Last week I started working at a new place. I think it’s going well so far. I don’t really want to talk too much about specifics because I hope that it continues to go well. Knocks on wood. Let’s just say it’s a role that is pretty much tailor-made for me. It involves production and words and putting together images like they are pieces of a puzzle.
My resume is full of weird professional experiences. There is no real linear trajectory, it sort of zigzags over time in accordance with my curiosity at any given moment. This has been a privilege to follow this curiosity and I feel lucky and appreciative of the opportunities afforded me.
A few weeks ago, I wrote about the thin line between us and chaos. Most of these experiences involved technology in one form or another. Also, most of these involved public spaces and people’s interactions with them.
The first was the customs kiosks at the airport. At three in the morning, they opened the doors to customs and we had to first input our information to these machines. All at one time, the screens of about fifty machines all flickered off and stopped working. I watched as a large group of people all of a sudden had minds that went completely blank. What do we do in the face of technology that decides it no longer wants to work? Or at least, work in the way we expect it to?
No matter how many times I do some things, I still get pretty terrified. Case in point, I’ve told a number of stories over the years in front of a wide variety of audiences. Usually, there is a low grade anxiety when it comes to any of these presentations, but it especially ramps up when I’m talking about something that is personal or which I have a very specific point that I want to leave with the audience.
This past weekend at our latest Stories We Don’t Tell brought a deeper sense of anxiety then most. It was not only about something important to me, but the larger concept behind it was something I felt I needed to get right.
Lately, I’ve been waking up early. Marc Maron has said a few times on his podcast that he thinks you start waking up earlier as you get older because it’s God’s (or whomever) way of letting you know that you should be up for more hours in the day. Time is getting short and you need to be awake for this shit.
