kodecy

Groundwork

March 4th, 2022

Recently, I’ve noticed how many of the books I have read for pleasure are on science. Most of them have been Psychology; then there are the Ecology and Political Science texts…in addition to Library Science. As I almost majored in Sociology in Undergrad, there’s that, too. I have been flirting with ideas of the further pursuit of it, now that I’m older and much more stable than I was at 19-20, when I was first introduced to the idea that people are fashioned, not born.

Sociology is the study of the dispersion of power over groups of people, and how this power can be resisted. Although there is a particular emphasis on how the individual can resist power without being destroyed by it (using what is known in the field as agency), this is not always the case.

A framework suggesting that a great deal of who we are has to do with societal, familial, and other daily, mundane pressures upon us, and how we learn to grow in certain directions because of them, would stress even a well person’s mind and sense of self. In my case, this corresponded with realizing that I did not have to agree with the rest of the world when it told me who and what I could be, based on visual correlations between myself and others who were not me.

There is a difference between seeing a person as they are, and seeing a person to be as who one thinks they must be, from the sheer fact that one can observe their external presentation. The latter is the major factor which causes me not to want to go back to working in Public Services. As a person of mixed race, and a person of nonbinary gender identity, I can clearly state that what a person looks like has no bearing on who they are. It does, however, influence the experience they’ve had.

What a person looks like, and to a lesser extent, what they sound like, how they dress, and how they comport themselves, directs others who see them to make assumptions about them, which then influences how those others interact with them. To put it concisely, one’s appearance changes the way one is treated by others. The way one is treated by others, acts as conditioning to encourage or discourage a person from acting in a certain way…though I suppose in normal terms, this is known as socialization.

In having access to libraries, and in building a library of my own, I’ve found written accounts of other people like myself. In Undergrad and since, I’ve met more people like myself — though even there, it has been difficult to find others unless they choose to identify themselves.

The best way to find kindred spirits, seems to be to speak one’s truth. Staying silent doesn’t mean staying safe. It does mean, more often than not, remaining isolated…and isolated people are much more vulnerable.

Outside of the viciousness of childhood, the ways I have found myself to historically fail both other people and myself, can at least partially be explained by the impact of biological factors. A very large non-biological factor, however, has been ignorance. As a young adult, I had little understanding of mental illness (or mental health), and so was blindsided when my own illness struck me. I didn’t know how ill I was, and nor did I know how little I understood (or how much was possible to understand).

No one, that is, taught me to watch for prodromal symptoms; what they might look or feel like; or how to understand them.

There does appear to be a biological basis for a lot of this; for example, my past (and sometimes present) similarity to the Geschwind Syndrome profile I mention earlier on this blog. If my own symptoms had no biological basis, it would strongly appear that psychiatric drugs targeting specific, known neurotransmitters should have no effect; but they do.

This points to an underlying, biological core. It doesn’t point to an underlying soul — I’ve been reading (and thinking) way too much about the nature (and cultural construction, and to a point, biological basis) of identity to think that I will be, in any other life but this, the same essence — but it points to a biological foundation of what I have to work with. On top of this is culture. If biology is the foundation and raw material of the building, culture gives the basic housing plans. Self-determination may have more to do with becoming one’s own architect, than anything else.

If I hadn’t taken my first skirmish with Sociology so seriously (just because something is written, doesn’t make it true), maybe I simply would have changed majors (earlier than I did, at least). Instead, I critically reassessed who I was and how I had gotten to that point.

A little bit of knowledge, however, is a dangerous thing: Sociology is nightmarish without a fundamental knowledge of Psychology — however that knowledge can be learned. In my experience, it is also rare for mental health specialists to actually explain, in depth, what one’s mental problems entail. We live it; they study it.

It is not really an equal power dynamic.

Also a factor, however, is the giant stigma attached to mental illness and mental problems, in general — even if they are not the fault of the client. There is a difference between having problems and responsibly doing one’s best to deal with them; and having problems so bad that one can’t control themselves, sometimes getting to the point of refusing help. But how can a person understand that they’re out of control? How can a person understand what it feels like to be out of control? If a person can’t understand that they are unwell, and doesn’t want to entertain anything to the contrary, how can they make the step to engage help? Why would they?
Meditation

March 2nd, 2022

I’m getting to the point where on some of these days, I don’t really know what to do with myself. I find myself falling back on (good!) habits that I picked up in my Undergraduate career…things like writing in a (private) journal, reading widely, finding more things to read. As usual, the vast majority of my reading is nonfiction — though I’ve noticed an interesting theme. Aside from books on writing and editing, I’m looking at what else I might be able to do in the field of Publishing, which would both be fulfilling for me and draw some income, while allowing me to grow and gain experience where it comes to books and the worlds that surround them.

As a secondary focus, I have a lot of Psychology books that I’ve been going through. Majorly, in this instance, I’m doing research as regards what of my disposition I can change, and what I can’t. There is a body of literature which infers that I am not a good match for the position I last held (Library Assistant in Public Services in a Public Library). No matter how much I may view it, or Public Librarianship itself, as venerable.

This assertion on my part combines the main job duties and environment with the fact that I am solidly introverted (I’m sensitive to everything), my emotional stability level is in the range where I’m also neurotic (that is, on top of my baseline sensitivity, I also have a heightened sensitivity to negative social cues), and although I have an average openness to experience and am highly conscientious, I’m also not an “agreeable” person (that is, along with being a “Low-Self-Monitor” [e.g. highly valuing my own integrity], I don’t say things for the sake of pleasing other people, and don’t quite see why I should have to — which obviously conflicts with being sensitive to negative social cues). Brian R. Little states that neuroticism acts as an amplifier for other differences within the Big 5 personality traits (everything above except being a Low-Self-Monitor).

I can act, “out of character,” and pretend not to be this, for limited periods of time; but should not do so indefinitely, or my long-term health will suffer. On top of all that, I shouldn’t expect any of these traits to change, at least not majorly, and not within the short-term.

I also recognize that being able to engage with others through the medium of writing adds an element of distance and safety. This allows me to understand other people and their thoughts without, say, actually having to talk to them. Because I’m nervous around people in the first place (when I was younger, my doctor even had to let my parents know that I was so easily overwhelmed that they needed to speak more quietly: it’s much better, now), I’ve been thinking that perhaps I should not be an Editor — at least, not one of the Editors that has to directly interface with a client. I’ve read that Editing is a person-centric job, which is exactly what I’m trying to get away from where it comes to Public Librarianship being a person-centric job.

