I’ve been stuck in a perfectionist mindset for a while, and that needs to stop.
This is the old me. I recognize that this is an old voice in my head. I know this isn’t good for me. I recognize these thoughts as other people, such as family or society.
It’s still a pain to sort through these, and get to what I want. What I feel. What is true to me.
Change is hard, and comes slowly.
At the time of this post, I have 52 draft posts.
I haven’t published these for many reasons. All are signs that I have changed. That I have grown as a person since I started blogging 2+ years ago.
Reasons why for the drafts: lost interest, procrastination, felt it didn’t sit right, potentially over sharing, the post needed more time to breathe, timing for SEO wasn’t great, or the post simply needed more work, or I had to prioritize self care.
I accept and resent that I have Long Covid. Like all chronic illness, it is unpredictable. I have been doing well on self care and asserting my needs to others with this illness. It’s come first this year since I caught it in January. I really took for granted all that time I had before this disease that I could write with some effort. All that time that I could choose to do activities instead of not having that choice due to symptoms.
I have to remind myself that it’s okay to not be perfect. Perfect is subjective. Life is often lived in the gray area. Yes it is possible to sometimes have it all line up, and things unfold in a perfect manner, in your point of view.
All this is to say that I have to remind myself to be okay with good enough. Putting an imperfect post out like this is better for yourself and the blog than nothing. Every post counts. If only for the sake of writing it. Publishing it is good too.
Good enough is better than nothing at all. Each step is progress. The doing is the point. The doing is living life.
This is good enough for today. The “perfect” amazing posts are in your head, Reilly. Sure it would be nice if one or a few went viral, or hell, brought slightly more attention with new readers other than people you already know, and the few subscribers who do read your stuff. (Love Y’all)
If you fuck up, or nobody reads this post, which has happened before being as this blog is tiny… Whatever.
I am finally living the life I want, and who I want to be. I’m not perfect. I’m simply doing my best and being open to what life presents me. With these five words, this post is over 500! Good enough!
I’ve gotten into this groove with blogging and I haven’t had as much fun with it for a while. Recently I went and read posts from the past few months and noticed a pattern. What I’ve been posting has been serious and introspective. Which are good traits to have… It’s good to reflect on yourself and your life. It’s good to check in and ask how you are doing and get feedback from others. The problem is that I haven’t had as much fun with writing.
Which I do as both a person with autism and ADHD. I hyperfocus. I obsess about problems or things that become special interests, and I want to solve them and master them. I enjoyed writing that essay for the Seattle Times. The whole experience was great. That was a different kind of fun. What I want now is to creatively experiment.
Creative experiment
What I mean by a “creative experiment” is to try new things. Write about other topics than myself. I haven’t written fiction in a long time. I haven’t written recipe posts in a long time. I haven’t written much about issues I care about.
So, I’m going to mix in posts that take more time to write. So, I’m figuring out how to open more time to write. Because longer or different writing style posts take longer for me to complete than those about my life. I’ll still be doing those. I’m simply filling different unmet creative needs.
Misc thoughts
The process of writing the mental health essay made me realize how much I need to improve as a writer.
My biggest obstacle is time management, recognizing when I can write, and writing while working a full-time job. It’s hard to write when I’m so burnt out on the weekends and feel brain dead. It’s hard to not want to watch tv or browse online to relax.
It’s hard to write when I’m feeling wiped out due to Long Covid. I still have one or more days where I don’t want to go to work because of physical exhaustion and inflammation… Even though it’s a normal work day, and I haven’t done anything to feel tired. On those days, I typically crash when I get home.
So, I’ll have a new post tomorrow sometime. I’m writing this in my car as I clocked out 15 minutes ago. It’s not an ideal location to write as it’s hot.
I’m back from my break! The heatwave last week sure drained me. The break was just what I needed, and I know what I need going forward. Without further ado, here is A Unique Opportunity, Part 2.
Songs of the post: All My Life, My Hero By the Foo Fighters.
