Yes the irl zoom sessions were fun. That book (a rather cosy novella) came out in Jan, has sold 724 books and made me $1400 so the motivation you all provided me paid off. This is going to be a novel, a straight out murder mystery, called Etched in Blood, and I am making my subscribers on sub stack be the one's holding me accountable, and they are doing a good job.
The deepest truth I know is equanimity. To keep putting one foot in front of the other. Sometimes it feels good, sometimes bad, but it's all about the work.
I'm still hoping to find out what enlightenment is.
Born/raised in New York, moved a lot, then Southern California, then Lake Norman area (Charlotte). I’d rather be in NY or CA, and if I’m gonna be stuck in NC I’d rather be in Asheville.
C.L., Your Charlotte comment made me LOL. You're not the only one who feels this way! My husband and I met at Sun Valley High School in Monroe, NC, back in 2003--we do not understand what all the hootin' and hollerin' about the Queen City is about either.
1. Dude how have you been? I feel more and more lately that this is the only question I’m truly interested in: what people’s experiences of this whole life thing are like. What’s up. What’s on your mind. How do you navigate the stress/relaxation cycles of being a creature.
2. What’s a dream you’ve had that stands out for any reason?
I have been good! I have been living and loving and sad and transformed? Working too much on too many things but still craving more time for even more work? Enjoying life and too tired to do so, often, and wondering if I’ll ever transcend the wheel of work that seems to bind me. Or if I even want to ?
Maybe the goal is more simply to enjoy the thing I’m in? But often that feels impossible?
I am more alive now than ever which doesn’t mean I’m happier - just more of all of it. More angry more tired more overjoyed. I keep hearing outward into more extreme territory of all emotional planes. The goal then is simply to be okay with how it feels out there without fear of total and utter destruction.
Dreams? I keep dreaming about weddings. Different ones with different people. No idea what it means but I am happy to feel secure enough to know that it does not mean I shouldn’t be with my wife lol.
How are you? How have you been? What are you dreaming about in life and in sleep
Where is here? Here as in alive? Here as in this house in North Carolina? Here as in not there? Here as in right now and not then or later?
To all the answer is probably the same: I have no idea but it’s fun trying to figure it out only to realize, in new and exciting ways, that still I have no idea
Ahhh…that is a good answer and you have tossed the ball back to me you rascal. I don’t know. I have answers from some experiences and things I have read but to really know…I could take a lot of psychedelics and possibly delude myself that I know. But I still wouldn’t know because it has something to do with infinity and how can I really know that unless I am it and that, from here on my bed in El Salvador in the early morning listening to the birds talk to one another after watching the sun rise, still seems incomprehensible to me. And if I was that, right now, I would be everywhere but even that feels like there would be a limit as everywhere still feels like a thing I could represent on a map. Maybe I am here to be a frequency of energy…here as a being of energy in the body and perhaps other bodies in other dimensions as well. I just don’t know. I imagine/sense it has something to do with love (LOVE) and how one experiences life in Home Depot with children that can challenge one’s attempt to accomplish something less important than joy and presence. Why one is here on this planet in a body somewhere and someplace in time, past, future, and present, —maybe somehow all at once—does seem to be about that. “To go to Home Depot” perhaps is a good answer to the question, now that I think about it.
Curious how that is going? I spent a month on Crete and loved it (Sougia has the illegal naked beach if you are into full sun. Crete is where I learned to be naked on the beach). I thought of moving but it seemed too much on my own as I want connections to be not too hard and Google Translate is not great with Greek. So now I am back in El Salvador. But people still can tell I am originally from California.
You are not worthless at all!!!! Get that out of your head and off your back. What would make you happy do you think? (By the way, happiness is a complex thing— it’s not like most people think. It isn’t a constant.)
How are you? Agreed on the performance thing, though for my substack I have taken that thought away mostly successfully (but I also don’t have any income goals with it for now). Question for everyone : how are you all? Does anyone have tv show recommendations which inspire creativity, positivity, or laughter?
I feel like having no goals with your Substack is the only way to do it lol. Or at least maybe for me.
