Aspirations

Current location: Milwaukee, WI, USA

Reading: Star Builders by Arthur Turrell

Listening: This Year by The Mountain Goats

(if you have a moment, reply with your own 3-item status)

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Aspirations

In next week's newsletter I'm planning to share some of my aspirations for the new year.

We don't require milestones to make positive changes in our lives, but pivots do tend to be perceptually more attainable just after birthdays, holidays, or other calendar-related reshufflings.

And I'd love to share some of your aspirations alongside mine.

I tend to be inspired by other people's ambitions and goals, and I suspect other readers of this newsletter would likewise enjoy hearing what you're planning to get up to, next.

So if you're keen to share, please respond to this email with a few sentences or less about your intentions for 2022 and any quick, supplementary details about those intentions (why, how, resources, etc) that might spark interest and enthusiasm in folks who read them.

Also: I'll share first names and locations (city, country) of submitters—so please include that info along with your response :)

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I've been flying through poetry books of late—I find they're an especially nice way to end the night, turning off all my screens and reading a handful of poems or a chapter on poetry-construction before turning in (and reading some fiction on my Kindle in bed before drifting off).

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Projects

Select, recent works from across my project portfolio.

Aspiring Generalist: Jealousy List

Brain Lenses: Kama Muta

I Will Read To You: One Night

Let’s Know Things: Livestream Shopping

Curiosity Weekly: Dec 14, 2021

One Sentence News: Dec 15, 2021 (podcast version)

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Interesting & Useful

Some things to click (I curate & share similar links weekly via Curiosity Weekly and daily on Twitter):

The EPSON International Pano Awards 2021 Winners Gallery The EPSON International Pano Awards showcases the work of panoramic photographers worldwide and is the world's largest competition for panoramic photography.

Constraint Systems Alternative interfaces for editing and creating images and text.

Intro to Cassette Recorder Operation, Maintenance, and Repair

As somebody who lived through the cassette tape era, to see it come around again is interesting and nostalgic. I see lots of groups all over the web dedicated to tape and tape machines but still there's plenty of basic questions that go unanswered.

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High on my list of Things To Do More Of In 2022 is visiting more museums; I've gone to a few with friends and family over the past year, but I'm keen to get back into a rhythm of regular, solo museum-exploration, and I've been making a list of places in the region to explore.

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Outro

If I were to livestream a writing work session—just a video feed of me writing, with a little chat-box, and we'd have a 30-minute or maybe 60-minute period of just focused, creative work, together online—would that be of interest to anyone?

I've been looking into livestreaming tech and software, and it seems like useful stuff to know about, especially if I ever want to shift some of my speaking activities (which haven't been feasible or prudent in person for probably obvious reasons for nearly two years now) online.

Much of this space is oriented toward people live-gaming (on Twitch and YouTube and similar platforms), but I feel like there could be other useful purposes for it as well, like the aforementioned live-writing, maybe even live-cozy-activities (like sitting around reading); things that allow me to fiddle with the tech and learn how to use it while also providing some kind of value on the other end, for those who participate.

Let me know if you have any thoughts on this. I'm still tossing it around in my mind and trying to decide if it would be worth the investment of time and energy, and any insights or ideas related to the topic would be very much appreciated!

Also: consider sending me a quick hello and telling me something about yourself. I respond to every message I receive and would love to hear from you :)

You can reach me by replying directly to this newsletter, or at colin@exilelifestyle.com.

You can also communicate via the typical methods: Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or old IKEA catalogs.

If you’re finding some value in what I’m doing here, consider supporting my work via one of these methods: Become an Understandary member / Buy me a coffee / Buy me a monthly coffee

Unusual locomotives.