A couple months ago in April, I wrote to my local newspaper for an article pitch.
The Seattle Times has a series of articles about mental health called The Mental Health project where they ask the local community about their experiences…
“The Mental Health Project is a Seattle Times initiative focused on covering mental and behavioral health. The project illuminates a growing mental health crisis in the Seattle region, Washington state and beyond. It explores the many types of mental illness people experience, spotlights promising treatments and research, and examines actions by government agencies, nonprofits and health providers to address the problem.
Evidence points to worrying signs of a mental health crisis in the Northwest, across the country and around the world, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, economic fallout and the nation’s racial reckoning. The rise in anxiety is straining schools, legal systems and social services, and disproportionately hitting vulnerable people, including people of color. In the Puget Sound region, Seattle Children’s has seen a concerning increase in visits for psychiatric emergencies, and schools are grappling with the effects of trauma and stress on students’ ability to learn. Adding to the challenge: a shortage of therapists and other options for treatment.
The Mental Health Project explores these issues and more. The project is funded by Ballmer Group, a national organization focused on economic mobility for children and families. Seattle Times editors and reporters operate independently of our funders and maintain full editorial control over all coverage.
Our team — editor Diana Samuels, reporters Hannah Furfaro and Esmy Jimenez, and engagement editor Michelle Baruchman — welcomes the community’s help in guiding and informing our coverage. Please email any thoughts, tips or story ideas to mentalhealth@seattletimes.com, share them on Twitter at @stmentalhealth, or leave a voicemail at 206-464-2090.
Back in April, on 4/20/22 (Omg, both the classic stoner holidayandAutism Awareness month! I find this funny because I am both Autistic and a Stoner. I never noticed until today… Haha), I wrote to their project email account, pitching an article idea. I had read an article in the Seattle times newspaper about feeling anxious about returning to the office. I decided to take a chance and write to them about my experience in the mental health system. An Autism-centered story proposal- The lack of formal diagnosis tools for adults. I honestly didn’t expect my story pitch to be accepted… let alone published.
That week was so stressful, A classic Murphy’s Law week where what could go wrong, did. I was home after getting awful side effects from the Moderna booster shot. I felt called to write this article because of my past experience and it felt like the right thing to do. I would regret it for the rest of my life if I didn’t take the chance to make it happen and possibly make the world a better place.
The Article after this awesome quote by Terrance McKenna, and drawn into a comic by Gavin Aung Than.
I’m 36, and it wasn’t until two years ago that I was diagnosed with autism. I was lucky to even find out.
The years before involved multiple therapists that didn’t work, medication that gave me bad side effects, and misdiagnoses. Navigating insurance was a constant struggle.
The first psychiatrist I saw prescribed amphetamine medication for ADHD. That medication resulted in three heart attacks at age 22. Another psychiatrist prescribed two dozen different medications. Only one worked for ADHD, but my insurance didn’t cover it so I couldn’t afford it. I can only take it now because there is a generic form available.
It was hard for me to connect with therapists because I didn’t know how therapy worked, what kinds of treatment are available and that it’s based on developing comfortable, trusting relationships.
I later sought help from the mental health organization Valley Cities. I went through several therapists there with no success. One left for another job, one finished her internship for college, and a couple just weren’t a good fit for my needs.
It was also around this time that I started to believe I may be on the autism spectrum. No other diagnosis was fitting completely; depression, anxiety and ADHD only partially explained the behaviors and symptoms I had in social situations. Information I found online showed me that I did have some traits and could be on the spectrum.
I asked my Valley Cities therapist at the time what I had to do to be tested. She said the only testing available was designed for children and teens, and I would have to go to Children’s hospital in Seattle or search online for a test. This is like asking a person with a broken leg to go buy new bandages and medical supplies on their own, without help.
I gave up in frustration and despair. Medication somewhat worked, but the side effects were awful. And although therapy groups were helpful, I needed an individual therapist I could trust. I had been spinning my wheels and not feeling or seeing improvement in my life. My faith in the system was shattered.
