From the start of Monday to the end of Wednesday, 20 major league free agents agreed to contracts totaling nearly $1.6 billion. The vast majority did so while outshooting their projections. And if there was one phrase that could encapsulate the week’s event, it was that one – muttered so often by front-office members, agents, scouts, coaches and media members that it might as well have been part of the branding. The winter meetings, presented by Holy S—.
One of the topics I’ve stayed away from on my website is sports. Why? This idiotic idea that I might alienate people with it. But sports has been such a big part of my life this year that I can’t not write about it anymore.
I’m from San Diego. Born and raised. My team is the San Diego Padres. They’ve been my team since my childhood, since I went to my first baseball game in ‘96 and saw Ken Caminiti hit a home run, since I saw them make it to the World Series in ‘98 (and get swept by those damn Yankees), since I saw Tony Gwynn get his 3,000th hit. They’re my team, and oh my goodness, wasn’t this year so damn special? First, we signed Juan Soto, Josh Hader, Josh Bell, and Brandon Drury, then we lost Tatis Jr. to a stupid PED suspension, then we beat the Mets and the Dodgers to make it to the NLCS.
And now we’ve signed Xander fucking Bogaerts. These aren’t my childhood Dads. If I had children, these would be their Dads, and that’s amazing.
$1.6 billion, $280 million to sign Bogaerts. Wow.
The Padres began the week with a payroll that was already projected to surpass $200 million and stood dangerously close to exceeding MLB’s luxury-tax threshold for a third consecutive year. (“Where are they getting all this money?” one agent asked.) Then they pursued Turner aggressively, made a late – and highly competitive – offer to Judge and blew past the Red Sox for Bogaerts, who will join a dynamic lineup featuring Juan Soto, Manny Machado, Jake Cronenworth and, eventually, Fernando Tatis Jr. Bogaerts is an imperfect fit, no doubt, but the Padres believe they have the roster versatility and the payroll flexibility to make it work.
I’m financially trained, I have a budget in mind up there somewhere, and I think budgets get better when you win world championships.
San Diego has never won a major sports world championship. I think if they win one, they will have all the money they need to make up for these signings and more.
There’s a good-sized snow mound on one side of the playground at school, a mound created by the plow truck driver. The kids have loved playing on it during recess for the past week, but after speaking to a few of the teachers, I’ve learned that they’re the only ones happy about it. “I hate the snow mound,” one of the teachers told me. And I hate winter.
Here are some notes from today, this 9th day of December, 2022:
Health
Yes, I will always post screenshots of my phone whenever I manage to sleep for over nine hours. The last time I slept this long was over two weeks ago, so needless to say, I have felt really good today. Once I returned to work last week, I’ve been averaging about 7 hours and 45 minutes of sleep, which isn’t bad, but I would love an extra hour. Where to find it?
I found the courage to finally quit intermittent fasting. I started this maybe 4 or 5 years ago with the intention of both trying to lose a bit of weight and to quit snacking late at night. I succeeded in the latter, failed with the former. I’m not super overweight or anything, but I do want to keep an eye on it. Over the last 4 or 5 years, I grew used to eating at set times, so much so that I think I screwed up my metabolism or something. Sure, it could be my body changing because I’m getting older, but no matter how hard I worked out and how little I ate, I still managed to gain weight. It got pretty bad during COVID, where I gained maybe 5-8 pounds over my “average,” weight I have not been able to lose since.
So I decided to eat breakfast every day this week, snack a bit in the afternoon, and have a smaller-ish dinner at night. And you know what? After the first few mornings hating the feel of food in the morning, I’ve grown accustomed to it, and today, for the first time, I was eager to eat breakfast. I’m not sure what this will do to my weight yet, but I can already tell the difference with my workouts. I’m working out harder and longer, and my body feels stronger. These changes have been great, and I’m looking forward to see how my health changes in the coming weeks and months.
