Plannin' On It

On anger management and social media

scholvin:

My name is John Scholvin and I have an anger problem.

Along with rugged good looks and luxurious, silvery hair, I inherited a vicious temper from my dad. I wish it could have been his jump shot or golf swing, but instead, it’s the ability to go from idle to redline in a couple of milliseconds.

I’ve been working on managing it for twenty years. My anger has damaged me personally and professionally. It’s something I have to be continually aware of to subdue. I’ve become pretty good at keeping it under control over the years. Part of it is probably just age and a natural change in my endocrine chemistry. Beyond that, I have techniques for quelling the rage when it rises, techniques which work well if I apply them early enough. That’s tricky: when it happens, it happens fast, and when it gets to a certain point, there’s no dialing back.

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This. Though for me it takes the form of anxiety rather than anger. When those trigger issues show up, they consume my whole day. I think about it constantly, whether I respond or not. And I’ve learned not to respond, because arguing on the Internet always makes it worse.

So I’ve become pretty quick to unfollow. It doesn’t mean I suddenly hate that person, it’s just that they have an opinion I’ll never agree with (or they posted a spoiler the same night something airs MY GOD WHAT KIND OF MONSTER DOES THAT), and rather than being stressed by it, I just have to avoid it. Sometimes I’ll be reminded of the person by a reblog or retweet and I’ll start following them again. It’s not personal, just one of the things I have to do to get through the day.

nostrich:

That’s what I’m shooting for with The Syllabi. There’s more to life than longform, and there should be something between 25,000 word epic and 100 words with a slideshow. Sometimes a topic needs a backstory, something a little more comprehensive. I’m choosing to not say too much about the specifics of what I’m going to be doing, because although I’ve been thinking about this for weeks, there’s very much still an element of making it up as I go, but overall my goal is to link to good writing on interesting things that isn’t necessarily a minimum of 5,000 words and has plenty of related reading.

I love this idea, and I can’t think of anybody that could do it better. Go forth & subscribe.

The new fan mail ‘feature’ says a lot about Tumblr.

frageelay:

It’s pointless (given the existence of the askbox), its style is dated, the way it works doesn’t even make sense, and it adds zero value to the existing user experience.

Is it overstating the point to add: “Unlike missing-e”?

I can think of about 20 other features that would benefit the user experience (particularly on the mobile apps), and none of them involve handwriting fonts and fake paper backgrounds.

Agreed. My guess is the askbox system really wasn’t built for messaging, which is how a lot of us were using it. So, they built a messaging system. I have no problem with that, though I think the better solution would be beefing up the existing system.

But why give it such a silly interface? That’s the part I don’t get. Keep it simple.

Happy New Year, Folks

I don’t have the memory or the records to tell you what happened each month of 2011. My daughter was born. My son was two for, like, eight years. He’s difficult at times, but also incredibly sweet and intelligent. My wife continued to be awesome for the 12th year in a row. Work is good. All in all, not a terrible year.

Hopefully 2012 will be even better. For all of us.

For the lulz: REBLOG IF YOU’RE *KEEPING* MISSING E.

(Source: rosiedoestumblr, via spdracerx)

If you make cool stuff

makearoo:

can we do a brief phone call this week?

I’m doing some intensive market research and prep for the first Camp Makearoo and I’d love to talk to people to gather insight into how you approach your work, what you’re struggling with, and what you’d like more of in 2012. This is just a phone chat, not a formal interview for the site.

Doesn’t matter what you make or where you are with it: Maybe you have a novel hidden on your hard drive or are just starting out with a side business or dying to leave your day job and jump into creative biz full time. I know more than one of you reading this are in that exact position right now. Maybe you make cool stuff and it’s going okay, but you have the sense that you want more from your creative work. I want to talk with all of you.

Phone, Google+, Skype — whatever you prefer, so long as we’re conversing, not emailing/texting. I’m fun to talk with and I’ll make this as painless as possible. As a freelance writer, I’ve been making people feel welcome and at ease while interviewing them about their work and experiences for nearly a decade, so I know how to get to the heart of things without wasting anyone’s time. This is also a great chance to ask me questions about Camp Makearoo if you’re curious about it but not sure if it’s the right time or event for you.

Because I work from home, my schedule is flexible. Ideally, I’d like to talk within the next couple of days.

Get in touch: Toni at Makearoo dot com or drop the best way(s)/time(s) to contact you in my askbox.

Thanks. Feel free to spread the word to your friends who might find this useful, too.

Any Pinterest?

I just signed up for Pinterest & I’m looking for folks to follow. If you have a board, point me to it.