The main alternative to this, however, seems to be entering a Technical job…and I have a Humanities background and Humanities interests. I’m not quite a math and science person (though at one time, I was…until I realized that I would never understand people [including myself] unless I actually devoted time and energy to understanding them — and entering the Hard Sciences would take up the time and energy I would need for this [at least for the duration of Undergrad]). This clears me for Cataloging Librarianship, but throws up some warnings where Metadata Librarianship starts migrating into Linked Data and Data Science. Programming is not the most enjoyable thing I’ve ever done; I would much rather be reading, or analyzing some book. (Well, there are some books in regard to which, I’d rather program. I probably shouldn’t get into that, though.)

Hmm. Maybe I should get back to my Career Counselor, with this…what can I do that would be book-centric, and still pay enough for me to be OK? Humanities-centric without the public contact? Does that exist, or do people assume that Humanities majors must want to directly engage with humans?

Psychology gets a really bad rap, but books on why and how people think on what they do and in the manner they do, and how people (like myself) differentiate (and still retain their own unique value), are personally relevant. I mentioned earlier, getting (nearly) to the end of the book, Me, Myself, and Us: The Science of Personality and the Art of Well-Being, by Brian R. Little (which is where I got the majority of the above information). At this point, I’m looking through the endnotes and bibliography (and index), and have already found another book within that bibliography, that looks really engaging: Personality: What Makes You the Way You Are, by Daniel Nettle. I’ve also been trying to finish Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, by Susan Cain. The last, I picked up within the last 10 years, and just left off in the middle — but Little references Cain’s book often. In that vein, there is also Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, which Cain references in Quiet.

I found Me, Myself, and Us, in the first place, by looking through the “Resources” sections of Rethinking Information Work: A Career Guide for Librarians and Other Information Professionals, Second Edition. This book was published in 2016, so everything mentioned above, pre-dates it.

I have a feeling that I’m teaching myself now how to be a Humanities researcher and scholar, if for no other reason, than for self-enrichment and self-education. (Note: I mentioned this, and forgot to add in the context that footnote-chasing is a major method of research among Humanities scholars. I didn’t realize until the next day that, you know, Psychology is a Science, not a Humanity.) It’s kind of hard to navigate the world when you don’t know who you are, and how you are and are not like other people. Idolizing other people and their niche specializations only gets one so far; at a certain point it becomes obvious that I am not them, and what has worked for them may not work for me. (Not to mention, what works for me, may not be something they can even tolerate: more to the point, what works for them, may not be something I can tolerate.)

The issue I’m confronting is spending so much time reading, that my time (or is that inclination?) for writing lessens. Granted, my writing is more interesting, as it’s now informed…the point still remains that it is easier to read than it is to write. Also, however: good writing often stems from good reading, and not having read widely was my biggest handicap, in Undergrad. Had I been better-read, I may have entered the Publishing field, back then.

Well, there’s that, and the fact that I was in my very-early-20’s. I really don’t know why I expected so much of myself.

Probably because I only had my childhood and teen years, to compare it to. That makes sense.

In any case, I’m here, now…and I can read, now. Not to mention, I have the time to do so, now. Not that this would be all that great as compared to someone who has been an avid reader since they were a child and into and through adulthood (I had a pause that began after Graduation, likely related to having read so few authors I could connect with [my English department was so conservative that I would have changed majors if it weren’t for the Creative Writing and Ethnic Studies departments — both of which had classes required for my major]); but I also have other strengths. Including, I guess, the time after graduation which I used to learn principles of visual arts and graphic design…which leads me into my next, probably minor, topic.

I’ve been wanting to get back into the Visual Arts. Specifically, painting; and leaning toward acrylics for the possibility of opacity, underdrawing, and overpainting. And…large-format painting. The thing is, I haven’t touched acrylics for even longer than I haven’t touched watercolors. It’s not that I don’t remember the techniques I learned in classes; my particular hesitancy lies around whether I can even remember what each pigment looks like, and how each pigment, behaves. There’s nothing to be done about this except to just use the paints, for example in practice on some of my canvas pads; but it’s still slightly intimidating, even as much as I want to dive in.

I just haven’t done it, for years.

It doesn’t help that a lot of our paints seem to almost have never been touched! I tossed out a lot of the really (decades) old heavy-body acrylics while I was still in a painting mode: I got my AA in Art in 2016 (before I returned to the MLIS program), and had lived through a number of failures of super-old heavy-body paint tubes, by that time. Failures, like the lid peeling the neck off of the tube, or the tube body itself cracking and oozing. Also, sometimes the acrylic binder will start to cure and get gummy inside the tube, and then there’s nothing to do about it but toss it (unless someone’s got a tip involving some acrylic medium I’ve never tried), but I’ve got some really interesting colors in there!

Not that I’ll be able to immediately use them. I was on a “tomatillo” kick a while back, meaning I have some interesting yellow/green/bronze colors…though now that we’re starting to go out again, there isn’t any reason why I can’t do some more tomatillo portraits. 😉 For some reason, it’s really been difficult for me to get a good green by mixing it myself, though I know I have records of experiments.

M wants me to recreate one of our wall-hangings on stretched canvas, as the fabric itself is fading. Knowing what I do about fabric painting, I’m sure I absolutely will not be able to duplicate it exactly (nor am I going to try). It’s fairly obviously a batik piece…and done, like many batiks, with a skillful, flowing hand where the wax resist was laid down after the initial fabric was patterned, and before dyeing. I know that I can achieve something of this if I lay down a tinted gesso ground and then sketch out the figures with pastel or vine charcoal. Once I get the drawing done correctly, I can go over it with acrylic glazing medium, and then start the bulk of the painting — which will be, sadly enough, filling in spaces. It makes sense on fabric, with flowing liquid dye and wax resist: not so much, on gessoed canvas, where I’ll likely have to re-draw in the outlines.

I’m thinking of trying to shift this a bit by doing some Post-Impressionist-style brush marks, instead of using flat color. I don’t know if it will work — or if it will even retain the grace of the original piece — but it’s worth trying. Worse comes to worse, and there’s always the gesso, again.

