Sproutings Life - 11 things on birthday eve
It's my birthday on Thursday. I turn 49. So here are 11 things on my mind just now.
Through today’s cloud, rather than an observational story or even a short fiction, I present here a little snapshot of 11 things bouncing around my head just now.
1. What is sproutings? So far it is my site of fiction, observational stories, reviews and diary-style entries. And now this list of 11 things on my mind. It is my passion project. I love writing these sproutings. I love traversing subject areas and styles. I love the idea of exploring creativity and then I love the creative act. I have no boss here. It’s all me. And this thing floats or fails only on the strength of my ideas and the support (or not) that they receive. How great!
2. I turn 49-years-old tomorrow*. 49 finds me mostly very happy with everything. Grateful, curious, amused. A bit confused. Aware, certainly. Learning. Excited. Pretty excellent. Very happy to be sharing experiences, building life, with wonderful, creative, curious, supportive people. And when the challenges come (as they always do and will), I find it helpful to notice how my body reacts.
* publication days and dates on this site seem to be based on San Francisco time *& haven’t worked out how to alter that. I set this up to post on Wednesday 20 March, Melbourne time, Australia.
3. For the first time I have an answer to the question: "what is your favourite podcast"? And the answer is "the Blindboy podcast." So much laughter and learning since Amelia introduced me to Blindboy a few weeks ago. Since then it seems that I live in one of two states: (i) listening to a Blindboy podcast or (ii) eagerly awaiting the next time I get to listen.
4. Sometimes I wonder where other people find time to read, play music, do strengthening exercises, diversify, earn money, become informed about the world of, say, artificial intelligence. Surely most people are bluffing.
5. It seems that AI could end many problems to do with humans and it also seems that artificial intelligence could start many problems to do with humans.
6. In early 2022 I decided to: "Follow Joy." It is working. There have been a lot of ingredients (and people) involved there. I'll hold on to that mantra for a while yet.
7. I launched Sproutings as substack site on 26 January 2024. Eight weeks later, Sproutings has 34 followers, 27 free subscribers and 2 paid subscribers. Thank you, thank you! (Is that good? Is that shite? It just is). Why did I choose substack rather than some other site? I chose it because of the subscriber options. Readers can choose to subscribe – either for free or they can offer to pay. It seems a very sound model. Either type of subscription is helpful. Writing is what I love to do. I would love to spend more time doing it. So, if you enjoy these meanderings and are up to shout me a pot or a coffee once a month, I'd be happy to take it. If not, that's no problem. Others are doing that. So everyone gets the sproutings.
8. Entries for the Furphy short story competition close at the end of April. I've spent much recent time trying to write an entry for that - they take fiction stories to a maximum of 5000 words with the broad topic “Australian life.” Look it up. Many, many days spent fluffing about here – starting down one track, abandoning it, starting down another, abandoning that. But last week a story somehow leapt out of the haze. It now runs freely from the end of my pen and straight into a Moleskine notebook of unlined paper with a bright red cover. There is no rhyme nor reason to any of that. Just that fluffing time is not wasted time.
9. There is simply no good news from my part-time work in climate science. No sugar coating it. The world's oceans are warmer than an any point in recorded history. And warming. The global energy balance continues to show more energy is being absorbed (from the sun) than is being emitted (from the earth) each day/ week/ month/ year. Because of the greenhouse effect (which occurs due to elevated CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere) there is an ongoing energy imbalance. That extra energy has to go somewhere. And it is largely being absorbed by the oceans, with likely devastating consequences on global heat circulation, weather and climate. And this is happening very rapidly and all while the concentration of atmospheric CO2 continues to rise. It’s not good. Not good at all.
10. Over a pint of Village Pilsner last Friday, Kristen and Melissa wondered-about/ suggested an idea for a possible future story here – on navigating the world of dating apps. I quite like that as a story idea.
11. I am VERY HAPPY that Sarah introduced me to improv philosophy & that it is part of my life these days: "yes, and…" Go with it, support the people you are with – your colleagues/ partner/ collaborator, build on their efforts, make them look good.
12. That’s all. I’m not counting #12 here. Just wanted to finish by saying Thanks to anyone who reads here and who supports the creation of any type of art. Have fun. Oh, and here’s a cropped section of photo from last Saturday night. Cropped to protect the innocent. Play on.