And below, a good Saturday

My Social Life

I've been writing a lot, spending a lot of time inside my head. Two to six times a day, a piece comes together nicely and I get some satisfaction and completion. Most of the day is just concentration and work. It seems solitary.

Background: Jane, the brilliant woman running PeopleCount's marketing, and I are preparing material for a 3-month social media campaign for PeopleCount. A ton of work goes into it. Once the material is created, she'll video me, edit it, and schedule it to go out. It's a lot of work. The plan is for me to get back to working on the product part-time as soon as the writing is done.

A couple of days a week Jane and I work online together. Sometimes we just co-work in silence most of the day, with a comment now and then. Sometimes we work together, organizing the next set of content and topics. Then I write and edit, then we take turns editing. Toward the end of editing I'll often read a piece aloud 1-5 times and we'll focus and improve it.

Other people seem to be able to create a following by posting mostly short things regularly on social media with a photo, with 1-2 longer posts every week, usually citing others' articles. I tried to do that last summer, but it eluded me. Yes, there are many forms of genius.

So most days are a lot of work. I have a little sense of community here on Facebook and sometimes on LinkedIn. And about once every 2 weeks there's a zoom event. I've had a few people interview me, and one of the interviewers is pulling for me and wants to help me network. And I've been participating once every 2-3 weeks in an online class about racism with my congregation.

Plus there are phone calls. I'll talk to one of my brothers once a week, and my friend Ed every week or two. I met a bunch of people that I like in a course last summer, but only two women keep in touch. That's nice, though.

I recently attended some online talks on YCombinator (a startup incubator) twice a week. It's over now, but entrepreneurs have started an online group on WhatsApp. Some are local- it'd be nice to join them in an in-person meeting.

Plus there's a juggling group at Stanford that I've been meaning to join for years. I was on their mailing list, but never went. Then Covid. Now they're getting back together on Fridays. I met one of them on World Juggling Day in August, so am back on the email list. But I have not yet taken Friday evening off to join them yet.

Then there are text messages with my sons, a short trip to get groceries twice a week, and often I see a few people when I walk the dog in the evening. Plus my wife's around in the mornings and evening.

That's my social life. It's interesting to write it down. There's so much solitary writing, that I think of myself as solitary. Writing it down, it seems full of people! I'm grateful. Even happy!

I think what happens is that the time I spend with people seems to go by quickly, and enjoyably. And as soon as it's done, I'm back in my head, writing.

I don't write all the time. I take a few minutes to do Wordle each day, and read my mail, including 30 minutes catching up on mostly political news on mostly The Washington Post, plus I get a summary of right-wing news.

It's nice to reflect, and see that I have a lot of people in my life. That's nice. :?)

A Good Saturday

Yesterday was different. I gave blood. It was nice to get out and be among people. Plus it's always nice to do a good deed, especially to help save lives. With Covid, they've had fewer people giving, so they need donors.

Mine was the last appointment yesterday, Saturday. After the appointment, they give snacks. I eat 2 Pacific Cookie Company oatmeal-raisin cookies, a package of pretzels, a cup of juice and a cup of water. Usually I'm carb-free and wheat-free, but once every 8 weeks I indulge.

They have a policy of getting rid of the cookies on Saturday and getting new ones on Monday, so they gave me a dozen to take home. And blood has been in short supply, so they rewarded me with free Stanford Football tickets! The seats seem to be about 2/3 of the way up (about 1/3 of the way up the 2nd level), on the 40th yard line.

I offered them to Jane. She'd like them. She'll take the cookies, too! It's nice to offer a perk!

It reminds me of my years working- it was always nice when they brought in dinner. And sometimes sales people had a lunch and there was extra food. (I often missed lunch or would get something small off a food truck.)

I felt good about getting something to eat, of course. And also that we weren't wasting food. Plus it helped the people who had ordered it feel it wasn't being wasted. Looking back, it was probably one of the few things I was expressive and positive about, if only for a moment.

My work was very satisfying, but it was months of work punctuated with a few completions. Finishing things was mostly a relief. Others celebrated at times, but they weren't articulate about all the work they had done and what it meant to them, so I guess I didn't get it.

Now, just reciting to myself all the effort we poured into the products, and all the ways it helped the customers, all the people they served, plus ourselves and even the investors, it was well worth celebrating. Now that I've written this previous paragraph, I have very good feelings. :?)

And then a good friend called. He's been having back pain. Sciatica. He's trying to avoid surgery, if he can. It has been painful at times, mostly while standing or walking too long.

I suggested he try an inversion table. He didn't want a huge, expensive contraption. But they're not expensive. I looked on Amazon and the brand that I have makes one that's highly rated for $135 - much less than a single trip to the doctor.

I was talking to him while he was driving home, so I searched and sent him a link to it, plus an article.

When he got home he looked at them and found a better article about inversion and back pain, including a real medical study- sometimes it works well! So he'll try it. I helped!

It was an excellent Saturday.

PS: After that, I began editing a piece about The 12 Ball problem. To make it not incredibly long, I said the details of the solution were on my personal site. I had stashed the details from the original incredibly-long essay there, but hadn't actually created a readable web page. So I spent a couple of hours doing that. It's done.

It needs work. I doubt it's understandable by non-nerds. But at least it's there so we can link to it...

What's weird: I do all this writing, and then I take time to write this, which is about the size of two and a half articles... :?)