tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8981856246989013843.post8600430692884465041..comments2023-05-22T10:42:54.046-04:00Comments on 6th or 7th: Behavioral conditioningEthanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07498712279382078624noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8981856246989013843.post-19246596552711889242010-10-20T17:15:27.051-04:002010-10-20T17:15:27.051-04:00Thanks for writing words I wanted to be kind about...Thanks for writing words I wanted to be kind about!<br /><br />And for writing more of them here. I hadn't thought of these things in particularly those terms before, and I think it's especially good advice for me particularly. So---thanks!Ethanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07498712279382078624noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8981856246989013843.post-33115705722933405592010-10-20T12:10:07.068-04:002010-10-20T12:10:07.068-04:00For what its worth, for me I think part of the sol...For what its worth, for me I think part of the solution to using my time more productively is realizing that what I "feel like" doing isn't what I ought to be doing. My "feel likes" are more calibrated to short-term goals. So acting toward long term goals require doing something I don't feel like doing right now. Lately I've been finding that when I somehow force myself to start on a goal-oriented task that I didn't feel like starting, once I've started I actually enjoy it. But that first hurdle is a big one.<br /><br />Thanks for the kind words!chuck zoihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01433543972285733003noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8981856246989013843.post-8835009310544727592010-10-07T13:54:16.083-04:002010-10-07T13:54:16.083-04:00zecomix: Good diagnosis, good prescription. I'...zecomix: Good diagnosis, good prescription. I'm working on it. Went on a bike ride today!<br /><br />Randal, I think 1% is vastly overestimating it.Ethanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07498712279382078624noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8981856246989013843.post-31966765227125419042010-10-06T14:43:01.330-04:002010-10-06T14:43:01.330-04:00Lugging around a Peavey amp qualifies as exercise!...Lugging around a Peavey amp qualifies as exercise!zencomixhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02425613931488064403noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8981856246989013843.post-51376882852908683012010-10-06T14:06:29.543-04:002010-10-06T14:06:29.543-04:00Everyone seems to be hitting on the crux of the wh...Everyone seems to be hitting on the crux of the whole taco, that if this is the system we're stuck with - and it is, lucky us - and I need to get paid so I don't slowly starve while scraping three-day old cheese out of discarded pizza boxes, it better be for something *I* enjoy, something of my own creation, something fueled by my passion. Sadly, that constitutes, what, 1% of the "jobs" out there? <br /><br />zencomix, get in shape? You, sir, can go to hell. :)Randal Graveshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08728992897551848531noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8981856246989013843.post-17226709454276626072010-10-06T12:43:49.249-04:002010-10-06T12:43:49.249-04:00One of my favorite Lynyrd Skynyrd songs, Graves!
...One of my favorite Lynyrd Skynyrd songs, Graves!<br /><br />One of the traps you may fall into when you squander your time is the "Ice Cream Shoppe" trap. You go to the Ice Cream Shoppe, and there's 57 flavors, and you can't decide what to get because there are so many choices.<br /><br />You want to read, write, make music, learn to cook, so many choices, etc, and you end up in the "What is Digby Doing" procrastination while you try to decide what you really want to do.<br /><br />From my own experience, a good starting point for breaking through the habitual patterns of the past would be the getting in shape physically part.zencomixhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02425613931488064403noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8981856246989013843.post-31568980767747505922010-10-06T10:47:50.270-04:002010-10-06T10:47:50.270-04:00probably because we read very carefully...
it wou...probably because we read very carefully...<br /><br />it would obviously suck to be alienated from creativity the way most americans are alienated from their work, but you can do it for money without losing your passion. you just don't make much money at all, and eventually your passion starts to wane.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8981856246989013843.post-11647810118851922102010-10-06T10:19:23.529-04:002010-10-06T10:19:23.529-04:00Thank you, davidly.
AND HOW COME NO ONE TOLD ME T...Thank you, davidly.<br /><br />AND HOW COME NO ONE TOLD ME THERE WAS A TYPO IN THE POST TITLE? Now it's gone.Ethanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07498712279382078624noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8981856246989013843.post-17807452564835854702010-10-06T06:59:45.274-04:002010-10-06T06:59:45.274-04:00Spot on.Spot on.davidlyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04754707934311038544noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8981856246989013843.post-79548605335096301682010-10-05T21:32:14.541-04:002010-10-05T21:32:14.541-04:00Uh, this might sound weird, but anonymous, I'm...Uh, this might sound weird, but anonymous, I'm sorry to have referred to you only in the third person. I meant to also address you directly in that paragraph.Ethanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07498712279382078624noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8981856246989013843.post-10909729641947573722010-10-05T21:31:13.816-04:002010-10-05T21:31:13.816-04:00Randal, it's always your place to complain. Wh...Randal, it's <i>always</i> your place to complain. Which might be a funny joke, but it is also true.<br /><br />I can't imagine trying to raise kids and to instill good attitudes in them.<br /><br />As for the rest of your comment, and Anonymous's response to it, I always end up being torn about that. In some ways I'd love to be paid to write, either fiction or the type of stuff I write on this blog or other kinds of cultural criticism that interest me, or maybe I'd love to be paid to make weird music, or, failing that, I would certainly love to be paid by (ahem) a library. But on the other hand, as bad as the paralysis this post is about can be, I imagine that coming to feel about things I love the way I currently feel about work: that it's not <i>mine</i>, that I do it to get paid, that I do to the parameters someone else has set.<br /><br />Richard, thank you. I'm hoping that, having found the diagnosis, the prescription won't follow far behind.Ethanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07498712279382078624noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8981856246989013843.post-14211552338612694622010-10-05T21:13:33.240-04:002010-10-05T21:13:33.240-04:00"The conditioning of my thoughts didn't t..."The conditioning of my thoughts didn't take, but the conditioning of my behavior did."<br /><br />Yes. <i>Yes.</i>Richardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08014014605639738887noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8981856246989013843.post-18068063711419675992010-10-05T19:58:54.492-04:002010-10-05T19:58:54.492-04:00some of us have found something we love and can...some of us have found something we love and can't make money at it. to break rocks isn't much of a life, but neither is schlepping all over the country with a guitar in your back seat. anyway, breaking rocks pays better.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8981856246989013843.post-31099923812735712792010-10-05T12:27:40.589-04:002010-10-05T12:27:40.589-04:00On stuff like this, I always feel like I have less...On stuff like this, I always feel like I have less of a place to complain because I don't have a Workin' For MCA®-type job -- not that there isn't bullshit at a college library -- but I find myself succumbing to this as well. <br /><br />The only place I've been able to find myself being creative recently was sitting in the car while waiting for my youngest to get out of school and that was a whopping 30 minutes. <br /><br />With my kids, I've made it abundantly clear that I hope they find something that makes them happy. Sounds trite, but I don't want them wasting time with a cubicle degree or anything that's the intellectual and emotional equivalent of breaking rocks so that when they do finish with the daily task that pays for food and heat and such, they won't feel so goddamn drained that the creative is sitting unused next their body that bears a striking resemblance to a lump.Randal Graveshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08728992897551848531noreply@blogger.com