Books
One thing I have found the time to do this week is reading more books. I finished both Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi and Slow Horses by Mick Herron. Both were fun reads, both gave me that old, familiar writing energy I used to have a lot when I was younger but have lost over the last decade or so.
Writing used to be fun. In high school, back when I was first learning that I liked to write, I had fun writing my stories. They were heavily inspired by the stories I loved: action movies, crime thrillers, murder mysteries, stuff like that. I got into film school by writing stories like these for my portfolio. At film school, I had the most fun when I wrote these types of stories, scenes inspired by movies like Le Cercle Rouge and Heat. At some point, though, I lost that. I started to take things seriously. I started writing more “serious” stuff, stuff that would win awards, would win Oscars or whatever. I took myself too seriously and my writing suffered, I think. And it has suffered ever since.
Earlier this year, I wrote a silly short story in my notebook that reminded me a lot of what I used to write. It was this stupid idea of this guy who invented a way of synthesizing people’s memories into pills, and he got addicted to these pills because whenever he took them, he would be this other person for a while and that helped him forget who he was. He could be a 16 year old girl at her prom or a 29 year ball player hitting the game-winning home run at the World Series. He would be anyone but himself. And I dunno, I had fun writing this story, and it wasn’t something I had written in over a decade. My stuff had all been about heavy drama and shit like that, and the weight of trying to write something that I can sell to a “serious” publisher became too much for me.
So I stopped writing. And because I stopped, I stopped reading, too. At least reading fun and enjoyable fiction. Instead I focused on non-fiction stuff that was all about optimizing my life in some way, to be a “better” person, a “smarter” person. All that stupid bullshit.
But then I read Kaiju Preservation Society and Slow Horses this week, both on the same day—Slow Horses in the morning, Kaiju Preservation Society in the afternoon—and I remembered why I wanted to be a writer in the first place. Because writing was fun. Writing an action hero who was tougher than Nathan Drake or a thief better than Neil McCauley. That was all fun to me, and goddammit, I miss that shit. And you know? Nobody gives a shit if I write serious fiction or whatever, because honestly, nobody gives a shit about me, right? And what I mean by that is I’m an unknown. I’ve never been published, so who cares?
I did for so long, and now I don’t care. I want to write whatever the fuck I want to write.
Focus
A big reason why I was able to read so much (to me) this week was because I made some changes to try and curtail some of my bad habits. For weeks now I’ve been using Apple’s Screen Time and Focus modes to help me curb my social media usage. In a way, it worked, but only with Facebook and Instagram, surprisingly. I set a limit of 10 minutes on both of these apps, and that has been more than enough for me. I never reach it! Once I get the 5 minute left notification, I stop using those apps and move on. It used to be 20 minutes, but that included Mastodon and Micro.blog, but these last two apps have been awful to my attention and focus, so I deleted them from my phone. I’ll admit, I had that twitch to check my phone for the first few days, but once I grew used to not having them on my phone, I started to feel better. But still not where I wanted to be.
So I set another limit, and that was on Reeder, my RSS reader of choice. I set a limit of 30 minutes on that, and I made the decision to only check it once throughout the day. The evening is what I chose. After work, after my workout, before dinner. 30 minutes has been more than enough for me to check my feeds for the day. I would add anything I wanted to read later into GoodLinks, and when I can, I would read those later. I again felt that twitch to check Reeder earlier this week, but by Wednesday, that twitch disappeared. Instead, I would pick up one of my two books and read that instead. And again, surprisingly, I have loved this change. It has given me more time and focus to read, and with this rediscovered writing energy, I hope more time and focus to write, too.
But not yet. I’m not quite there yet. What needs to change? I’m not sure. My focus is on a lot of things right now: trying to find another hour of sleep, changing my eating habits and trying to eat better, working out more and working out harder, reading more books, and now trying to write more, too. So, I have a lot on my mind right now. If I can somehow figure out to do and fit all this into my life?