I’m thinking that getting back into Art will be good for me: with my increased reading, I have been more intellectually stimulated, but I can feel that the emotional stability provided by my Art practice (including my beading practice) has fallen away. Then there is the constant worry about whether I’ll be, “wasting my time,” doing Art, instead of doing something like writing or reading. I don’t see myself becoming a professional artist (as versus a professional writer; or working in Publishing in some capacity), but I’d more likely paint than bead for money, at this point.

Yeah, I guess this demonstrates the whole, “Humanities,” thing that I was talking about, above…
Unread books

June 1st, 2019

I need to be reading more. I still have Conducting the Reference Interview (2nd ed.) by Catherine Ross, Kirsti Nilsen, and Marie Radford; and Defusing Hostile Customers Workbook (3rd ed.) by Robert Bacal, to look at. I’m thinking that my unconscious prioritization of this may be stopping me from reading other things.

This book of Bacal’s, in particular, can be a bit triggering for me — I may have mentioned it someplace or another, online. As regards discouragements, the first book I mentioned has recently come out with a 3rd edition. Which…I just ordered. I hate that I just ordered it, but it happened, and now I have to live with it.

The 2nd ed. was published in 2009, and it is tech-intensive enough so that it makes sense to upgrade to the new one. I don’t want to have to deal with repeated material or outdated material.

I may have an upcoming job interview; also possibly a placement test, if I’m selected. I’m still waiting on those calls. If either of those two things happens…I’ll want to know some of the information in Conducting the Reference Interview. I took the latter to work recently (the 2nd ed.) but didn’t want to take a break out of my time focusing on library work, in order to focus more on librarianship.

Recently, I finally got the book, Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism by John Powers. I loved his Concise Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism, some years ago; it was likely the first book I checked out from a public library that I read all the way through after I got my BA. It’s certainly the one which stood out most, to me.

The main difference between the two books is that the latter is condensed, while the former is full-length. The full-length one is the one I bought…and it’s extremely thick. I mean, extremely, close to 1.5″ if you look online. I haven’t gotten to break into it, yet, and really, it’s a little intimidating (although the length may be a bonus if one is really interested in the material).

The major drawback that I can see is the fact that all the specialized terms are translated into English, which …may be understandable, given that we’re talking about Tibetan Buddhism, and written English transliteration of Tibetan is notoriously difficult to understand (or pronounce) without prior knowledge of the language. There is a glossary in the back of the book, but it still would have been nice to not have to translate everything out of standard English and into a transliteration of Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit (with which I’m more familiar…but I’ve been studying this stuff for about 15 years, and this is an “introduction” to the systems).

Speaking of Buddhism…I want and/or need to read up on Robert Spence Hardy, to see what to watch out for in English-language interpretations of “Buddhism”. Hardy is unreliable and only a partial source, but at the same time highly influential, being one of the first people to relate Buddhism as a system to English-speaking audiences. Hardy himself was a Methodist missionary, so there is an obvious conflict of interest in his representing Buddhism to English-speaking people. His works can be found online. I’m interested in reading him so I can then recognize people parroting him in multiple different English-language renditions of Buddhism.

I wouldn’t have known anything about him at all without reading the first essay (by Judith Snodgrass) in TransBuddhism: Transmission, Translation, and Transformation, edited by Nalini Bhushan, Jay Garfield, and Abraham Zablocki. (See JSTOR.) I should really read more of the essays in that book, though I lost interest back when I stopped having faith in the system, and as a consequence, started to believe studying it was a waste of time.

I am at the point of realizing now, though, that I can have interest in Buddhist ideas and not necessarily have to, “believe in,” anything anyone associated with the religion says (even though we do have a culture which emphasizes, “faith,” as a good thing, in the United States). One of my coworkers advised me that it would be OK to seek out a Buddhist priest to talk about my misgivings with the religion (or rather, the English-language presentation of the religion).

Beyond that, I do still have those two books on creativity and mental illness, that I’m in the middle of: Touched With Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament, by Kay Redfield Jamison; and The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer’s Block, and the Creative Brain, by Alice Flaherty.

I stopped reading those two largely because I realized that it might be better for me to exercise my creativity at that moment, than to read about creativity. The latter seems to be a convenient distraction. I know I can read these books when I really am not feeling creative. While it is possible to believe I can’t make anything and then self-fulfill that, I know that taking it one step at a time does get things done. There are still times that it’s easier to space out or otherwise be relatively passive, though (although I tend to consistently challenge what I’m reading, as I’m reading it — so reading, for me, isn’t really wholly passive).

Beyond that, I also recently picked up the 5th edition of Learning PHP, MySQL, and JavaScript by Robin Nixon, 2018, O’Reilly Media. This book is also super-thick (about 1.5″), on par with my CSS text for my Web Design class, CSS: The Missing Manual, 4th ed., by David McFarland, 2015, O’Reilly Media. That book was extremely useful at the time, however.

It is important for me to learn this stuff, though I haven’t been back to my JavaScript course for several weeks. At the rate things are going…well, actually, maybe I will have time to deal with it coming up, because everything I had to deal with as regards graduation (which was a lot), is over.

Anyhow, I got the above book in print rather than electronic format because, not having seen it, I was concerned that the electronic version may have been inferior. This was an especial concern where the book uses at least four different typefaces to mean different things in context. As my eReader can change its own fonts…I was concerned enough to order the paper version. As it turns out, the print is pretty straightforward, and looks fairly similar to my electronic sample.

The biggest difference between print and electronic seems to be the sheer weight of the thing (the print version is 3 lbs.), plus the lack of clickable hotlinks and electronic searchability. However…I also don’t have so much faith that my eReader will continue to work more than a few years into the future. When it fails, I’ll need the paper backups (or to buy a new eReader to access my library, which I’m not entirely confident will be a good option).

Right now I’m just working on filling skill gaps (I have two more courses to go before I’ll be done with my Cataloging series), applying for jobs, learning to drive, and keeping up with work. And, right; trying to find the time to read, and work on the creative stuff (which is still important, especially if I’m going to work in a Public Library setting). I’m finding myself becoming surprisingly unused to reading paper books, though.
Karma: I am not a Buddhist

May 23rd, 2019

Recently, I finished reading Karma: What It Is, What It Isn’t, Why It Matters, by Traleg Kyabgon. Because reading for grad school has apparently endowed me with reading superpowers, I was able to complete the book in two nights. This encourages me to question whether I would be better off using library services.

