In Between the Mixtapes

I have a new habit of writing for 30 minute every day before work. It’s a habit that I’ve heard successful people do, so I’m going to do it because I hope to be successful. I sit with a Byword page open and I type things; usually about what’s on my mind, because I have opinions and if there’s anything I’ve learned in the past 20 years of the Internet it’s that my opinions matter as long as they’re typed onto a website.

For the past few weeks, the 30 minutes of typing has led to a larger blog post about web accessibility — A WORK THING — and a rant about my marginally smart home — A CURRENT EVENT THING — but it turns out that really all I want to write about is how I ended up discovering Sunny Day Real Estate before all of my friends back in 1994.

I like to say my new habit is writing, but really my new habit is cautious curation — I have taken to balancing out my topics day by day, understanding that while part of me wants to write about the second Engine Kid record, that’s not the part that needs to grow. That’s the part that needs to be refined, I figure, but not the part that needs to expand.

And so I go back to the work thing, or the current event thing. And while that’s not what I want to write, that’s okay — I’ve found the most growth jumping into things that feel more structured and necessary; pressing my thumbs into my eyes and forcing out the last few lines of something concrete and thoughtful has always built confidence more than another blog post about Quicksand.

The beauty of resurfacing this blog is that I’m excited to show it off again. But I’m doing it my way this time, making things a bit more purposeful. And while I’ll never put enough seriousness into things to shape public discourse, I’ll at least know that I tried doing something real — somewhere within all of those mixtapes.