I’ve been writing online for close to 30 years. I recall celebrating one Christmas at my mom’s house in Turnersville, NJ, and showing off my brand-spanking new website.
It was either Groupware News or an incarnation of my name with a dotcom after it. I ended up losing that domain to some cybersquatter.
In any event, the site was met with a great big “Hmmm … OK” from my family.
I’ve since gone on to do God-knows-what and my present domain, this domain, which has been around with various bits and bobs through the years. I’ve done other things too but I’m not getting into them now.
Put on the overalls
I saw this on Instagram the other day from Steve Pressfield. It planted a seed that I didn’t think twice about then.
Sometimes, scrolling on social can plant the seeds of some good things.
Over the past, I’m gonna say, hour or 90 minutes, that seed germinated into this post of mine. The weird thing is, I forgot about Steve’s post. I didn’t even think about it until I started writing, and it jumped in my head.
In the spirit of Steve’s post, what the hell, I’m starting right now!
I am embarking on a series of 365-day/52-week/12 month projects that I’ll outline below.
I’ve tried doing these sorts of things many times before but haven’t continued so, this is another attempt. God help me!
I know: Get to it.
Project #1: A 12-Month Immersive Course in Humanities
Ted Gioia has a great Substack you should check out. In July, he started a 12-month course in the humanities.
I’ve never done a deep dive on The Humanities. When I saw this, I knew I had to do it. I meant to do it but didn’t, so now is as good a time as any.
He has another article on how to read Plato, in which he suggests starting a discussion group. That was the fertilizer that caused Steve’s seed to sprout!
So, I’ll post my thoughts here to get my mind thinking about these things.
Project #2: 365 Photo Project.
I’ve been trying to do for 10 years and just never did it. I always get caught up taking a bunch of pictures and never running through the post-processing. Don’t know how I’m going to approach it but I’ll figure it out.
Project #3: Short films
I need to shoot some shorts to figure out how to work my camera and process the footage. To do that, I’ll shoot 5 to 10-minute shorts of some sort.
Other stuff
I’ll also write about some of the reading I’m doing. I’ve spent most of my life reading technical, self-help, biographies, that kind of stuff. It’s time to read something else, starting with Richard Hooker’s MASH novel.
Of course, I’m shooting my first feature film, “The Naked Winemaker,” next year. If I don’t have something shot by the end of March, mid-April at the latest and a schedule for the rest, I’m giving up on it.
Then, there’s writing, jotting down ideas for various projects after NW is done. Plays, novels, other films, starting my Substack.
It seems like a lot, but it’s not. It’s a bunch of bits and bobs that’ll I’ll post just to get it out of me.
So, we’ll see what happens. I don’t expect anything, really, but what the fuck.
So thanks Steve, Ted, and everyone who inspired this.