As soon as I had and started achieving my goals, I started losing the pure fun. But I do feel like I’m on my way back towards that fun. Enlightenment is of course being able to hold both without one ruining the other. That’s the real path I’m always on.
How am I? Good? Genuinely. Right now I’m very hot because my daughter is asleep on me and she’s a furnace but this is life and this is love
Tv: have you seen widows bay?? Not upbeat but funny dark funny
I just went on an unapologetic Substack unsubscribe spree. BAT made the cut (or wait, didn’t make the cut?) because there’s real community here. Obvs you don’t have time to engage with every comment but still feels like a place where you BOTH flex your writing skills AND encourage others to chime in. Secret oasis in a bleak digital landscape. (Other good ones: Caroline Donofrio’s The Magic Hour and Andrea Gibson’s posthumous Things That Don’t Suck.)
I love this proof of life experiment. I believe you’re my writing bud who has also done improv. I love questions and also have questions about how you balance the art you enjoy doing with publishing on Substack… if that’s what you meant by everything has to be polished. I recently spoke to a writing mentor friend person about how my truest writing is never what I actually publish haha.
I'm here. I am recovering from Salmonella poisoning. I talked to the health department this morning. All the crazy places you can get it from. Why do they call you a month after it started and ask you, "What did you eat or drink in the two weeks before you started pooping your brains out?" Geez, I don't know what I ate. I just wish I hadn't eaten it. That is my proof of life for now.
Adriana, I’m curious to know what career you'd want to switch to, if you could blink your eyes and make it so? (Why is it necessary to make it as easy as blinking? Is the concern that it takes too long to learn what you’d need to know? Or is the concern that it’s not possible to make money in the new career? Or—?)
I love my job (I'm a communicator and run my own business), but I have like 6 other things I'm super interested in.
I've spent all summer traveling with my kids and hitting as many National Parks as possible, so my immediate answer is something in conservation. I'm lucky that I already get to do some of that via science comms for one of my favorite clients, an org that conducts research on wild birds.
I also just love talking to people about their jobs and what else they might like to do or be. I think framing the question around blinking gives people permission to not get caught up in credentials. I already went back to school once, and if I had all the money in the world, I think I'd be taking classes (both within and outside of higher ed institutions) forever. Definitely a lifelong learner over here.
Interesting! I too am always asking people what they most want to do/what’s their dream. Love the idea of something in conservation. Re: wild birds. The new doc film “Wild Inside” by Penny Lane is so good. She’s been posting the cities and theaters where it’s screening (before it becomes available on HBO next year).
ALEX I LOVE YOU AND AM A BATHEAD 4 EVA
As you know, I'm here, alive and kicking butt.
A constant!!! I miss hearing your irl updates about the book.
Yes the irl zoom sessions were fun. That book (a rather cosy novella) came out in Jan, has sold 724 books and made me $1400 so the motivation you all provided me paid off. This is going to be a novel, a straight out murder mystery, called Etched in Blood, and I am making my subscribers on sub stack be the one's holding me accountable, and they are doing a good job.
1. How’s the family?
2. Why does everyone who has moved to the Charlotte NC area think it’s great except me?
3. Go ahead, ask me anything.
4. You, too, may ask me anything, but keep it short.
Charlotte sucks lol. I thought everyone agreed on that
Fam is good. Wilder graduated pre k today. I’m In the sauna right now. That feels good
Q for you: what’s the deepest truth you know?
And what’s the one you’re still hoping to find out
How can you type in the sauna?! Does your phone not slip out your hands?!
No I have lizard hands
Mazel Tov, Wilder!
The deepest truth I know is equanimity. To keep putting one foot in front of the other. Sometimes it feels good, sometimes bad, but it's all about the work.
I'm still hoping to find out what enlightenment is.
Where did you live before Charlotte, and was it great, or nah?
Born/raised in New York, moved a lot, then Southern California, then Lake Norman area (Charlotte). I’d rather be in NY or CA, and if I’m gonna be stuck in NC I’d rather be in Asheville.
Still, I’m grateful to have a roof over my head.