One of the bits of friction I encountered when setting up my lists on my Bookshop store page was finding the books I wanted to add. Typing the title and author for every book was tedious, so I wanted something quicker. Fortunately, if you’re an Apple user, there’s Apple Shortcuts.
Shortcuts includes a built-in barcode scanner, and that made creating this simple shortcut even easier. These three simple actions has made searching for books on Bookshop quick and easy. Shortcuts is good for things like that. Now to keep reading Slow Horses—it’s so good!
Over the weekend, I spent time sprucing up my Bookshop store page. I’ve had the store for a few years, but I hadn’t publicized it, and the only list I had were the books I read in 2020. A few things prompted this activity: I love buying my books at Bookshop.org, and I hate how few books I’ve read this year. So I came up with an idea I’m not sure will work forever but works well enough now, and that’s using my store page to both track some of my reading and to promote those books that I love, those books that have shaped who I am today.
I’ve broken up my page into several lists:
Currently Reading
Up Next
Essential Fiction
Essential Non-Fiction
Year in Reading: 2021
Year in Reading: 2020
The first section is made up of two lists: the books I’m currently reading and those books I would like to read next. The latter are books that are sitting on my shelf behind my couch, and they’re books I had hoped to get to this year but didn’t. They also include recent purchases, like The Passenger Box Set by Cormac McCarthy, books I pre-ordered back in March. These two lists will also be the only two lists I will keep updated regularly, as long as I feel like this activity holds any value for me.
Bookshop makes this very easy to maintain. All I have to do is find the book on Bookshop, scroll down until I find the Your Affiliate Link section, then click on Add to My Book Lists. There, I can add or remove books from my lists. I feel like this removes just enough friction that maintaining my lists will be easy.
The second section is made up of two more lists: the fiction and non-fiction books I’ve read that I love and have influenced me in some way. Admittedly, my fiction list is dominated by male authors, mostly Cormac McCarthy and Dennis Lehane, and I wouldn’t have noticed that if I hadn’t made up this list. That is one thing I would like to change about my book selection. If you have any recommendations, email me and let me know. I’m always looking to expand and grow as a person.
My essential non-fiction selection is a bit better on that front, but it’s still a bit sausage-heavy. They are still books that I’ve loved and have shaped my thinking in ways I can’t explain. Book lists and recommendations are inherently personal, which jives with the theme of my website. I mean, this website does exactly what it says on the tin.
Finally, my third section contains and will contain all the books I’ve read in any given year, going back to 2020. My personal reading log goes back to 2010, but I didn’t want to have that many lists on my page, so I’m focusing on just 2020. That also happens to be the year I both started this blog (again) and wrote my first Year in Reading post.
Each one of these “Year in Reading” lists has a short description linking back to my respective blog post, and that is why I don’t have my 2022 list up yet. I have created it, though, and that’s another cool thing Bookshop allows you to do: it allows you to hide lists from your store page. I’ve created my “Year in Reading: 2022” list and have added the books I’ve read into it, but I won’t make it visible until the end of the year sometime, whenever I write my Year in Reading: 2022 post.
I believe all of this will allow me to better track my reading, to help me decide what to read next, and to display my reading journey in a visually appealing way. This also provides one more thing:
The one and only way you, my one reader, can support me.
I’ve never been one to ask anyone for support. I’ve always just done things on my own and asking anyone for help literally gives me hives. But I figured that promoting those books I love can also help someone else out there, if only a little bit. Maybe you’ve never read Cormac McCarthy or Marcus Aurelius, and maybe if you used my store page to buy one or two of these books and read them, then maybe these books would have helped you like they helped me. That’s a pretty cool thought, right?
If anything, this method of tracking my books will help me get reading again. That’s always the ultimate goal.
Oh, one more thing: I have removed all links back to Bookshop.org on any previous blog posts that had them. I feel like linking to books using my affiliate links whenever I write about a book is both tedious and a bit disingenuous, like I’m only writing about the book so I could make money off of it or something. That’s not how I roll. If a book is worth writing about, it’s worth writing about, and if it is, I will have added that book to one of my “essential” lists. Check back to my store if you’re ever considering buying a book I’ve written about here. There’s a good chance I will have included it into one of my lists.