Meanwhile, I needed to work full time to pay bills, so I took a job as a cook, which meant I had to give up my Washington state Medicaid coverage. Suddenly, everything that had been covered through Apple Health, including therapy, medication, doctor visits and sleep studies, was in peril. The cheapest, lowest-coverage insurance was all I could afford on minimum-wage work.
The early days of the pandemic, and the months leading up to it, were excruciating with few moments of joy.
My 18-year-old cat died, I lost my job, and the pandemic ended the board game night I attended at a friend’s house. I was smoking too much marijuana, and drinking too often. I was close to attempting suicide. I was toxic in a breakup with a friend who didn’t deserve it, which was the last straw.
I asked my mother to bring me to the hospital. The therapist at Swedish referred me to Sound Mental Health. I’m grateful that I chose to try therapy one more time, despite years of mixed results, because finally, luck went my way. I was assigned a therapist after a consultation who could treat me. As we continued working together, I began trusting her and we clicked.
On my third appointment, I asked about getting screened for autism. My therapist at Sound found a test for children and teens and asked me a series of questions, although some weren’t relevant for my age. I found out I am autistic the week of my 34th birthday in April, which also happens to be Autism Awareness Month.
Finding out was a relief because I now have something to work off of, and I know why I behave a certain way or struggle in social situations.
With a guide and stable professional support, I spent the pandemic working on myself full time. Therapy over Zoom worked for me. I met my Sound therapist in person at a park last summer for our final visit.
These days, I’m doing better. I’m in the process of self discovery and self awareness with autism. I am seeing a new therapist through Kaiser to work on the skills I began developing and practicing in 2021, and I smoke less weed and drink less alcohol than I did two years ago.
I do sometimes wonder if I’m having brief setbacks because I felt more comfortable during the lockdown than I do in the regular world.
But I’m also thinking about how long this process took.
It’s hard enough to find a therapist who accepts your insurance, accepts new clients, and has availability during the day that fits around work schedules. How am I supposed to grow as a person on the spectrum when autism in adults doesn’t have a formal guide of how it presents, and how to fit in?
There needs to be more research on autism in adults. It’s odd that I had to find out myself by looking online. Autism presents itself differently at every age group. By not having this knowledge for adults, we are causing unnecessary harm by misdiagnosing medical conditions.
Reilly Anderson lives in Seattle and works in the cannabis industry.
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Okay, so it’s not a crisis per se. Thanks to SEO and how people respond to clickbait, this is the title.
On Existential and Crises
An accurate title would be Existential Blog transition. This title is a play on words for its everyday use in the human extinction climate crisis. AKA, climate change.
It annoys me that Existential is used for the global, human corporate capitalism-caused climate change crisis. Our extinction is in progress, and I’m fed up with being nice about it. Or allowing it to be downplayed by Corporate Democrats (The “bitch or ho” to Corporate Pimps) and straight-up money sluts, Republicans. This isn’t about gender. If you sell out for money, these terms are apt. Both are equally at fault. This is how you use the word “both sides” in the United States. Aka, Both sides of the Corporate coin.
Existentialism definition: a chiefly 20th century philosophical movement embracing diverse doctrines but centering on analysis of individual existence in an unfathomable universe and the plight of the individual who must assume ultimate responsibility for acts of free will without any certain knowledge of what is right or wrong or good or bad
This section from Wikipedia describes the existential crisis American is in:
“Existential crises have various negative consequences, both on the personal level, such as anxiety and the formation of bad relationships, and the social level, such as a high divorce rate and decreased productivity. They may also have positive effects by pushing the affected to address the underlying issue and thereby develop as a person. Some questionnaires, such as the Purpose in Life Test, can be used to measure whether someone is currently undergoing an existential crisis. Because of the primarily negative consequences, it is important that existential crises are resolved. The most common approach is to help the affected find meaning in their life. This can happen through a leap of faith, in which the individual places their trust into a new system of meaning, or through a reasoned approach focusing on a careful and evidence-based evaluation of the sources of meaning. Some theorists recommend a nihilistic approach, in which the individual accepts that life is meaningless and tries to find the best way to cope with this fact. Other approaches include cognitive behavior therapy and the practice of social perspective-taking.