C.L., Your Charlotte comment made me LOL. You're not the only one who feels this way! My husband and I met at Sun Valley High School in Monroe, NC, back in 2003--we do not understand what all the hootin' and hollerin' about the Queen City is about either.
I'm still here. Still thinking about/wanting to grab that coffee. Maybe in the next couple weeks?
I’d love that. Texting you
Agree with everything you say here.
1. Dude how have you been? I feel more and more lately that this is the only question I’m truly interested in: what people’s experiences of this whole life thing are like. What’s up. What’s on your mind. How do you navigate the stress/relaxation cycles of being a creature.
2. What’s a dream you’ve had that stands out for any reason?
3 & 4. Requested!
I have been good! I have been living and loving and sad and transformed? Working too much on too many things but still craving more time for even more work? Enjoying life and too tired to do so, often, and wondering if I’ll ever transcend the wheel of work that seems to bind me. Or if I even want to ?
Maybe the goal is more simply to enjoy the thing I’m in? But often that feels impossible?
I am more alive now than ever which doesn’t mean I’m happier - just more of all of it. More angry more tired more overjoyed. I keep hearing outward into more extreme territory of all emotional planes. The goal then is simply to be okay with how it feels out there without fear of total and utter destruction.
Dreams? I keep dreaming about weddings. Different ones with different people. No idea what it means but I am happy to feel secure enough to know that it does not mean I shouldn’t be with my wife lol.
How are you? How have you been? What are you dreaming about in life and in sleep
Maybe you can answer this one: Why do you think you are here?
Where is here? Here as in alive? Here as in this house in North Carolina? Here as in not there? Here as in right now and not then or later?
To all the answer is probably the same: I have no idea but it’s fun trying to figure it out only to realize, in new and exciting ways, that still I have no idea
How would YOU answer that?
Ahhh…that is a good answer and you have tossed the ball back to me you rascal. I don’t know. I have answers from some experiences and things I have read but to really know…I could take a lot of psychedelics and possibly delude myself that I know. But I still wouldn’t know because it has something to do with infinity and how can I really know that unless I am it and that, from here on my bed in El Salvador in the early morning listening to the birds talk to one another after watching the sun rise, still seems incomprehensible to me. And if I was that, right now, I would be everywhere but even that feels like there would be a limit as everywhere still feels like a thing I could represent on a map. Maybe I am here to be a frequency of energy…here as a being of energy in the body and perhaps other bodies in other dimensions as well. I just don’t know. I imagine/sense it has something to do with love (LOVE) and how one experiences life in Home Depot with children that can challenge one’s attempt to accomplish something less important than joy and presence. Why one is here on this planet in a body somewhere and someplace in time, past, future, and present, —maybe somehow all at once—does seem to be about that. “To go to Home Depot” perhaps is a good answer to the question, now that I think about it.
My question to you is where is the wilderness located lol.
In your soul
Who is on your back? ANd are you starting a diet soon?
i have a monkey on my back. the monkey is named 'succeed or you are worthless.' i must get this monkey to a zoo or better yet a wilderness.
i am always on a diet because i am never happy with how i look.
same questions back to you: who is on your back? ANd are you starting a diet soon?
We moved to Greece to start out Mediterranean diet. So far I’ve only gained a few pounds! The monkey on my back stayed in the States.
Curious how that is going? I spent a month on Crete and loved it (Sougia has the illegal naked beach if you are into full sun. Crete is where I learned to be naked on the beach). I thought of moving but it seemed too much on my own as I want connections to be not too hard and Google Translate is not great with Greek. So now I am back in El Salvador. But people still can tell I am originally from California.
Why did you leave your monkey here? Customs issues?
Left everything behind! That’s why “we beg to defer” conflict is my Substack!
You are not worthless at all!!!! Get that out of your head and off your back. What would make you happy do you think? (By the way, happiness is a complex thing— it’s not like most people think. It isn’t a constant.)
I think the life I’m living would make me happy lol
If you actually lived it??
How are you? Agreed on the performance thing, though for my substack I have taken that thought away mostly successfully (but I also don’t have any income goals with it for now). Question for everyone : how are you all? Does anyone have tv show recommendations which inspire creativity, positivity, or laughter?
