The return ...to whatever this is

Hello, hello, my friends. How are we all today? My name is Geoff. And this is my blog. 

I found this old thing in the drawer. It was under an assortment of yellowing faint-ruled notepaper, paperclips, and half-used 2B pencils. Once I dusted off the ...well, dust, I was hit with a sense of nostalgia. 

Blogging has been a long-running fascination. I remember my earliest attempts at something like it. I had one of those MSN Live Spaces. I can't remember a great deal about it, but I know that I had a profile picture in which I was wearing a backwards cap. The cap was inspired by the character of Randall from Clerks 2. I liked his laidback attitude, and his assessment of the Lord of the Rings films - "Three movies about walking to a volcano." 

I briefly wrote a newsletter about an online game, Chosen Space, which was shutdown a long time ago. The layout was a quaint design which reminded me of school newsletters from back in the 1990s. I would report about the happenings within the game each week. It didn't last too long. It felt too much like work. But my fondest memory of it was getting paid. It was a single modest tip from a reader. It wasn't much but it was nice. 

I wrote a political blog back in the day. I tried to write about Australian politics from a relatively neutral perspective. Now that felt like work. I kept it going for several months, until I realized that it was just an unpaid job. And that's often how regular blogging feels. The highlight of that blog was that it gained significant traffic. That was the first one which brought in over a 1,000 pageviews on some posts. Mind you I used to promote the blog on Twitter and Facebook. 

Other than the abovementioned, I have tried personal blogging more times than I can remember. And I have quit personal blogging just as many times. It's interesting how I always run out of steam. Sometimes it takes a couple of weeks. Sometimes a couple of months. But it always happens. 

Earlier this year I returned to the hobby of art. Painting and drawing has taught me a lot about myself and my motivations. There's a lot to unpack. But the most important takeaway has been that I have to love the process more than the result. If I'm focused on making a pretty picture to impress other people, then I end up hating the process of making art. When I flip it around, so that I love the process regardless of the final outcome, then I have a lot more longevity in my practice. 

So what does that mean?

Maybe I need to blog. Maybe I need the wordplay and creativity. And maybe I would stick with blogging for longer if I shift my focus toward the process, learning to love it regardless of the outcome. That's probably a little inaccurate. The process exists because of the goal. A journey exists because of the destination. So the end still matters. Maybe a gentle rebalance is all that is needed. 

Review: The Paradox of Choice

The Paradox of Choice, by Barry Schwartz. Just go and read it. I mean it. It's not often that I could honestly recommend a book to everyone, but here is a rare exception. The content of this book would stand to benefit everyone. Barry approaches the matter of choices in our lives from a variety of angles, and they all point to an important theme - while some degree of choice is needed for us to feel happy, too much choice tends to make us unhappy. Anyone who lives in a relatively wealthy part of the world, in which supermarkets and stores abound with a baffling amount of things for sale, would benefit from reading what Barry has to say in this book. 

Most of us tend to think that we are rational decision-makers, and the pressure of marketing doesn't sway our choices, but the truth is that we are usually wrong about it. Our lives are an ongoing series of choices, and this book highlights how easy it is to act against our own best interests and remaining ignorant while doing so. Barry also makes some useful suggestions for us to tackle the problems of choice.

Final score: 4.5 / 5

Review: The Light Years

The Light Years, by R. W. W. Greene, is a dystopian science fiction novel which I finished reading yesterday. It was thoroughly enjoyable. 

The story is set in a future in which humanity has fled to the stars and colonised several planets. Societies have continued to deteriorate as the schism between rich people and poor people keeps expanding. Most people live out their lives planet side, but others find work in space and spend most of their lives onboard spaceships travelling between the planets at speeds nearing that of light itself. The novel is presented from the perspective of two main characters, told in alternating chapters. One character, Adem, he is a space trader. The other is Hisako, and she isn't even born at the start of the book. And yet they have been arranged to be married when she is an adult. At first it seems bizarre even though the reader is made aware of the impact of relativity. But as the motives of each character's parents are made clear, it's easy to understand why such a marriage would be sought.

As the story progresses we see Hisako go through childhood, adolescence and early adulthood, all while Adem barely ages. As both characters struggle with the internal conflict of the arranged marriage individually, we see the various worlds change around them. Families, people and neighbourhoods come and go in a short span of time for the spacers. But thanks to some excellent storytelling, I never felt that their lives were insignificant; if anything, it made their fleeting lives seem even more valuable. And when Adem and Hisako eventually meet, which is on their wedding day, this novels starts to feel like a good romance novel in which I really wanted the best for the two main characters. 

There are a lot of interesting themes and feelings that came up while reading this book. I won't go into more detail, because I think it's best if you feel the full weight of those emotions as you discover the story for yourself.

Final score: 4 / 5

Unexplained absence

A fair bit of time has passed since my previous blogpost. Obviously, I have been attending to other matters, and I think that's all the explanation I'm going to provide. I hadn't forgotten about this blog, but I simply chose to give my time toward other activities. Maybe I'll write a new post soon. I hope that everyone is doing well. 

Forget that which shines

Of late, I have noticed my thoughts tending toward matters of unnecessary complexity. The pursuit of a simple life of basic needs, along with a few small comforts, has been usurped by cravings of a worldly nature. Money, possessions, reputation and recognition have become dominant thoughts. In essence - greed and ego. This shift in thinking has decreased my happiness a bit. Not a drastic change but enough for me to notice it. I don't like it. 

It has prompted me to return to the book Walden by Henry David Thoreau. Re-reading the early portion has reminded me of the confusing and sometimes complex pursuits of modern life, always chasing after more of various things, drawing people away from the bare necessities of life. Reading it provides a measure of peace to my mind, calming the turbulent desires and bringing them under heel. 

This morning I spared a thought for the chores at home - cleaning dishes, sweeping floors, folding laundry, dusting shelves, and other tasks of this kind. As I went about these chores I stopped thinking about the things from the world beyond - news, politics, markets, employment, and so on. The outside world was ushered from my mind and escorted back outside where they belong. I simply did the tasks at hand, and that was enough.

Obviously, we cannot ignore worldly concerns forever, but neither should we entertain them for longer than necessary. The same is true for most thoughts and matters. There are times when our thoughts on some topic are no longer useful. When we have moved beyond helpful reflection, and begun to ruminate, rehash and reinforce counterproductive lines of thought, then it is time to lay them aside to go do something. Keep it simple.