Outside psychology and psychotherapy, the term “existential crisis” is sometimes used to indicate that the existence of something is threatened.”
I digress. I got a bit off-topic there and felt I had to rant about that before getting into this post. So, in summary, I was wrong about existential crises in this context. Yeah, climate change is an existential crisis in humanity’s existence.
I realize that this post isn’t SEO-friendly. Or I’m doing that thing in psychology where I’m I’m the one in an existential crisis. That was why I missed work earlier this week because of anxiety… I’m better; I have been doing better since then.
This is because life is going well… And I’m so used to it, not that I’m afraid even though I’m doing the right things.
The Existential Blog Crisis
I think it’s time. Time to give the blog an overhaul. I don’t feel that the current name satisfies any longer. I chose the unknown Reilly because when I started in March 2020, I was at rock bottom, and it felt like a novel. Because of the chaotic beginning of the pandemic, Because that was the most painful period of my life to date (Well, except for the summer of 2009. That’s another potential post.), the near future felt like an unknown. I felt like I didn’t know myself. America felt like (and more so today, I sure didn’t expect that.) an unknown. Life was a novel where I lived hour to hour, day to day.
No longer.
I don’t feel like I am, nor is life an unknown anymore. Of course, nobody knows the future. However, I feel comfortable moving forward because I know myself better 26 months later.
I un-un know now. (😅 Okay, okay enough with using the word unknown.)
So, I’m thinking of changing the name, the site design and layout, and the way of writing that reflects this. I feel that I’ve neglected these, and while I am frustrated that traffic and subscribers have stalled, the bottom line is that I can do better. I want to do the best I can because I like blogging. I want to do better because this makes me feel alive. I want to keep discovering. I want to fulfill the potential for greatness.
Im not giving up, and I haven’t run out of motivation. It feels fair to be the best you can be at something for its intrinsic value. I am doing it because I love to.
The problem is, that going back and fixing the (Holy shit) 136 posts would be expensive and time-consuming to correct to be SEO-friendly. I want to feel and see from the word press blog stats that the blog is developing. That’s fair after two years of posting. It’s frustrating to take the time to write what I feel is an excellent post, and few see it. Or it doesn’t add new subscribers. I need to figure out why.
I’ll find out slowly in my free time between working a full-time job and life. I wish I could afford to hire someone, but with 136 posts… That would be expensive. And… I do this as a hobby and don’t make money blogging. I’m not sure I want to blog or make money as a living blogging. I don’t want to repeat the mistake in the life of working a career I enjoy –I used to be a personal chef and worked in restaurants for years– then ended up resenting it or losing my passion because it became an obligation. So, I’ll proceed slowly. It’s tough to make a living writing or blogging… Like lottery odds. Anyway. Maybe in the future.
In conclusion, my current essential crisis moment is in the popular definition of the word… To find a new meaning based on the information I understand today. I’m aware of this and know what I need now. Whether to dive into it as a career or to be a writer of some kind as a living.
For now it’s an unknown.
Postscript.
I watched Iron Man 3 on Sunday, which has been a few years, and this speech Tony Stark gave at the movie’s end resonated with me. You can find it on YouTube if you search “Ironman 3 ending speech” since WordPress and YouTube are nitpicky about sharing. Spoilers…
I’m not sure what else to say here. The time off helped.
I’m not entirely refreshed about writing/blogging. Not having to do it for three weeks was necessary. I’m hard on myself whenever I mess up—a recovering perfectionist.
I needed that break. It forced me to do other fulfilling activities, such as cooking instead. My brain needed a rest.