Another book, What Makes You Not A Buddhist, by Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse, I tried to read several years ago, but I lost interest — largely because of the stance of its author, which reads to me as at least intending to challenge and change the reader, if not outright manipulating them. That is, I am wary of the (apparently) unspoken message, “if you want to be a real Buddhist, then you’ll do what I say,” which doesn’t strike me as an argument in my best interest.

(It’s been a while since I looked at this book; I must say that at the time I looked into it, it read as so hostile that I didn’t want to continue. Then again, Karma also read to me initially, like the author had an attitude; which I was able to set aside for a couple of nights in order to process anything beneficial to me that he had to communicate.)

There’s a limit to how far one can take identity politics; I, for one, would much rather maintain my intellectual integrity and take interest in Buddhism without feeling pressure to buy into it. At a certain point, I also believe that having and maintaining an identity as “Buddhist” goes against the ideal of letting go of clinging to compounded things. But that only really matters if you buy into the idea that clinging to compounded things instigates suffering, and that suffering is best avoided (on a grand scale).

There’s that, and the fact that I really don’t think I’m Buddhist in the first place (I take more interest in culture and folklore which arose in the same milieus influenced by Buddhism, having an East Asian ethnic background and having been included in U.S. mainland Asian-American culture, which is relatively inclusive [I hear and read that it isn’t the same way in other locales like Hawaii, where ethnic groups don’t have a shared identity as much]), so the book obviously isn’t targeted at me.

This is another time that my study of Marketing gives me some relief: I’m not in Khyentse’s target market, so it doesn’t really matter what I feel about it.

My reading of Karma stems off of having restarted The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer’s Block, and the Creative Brain, by Alice Flaherty, and Touched With Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament, by Kay Redfield Jamison. (Sometimes it’s easier to read about creativity, than it is to be creative.) Flaherty’s book was relatively new when I got it, having a copyright date of 2004. It’s basically been sitting around here collecting dust — probably due to the fact that it opens with an explanation of the functions of different brain regions, which isn’t the most engaging material.

Underlying all of this is the uncertainty I have at this point in my life, of how central to my identity my creativity is, or should be, or can be. There’s also the obvious (to me) fact that I’ve been watching Dragon Ball Super (don’t laugh), and there is an obvious trope of transformation in that anime.

For those who don’t know anything about Dragon Ball, it’s basically a fantasy martial-arts animated series. The main character has a consistent habit of getting nearly beaten to death and then coming back stronger, faster, etc., and discovering new heights of power which were inaccessible before he was pushed to the point where he had to break through his own limitations (or, at least the limitations he and everyone else thought he had).

On the surface, the Dragon Ball saga looks like an encouragement to youth to try hard at whatever they’re doing and not to believe that they can’t ascend to whatever height they aspire to (and beyond, to levels they can’t fathom upon beginning). I mention this because the difference in message between Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, we analyzed in an undergrad class I took on Japanese Pop Culture; Dragon Ball Super follows from Dragon Ball Z (and I guess we’re just going to forget Dragon Ball GT ever happened).

On a different level, I’m thinking that the idea of transformation is deeper than just a pop-culture reference. I have not, however, read deeply into literary references in Dragon Ball, mostly because that’s a question I would have to find an answer to on the Web, and because I’ve grown enough to know that information on pop-culture isn’t always the safest thing to access with a computer that I want to function later.

In Karma, I’ve read Kyabgon to essentially state that breaking free of karma is to do what is not expected; to have freedom of motion that essentially breaks the script. Remaining in samsara is to remain in our ingrained habits (which inevitably coincide with pain or unsatisfactoriness [duhkha], this being kind of the definition of samsara), while the possibility of liberation lies in the ability to assume any form at any time, depending on need. This is possible because we are seen not to be inherently self-arising (there is no inherent identity), thus we depend on causes and conditions, thus when those causes and conditions change, we change.

By “form,” I’m particularly looking at the idea of the Six Lower Realms, though “form” can also be used in different contexts (for example, the “form body” and “formless body”, which I don’t really know about at this point, and which is likely not relevant to me at this point). The Six Lower realms are the Hell realm (anger), the Preta realm (greed), the Animal realm (ignorance), the Human realm (desire), the Asura realm (jealousy), the God realm (pride). Thank you, Joseph Campbell.

Each Lower Realm has a Poison, or klesha (if I’m correct in assigning that term), associated with it, which follow parenthetically from the name of each realm I’ve placed above. These Poisons are primarily responsible for suffering in each realm. Metaphorically, each person can be in predominantly one realm or another, and this can change at different times and in different situations.

There are also Higher Realms, beyond that of a God (getting into the worlds of Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, Arhats, etc.), but they’re mostly inconsequential to a regular person. I have seen some of this belief in action in Pure Land Buddhism…but I’m not really into Pure Land Buddhism, at this point.

Sometimes faith is comforting, though, even if dangerous: those who subscribe to this form of Buddhism (the most common in the U.S.), are said to believe that through faith and mantra, they can be reborn into a Heaven ruled by an awakened being, in which it is easy to become liberated in one lifetime, oneself. (Apologies if I’ve got that wrong.) Over most of Buddhism, it’s accepted that it takes many lifetimes to achieve liberation, the exceptions that I know of being Vajrayana Buddhism (Lightning/Diamond Vehicle), which is a family of Buddhisms more than a school; and Zen (which aims for satori, or an instantaneous experience of nirvana).

In any case, I in particular am dealing with some issues of transformation. I now have my clearing to be employed as an information professional. While I was essentially an artist and writer in my youth, I find that the treatment I need for a serious and ongoing condition, in effect, dampens the amount of creativity that I observe within myself. (Of course, I’m biased: my memories of illness are in fact tainted by that illness.)

It’s fairly apparent that my mental space shifted markedly towards logic and rationality, when I began one medication in particular. I’ve now been on that medication for about 15 years. As I said before, I’m not sure if what I’m dealing with is simply not being forced to be creative, and being out of practice at being creative, or whether something within me has actually changed.

If something within me has changed, that means that I need to find something new around which to base my identity. That’s not easy, especially when in my youth, my reason to continue to survive was to create. Who am I without my creativity? Or, maybe that’s the wrong question to ask; maybe I still have my creativity, and it’s just harder to recognize, because it’s more subtle, and less forced.

