It’s that time again: donning the hat and driving the route for BikeMS!
Bike MS 2025
25 Years a Citizen
Hard to believe it’s been that long.
Newsletter Mania?
How I ended up publishing four(+) different newsletters every week
I mentioned to someone recently that I publish four separate newsletters. Two publish weekly, one twice a week, and one daily. They asked how I did that.
Well. It’s not something I set out to do. It’s more of a journey.
Read More, Read Wider, Read Better, Read
An important step on the path to success
On the 7 Takeaways home page I say:
Great content creators share one characteristic: they consume a lot of information. They read, they watch, they listen to a wide variety of topics that interest them. I started 7Takeaways because I want to be more like the people I admire, and I admire several great creators.
Here’s the thing: it’s more than great content creators. You’ll find that the most interesting and successful people you meet are those that consume good content across a wide range of topics and interests.
So, what’s “good content”?
Uncanny Valet
So I typoed and asked ChatGPT for an image to illustrate “Uncanny Valet”. Was not disappointed.
Squirrel Talk
I sometimes meditate outside, and I typically have my voice recorder running so I can record and not worry about forgetting random yet important thoughts. On this day there was a squirrel in a nearby tree who had a lot to say. This is the transcript, courtesy Google Recorder:
Acknowledging Anxiety
(Updated from a couple of years ago. I was about to write something about “is this what finally kills me” — an anxiety that increases in intensity as we age — and noted that it was already a small part of this larger topic.)
It almost feels trendy to talk about anxiety these days.
In part, I suppose, it’s become more prevalent because of the pandemic, and politics, and social media, and, and, and …
But has it, though? Has become more prevalent, or just more visible?
Based on my experience, I would say: why not both?
Norma’s Morning
Believing in Magic
When I refer to magic here, I mean it literally. Like, in the Hogwarts sense.
I believe that creativity is a force of enchantment—not entirely human in its origins.
I heard a respected neurologist say in an interview, “The creative process may seem magical, but it is not magic.” With all due respect, I disagree. I believe the creative process is both magical and magic.
– Gilbert, Elizabeth. Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
Liz Gilbert believes in magic. Literally.
I support her in her beliefs — not because I think they’re true, I do not — but because beliefs exist for important reasons, even if we don’t all agree on what is and is not true.
You can guess which way mom’s coming from
Why I Rarely Donate to Political Candidates
- Spam. Donate even once and the flood begins.
- Increasing
demands/requests. Donate even once and it’s almost like a catphishing campaign: increasingly urgent demands for increasingly larger donations. - If they lose, I’ve thrown away my money.
- If they win, but they’re in the minority, I might as well have thrown away my money, at least for important issues.
- If they win, it seems they inevitably transition from representing the people to representing only the people and companies that gave them exorbitant amounts of money.
It’s a cynical point of view, I get it.
I choose instead to support organizations like the EFF, ACLU, and others actually taking action, boots on the ground.
Subscribe to their newsletter
There’s a rash of popular social media publications that seem to be getting suppressed. Whether it’s intentional, accidentally on purpose, or truly a mistake of some sort is irrelevant. You cannot trust social media to show you what you’ve asked to be shown. (Some are better/worse than others, but still.)
Many of these popular authors have email newsletters. Find them. Subscribe to them. Support them if you can. And in doing so, side-step whatever the frak is happening on social media.
Last Man Standing
Racing to the far end of the bell curve.
I’m only 67 as I write this, but I’m more and more finding myself the oldest person in the room. (I almost put the “only” in quotes, since of course perspectives on whether that’s “old” or not vary fairly dramatically. 
)
It’s pretty easy to rationalize this. After all, younger people are being created at a pretty decent clip every day, and, as harsh as it might sound to say it, older people are dropping at a similar (technically slightly slower) rate. It’s only logical, it’s only math, that I might be traveling to the far right of the curve.
And yet.
Every Day is an Experiment – Blog Edition
Every post is an experiment
I’m experimenting a little with my personal blog. The TL;DR: is that:
- I’m adding social media posts to my blog, where they’ll be auto-posted on a few social media sites.
- Normal posts (longer form essays like this one) will be auto-posted to the socials as well.
- Normal posts will trigger emailed notifications to those who’ve signed up, social media posts will not.
If you’re curious about the why, and perhaps even the how, keep reading.
Is spending this little at Costco even legal?
Rituals
These aren’t your parents rituals. Or maybe they are.
The word “ritual” has interesting overtones.
I know for many it has very specific religious meanings. For example, having grown up Catholic, I get that. I’ve lived it. Catholicism is full of rituals.
But I love when people expand their view on what it means, particularly in a more secular direction.