I don’t know how often I’ll be putting out posts… For now, all I know is that I’m back to a regular schedule. I need deadlines and routines to function. I’m finally feeling comfortable at work and am starting to notice some headspace to think about other things.
It’s taken me a long time to be comfortable at work. At a place, I like working at. That’s a big deal for me.
I have to trust the process and appreciate the small steps. So, this post is the best I can do.
Long term, I’ll have to schedule breaks in the future.
This week I was contacted through the blog email by two different SEO marketers. One I said “Not interested. Waste of money for the size of my blog. Don’t email me anymore.” I’ve known for a while that SEO optimization is a skill I’ll have to learn. I don’t want to pay for anything I can learn for free. If there is one aspect of the internet I absolutely hate, its ads or obnoxious popups on websites. So much so, I’ve used multiple ad blockers and extensions to avoid as much advertising as possible. Currently I use: Adblock, Ghostery, Popup blocker ultimate, and Ublock Origin as Addons in Firefox. On my desktop PC I filter out more ads with Spybot.
On top of this, I only watch tv shows or movies through services that don’t have ads. The only time I see traditional ads is when I watch Seahawks games. In that case, I mute the game and browse the on my phone until the game returns. Or on Youtube for unskippable ads, I change tabs, or laser focus on the countdown clock until I can watch the video.
As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work, the computer-programmed algorithms that dictate search engine behavior, what people search for, the actual search terms or keywords typed into search engines, and which search engines are preferred by their targeted audience. SEO is performed because a website will receive more visitors from a search engine when websites rank higher on the search engine results page (SERP). These visitors can then potentially be converted into customers.[3]” Source
Small blog problems…
On one hand, this blog is tiny and not worth spending money on. On the other, for it to grow I had to play the game and learn this stuff. I enjoy the creative aspect of blogging, not the business aspect. Whenever I read how to do this stuff, my eyes glaze over, or I stop reading about it. I don’t enjoy social media advertising, and I only am consistent posting on the blog facebook page. I already have an addict relationship with Reddit, a social media platform. So I’m wary of spending any more time online. I worried that I will become addicted to other social media websites.
Nothing kills my interest faster in blogging when I go and read how to grow your blog posts, and met with SEO or social media adverting. It feels like a waste of time to invest years of effort and work into blogging for essentially a small business. I don’t want to start a business of any kind. Because that is a gamble. As the saying goes…. More money more problems. I don’t want to ruin my writing hobby by doing it for work.
Modern life is advertising
Along with this, I don’t enjoy the marketing aspect of work or dating. the thing I struggle with most in seeking work is writing cover letters. Not because I don’t know how to do it, but because its dishonest. Writing cover letters for entry level work feels so forced and phony. No I am not passionate about your company or workplace. I don’t know anything about how it actually operates on a daily basis or the work culture. I have to make a decision based on biased information that the company presents. I don’t want to network, I don’t have a linkedin nor do I want one. My ideal job is one that I forget exists when I leave the workplace.
So I and everyone else put up with browsing job ads, sell yourself through your cover letter, and sell yourself in the interview. Every interview is essentially a blind date.
Dating is advertising
Though I am dating someone now, I hate dating. My entire life I wanted to skip this step to the relationship part. I never actually wanted to do the process of dating. I don’t enjoy meeting new people. I’m an introvert, and I don’t need many friends. Dating is advertising. Once you get into a relationship it’s work. At it’s most basic form, you choose your partner every day. You choose to continue communication and resolve issues that come up. You choose to do stuff together to maintain the relationship. It’s supposed to be a bonus to two independent individuals who take care of themselves. In the best situation, this isn’t hard to do because both people understand each other and communicate on the same level. In bad relationships this doesn’t happen because of incompatibility, one party isn’t willing to grow, or its an abusive relationship.
I like being by myself and enjoy solitude. I’m very independent.
More on my thoughts about searching for entry level work here. (Irony in action… By pimping my own work.)
