dear friends,
yesterday we drove to a forest outside of Istanbul, where I had my first Turkish-style barbecue — mangal. it was me, Luna, and three Turkish men — my partner and his two friends — sweating all the way there, stuffed into a red 1992 nissan nx coupe. once we arrived, they smoked cigarettes and gathered firewood. I sat around.
growing up, the idea of a barbecue always seemed, to me, a quintessentially American suburbia kind of thing. my family never did barbecues (we were not American enough), but somehow, the Turkish version feels much more… cozy? chaotic? communal, in a let’s-grill-meat-and-take-a-nap-in-the-forest kind of way? I bet it’s because the grilling apparatus is tiny (hence, portable), and the feast-packing list so extensive — that the whole experience feels like haphazard camping, but without the tent.
other than being ineptly prepared (we forgot salt, for example), constantly accosted by bugs, and dehydrated by the still-unforgiving summer sun — it was fun. I could get used to it. I came home and slept 10 hours.
~
🍊 this week: I finally opened a free introduction to house on the webs! I wrote about reframing business as the practice of honoring your creative energy, made a case against the website as brochure. from my archives: animated postcards and comics.
🪄 free introduction: house on the webs
after a long hibernation, my website world building creative course, house on the webs, is finally open for exploration. The Introduction + Day 0 Lesson (coming next week) of this journey will be free for everyone, forever.
[Explore the Introduction Here]
🗝️ registrations for the course will open next week.
this time, I’m approaching the re-building of this course like any creative project — as in, trying to pace myself and not get bored or burnt out. I write about the process here:
rebirthing house on the webs — kening zhu
intentions and creative process
🪁 business as honoring your creative energy
aka, how to build a business that doesn’t make me really tired. my new ethos for creating a business that prioritizes energy-nourishment, first.
business as honoring your creative energy — kening zhu
my new business ethos and guiding principle
🎙️ your website is not a brochure
why your website doesn’t have to be a brochure that compartmentalizes your infinite self — into three glossy pages. I’ll put these two frameworks side by side: “website as brochure” vs. “website as a digital garden-home-world” and break down the difference.
LISTEN ON APPLE | LISTEN ON SPOTIFY
your website is not a brochure — kening zhu
a case for digital world-building
🔮 messages from the archives
a house on an island
an animated postcard from three years ago, when I spent autumn/winter on the greek islands, just before moving to Istanbul. house on the webs was born here. (2021)
a house on an island — kening zhu
one day, in the next few years, i would like to buy a house on an island, perhaps at the edge of a cliff - a place where i can see the sunrise and watch birds flying from my terrace.
what a beautiful dog, I said
the story of how I met my dog Luna, two years ago. (2022)
what a beautiful dog, i said — kening zhu
the story of how I got luna — how she fell from the sky into my life
flow comes from your place of stillness
against busy-ness and trying to “get stuff done.” (2021)
flow comes from your place of stillness — kening zhu
harnessing the energy of creative flow
letting go of the need to look professional
a tiny visual guide from house on the webs studies (2022)
letting go of the need to look professional — kening zhu
a visual guide
📝 notes (what's rolling around my head)
bored & burnt-out — my two primary symptoms of overwork and energy depletion. if i’m burnt-out, i’m probably also bored. how would I design my work life differently, keeping these two dangers in mind? probably: (1) increase in art-making as energy fuel + (2) shorter sprint lengths of ~2 days + (3) clearer boundaries around time and work hours.
advising as ongoing dialogue - since I started offering advising sessions this year, I’ve been thinking about how the container of a 2 hour intensive (or whatever length of time) sometimes feels too short — (even when it seems really long). I’m playing around with the idea of reshaping the offering for asynchronous containers — over email and voice messages exchanges, then, maybe culminating in a live meeting. (or not).
no sales page - I deleted my old house on the webs course page because it didn’t feel resonant with my current ethos. as I was trying to rebuild one, I realized that the course introduction I wrote serves all the functions of a sales page — and much more. maybe, instead of trying to convince you that what’s behind locked doors is worthy of your time/money, maybe I’ll just make a long entryway, open to the public, and let you decide on your own.
honoring creative energy: I wrote in this week’s reflection piece how I’ve reframing business according to this ethos. to honor energy is to not waste it, or to demand too much of it. it’s prioritizing nourishment and listening: to what your energy wants, rather than what your mind wants. it’s like listening to a magical creature, or a small child, and building a relationship of trust.
🍄 inspiration log
what i’ve been enjoying lately.
opening: DailyArt app - a nourishing replacement for scrolling Instagram. I’m always pleasantly surprised by this app and its writings - so much that I paid for an annual subscription.
started reading: dune: messiah by frank herbert definitely still savoring the unique pleasure of navigating such an intensive labor of the imagination.
listening to: the midnight library by matt haig audiobooks are not usually my preferred form for consuming fiction, but I’ve been enjoying the turkish translation audiobook of this book - so much that I might read it again in english.
watched but didn’t really love its aftertaste: prometheus (2012) i take turns with my partner choosing films for us to watch, and somehow, whenever he choses, we always end up watching alien or robot apocalypse films. this one is interesting but I went to bed thinking about giving birth to scary octopuses.
🌸 goodbye for now...
until next week, my friends.
wishing you a luxurious last week of august,
🪼 kening
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🗺️ this is guide.notes 46, a weekly letter on creative alchemy & growing digital worlds.
🍃 find me on my podcast: botanical studies of internet magic.
🪷 explore working with me via my 1:1 containers: advising, mentorships, and creation services.
💧 send me a gift. water my world.