I wrote about 900 words of an essay about the problems I see with liberal arts education today and why I hate it while offering some solutions that are so unlikely to ever happen. I thought maybe I would put it on this blog, because I do feel like I have something to say, but then decided against it, remembering a story of a guy who vented on YouTube with a video entitled “I’d rather die than work 9-5” then got fired from his 9-5, and the 9-5 after that once they found out. I do have my name all over this site and think it is something I gotta be aware of.
Another thing is I and probably some other people too have this kind of “essay fatigue” or something. Like I get these essays on political and cultural topics, video essays mostly, pushed to me on the internet and I think “maybe I should watch that” but I just don’t because I’m kind of just tired of alla that. I feel like I already have an idea of what they’re going to say; I already know that late stage capitalism is bad, and our world is so oppressive and blah blah blah. I am already filled with rage, don’t need much more.
AI training using my writing is one of the reasons I haven’t posted any poetry on this site, though I write it fairly often. Pretty sure that’s what all the site traffic from Hong Kong is about, no way I have hundreds of dedicated fans over there. I’ll post one this time though, since I posted it in a YouTube comment on some Twitch VOD. I got 13 likes. There’s something cool about putting poetry in unexpected places.
And in this moment thick fog hangs over water
And the gravel
Curves – slight
Twists away
Chatters with foot and paw
Shallow ponds
Plants fading, at the end of fall’s hard work
Brown, tan, black
Layered thick and vibrant
Fecund, half-frozen humus.
Cattails in the water
One small bird, peeping.
A shiver is let out with the gust.
I myself could become a reed
Standing here
No, I pull out my phone and
In a poor and starving form
This moment lives on much longer
Truthfully it’s not one of my best poems, but I don’t think its so terrible either. Here’s the photo it is about.
I haven’t written a good poem yet this year, I feel like my creativity comes in waves; right now the sea is very calm and boring.
One thing I have been thinking about: How to make nature poetry that is firmly set in the internet age? Maybe even that celebrates the internet age? Honestly, I was spurred to write this post because I felt a need to make an effort to fill the net with real human things. My blogs may not be entertaining or well written, but they sure are human. I feel as though some of the art being made right now is not really in this present moment. My poems can be like this, not necessarily anchored to one time.
One example that spurred on this thought was the album I Love My Computer by Ninajirachi. (Great, great album btw.) Though it is very much in the internet age it feels like a celebration of the internet ~10 years ago.
Another thing I have been thinking about as a space heater warms my legs: No heat feels as good as the heat from the sun and from another body. All other forms of heat feel worse (this includes campfires, I know you may disagree).
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| The steerer tube is now cut, don't worry |
Been doing more mountain biking lately after I bought a Jones SWB. The Jones is a fairly unconventional mountain bike but works great for me. It has a very comfortable, very upright seating position, no suspension, and 3 inch wide tires. I really really love it, it works just as well for technical singletrack trails as it does for long rides on rural dirt roads. Might even end up selling the Handsome Cycles Devil. That was my bike for doing those long gravel rides but if I can do those fine on the Jones I don’t think the Devil has a whole lot of reason to stick around. We’ll see.
Saw a herd of bison too last week, pretty cool!
In one week I begin my new job washing dishes at a local bakery. I have been unemployed for 11 months, so I hope it goes well. There’s no dress code, but I like to keep my work clothes separate from my other clothes so I got a bunch of dark red shirts. I guess that’ll be my “uniform” maybe. I think the new job’ll be good for me.