Back in February, before covid, I hosted a board game night at my house with friends. It was a regular thing we did every two weeks or so where we would play table top board games such as cards against humanity, or Raiders of the North Sea. I bought this deck for a future game night. Long story short, we had one more in person game night before April. I’ve only seen them in person once since all year.
The Icebreaker card deck is 150 unique questions in 6 different color coded categories to “break the ice” and get to know people.
Example: I pick out a card at random and it says: “If you could write a book, what would it be about?”
Answer: I’ve attempted to write two different books before. Both fantasy. Neither is finished. One is an epic fantasy where an unwilling drug addict gets addictive magic powers. The other is about 3 old hens raised in the city that stop laying eggs and are sent to a retirement farm… Things go wrong and they have to adapt to “The real world”. Someday I want to finish both. One of my reasons to start blogging was to publish these stories one chapter at a time, while improving the other skills needed for modern novelists such as social media marketing, building an audience, creating a writing routine with a deadline, and improving my writing skills. I’m not going to promise anything about posting those stories yet… But as I write this post, it is something I want to go back to. I feel that it wouldn’t be worth it unless I had a complete first draft done. That way I could guarantee a certain number of posts. Both have structure issues. Professional grade novel writing is tough because the average word count for a fantasy novel is between 50,000 – 150,000 words. So a good rule of thumb is to double or triple the amount of words you will need to write after multiple draft revisions. Writing novels is full time work, ruthlessly competitive, and doesn’t pay well for years. Anyway one step at a time.
Going back and reading your old stuff feels like this:
What’s your dream job if money didn’t matter?
My dream job is money didn’t matter? Writing. Some combination of blogging and novel writing. My favorite genres are Fantasy and Sci-Fi. During this extended unemployment in the pandemic, I’ve been living this life. Writing first called to me around 2012 because I felt like I ran out of anime shows I wanted to watch. I wanted to write one myself. I attempted multiple times to learn to draw, but don’t have the patience to master it, so I focused on writing. For a while now, writing has been a passion hobby. I’m worried about doing it full time for money because it’s something I enjoy. I made the mistake of making an interest into a career — cooking in restaurants, and resenting it after year of doing it professionally. This is why I haven’t done many recipe blog posts because that stirs up those feelings.
Thanks to living a hermit lifestyle due to social anxiety and undiagnosed functional autism, I’ve watched 159.92 total days of anime. I don’t regret that time. I went to work, but didn’t have much of a social life. I’m okay with having a few good friends as an introvert. But those stretches of time were pretty unhealthy looking back. I did the best I could to cope with my mental health problems with the lack of consistent help from therapists. This year has been strange because I am comfortable in the antisocial hermit lifestyle, but I also don’t want to live that life anymore. Thank goodness that is in the past. At the very least, it seems an end date is approaching for the pandemic late next year.
What I thought I needed to be creative
All play and no work makes me a dull boy! Seriously I need an external place to do work and a social life to function.
Thank you for reading this, if you enjoyed it, please give it a like, tell me what you think in the comments, and share on Facebook. Don’t forget to subscribe to my email list for updates!
Please wear a mask outside that covers your mouth and nose, wash your hands, clean your cell phone, and keep your physical distance (6 feet) from others to fight Covid-19! We got a long way to go before everyone is vaccinated.
A boundary is an invisible line you draw around yourself to identify what is acceptable behavior, and what is unacceptable behavior. The beauty of boundaries is that they are fluid and ever-evolving; for example, looser limits around extending yourself to others is easier when you’re younger and childless. As you age and gain insight, you’ll get a quicker read on energy vampires and narcissists.
Some people love boundaries because they represent structure, order, and rules. Others see limits as an unyielding set of laws where there are no gray areas, only black and white. A critical part of a healthy psyche is deciding on the right tension for your life. Psychological distress results from overly rigid or overly loose limits.“
I wonder that I’m a fool in love? Guess that’s what people mean when they say being in love makes you crazy.