And as always, thank you again for reading. That’s really cool. You’re really cool. (Now go buy some books! From my store, preferably, but it’s cool if not. No pressure.)
I’ve meditated for 5,000 minutes with Headspace. Another way to think about it: that’s 3 days, 11 hours, and 20 minutes spent focusing on my breath with my eyes closed.
Thanks to Last.fm, I found and bought Hyper Light Drifter by Disasterpeace. I played and loved the game last year, and the soundtrack was a big reason why. Glad to own it now.
Now to actually listen to all this music. Good times ahead.
The friendly competition between my friend and me is ongoing, and she has been kicking my ass all week. Today, I decided to change that by doing 30 minutes of yoga in the morning, then a 20 minute strength workout followed by a 20 minute HIIT workout in the afternoon. I’m now kicking her ass, but at what cost?
Here are some notes from today, this 2nd day of December, 2022:
Hibernation Mode
God or whoever decided to take a cold dump on us yesterday. Tis the season and all that.
I’ve been telling my friends that it’s hibernating in my cave time, but they’re having none of it. I was invited to a friend’s house tomorrow, and I told her I’d be there. Who am I?
I am shutting down my social channels, because that I can control. My feeds will be auto-posting to Mastodon but I won’t be checking it for anything for an indeterminate amount of time. Maybe once the sun comes out again?
I want to focus on my work and health this season. Part of that work involves writing my novel again.
ChatGPT
I tried ChatGPT today, and, of course, because my mind was on my novel, I started my conversation with that. Let me just say, I was very impressed! I can totally see Google or whoever using this technology to power their search engine, and instead of a list of links, we could all one day be having a conversation with ChatGPT or what(who?)ever to find the information we’re looking for. I’m curious to see where this goes.
The Chat
I’m writing a novel about the origins of human mythology—gods and demons and the story we tell ourselves about the world we see. What are some good books to get me started on my research?
There are many great books that explore the origins of human mythology and religion. Some of the classics in the field include “The Hero with a Thousand Faces” by Joseph Campbell, “The Power of Myth” by Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers, and “The Golden Bough” by Sir James Frazer. These books offer insight into the common themes and motifs found in myths and religious stories from around the world. Additionally, books like “Gods, Demons, and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia” by Jeremy Black and “The Ancient Gods Speak” by Donald B. Redford offer more specific insights into the mythology of ancient cultures.
Could you tell me more about what “The Golden Bough” by Sir James Frazer is about?
Certainly! “The Golden Bough” is a classic work of comparative mythology and religion by Sir James Frazer. The book is a wide-ranging exploration of the beliefs, customs, and institutions of various cultures from around the world, with a focus on the role of magic and religion in shaping human society. One of the central ideas of the book is the concept of the “sacred king,” a figure who is believed to possess divine power and who serves as the link between the human and spiritual worlds. The book also explores the rituals and practices associated with the sacred king, including the concept of the “golden bough,” a symbol of his power and authority. Overall, “The Golden Bough” offers a fascinating look at the beliefs and practices of different cultures and is a valuable resource for anyone interested in the origins of human mythology and religion.
What have others said about James Frazer’s idea of the “sacred king”?
Frazer’s concept of the “sacred king” has been both highly influential and highly controversial. Some have praised the book for its comprehensive approach to the study of mythology and religion, as well as its innovative ideas about the role of magic and ritual in shaping human societies. Others, however, have criticized the book for its outdated and overly broad approach to the subject, as well as its lack of focus on the specific beliefs and practices of individual cultures. Some have also questioned the validity of Frazer’s ideas, arguing that they are based on outdated and flawed assumptions about the nature of religion and myth. Despite these criticisms, “The Golden Bough” remains an important and widely read work in the field of comparative mythology and religion.
What other books did “The Hero with a Thousand Faces” inspire?
