry, biting humor and properly hot takes to clog their inbox.

Well buck up because I’m back and bringing a new age of Derek content in 2025.

"The age of Men is over. The time of the Derek has come." — Gothmog.

What I’ve done since we last spoke

My previous posts mentioned the things I’d do on hiatus. I can comfortably say I did none of them. Except finish season 6 of Love Island Australia. It was the lowest item on my list but it turned out to be the easiest and who am I to deny cheap thrills?

Doing things is hard

I had the last 2.5 weeks of the year off my job (I’m talking about my corporate, 9-5 work). I figured I could use that time to do my side job (I’m talking about my novel-writing work). I mostly wanted to finish editing the first draft of my novel.

It turns out that working on a vacation is hard. I spent the first week thinking that I should take some time to properly unwind from a busy year.

When the second week of vacation started, I realized that a single week wasn’t enough to recuperate from the mental and physical grind of a full year of being alive.

A partial accounting of being alive

I worked a full-time job, wrote the first draft of a novel, started taking daily walks (which doesn’t sound like much but I’m talking 1-2 hours a pop), began studying the history of Green-Wood Cemetery so I can one day become a tour guide, read 50 books, bought probably 150 books, played two soccer games every weekend, tricked myself into publishing a near-weekly newsletter, and hopefully did much more that I just can’t remember right now.

That’s all tiring business. By the end of the year, I decided I could use a few weeks to relax. While I want my novel finished as soon as possible, I have also learned in 30+ years of existence that there will be more days (that won’t always be true but I’m lucky enough to have not died yet) and stressing myself out won’t help.

If anything, beating myself up will hurt everyone by dampening (what I think anyone who knows me would describe as) my naturally sunny disposition.

The on-deck circle

Expect my next post in two weeks. Now that I’m back to normal life, I will resume working during the day, finishing my novel during the night, and writing this blog late on Monday nights (it’s currently 11:32pm).

My next post will have real content and talk more about how my novel is going. Or about general writing thoughts. I have a plan for a post but even the best-laid plans go awry once I sit to write.

(For those who don’t know baseball, the person who is next in line to hit is considered to be on deck. There is an area called the on-deck circle where they can stand and take some warm-up swings.)

Title song

If you’ve never seen Mick Jagger dance in his white pants and purple shirt, I both envy and pity you. The intro dance sequence in The Rolling Stones’ video for “Start Me Up” is something I will never forget — the arms, the head bobs, the lips.

The start of a new year is the perfect time to revisit this gem and remind yourself to go 100%. As Mick says, “Kick on the starter, give it all you got. You got to.”

Until next time,

Happy fishing!