I feel like having no goals with your Substack is the only way to do it lol. Or at least maybe for me.
As soon as I had and started achieving my goals, I started losing the pure fun. But I do feel like I’m on my way back towards that fun. Enlightenment is of course being able to hold both without one ruining the other. That’s the real path I’m always on.
How am I? Good? Genuinely. Right now I’m very hot because my daughter is asleep on me and she’s a furnace but this is life and this is love
Tv: have you seen widows bay?? Not upbeat but funny dark funny
Real- goals always end up ruling me in toxic ways. No i have not will check it out! Thanks
No on TV shows and this clip of Bob Newhart called “Stop It” is always funny to me. Maybe because I have done a lot of personal work 😂https://youtu.be/3GWaeYRirdU?is=3OpobUSe9C3DGmzv
Oh my that clip is wonderful...first laugh out loud of the day!
Ok. I am going to watch it again—😘. I am happy to hear it was effective—
Omg ahaahaha 😂😂😂 this video reminds me of a friend XD
Re: TV recommendations. What genre do you like? On the positivity & laughter front, I love The Good Place & The Great North.
I watched the Good Place last year!! Enjoyed it. Will have to check the other one out, thanks for the recs!
I just went on an unapologetic Substack unsubscribe spree. BAT made the cut (or wait, didn’t make the cut?) because there’s real community here. Obvs you don’t have time to engage with every comment but still feels like a place where you BOTH flex your writing skills AND encourage others to chime in. Secret oasis in a bleak digital landscape. (Other good ones: Caroline Donofrio’s The Magic Hour and Andrea Gibson’s posthumous Things That Don’t Suck.)
Hi there! Howdy ho!
1. a question for you: What's your favorite thing that your kids are doing right now?
2. a question for everyone: What's been adding levity to your life (besides Alex's bad-ass BAT writing)?
3. a request for me to ask you a question: yes, please. I love questions.
4. a request for anyone to ask you a question: please see my answer to #3.
I love this proof of life experiment. I believe you’re my writing bud who has also done improv. I love questions and also have questions about how you balance the art you enjoy doing with publishing on Substack… if that’s what you meant by everything has to be polished. I recently spoke to a writing mentor friend person about how my truest writing is never what I actually publish haha.
I'm here. I am recovering from Salmonella poisoning. I talked to the health department this morning. All the crazy places you can get it from. Why do they call you a month after it started and ask you, "What did you eat or drink in the two weeks before you started pooping your brains out?" Geez, I don't know what I ate. I just wish I hadn't eaten it. That is my proof of life for now.
Is everyone else just so fucking exhausted with *waves hand at everything* ?
PROOF OF LIFE
a question for you: what is your favorite animal? I'm currently learning a ton about beavers & they're making their way pretty high up on my list.
a question for everyone: if you could blink and change careers, what would you be?
Alex, please ask me a question
anyone, please, ask me a question
Adriana, I’m curious to know what career you'd want to switch to, if you could blink your eyes and make it so? (Why is it necessary to make it as easy as blinking? Is the concern that it takes too long to learn what you’d need to know? Or is the concern that it’s not possible to make money in the new career? Or—?)
I love my job (I'm a communicator and run my own business), but I have like 6 other things I'm super interested in.
I've spent all summer traveling with my kids and hitting as many National Parks as possible, so my immediate answer is something in conservation. I'm lucky that I already get to do some of that via science comms for one of my favorite clients, an org that conducts research on wild birds.
I also just love talking to people about their jobs and what else they might like to do or be. I think framing the question around blinking gives people permission to not get caught up in credentials. I already went back to school once, and if I had all the money in the world, I think I'd be taking classes (both within and outside of higher ed institutions) forever. Definitely a lifelong learner over here.
Interesting! I too am always asking people what they most want to do/what’s their dream. Love the idea of something in conservation. Re: wild birds. The new doc film “Wild Inside” by Penny Lane is so good. She’s been posting the cities and theaters where it’s screening (before it becomes available on HBO next year).
GLP1s… what’s the weirdest unintended consequence for society?