Doing Nothing — mnchrm vol. lix
Hello, friends!
It’s just struck me that we’re already most of the way through February. How can that be? The days just seem to be going faster and faster. Meanwhile, I’ve been feeling the opposite urge, hoping to just slow down, take a week off, and recover. Of course, this is not going to happen any time soon. This is one of the other things I like about meditation: when you force yourself to focus on the moment, it can have the effect of making time feeling slower, or at least more impactful.
Last week, I had my first piece published for Input Magazine. I wrote an essay I had been wanting to write for a long time, about the ethics of street photography, contextualized by Fujifilm removing a promotional video featuring a fairly aggressive street photography they sponsored, named Tatsuo Suzuki. Suzuki’s work is often stunning, but his methods left a bad taste in the mouth of many: the video shows him swerving, nearly colliding, with pedestrians, reaching his camera into the faces of bystanders, looking for the shot.
As you’re probably well aware, I’m a street photographer myself. Even when I’m not making photos, I try and be as conscious and respectful of others as I can be, never trying to make others uncomfortable. So Suzuki’s process was about as opposed to mine as I can think of, barring a true Bruce-Gilden-flash-in-the-face style.
I honestly expected to write a piece against his process, saying it was rude, suggesting a more gentle style. But as I thought about it more, and conducted the interviews for it, and started getting my ideas on paper, the more I warmed up on it. By the end of writing the piece, I ended up thinking it wasn’t all that bad.
This was also the first piece I did a write-up for my Patreon about the process! Thanks so much to everyone who’s signed up so far. I got to share not only the interviews, showing what I chose to pull for the piece, but also how the piece evolved through edits. I’d love to show this sort of thing more often.
Take a look at my piece, here!
Speaking of Patreon, I’ve got a new post going up tonight, about the media I’ve been interacting with this week. I was super busy with the tight turnaround on the Input Magazine piece (as you can read on Patreon now!), so I didn’t get to just relax and focus on reading, watching anime, playing games as I’ve been wanting to, but I did get to work through a little of the backlog. A lot of you are asking for anime recommendations, so that’s what you’re going to get!
I’ve also got some new wallpapers going up. I’ve been sharing photo wallpapers I’ve taken for your computer and phone. I’ve been thinking about keeping a set number of wallpapers up at all times (say, 15 or so) and just removing some of the older ones when I want to add a new one. Let me know if you think that’s a good idea or not, in this poll.
I’ve had Thundercat’s ‘Walk On By’ stuck in my head for at least a few days. It’s so minimal, so somber, so affecting. Shockingly, it’s not Kendrick Lamar’s verse I’ve found myself thinking about, but Thundercat’s lonely chorus: “At the end of it all / No one wants to drink alone.” And I don’t drink!
Fuck the backlog. I’ve found myself really crippled the last few weeks, in both making stuff and consuming media because of my backlogs in each. I’m not up to date on my journal entries, haven’t been maintaining my streak in writing. Not to mention all the things I’ve got on my list to read and watch and play and listen to, etc etc etc.
But you know what? It just doesn’t matter. I’m going to get to as much of it as I can, but the quality of my life and my time is not connected to the number of books I read, or video games I play. I know firsthand there’s pleasure to be had in doing nothing.
I’m trying to live by doing what I think is best in the moment, and worry less about the backlog. There’s no finish line, but there is a starting line. Let’s work hard together.
I’m getting back into studying—really studying—Japanese Kanji again. I fell off for an incredible 170ish days (!!), and the backlog (!!) of reviews became enormous. At my peak, I had a tremendous 2400 items available to review. It was just an insurmountable wall. So now, I’ve gone through, and reset my account on WaniKani a few levels, and started in on the reviews I have available. I’m down to 1200. Which is still insane, of course; but manageable. I’ll do two or three hundred a day, and It’ll be gone in no time. I also have to go back through the list of kanji and vocabulary I’ve covered, and make a list of items to study again, since I’ve gotten a bit rusty in my absence.
It’s slow, but it’s progress. I saw today someone say that Japanese takes about 2200 hours to reach general acceptable understanding; wonder how many I’ve put in so far.
That’s all for me this week! I’ve been really happy to be watching baseball again, and am half-listening to the Cubs v. Mariners spring training game right now. Tonight I’m going to write another review of a book I just finished for CHIRB, make dinner, and get some stuff together for the old Patreon. I’ve got a few things on the calendar for this week, but in general, trying to take it a bit slower, focus more on writing fiction, and getting back into my personal flow.
Stay strong, fight on.
Your faithful commander,
— I