That looks heavy
I had had a gym membership with 24 Hour Fitness since 05/27/1999 according to their membership portal (I think that date might be when I signed up for a pre-paid long-term contract at the club I went to all the time in Sunnyvale, California, so possibly a bit longer than this), and up until The Great Closure of Gyms in 2020 (a good idea, ultimately) I was walking 5km each way to the nice facility near me in Las Vegas.
Unfortunately, that location got lost in the bankruptcy shuffle, and now 24HF is back stronger and, well, much leaner. Now it’s my turn! While I was walking just about daily through 2020 (walking is good and good for you, if you can, do it!) anywhere from 5-10km around my neighborhood and slightly beyond, once we find out groove it’s important to recognize that and get back into it when we can, if we were knocked unceremoniously out of it.
I have signed up at my local EoS gym and am currently enjoying a 7-day trial guest pass. My favorite time to go to the gym is around 1 or 2am. This sounds crazy, but there are 24 hour gyms for a reason, and I’m all for it. I can already see, after just two days (about to be three when I finish typing this into Monday’s draft…) that Hooke’s Law is in full effect; my gym spring has plenty of energy stored up, and while I need to recover that physical strength I once had over a year ago, the energy and enthusiasm are leading the return and I’m all for it.
I say this because, if you had been avoiding heading back to the gym, and especially if you put off exercise for 2020 (outside was probably good by all indications, inside at a gym was probably not), get that vaccine in you and return to that groove! Even if it isn’t in an organized gym, get back on the bike, get the trainers on, throw the ball around, or whatever will be a part of your (and in the bigger picture, our) return to “normal,” whatever that even means anymore.
Speak Not of Life at Work
You may or may not have heard about the Basecamp situation, which is the most current version of this situation as I write this, but basically, people in a workplace have social relationships with their colleagues (that is, they speak of things other than work, from the weather to politics to whatever else) and that sometimes leads to discussions that don’t always align with the daily work to be done. Sometimes those discussions can become caustic, or worse, and those don’t have a place in a workplace (think heated argument at a pub that turns into fisticuffs, which is also not desirable). However, is it right to drop the hammer and limit the communications in which employees might engage while at work?
While working at Netscape many years ago, there was an internal newsgroup (remember Usenet? It should make a comeback, even though newsgroups are still around. Yes, they are still around) called Bad Attitude (I think it was bad.attitude.mcom or something like that… internal news groups ftw!). It was a place to voice concerns, mostly about working at Netscape, wherein even higher-ups who would monitor the group without interrupting the venting thought it was a reasonable idea. And then the really.bad.attitude internal mailing list sprang to life, and everybody was having a good time until that subpoena came along from the Microsoft lawsuit…
So liability is probably the big problem, maybe the biggest problem next to lost worker productivity (which may also be caused by oppression or general stifling of our human natures for those hours each day), which means I have to wonder whether the discussion could have been had offsite on any number of private chat platforms (Signal, Telegram, Element/Matrix, a private Slack or Discord, and the list goes on, not to mention a mailing list or even a slam book, if we still have those?). Something to think about, because Basecamp is not going to be the conclusion to this trend, IMHO.
Less is More
I have a strong desire to move away from Facebook (in particular, though Twitter and Instagram are less and less healthy, IMHO), and to that end, we have this Monday Newsletter, and my Thursday Newsletter on Revue (yes, owned by Twitter and yes, a completely different newsletter), and there are three podcasts now and other things on the horizon, so the need and the desire to visit Facebook have diminished and continue to do so. I have posted links to the newsletters there, up until this week, but otherwise I’ve cut myself down to one visit to Facebook per month.
I’m not a fan of using the Pages on Facebook, but they are a necessary evil for the near term (even the former POTUS needs Facebook to reach people, there’s simply no other way!), but based on some inspiration from Mike Elgan (check out Mike’s List here on Substack) when he declared July 4 his Facebook Independence Day. Frankly, I’ve spent too many characters on this topic in Medium and even Facebook posts, but if you are reading this and you find I’ve gone missing on Facebook, now you now, and you can do it, too!
CasaNunzia Update
A draft mission statement and a small number of potential founding board members bring us another step or two closer to forming the nonprofit, then we can get more things moving (including the 1023 filing for 501(c)(3) determination). This is a couple of calendar years in the making (in real time, maybe a few days, you know how it is), hoping the timing is right and the lean-in moments are many.
Here is the draft mission statement as it stands:
We shall endeavor to enable and encourage ideation, innovation, and implementation of technologies, products, and best practices across industries through collaboration and communication, the results of which shall benefit people who need assistive technologies and services, with such advancements and improvements, and by extension benefiting all users of such things.
(First draft, the wording may change but that is the mission)
How Funny
I love love love stand-up comedy, and while many comedians got very creative to maintain their performance engagement online, YouTube is generally a good way to discover new comedy without leaving your couch. That isn’t a great thing, though, so do enjoy the full experience and take your stand-up in person…
Dwayne Perkins is a friend of one of my college roommates, and I had an opportunity to hang with Dwayne in Downtown Vegas long before I moved here. He was funny then, he is only funnier now.
Jessi Klein is another hilarious comedian brought to me by the YouTube algorithm. It bothers me that it works as well as it does.
Jose Sarduy is yet another algo win, a somewhat odd start but I enjoyed the show quite a bit, perhaps you might as well… this is a longer set so get comfortable.
Greg Geraldo was pretty amazing, and here I am including two of my favorite bits from his Midlife Vices show: Texting and the overuse of LOL, and the misuse of Humbling that we all run into daily. The whole show is great, of course, and Greg is sorely missed. This is one of an unfortunately-growing population of comedians who have left us but who can live on with YouTube (or, the internets).
Links and Coffee
Rather than having personal footer links that will change over time, I’m going to include a link to my Buy Me a Coffee profile, in which I will keep an updated list of project links and other possibly-interesting bits that may be worthy of some coffee money. It sounds good in theory, anyway, but this plan is subject to change.