I'm noticing that many people my age or thereabouts seem to still be stuck on the want for marriage, which I find a little surprising. Especially given that many said people in my orbit happen to be in some kind of creative and/or intellectual field: painters, writers, printmakers, technologists, academics, and so forth. These are the kind of vocations that are typically associated with unconventional thinkers, but how unconventional can one's thinking really be if they are so keen on adopting an awfully conventional lifestyle choice? One instilled in us by family and society at large. One can't really claim to be a unique maverick, immune to social norms if they fall for one of the most widely spread, seldom-questioned social norms of all.
Of course I say this as someone who was once married himself, someone who liked to think of himself as a creative, unconventional thinker, but it was only the experience of marriage itself that helped me recognize its inherent flaws (still on great terms with my ex btw). The funny thing is, many people of a certain age are quick to accuse those less keen on marriage of not having grown-up yet, of being infected by some malicious “Peter Pan Syndrome”, and “not taking the relationship seriously”. But, if you look at older folk, the ones in their sixties who have been widowed or divorced and become interested in starting something new with someone else; they don't care about marriage. They don't typically care about their new partner's job or education, nor do they necessarily care a whole lot about sex, and they certainly don't care about having children. The only thing they care about at that point is companionship. Companionship with someone they get along with.
It is only towards our later years do we realize what is truly important in life. Perhaps what younger people can learn from this is the understanding that genuine companionship is the thing that matters most in a relationship at any stage. Everything else is secondary and beyond.
#journal
Generally speaking, there are 4 types of clients:
1) Very knowledgeable and know exactly what they want.
2) Very knowledgeable, but don't quite know what they want (happy to delegate).
3) Not knowledgeable, but know exactly what they want.
4) Not knowledgeable, and don't quite know what they want.
#1 and #2 are good to work with, although I'm partial to working with type #2. Type #4 can be okay to work with, sometimes, but #3 you need to stay as far away from as possible no matter what they try to lure you with. They do not delegate any of the decision-making and will insist on things you know are terrible.
#journal #work
Nothing says insincerity is endemic in today's world more than the existence of an 8-week course on offer titled “Radical Honesty”.
Inboxes 15, RSS 195.
#journal
Back in Houston, slow and quiet, reeling from my time in New York which was marked by a great deal of socializing and subway rides. The latter allowed for ample reading, namely two books by Albert Camus I picked up from Book Thug Nation in Brooklyn (one of my favorite bookshops in existence), easily devoured over the course of my 10-day stay.
And somehow, in the cauldron of conversations, reading, observation, book-browsing, and general contemplation, an idea for a novel came to me.
This, of course, is a terrible thing. I'm still on the last chapter of THE SOLAR GRID, after which I should probably add a few short stories to TIMES NEW HUMAN. After which, and only after which, I should contemplate pursuing the prospect of writing a novel (or any other potentially draining project for that matter). One way of knowing whether or not you're passionate enough about a project anyway is putting it aside and revisiting your notes on it down the line, to see if you feel just as excited about it as when the idea first struck.
It is good to know though that I, sooner or later, will have a way to put my notes on writing a novel in one month to the test and see if they actually work.
#journal
New York photo dump time.
#travel #NY #journal
Second attempt to catch flight out of New York is fail. Can't help but feel the universe is insisting on extending my stay for some elusive higher purpose I can't quite put my finger on.
Newsletter drafted between airports and friends' crashpads. Scheduled to go out later tonight. It's a good one, I think.
#journal #travel #nyc
Sold out of both issues of THE CURSE OF I from my end. Last remaining copies can still be procured however from Basket Books in Houston and Desert Island in Brooklyn.
Rain came down long and hard last night and I am getting notifications from the airline that severe weather conditions may impact my flight out of New York. Inclined to push it back a couple days to avoid any potential airport inconveniences and general fuckery.
#work #comix #journal #travel
New York City has no chill.
That's it, that's the post.
#journal #travel #nyc
He glances up and grabs a pigeon, crops the shot, and squirts it at his weblog to show he's arrived.
Because I'm a hopeless workaholic, I brought my TSG notebooks with me on what was supposed to be my New York getaway to try and solve story-compression issues relating to the final chapter. Just so I can slide right into drawing the thing upon my return to the studio.
It is warm in New York but it ain't anywhere near as hot as Houston. 25C this evening, the white noise of rain outside intercut by the slightly higher pitched tip-tapping on fire-escape metal. Good writing weather. Sometimes all you need is a little change of scenery.
Passage at the very top is from Charles Stross' ACCELERANDO btw.
#journal #travel #nyc
Up for over 24 hours, but at least inboxes and rss are both at zero now.
Last few hours of solo month with the little one. How I will miss him.
“Daddy, why are there some animals in some toons but they have people faces?”
#journal #moony