Given that, even: I’m also moving more fully into my adult years, which is…kind of mind-blowing in itself.

Maybe the point right now is that I have a choice between being primarily an artist-writer, and being primarily something else that is not the same. It is, actually, like the person I was 15 years ago and the person I am now, are two different people with a continuity of memory — which is exactly the type of “rebirth” Buddhism suggests.

Of course, I also have the possibility, ill-advised though it is, to revert to my previous form by stopping medication. This would expose me to the full brunt of my illness, which — from what I’ve been told on all fronts — would only be likely to worsen in intensity over the rest of my lifetime. Given that in my twenties, I didn’t expect to make it to thirty…that’s not attractive.

The active states can be painful; or be a waste of time because of lack of clarity; or distort my judgment. A balance has to be drawn between wellness, and any benefit (like a subjective notion of my own creative productivity) my illness may happen to confer upon me.

For that matter, treatment itself confers great advantages to me that I didn’t have, outside of childhood. There are two negatives to it: one is the fact that unless I do something to counter it, I will gain weight. That’s a concern because of heart disease and diabetes. The other negative is that it changes the way I function, and I wasn’t told about or prepared for this when I began treatment.

Also, before treatment, I didn’t realize fully that I was painting and writing and drawing because I wasn’t connecting with the real world, but instead self-generating a world. That is, I had a very deep inner experience which I could only share with others through writing and art.

15 years after the publication of The Midnight Disease, it seems the Internet is finally starting to catch up with Flaherty’s insights. Particularly, she mentions Geschwind Syndrome, a cluster of symptoms associated with at least three families of illness which have changes in the temporal lobe as a common factor. Just to anchor me, here, Geschwind syndrome is characterized by…

…a cluster of five personality traits (…) : hypergraphia; a deepened emotional life sometimes described as hyperphilosophical or hyperreligious (…) ; emotional volatility, including aggressive outbursts; altered sexuality (usually decreased sexual activity); and overinclusiveness, an extreme talkativeness caused by excessive attention to detail. (p. 24)
Alice W. Flaherty, (2004), The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer’s Block, and the Creative Brain.

Notably, at least at one time, I fit the profile for the syndrome (though I was, thankfully, able to avoid aggressive outbursts…mostly). Right now it’s just an unexplained observation; I have no clue as to whether this has been investigated in myself.

In any case, reading about Geschwind Syndrome made me feel that it was okay for me to embrace my own potential Geschwind Syndrome, which is partially why I broke back into the Buddhism reading. Not to mention that I am in the midst of transformation (or at least the potential for transformation), on many levels.

The thought has occurred to me that maybe I need to embrace the person I’ve become, instead of mourning and grasping at the person I have been. I’ve also realized that the person I used to be, could not take care of themselves. At this point, I’m much closer to independence, and being able to more powerfully interact with and help my communit(ies). So the potential for change that I can effect is greater, now, than it used to be. I can be a positive force rather than someone who has to be taken care of, and I’ll be a better force because I know what it’s like to have experienced this.

That’s worth it, right? That’s worth the medication, and it’s worth staying alive for. I’ve even heard from others that the loss of mandatory creativity is okay, if it means I function better.

I have just not seen writing on this topic, though I might not be looking hard enough, or maybe I don’t know where to look.

Last night I was able to engage in the design process again. I did surprise myself, because I was able to do it. Maybe my working methods are different, now; though I can still see remnants of what I used to experience while drawing (“seeing” what I need to draw, before my mark hits the page, though it isn’t a hallucination). I found that out while trying to design a new linocut that turned into a regular drawing… 😉

Yeah, maybe that’s not so bad… 🙂 I might just need to make being creative a priority in my life. I’ve found that a big drive toward creativity is not being able to stand my world unless I cause some change within it; some piece of jewelry, or a bit of writing, or a painting. I’m not entirely sure what causes this, either…but it calms me to look at what I’ve done, and it excites me to do more.
Recovery and loss

April 19th, 2019

Over the past couple of days, I’ve been attempting to do some “soul-searching” as to how I got to where I am now, and where I want to go from here, as regards my career, history, and life.

This is particularly in light of neurological changes I’ve undergone as a result of long-term health issues, which have caused my brain to function differently than it did when I was a teen and young adult. That sounds like things have broken down, but the issue is more complex than that: what I’m dealing with now are long-term medication side effects, and what feels like neural rewiring. It’s much easier to live now, but along with benefits, there are also drawbacks.

This affects me majorly because of one variable: creativity. I used to base my life and my identity and my supposed future around my creativity, and in my adult years, I’m realizing that at least part of what happened in my youth, when I was extremely creative, was part of my illness (and also a coping strategy, though I don’t get into that too much, here).

I did make a post on a different blog, comparing the career paths I have set before me now. These are Cataloging/Metadata Librarianship, Reference/User Services Librarianship, and Web Development. Yesterday, after having written a bit during my lunch hour on how I even got to this point (writing has always helped me think), I made a decision. Historically, making a decision has been a very difficult thing for me, so we’ll see if it plays out.

I’m hoping to stick with Librarianship, as versus intending to put my energies into Web Development. Regardless of whether I become a Cataloging Librarian or not, I will need to understand Cataloging, so I’m heading in the right direction, there. I should also get back to reading on how to do Reference Interviews, and two books: one on serving homeless populations; the other on de-escalation. These three will be extremely helpful if I do take an entry-level job as a Reference Librarian.

This decision was based on a number of factors, but the largest looming one is that I don’t know enough Web Programming yet (aside from CSS and HTML, which aren’t really the same as, say, JavaScript) to be considered highly skillful. I also don’t know if, on my own, I ever could know enough to keep up, or even if I would need to, as Content Management Systems, as services, seem prolific (even if often a bit flawed in execution). To publish on the Web, one doesn’t need to know more than a little markup code, at this point — though it helps.

Web work is just constantly and quickly evolving. It’s a moving target, so to speak, with a lot of interlocking parts. It’s one thing to work as part of a team with a lot of members with varying and complementary skill sets; it’s another to be on one’s own, trying to do everything on one’s own, and I’m thinking that is a huge undertaking.

Yesterday, I also began searching into myself and my reasons for even wanting to become a Web Developer, and realized that my motivations were based on human connection and community, from a time when almost all of my social interactions were online (largely due to social anxiety, which the Web reinforced). They were also based on my experiences with my own identity exploration, when I felt too intimidated to openly be myself. Also, my desire to be independent, when I felt I couldn’t count on others to pull through.

