On Friday, it’ll be 34 years since I first became a father. It’s the role I’ve played most consistently (if not always brilliantly) in this lifetime. Since then that time of year that used to feel like “back to school” has felt more like “woah! wtf?! we made a person!”
I’ve done a lot of dadding, but I still feel like a noob. Last week we went to Frinton for a few days and Ewan joined us for a couple. We had good conversations over the breakfasts that I made for us. Cleared some things up, laughed at ourselves, got a bit more understanding. Walked down to the sea and paddled together. Like you do. Like we do.
This is my desk this morning. Yes it’s a mess, but it’s my mess and I love all the bits of it.
I’m finding it hard to disconnect from the rolling dopamine frenzy driven by social media algorithms. I bet nobody else ever feels like this (ha!) Even when I write here, I’m thinking, should I be putting this somewhere else? Should it be somewhere where it will get more engagement? So the work at the moment is to simply put one word after another, here in my own place, to practice detaching from who is reading or even who is just noticing that I’ve posted something – which is what I’m doing most of the time when I’m scrolling. It takes a lot for me to click through, but I think, “Oh, @friend47 has posted something, that’s nice”
That can’t be what all this typing is for. Just a mutual neurotransmitter depletion game.
I think though that I will resurrect my mastodon presence, not because I think masto is a great place to hang out, more that wordpress has good integration with it. You get to see the full text (unless it’s ridiculously long) rather than a link that you won’t click on unless I write a click-baity caption that will take as much time and effort as writing the actual post in the first place.
Dan has been appointed Writer in Residence on the Sittingbourne Steam Railway and has published his first piece.
One sentence – four links, that’s what the web gives you, my dears.
Thanks to the awesome Bernie Mitchell, I just went along to “Unreasonable Connection” billed as the “world’s smallest coworking event” – it’s a tightly-run (but relaxed) hour-long call with a bunch of people running spaces or building community or both. Interesting conversation about the things that we think we *ought* to do in a space and what actually works. I was in a break out with lovely people doing their coworking magic in London, Tunbridge Wells and Toronto. Thanks Bernie!
In the last couple of days, I’ve watched both Oppenheimer and Barbie (in that order). Over the weekend, I rewatched Stephen Poliakoff’s 1999 TV play ‘Shooting The Past’. So all in all, I’m feeling a bit emosh.
Perfect Path 