“The Hero with a Thousand Faces” by Joseph Campbell is a highly influential work in the field of comparative mythology and religion. In the book, Campbell explores the common themes and motifs found in myths and folktales from around the world, and argues that these stories can be seen as part of a universal “monomyth” or hero’s journey. Campbell’s ideas have had a profound impact on a wide range of fields, including literature, psychology, and film.
One of the most notable books influenced by “The Hero with a Thousand Faces” is “The Power of Myth,” a book that grew out of a series of conversations between Campbell and journalist Bill Moyers. In the book, Campbell expands on many of the ideas from “The Hero with a Thousand Faces,” discussing the role of myth and religion in shaping human culture and experience.
Other books that have been influenced by “The Hero with a Thousand Faces” include “The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers” by Christopher Vogler, which applies Campbell’s ideas to the field of screenwriting, and “The Inner Reaches of Outer Space: Metaphor as Myth and as Religion” by Joseph Campbell, which explores the role of myth and metaphor in shaping human understanding of the world. Overall, “The Hero with a Thousand Faces” has had a significant impact on the study of mythology and religion, and continues to inspire new ideas and approaches in these fields.
When I came up with my story idea, the first book I thought of was The Hero with a Thousand Faces. I read that over a decade ago, so it’s been on my list of books to re-read. Earlier this year, I watched The Power of Myth, and it was incredible. I immediately bought the book, and it’s on my “to read” shelf as I write this. I’m amazed ChatGPT started off with these two works, and the other books it mentioned blew my mind. I had never heard of The Golden Bough by Sir James Frazer, but I am definitely intrigued. If anything, it gave me a reading list to checkout:
Gods, Demons, and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia by Jeremy Black
The Ancient Gods Speak by Donald B. Redford
The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers by Christopher Vogler
The Inner Reaches of Outer Space: Metaphor as Myth and as Religion by Joseph Campbell
I have to say, this is really cool technology, and I am intrigued to see where this goes.
Ping
Remember Ping, Apple’s failed social network built into iTunes? I remember being interested in it when I watched Steve Jobs announce it, and I did try it for a few weeks after it launched. I followed some celebrities on there and watched as the feed showed that so and so just bought the new White Stripes album or whatever. I liked it, but then yeah, the spam, the fake accounts…
But in that similar spirit, here are some albums I bought this week:
Björk: Medulla
Björk: Biophilia
Björk: Utopia
The Knife: Deep Cuts
Sudan Archives: Athena
Sudan Archives: Natural Brown Prom Queen
SZA: Ctrl (Deluxe)
I finished buying Björk’s discography, which makes me happy. Not having Deep Cuts by the Knife was an oversight on my part, so I needed to rectify that ASAP. I had been a fan of Sudan Archives since I discovered her over the summer, so I’ve been enjoying her two albums. SZA has not been on my radar at all, but I sometimes like to buy albums I know nothing about but that have received good reviews just to expand my musical tastes. So far, I’m loving her. Really good.
Yesterday, I also subscribed to Last.fm Pro. I’ve been “scrobbling since 15 Jan 2022,” and I enjoy it. Considering I’d rather buy my music than stream it, I am curious to see what kind of trends I’ve had this year, similar to Spotify’s Wrapped or Apple Music’s Replay. You can find me on Last.fm over here.
In the end, NaBloPoMo was a blast, and I’m going to miss it.
“What could go wrong?” I asked in my introductory post. Thirty posts later, and I can safely say that I loved every minute I blogged in November, and goddammit, I’m going to keep blogging, aren’t I? Fuck’s sake.
In the last month, I wrote over 16,000 words, for an average about 500 words a post. Do I have a favorite? In a way, they’re all my favorite (laaaame), but I see them all connected as the stuff I wrote in “November.” These are my “November” posts, and they all tell a story of how I lived this month.