At this point, I realize these are actions based on a view of an immature, out-of-control, institutional social world. (And I was in a “good” school district!) When I began at my current job a little shy of a decade ago, I expected negativity from the public, because that was what I had grown up with. What I’ve found from working Circulation (that is, in a service setting) is that most people intend to be decent, and the rest have unmet needs and ways of expressing those needs that are, “problematic,” as someone I used to know, would say.

I actually prefer that mode of phrasing to the term, “emotional labor,” which more often exemplifies what occurs when interactions are allowed to spiral out of control. (I have examples; I’m not using them.) But…I’m learning about this right now.

Before I was really socializing on the Web, I was reading, as a way to connect with other human minds. I’m not sure how common this is among librarians, but I would spend a lot of time in my school library, essentially because I didn’t have a lot of friends, it was safe, and I had entertainment. I have since learned that I’m easily overloaded with stimuli, so it’s likely that I sought out quiet places.

It’s very probable that my early experiences in libraries contributed to my desire to become a Librarian.

As an undergraduate, the only things in my life that were constant were my family, my school routine, and my drive to write. I didn’t realize at the time, and I don’t think anyone told me, that what I was experiencing might be known as hypergraphia. Hypergraphia is the compulsive desire to write or draw. It’s linked with at least three comorbid conditions, including epilepsy, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia. (“Comorbidity” just means that two or more conditions are present in the same person at the same time.)

I started this post, talking about creativity. I mention above that one of the only constants I had in the years when I needed to choose an undergraduate major, was my drive to write. This was also the period of my life in which I was most severely impacted by an illness which now qualifies me as experiencing (or having experienced) a disability.

I ended up majoring in Creative Writing. I also ended up beginning a medication with the goal of helping me to think more clearly, as I was considering major life changes. That was about 15 years ago.

I wasn’t told, however, that if my drive to write was a symptom of my illness, when my symptoms went into remission, the drive to write might not be as large a factor in my life. I might even find myself not wanting to write, even though I was majoring in it, and planning to become an author.

I also wasn’t told that medications which block the action of dopamine are linked to a reduction in creativity. The medication I began 15 years ago is a dopamine-receptor antagonist, meaning that even if it doesn’t reduce the levels of dopamine in my brain, it reduces its action. And, my symptoms are apparently in remission.

In the years following my Bachelor’s, I ended up gaining two Associate’s degrees (one of which is in Art) and a Master’s in Library & Information Science — the “Library” part of which, is sometimes required to become a Librarian in my country.

What I’m dealing with now is an identity shift. I used to think of myself as a writer and artist. I have a good deal of art supplies to this effect, though I’ve found that it’s easier to buy more tools, than it is to use them. At this point I’ve realized that I may now be more of an, “artisan,” or handcrafter, than an “artist.”

Having taken a few classes in Business, I also question the utility of spending time making something that’s only really aesthetically valuable. Going by the concept of, “opportunity cost,” it’s an expensive thing to do, when I could be doing something like learning another language, instead.

I think the loosening of my past identity comes from at least two separate points. One of them is that because my communication and interpersonal skills are better than they used to be, I don’t have as much intense unexpressed energy bottled up inside (which, at times, I could only express visually). The other is that I do feel like my creative dial has been turned down a bit.

I don’t know if it’s because I’m afraid to be creative, or if it’s because I have to, now, intend to, “be creative,” or put in effort to be creative, in order to do so. In the past, I wouldn’t have had a choice. It was something I blamed on the spirits — as my calling; as my job. And to be honest, I don’t really want to go back to the way it was before.

At the same time, my reason to remain in existence back then, was to create. I based my identity around that. So that leaves me with the question of who I am, now. There are other facets to my identity; I’m not entirely without a compass.

It would just make sense to stop trying, through purchasing art supplies, to reach back to that part of the person I was, who I’m not, anymore. It’s fine to try by using those art supplies, but identity can’t be bought. It would also make sense for me to stop thinking of myself as a highly creative person, and beating myself up about it and wondering why I’m not, when I’m not.

I must have the innate capacity to go back to being the person I was before (I would have to go off of medication), but doing so comes at a cost that is higher than what I’m willing to pay.

The most obvious choice going forward is to identify with my career, which is — at this point — a Librarian. I think my professional association would encourage that, though I’ve heard arguments against making one’s vocation one’s identity, as then when one loses one’s job, they also lose part of a sense of themselves.

But I’m kind of familiar with that.

My other option is to lean more heavily on my other identities, or develop a new one. Really, that last one is looking more enticing, as there is the potential for synthesis and growth. I think the key is not to depend too heavily on any one identity in particular.

But I can get back to reading, and my language practice, and studying to prepare myself for employment as a Librarian. I also have been doing some work on owning what I ignored in myself, as a teen and young adult. (I spoke about this yesterday; the difference between sex and gender, and culture and race, though I didn’t express it in those terms. I feel the hint of a need to get deeper into that.)

Aside from that, I need to be looking at jobs (including Support Staff positions, for the experience and higher pay), and learning to cook and drive. All of that looks good.

And maybe I could make some new friends, too. Having a social life outside of family and work is something I have been missing. I should keep going out when I can…
Back to business.

April 5th, 2019

Right now, I’m at the beginning of a course which repeats material I was first exposed to in Library School. I’m thinking that this must be difficult for students who haven’t yet had a primer. Not to mention that the course readings are using terms like, “entity,” “relationship,” and, “attribute,” without first defining them. Outside of working with relational databases, I would not know what those terms meant (I still need to periodically review, now).

Today just seemed like a good opportunity to complete the second set of readings and quizzes. I do have a bunch of optional readings I can go through, one of which I completed earlier…it’s just weird to see myself consistently as one of the first people to talk, and one of the first people to show up in meetings. Am I also one of the first people to look at the long optional readings, a week after they were assigned? I don’t know.

What is relatively clear is that I’m used to online learning (which, I don’t know, should be obvious to me). That fact, though, is a relatively good thing, because it means that I can learn at a distance; and when that’s possible, there are places across the country and world that I could have access to (granted, of course, that my language and cultural skills are up to par).

