I wanted to do something other than the usual talking head blah blah today, so I decided to push myself a little and poke fun at the style of a certain YouTube channel.
Et comme ca :
And I like how silly and goofy and high density it turned out. It was fun to make and definitely not my usual blathering on so that’s a good thing.
But I wish I had come up with more gags. I wanted there to be a minute’s worth and there was only like 32 seconds. Lame.
They are some jam packed seconds, but still.
I wonder how jam became the standard unit for how packed something is.
I assume it refers to the act of jamming things in and not the fruit spread.
But my brain just ran out of gas. This is something to remember for my potential future career as a comedy writer for The Onion. Even I can just plain run out of ideas.
Makes me ponder a return to my caffeine drinking ways. There would definitely be times when my daily buttload of Onion content would be due and I would be running on empty and I would need to recharge pronto.
That’s the thing about the dream of doing what you love for a living.
Will you still love it when it becomes work? When you have to do it whether you feel like it or not? When you have to do it the way someone else wants you to do it rather than just expressing yourself when and how you feel like it because that’s what pays the bills? Is this dream of yours really worth it?
There is a strong argument to be made that people should keep what they love to do and what they are paid to do entirely separate. That way they can keep the thing they love to do pristine and unsullied by extrinsic concerns.
I honestly think that the whole “do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life” idea, while well intentioned, has caused a lot of pain and suffering in people who go into an endeavor with that dream in mind only to discover the harsh reality that for most people, most of the time, it just doesn’t work out that way.
It’s not impossible that if you work extremely hard that your natural talent and luck will be enough to get you to that magic place where you somehow are getting paid to do exactly what you want to do, no more and no less.
But it’s not bloody likely.
Even globe spanning super rich authors like Stephen King have had to write what the publisher wanted instead of what they wanted to write.
And yet, there is still nothing keeping you from making whatever art is inside you except for the dream of somehow harnessing your talent to make a living without killing it.
Work some dumb McJob like the bohemians of old just to pay the bills and then do your art when you get home at night.
And make peace with the fact that your art may never make you any money. The market may completely fail to assign it any value. You may never get anything from your art except personal satisfaction.
That is why it is so important to focus on the art you have the most fun making. That way, you will get rewarded for your art immediately.
And, of course, if you enjoy making it, you will make a lot of it, and that means you will get better and better at it.
So fuck trying to please the market and its gatekeepers. Just keep having fun. You don’t need to be paid to do it any more than a kid needs to be paid to play Xbox.
If the money comes, great. But if not, that’s okay too.
Because you already got rewarded for doing it.
Everything else is gravy.
More after the break.
The 8:30 pm attack
Lately, it seems like I have an allergy attack at around 8:30 pm every night.
Usually not a big one, as these things go. Thank God, I haven’t had a really major attack in decades. Now, I get like a half dozen sneezes at most.
But it does remind me of my oft repeated but never heeded admonishment to myself to get the heck back onto to antihistamines so I can avoid not just the sneezes but the whole body wide inflammatory effect.
I get the feeling that said effect has inobvious effects all through my body, possibly including my IBS and other gut symptoms.
Food for thought, one might say.
Or not. You do you.
Today’s been the same ol’ same old. I am glad I mixed things up somewhat with today’s vid. That made things a bit more exciting.
I am still getting used to the idea of looking for excitement. I spent so many years wrapped up in the clammy comfort of my semi-somnolent state that the very notion of seeking to raise my adrenaline level would have seemed beyond insane.
But I’m awake now, and alive, and I am aiming to stay that way, at least some of the time. I am no longer willing to stay half-dead just to make doing nothing in particular more comfortable and relaxed.
I wanna do stuff, god damn it. I have all this magic inside me and it’s straining to get out. I want to show the world just how god damned amazing I am.
After all, the world needs me!
Someone’s got to talk some sense into the masses. I see so much in the world that cries out for my particular POV and insights.
At the very least I could make useful contributions to the discourse. Get people examining their assumptions, like a good little trickster.
And, not to put too fine a point on it, make some freaking money.
I have a lot of unmet needs.
I will talk to you nice people again tomorrow.