Grudges

~~Sometimes~~ Often I read an essay and I wish I had written it.

The latest example is written by Alex McElroy — and not by me, damn it — in last week’s edition of The New York Times Magazine: “Why Holding a Grudge Is So Satisfying.”

A grudge is not a resentment. Sure, they’re made of the same material — poison — but while resentment is concentrated, a grudge is watered down, drinkable and refreshingly effervescent, the low-calorie lager to resentment’s bootleg grain alcohol.

Effervescent is the perfect word to describe McElroy’s writing, and I agree with every word they wrote. Especially this:

Did someone truly, existentially wrong you? Don’t waste your time growing a grudge — save it for something pettier.

So I guess it’s not appropriate to hold a grudge against someone I’ve never met over something as existential-adjacent as them being a more gifted writer than I?

Or maybe it is.

Pen and Paper for 2022

I’ve been a black-ink guy for years, favoring the Bic Velocity Retractable Ballpoint Pen, Medium Point (1.0 mm). For 2022, I’m switching back to blue ink for the first time since … college?

For the last half of the 2021 I used a spiral notebook but am shifting back to legal pads in the new year, specifically the TOPS Docket Gold (8-1/2″ x 11-3/4″) with 50 sheets per pad.

The paper itself certainly lives up to its billing as a “premium writing pad” but who am I kidding? It’s way too premium for my scribblage, but I have three pads left so I’ll finish them up. Then I will go with the store-brand variety at Staples or OfficeMax. Or, maybe I’ll go with a notebook that has the spiral at the top, giving me the best of both worlds.

Embracing Typos?

Here’s an interesting take on typos: embracing them.

From Fred Wilson’s blog:

I make typos all of the time in my emails and texts and other informal communication.

And I am increasingly seeing AVC as another form of informal communication.

AVC is me. I am human. Humans are imperfect. So AVC should be imperfect.

So there it is. I am letting it stand.

I give Fred credit; I don’t think I could let a typo stand if I knew it was out there.

U-Turns

Sometimes reversing course isn’t a bad decision, it’s just a decision.

A few months ago I decided to delete my retired Detroit Tigers blog, The Daily Fungo. I haven’t posted anything to it since 2017 and I didn’t like that it was languishing out there gathering digital dust.

I started the blog in 2006 and wrote there consistently for 11 or so years. Then I ran out of gas and out of interest.

Over the past couple of years, my friend Ian had to withstand a quarterly series of text messages about whether or not I should pull the plug altogether or just leave it alone.

This year I chose the permanent-delete option and forwarded the Daily Fungo’s domain to its equally comatose Twitter account.

And everything was fine.

Until this week.

At some point in the past few days I realized that there’s no point in having all of the work I put into the site (with an occasional assist from Ian and my friend Doug) just sit on my hard drive.

So, I resurrected the blog today. And, instead of feeling neglectful of a blog with thousands of aging posts on it, I feel happy knowing it’s out there for whoever stumbles on it during a Google search.

A good decision methinks.

50

When I resurrected my blog, I set a goal of posting something every day, no exceptions. With this post, I’ve done so 50 consecutive days.

It’s a place where I try things out and share what I’ve learned, read, listened to or watched.

I’m excited that tomorrow will be Day 51.