Okay, if I had to choose, my post, On Spider-Man, a Friend, and a Broken Heart, was my favorite because of how personal it was and how I was able to weave a video game review into it. I didn’t think I could do that, but I think I pulled it off. You be the judge. This was also my longest post, and the one that took the most out of me, in a good way. Something to think about for the future.
Will I do this again next year? I hope not because—goddammit—I think I’m going to keep going. Maybe not daily (I’m definitely taking tomorrow off), but more regularly for sure. I want to continue writing my weekly notes on Fridays, and I think I’d like to continue my Sunday Appreciation posts, too. The latter might be once or twice a month, not sure yet.
All in all, I had lots of fun, and I hope to keep going. So let’s keep going!
“In another lifetime, I used to be an EMT,” I told the 8th grade student on our way to the gym. She giggled and continued walking. “Back when I was a firefighter. Me and the principal used to be EMTs, actually. Once upon a time.”
“Wait, for real? I thought you were joking.”
“What? I never joke,” I deadpanned. She laughed again. “So tell me again what happened.” She did, and I started to walk faster.
We walked through the lobby doors, and she led me toward the basketball courts. A small group of middle school students were huddled around the boy. The PE teacher held him up from behind while her husband lied on the ground next to the boy’s left leg. The teacher held tight to the boy and winced. The boy groaned in pain.
“There,” her husband said.
He popped the boy’s dislocated knee back into place. The boy’s face was whiter than the fresh snow that fell overnight, but he was fine.
“You popped it back in?” I asked the husband, another teacher on staff. He said yes, and I, motioning to the student who fetched me, said, “She made it sound worse than it was.”
“It looked really bad,” the PE teacher and wife of the kneecap magician said. “It really looked like the bone was going to cut right through the skin. I panicked, so that’s why I sent her to get you, but then I remembered my husband was just in the other building, so I had another student fetch him.”
The husband and another student helped the boy to his feet. He couldn’t put any pressure on his leg, but he looked relieved to have his kneecap facing the right direction. I looked the boy over, made sure he was okay, and I helped him to the locker room. He sat down on the bench and stretched his leg out. I looked at his knee, and sure enough, everything looked to be in working order.
Another teacher prepared a bag of ice and gave it to me. After I gave it to the boy, I left the locker room and called the principal. I gave him the details, and he told me the boy’s father was on his way. “He’s an hour away, though.”
Fucking Montana.
I told to the boy to rest and to keep the knee iced. “The swelling needs to go down,” I told him.
I talked to the PE teacher and she told me that her husband, a former football coach, had vast experience popping arms back into their shoulders, but he had never done knees before.
“Joints are joints,” I said.
We talked some more, and I checked on the boy again before I left and walked back to the main office. A few minutes before the end of school, the boy, helped by another student, walked to the front office with all his stuff. We sat him down and grabbed a chair for him to rest his leg on.
“The fact that you could walk all the way over here with very little help is a good thing,” the Superintendent said.
“Yeah,” the boy agreed.
Once the bell rang, I grabbed my stuff and left the building. My EMT license expired two years ago, but every now and then, I think about renewing it again. Today was a good example why.
I love seeing children in pain.
No, I’m joking. I like helping people, I like action, and I like solving problems. Being an EMT had all of that, but I let my license lapse right before COVID shut the world down. Every now and then I think about renewing it, but—I don’t know—I feel like that part of my life has ended.
Time marches forward and all that.
I was hoping to see a mangled kneecap, in all honesty. Next time.
This morning, my phone reminded me that I was very lazy over holiday break.
I averaged 3,190 steps over the previous five days, which is accurate. I spent my break living like a lazy person, and I enjoyed every second of it. But I knew that type of life wouldn’t last forever, so today I returned to work: I both clocked into my job, and I pulled out my workout mat and burned some calories.
I’m understating it when I say I’m tired. My resting heart rate for the past hour has been in the 70s, up from a yearly average of 49bpm. After my workout, I texted my friend, “🤮🤮🤮.”
She replied by challenging me to a 7-day competition on our Apple Watches.
