{"id":2872,"date":"2016-05-02T14:54:33","date_gmt":"2016-05-02T19:54:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/?p=2872"},"modified":"2016-05-02T14:54:33","modified_gmt":"2016-05-02T19:54:33","slug":"workin-on-workin-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/?p=2872","title":{"rendered":"Workin&#8217; on workin&#8217; it"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Despite my disappointment in my own discipline at keeping my body in working order, in defiance of my depression&#8217;s insistence that doing deepens the darkness, I agreed to work with a couple of my heroes on Thursday. The minds behind some of my favorite internet videos will direct me to be a tough guy. I am trying to stay excited rather than nervous.<\/p>\n<p>Every once in a while, I read back the things I write here for my own edification. I suppose that is the purpose of a journal and not only self-indulgence. What I note most, however, is how I only feel connected to the things I write that come from my self-loathing. The times when I make the effort to be positive make my ass twitch, to steal a phrase. They seem disingenuous. Perhaps I just have more practice in the dark.<\/p>\n<p>I remember I once wrote a short piece called &#8220;Why I can&#8217;t be the bad guy,&#8221; for a writing class when I was attending Parkside. It was well-received for its poetic language, but no one really understood what I was driving at. I was in a position then to believe that I had more to learn, but that I had great potential as a writer, if only I would write.<\/p>\n<p>I have more drive now than ever, commitment to purpose and awareness of the waste that most leisure-time activities create, but now I have none of the feeling of potential or interest that would have kept me in love with my own writing. I want to throw up when writers say their characters won&#8217;t talk to each other. I don&#8217;t like the way they give rational credence to the daemon. Maybe that is why my own soul&#8217;s code is so foreign to me. Arcane, even.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Despite my disappointment in my own discipline at keeping my body in working order, in defiance of my depression&#8217;s insistence that doing deepens the darkness, I agreed to work with a couple of my heroes on Thursday. The minds behind some of my favorite internet videos will direct me to be a tough guy. I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p73iP8-Kk","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3035,"url":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/?p=3035","url_meta":{"origin":2872,"position":0},"title":"Perfect Day","date":"4\/21\/2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been using\u00c2\u00a0Habitica\u00c2\u00a0for a couple of years now, using it mostly as an online tracker\u00c2\u00a0for my to-do list. On my daily schedule is a long list of things that I try to accomplish every day in addition to my actual to-do list. Here's what it typically looks like: leave the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Ennui&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":767,"url":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/?p=767","url_meta":{"origin":2872,"position":1},"title":"I did not write today.","date":"6\/20\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I did not write today. I deserve no forgiveness and no shame. I did not write today. Another day less fettered I will put thoughts into words into bytes into ether into eyes into thoughts. I did not write today and the world stayed the same. I did not write\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Poetry&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":509,"url":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/?p=509","url_meta":{"origin":2872,"position":2},"title":"Generosity and general weirdness.","date":"2\/16\/2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I attempted to write this into a funny story, but I find the screenplay version to be so compelling as to render any retelling feeble. So, I now present The Weirdness of my Workplace - Part One. INT. OFFICE [An over-designed cubicle seen from the entrance. A man's back is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Best of the Buddha&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":306,"url":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/?p=306","url_meta":{"origin":2872,"position":3},"title":"It&#8217;s no fun to shop at the fat lady store&#8230;","date":"5\/3\/2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Hey, it's a random thought blog entry! Originality, thy name is me! I was thinking that instead of having SCUBA equipment and masks and whatnot, there should be a way to use the technology of the hydrolysis battery to power a device that would split the water into its component\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Ennui&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2708,"url":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/?p=2708","url_meta":{"origin":2872,"position":4},"title":"On masculine insecurity","date":"10\/27\/2015","format":false,"excerpt":"A compliment requires two sides. It is the proverbial tree in the forest, and simultaneously the scientific answer to that question. There must a producer of the compliment and the receiver of that compliment. I would further postulate that the receiver in this instance must agree to the nature of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Ennui&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":133,"url":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/?p=133","url_meta":{"origin":2872,"position":5},"title":"How to vacation without even trying.","date":"5\/13\/2004","format":false,"excerpt":"People to whom I owe apologies and who will likely never be as close to me as they once were (in no particular order): Don't read 'em*; I'm just purging. * - Well, if you want. They're not funny and might not be interesting.** ** - scratch that: they are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Self-service&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2872"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2872"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2873,"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2872\/revisions\/2873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}