Issue 2: Keep Seeing (Part 2), or: 🙌 enthusiasm ✖️optimism booster shot 💉
I wanted to get this out to you before Thanksgiving. It's been a weird month.
On Election Day, I felt like $1m. I put the following image on my Facebook feed -- not because I was feeling cocky (wait... yeah, no, I totally was), but also because I was feeling genuinely enthusiastic and optimistic.
24 hours later, I was in shock, I was angry, and -- most distressingly -- my enthusiasm and optimism just didn't seem credible anymore.
Luckily, I got over that. It took about a week and a half, but weirdly enough, I feel more energized in RE enthusiasm & optimism than I did before. Not-weirdly, I think it may have a lot to do with the fact that I took the Inside Out approach toward my own emotions during the past two weeks:
Anyway, you may or may not be in a similar place. But I really, really wanted to give you this booster shot before the holiday to share some of my E & O. If only to show that it is still possible to have it, believe it, and put it to work.
This E&O ð contains the following active ingredients:
Speaking of indie children's shows, I'm in the very very very very early stages of developing one. Working title: Pinwheels. Think "3-2-1 Contact × Reading Rainbow but for the digital-native world." Here's my GIF-infested mood board for it. This may go precisely nowhere, so enjoy it while it lasts.
Finally, here's a thing I made for fun 4 years ago, when Obama had just been re-elected. It's a classic science film crossed with an Ani DiFranco song. It's about taking a breath, stepping back, and keeping-seeing/believing. Because E&O can also stand for earnestness and openness. That's easy when things are going "right" in the world, but just as necessary when they don't feel like they are. (Boy, I got all gooey there for a second!)
See you in 2017 probably,
J
On Election Day, I felt like $1m. I put the following image on my Facebook feed -- not because I was feeling cocky (wait... yeah, no, I totally was), but also because I was feeling genuinely enthusiastic and optimistic.
24 hours later, I was in shock, I was angry, and -- most distressingly -- my enthusiasm and optimism just didn't seem credible anymore.
Luckily, I got over that. It took about a week and a half, but weirdly enough, I feel more energized in RE enthusiasm & optimism than I did before. Not-weirdly, I think it may have a lot to do with the fact that I took the Inside Out approach toward my own emotions during the past two weeks:
Anyway, you may or may not be in a similar place. But I really, really wanted to give you this booster shot before the holiday to share some of my E & O. If only to show that it is still possible to have it, believe it, and put it to work.
This E&O ð contains the following active ingredients:
- ⨠NEW WORK! ð I spent the past two months working hard with the nonprofit Simons Foundation and The Article Group to create an educational/promotional PSA for Science Sandbox, a new "education and outreach" division from Simons. They called it "E & O" for short at first, but it's no coincidence that those letters could also stand for enthusiasm & optimism. Because that is basically what this video is supposed to leave you feeling massive amounts of. Click the image below to go watch on Vimeo.
BUT! There's a catch. This isn't officially live yet. So you have to enter the following passphrase (spaces/punctuation/capitalization-sensitive), which I've typed out in "bold strikethrough" between arrows so it's clear: â¡ï¸Please don't post this anywhere!â¬ ï¸ I'm trusting you with this VIP-only preview! If you just can't help talking about it on social media, use this hashtag #LGTing like a secret handshake -- but don't post the link yet. I'll let you know when it's OK. Probably December, maybe January. But I just couldn't wait.
- ðµï¸ SECRET BLOG POST! â¨ï¸ Anyone who writes an email newsletter is probably E&O AF about the written word. But what about someone who writes a 2000-word love letter to their favorite text editors? Yeah. I ð words. Bigly.
PS: Don't worry, I'll be adding a Table of Contents so you can skip around without reading the entire monstrous thing in one shot. (PPS: This is a "secret" blog post because it's invisible on my actual blog. Only you, dear readers, are receiving the link. Feel free to share it if you want though. I love evangelizing for text editors.)
- ðª INTERWEB TREATS! ð¦
Weird: Facebook and Twitter are poison, but the "sexting network" turned out to be a redoubt of positivity and good clean fun. Yes, I have joined Snapchat. Add me [xjparker] and you might still catch the 10-second snap-review of Moonlight I posted to my Stories last night.
If you loved Sesame Street as a kid and feel like it's kind of sacrilegious that it's now behind HBO's paywall, check this out: an 8-minute pitch reel for a new indie kids' show called Leaky Timbers. If it doesn't make you smile or laff out loud, I can't help you. Show it to your grumpy family members at Thanksgiving as a way to short-circuit politics talk!
Speaking of indie children's shows, I'm in the very very very very early stages of developing one. Working title: Pinwheels. Think "3-2-1 Contact × Reading Rainbow but for the digital-native world." Here's my GIF-infested mood board for it. This may go precisely nowhere, so enjoy it while it lasts.
Finally, here's a thing I made for fun 4 years ago, when Obama had just been re-elected. It's a classic science film crossed with an Ani DiFranco song. It's about taking a breath, stepping back, and keeping-seeing/believing. Because E&O can also stand for earnestness and openness. That's easy when things are going "right" in the world, but just as necessary when they don't feel like they are. (Boy, I got all gooey there for a second!)
See you in 2017 probably,
J
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