Jim Baumbach

. . .there's a global pandemic and your life hasn't changed all that much? I still skip 2 spaces after a period. I create more distance than is customary. Even using a period is considered controversial to some. It turns out I was anti-social to begin with but until that became the norm, I'd never noticed. Now I've noticed and am reconsidering, which is the step before changing. Or not.

And why post to it if you're not reading it? Well, one can always hope. But, as they say, be careful what you wish for.

What would someone (i.e. you) find interesting to read? I could trick you with click bait, but that's not the point. I'm not asking this question because I have an answer. I'm hoping to discover one in the writing. (And now I imagine those of you who were hoping I could give you the solution will be turning elsewhere.)

What do people choose to read? Things which promise them something but don't sound like con jobs. This reminds me of the George Burns line “The key to success is sincerity. If you can fake that you've got it made.” People like to read something short and funny and with a celebrity in it. Do people still know who George Burns is?

People like to read stories with someone they know (or think they know) or can identify with in them. If you get to know me (and why should you?) you might read just to see what's happening in my life. I think journals work this way. I think I would need some sort of general theory of what counts as a happening and what counts as a life to do that. My fear is that my general theory would look nothing like yours. In general my way of looking at things is uncommon. In specific it's probably more common than I care to admit.

What's happening now is that I'm getting tired of writing this (so early on? Proof I'm not cut out to be a writer.) and would like to just stop here and wander off elsewhere. And who's to stop me?

I spent the morning playing blitz chess on line since I declared it a hobby and felt honor bound to pursue it. It's more of an addiction than a hobby, including the requirement for use of that term that it have harmful effects, the most detrimental of which is that it wastes enormous amounts of time. Today, though, its effect is that I'm continually reminded of how easy it is to blunder despite the best of intentions, only I can't decide if this is something I need to remember or really just an excuse not to try things.