I rather not wait until we get the covid vaccine. Is this too fast for a new relationship? Like, you want to see each other at least once a week right? Ah the joys of exploring a new love while getting to know each other.
Damn you Covid-19… I finally meet my first girlfriend and it’s not safe to visit.
It’s the right thing to do- to stay at home- but, man this is torture. I’m tired of being patient.
I hope I’m not clingy.
I hope I’m not oversharing…
Learning on the fly.
Internal Boundaries
Today I went back and edited a couple months of blog posts. I’ve been really bad about editing posts lately. A combination of little details such as adding a separation bar for clarity, adding the end slate with an email subscriber box, section headers to help search results, and adding tags/categories.
I’m finding my writers legs. It’s a tough balance. If I want to continue growing as a writer, and as a blogger, the next step to growth is to improve my revision and editing skills. Writing is rewriting. I can’t achieve goals without being aware of the quality of work I’ve done. These days I have all the time in the world. I feel like I’m trapped in a pandemic hamster wheel.
I feel ashamed of how lazy I’ve been. My days are turning into: wake up around 9am, shower, dress, eat, sit down at my PC and be on the computer/phone all day. Weekdays I’m limited to about 4 hours for seeking work. There’s only so many job openings and cover letters I can send before I run out. One day a week, I’ve had further job help with a job councilor through Sound Mental Health, where I get help for my issues. The rest of the day is a mix of watching futurama or forensic files for the 6th time because it’s soothing. My other activities are on the computer too, either relationship videos on YouTube, or audiobooks on Audible. It’s been this way for months. I wish I could go to places for activities. I exercise better with people in classes or sports.
Ugh, I hate being bored, but too exhausted from the pandemic blues to better myself.
I need to make a small adjustment to my daily routine.
Thank you for reading this, if you enjoyed it, please give it a like, tell me what you think in the comments, and share on Facebook. Don’t forget to subscribe to my email list for updates!
Please wear a mask outside that covers your mouth and nose, wash your hands, clean your cell phone, and keep your physical distance (6 feet) from others to fight Covid-19!
The last day of work, delayed, yet I’m still laid off.
As a life long single person, I’m quite comfortable dating myself. For a long time I’ve assumed I didn’t date myself. Another positive aperçu from 2020.
An overcast day… Perfect for Netflix and chill with the cats.
I feel like watching a kids movie…
Madagascar 2: whatever
I turn to Madagascar 2. I’ve seen it once before and remember nothing about it. It sucks. Sucks because the writing is awful. There no conflict, and every plot point resolved with dues ex machina bs. There’s no tension or intrigue. It’s 90 minutes of animals moving around and a classic case of “And then” writing. At worst, it teaches terrible lessons like “Love has no boundaries”, or, uncomfortably racist when all the zebra’s are identical to Chris Rocks zebra character.
10 minutes later and I’m already forgetting about it. Won’t be watching that again.
My guess is that it’s purpose is to distract kids for 90 minutes while parents get a break.
3:56pm PST in a Seattle winter feels like 6:56pm Seattle fall.
The princess and the frog
Seeking a better movie, I choose The Princess and the frog. It’s even better than I remember. Amazing movies like this have a hypnotic quality that make it impossible not to watch or be distracted by the allure of a smartphone.
Mmm…
Truly an under rated disney classic. It’s got voodoo, new Orleans jazz, a gator that wants to play trumpet in a jazz band, the classic disney animated style, and a fresh take on their classic princess genre. All wrapped in a New Orleans cajun flair.
I really wish I chose to watch The Princess and the frog first!
It’s a shame that disney only does those lame remakes these days. I don’t understand why people pay for a lesser live action remake.
Thank you for reading this, if you enjoyed it, please give it a like, tell me what you think in the comments, and share on Facebook. Don’t forget to subscribe to my email list for updates!
Please wear a mask outside that covers your mouth and nose, wash your hands, clean your cell phone, and keep your physical distance (6 feet) from others to fight Covid-19!
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