The last time I was in at work, I did some research on jobs…Because I haven’t worked in an Academic Library, and because I have nine years of experience in a Public Library, this basically predisposes me to Adult Services in a Public Library setting. There are several gaps in my knowledge, at this point; mostly where it comes to dealing with behavioral infractions, reference interviews, and cataloging. Of course, I’m dealing with the latter now; and have books on the former two, which I’m in the process of reading.

It’s just…I don’t know, “interesting?” that I would be best qualified to serve in a position as a Public Librarian. I realized — very late in the game, essentially after I graduated — that the skill set I had been aiming for (HTML, CSS, PHP, JavaScript, Drupal, Python or Ruby, etc.) was, essentially, that of a Web Developer. At this point, however, I wonder if I want to be a Web Developer because I’m related to techies and want to be like them, or if it’s because I actually enjoy (or think I would enjoy) the work.

I’m pretty sure the main reason I was oriented in this direction is the fact that as a young adult, I found a lot of community online that was difficult to find offline. However…as a person solidly moving into their “adult” years…I’m finding that “online” community as I knew it was relatively…naive. I still have a hard time reading even some of the ALA’s email lists. I also find that people IRL who are into what I used to be into, online, are not necessarily people I would choose to spend time with. Not to mention the fact that social media can go terribly wrong — sometimes by design.

Of course, with the whole STEM and Maker Space thing, there is probably a lot of demand for people who are versed in tech, within Public Libraries. Even more so if they understand and enjoy working with kids…which isn’t really my specialty.

However…if I’m aiming for Public Services or Digital Services, I have a pretty good background to draw from. I’m not highly socially oriented, but I’ve been improving in my skills; also, in the library field, I’m not alone in not being an extrovert by nature. That whole thing about community-building online is also made a whole lot more real with in-person community!

The difference between being a Public Librarian and being a Web Developer is a huge one. The things I would need to know would be wildly different. The work environment is wildly different. When I think of being a Web Developer, I think of spending large amounts of time in front of a computer screen; a Public Librarian would be interfacing with people for much of the time.

Not only that, but I can teach people crafts as a Public Librarian, and get paid for it. That isn’t quite the case with Web Development.

Perhaps most pointedly…I had considered becoming a Librarian while I built my tech skill set. That’s still possible, but I need to fill the role of a Librarian first, in this scenario. Among other things, that means that I can prioritize reading, customer-service skills, Cataloging knowledge and practice, and second-language-learning over computer programming. At least so, for the short-term.

…I think I can get back to studying, now.
What is worth my time?

December 22nd, 2018

This question has been on my mind for the past semester.

Granted, I did pass my final semester, and hence will be graduating — at least, unless something comes up. Without the pressure of grades, I have had the time to actually consider what I want to be and will be doing; right now, it’s my choice.

Can you believe that? I actually have a choice over how I’ll spend my time.

The biggest thing that has come up is the economic question of opportunity cost, or what one gives up to do one thing instead of another. I’ve been particularly thinking about it while watching people talk about books and video games at work. I used to like video games; then I realized they didn’t make my life any better after I had completed them.

In the time they have spent playing, I’ve been sacrificing that play to work on my Master’s. Now I have economic mobility…and although they make more money than I do now, I at least have the potential for an upgraded life.

I’ve also been thinking about this as regards arts and crafts (particularly, knitting and crochet). I like working with color, and I like working with beads, but I know I won’t make any appreciable income off of doing that. If I did it, I would do it for the enjoyment of doing it.

Last night I put together a kit, so that I can work on micro-macrame in my spare time. I mean, I can’t cut everything non-profitable out of my life just out of monetary concerns, or whether I’ll see a fiscal return on applying myself…

I do have a number of goals/things to do, lined up for the next six months. The major issue I’m having at this moment is not knowing where I’m going to be living, next. That, in turn, affects which language would be best to learn.

Those who have been following me from my other blog know that it is a life goal of mine to learn Japanese, although — given my current location — Spanish might be a better choice of a second language. I also took Spanish for six years in Middle and High School, so relearning it would be review.

The thing is, I don’t have nearly as much reason, culturally speaking, to learn Spanish, as I’m a member of Japanese diaspora. As I was growing up, I was curious about a lot of what went into making me the person I was: things that I didn’t know and that no one told me (or possibly, could tell me, as I’m yonsei, or fourth-generation: my oldest living local relative in my life [on my Japanese-American side] was nisei, or already two generations away from Japan).

Learning Japanese language is a potential opening door into the language of my heritage, whereas learning Spanish language is basically an economic or pragmatic move. It seems like it would be relatively easy (compared to Japanese) and also fulfill a requirement that I be able to read, “at least one Western European language,” as a certain job post asked of me.

The thing is, I’m not into Western Europe. In addition, with the way international relations are being trashed right now, I can’t say I would look forward to visiting any Spanish-speaking countries in the near future (I hear it was bad enough, before). There are also some reservations I have over both 1) being obviously of African descent in a postcolonial setting, and 2) being gender-nonbinary in a setting where everything is gendered.

Of course, being of African descent in Japan might not be so great, either; although I would expect a bit more leeway where it came to existing with my gender identity there.

However, becoming a Metadata Librarian might require that I read some, “Western European language,” depending on where I work. Or, that could be an outlier related to the particular biases of the University I was perusing. Postcolonialism and everything.

I find that, at this point, French might actually work better, for me (I can actually imagine going to Quebec or Tahiti or the Caribbean [or the French Quarter]; I have been exposed to Gender Studies in French; and I know the French were better at race relations); I just have no experience in it.

French language might also help counter the tendency I’ve gotten from Japanese in which I tend to read things in terms of discrete syllables. Hence, I read, “inorite?” as, “ee no ree tay,” not, “I know, right?” Still. I mean, I still look at it and I know what it’s supposed to say, but it doesn’t work out that way in my mind.

There is also the art tangent. I keep wanting to do it, and I keep feeling like it’s a waste of time. But I suppose it’s really rather like playing an instrument: you can’t expect to stop doing it for a couple of years and then re-enter and immediately regain all your skills.

I really don’t know what I’m going to do, on that front, though I’m thinking that the first step into re-entry is the hardest. Because of my MLIS program, I haven’t had the time (or energy) to keep up a study of art. What I have had time to do, and have been forced to do, is read. I’ve been doing a lot of reading. And I’m not certain whether I’ll ever get back to being a writer.

Well, I mean, a professional writer, although, “amateur,” probably best described me when I graduated with my BA in Creative Writing. I have found, however, that a lot of people move on from their undergraduate degrees, in their later life. Particularly, if their undergraduate degree is in something that isn’t profitable. Like…Creative Writing.

Someone wrote a book called, “Pivot,” which I just recalled. Actually, there are two books called, “Pivot,” which I just discovered…and I can get both of them through the library. Hmm.

I still want to get back to my study of Japanese language, though (which will be of use in Hawaii if I ever have to move there). And I still want to work with beads and cords. I also still want to get back to reading.

I don’t know about the art — which I can say because this is not my art blog!
Capacity for work

November 30th, 2018

I read two e-books in one night, the night of Tuesday the 27th / morning of Wednesday the 28th. Were they worth purchasing?

Yesterday (the 28th of November), I woke late — having stayed up until 2:30 AM the night before — and had to go get an eye exam. I couldn’t write this post last night, because I was blind to anything within reading distance. However, something very strange had happened, the night before:

I read two e-books, excepting their indexes, between the time I had gotten off of work at 2 PM, and the time I went to bed at 2:30 AM.

How did this happen? I’m not entirely sure. What I can say is that I kept plugging through, because I was afraid that if I stopped, I’d never get back to either one of them.

From research I’ve had to do within Collection Development, it seems that there are a number of e-readers still popular within the U.S. In no particular order, these are the NOOK, Kindle, Kobo, iPad/iPhone, and Android readers.

What I can say from my experience — as I had basically been browsing Amazon since I got home — is that I’m starting to be capable of reading so much, that it doesn’t make sense to buy everything. Browsing on a Kindle is very much like having a bookstore in a tablet; but the quality of those books, varies.

The first book I finished, Black Belt Librarian, by Warren Graham, is 104 pages long, including the Index. (I had seen this book before in the break room of a library at which I used to work, and so had been apprised of its applicability.) The second book I finished, What They Don’t Teach You in Library School, by Elizabeth Doucett, was 161 pages, including the Index.

The thing is, to get the exact page numbers, I’d have to go back and do some research. But just in the ballpark, I read somewhat less than 265 pages — let’s say 252.

I’m getting to the point where I’m realizing that not all reading is as difficult as what I had to do in my Master’s program. I’m also getting to the point of realizing that I don’t have to buy everything I sincerely want to read.

Those of you who know me from the past incarnation of this site will know that even though I work in a library, it’s tough for me to deal with the books. Actually, it isn’t the books, so much; new books are great; it’s all the grime that gets on the books, because they’re physically handled by so many people. This acts as a deterrent to my actually reading them, unfortunately.

However, this isn’t an issue with e-books!

But also, with e-books…sometimes these things are available through using library services. For instance, the second book I read (Doucett), I was able to find in my University library, and it was free to read online (whereas I would have been charged $31, if I downloaded it).

There are two ways I have of searching for this book. The first is to look the title up in WorldCat.org, which is a federated search engine. This means that it searches multiple libraries all over the world for your item. If you enter your location, WorldCat will tell you where the closest libraries are which carry your item — if that library is a WorldCat member.

As a bonus, WorldCat (and Amazon) also linked me to reviews on Goodreads, which let me know more information about the information resource (book, in this case) that I was looking at. This, and having access to book reviews via online databases (reviews are typically accessible by searching the book title), has been a world of help in winnowing down what I actually wanted to buy (out of the eight or so books which it looked like I wanted to buy).

As it turns out, the nearest holdings were fairly close, but I don’t have direct access to those libraries, as they’re University-affiliated (and not with a University I attended).

The second way of searching for this book is what bore fruit. I went to my nearest public library’s homepage and searched their federated search system, known as “LINK+”. LINK+ is a system which spans California and Nevada member libraries. Most states in the U.S. have similar federated search systems, but they go by different names.

EDIT, 6/2/2019: I believe what I called a “federated search” in the last paragraph is more likely referred to as a, “Union Catalog,” but to be honest, I’d have to do some research to be sure.

LINK+ told me that the item was available through a specific Web resource, called “ProQuest Ebook Central”. Because I’m in the Library Science program, I realized I might have access to this from my University’s library. I found the database (“ProQuest,” the aggregator name, was omitted from its title), found the item, and was able to basically read it cover-to-cover within about three to four hours.

It wasn’t as pretty as the Amazon version (actually, the font was pretty terrible), and of course it’s temporary; but it worked, I saved about $31 for the second half of the night’s reading, and now I know the content of that book.

Of course, the initial reason for me to even find it was to see if I actually wanted to pay the $31; I’ve taken up the habit of looking through libraries prior to actual purchases, in order to see the actual contents of the books I’m browsing. This is because of repeated episodes of getting books which were not what I expected or hoped for.

Amazon enables some sample reading from most of its eBooks, but it’s painfully limited — and, as I’ve found, the samples are hidden behind the link to buy the book, now, instead of prominently displayed (as they used to be).

Right now I’ve got a couple of new clips lined up, as well. If they go through, it will save me a good amount of money, which I may apply to a specific textbook in the $70 range, for a class I never took. (I have a couple more lined up which won’t be ready for 3-4 months…but I’ll delay on ordering those. I’ll probably forget about them, otherwise.)

Go libraries, eh?

I did purchase Black Belt Librarian (by Graham) right off, before I realized that if I bought everything I wanted to read off of Amazon, I very quickly wouldn’t have any income left. I am glad I bought it, and am waiting to see how it meshes with Robert Bacal’s book on a similar topic (Defusing Hostile Customers Workbook, 3rd ed.). I am wondering how I’ll remember I have it, however, without it having a presence on my shelf; which seems to be the perennial problem with eBooks.

Graham’s content is much more about handling times one has to say “no” to people in the library, than it is about fighting. In that context, it’s helped a lot toward giving me knowledge of what I’ll have to eventually face, if I do become a Public Librarian. (In my position, I’m shielded from a lot of that, but won’t be if I become a Library Assistant, or Librarian; and there has been very little training for me on this point.)

Doucett, however…that was more like an overview of what a job as a Librarian would entail, and making sure the reader found a job they could deal with. I’m not sure it’s worth the $31, which is something a reader on Amazon said, as well.

Am I going to have to start writing book reviews, just so I can remember this stuff?
The Journey Begins

November 22nd, 2018

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton