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giowritess · 5 years ago

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— prompt & trope list —

p r o m p t & trope l i s t — m a s t e r l i s t

— under the cut you have a compilation of prompts and tropes I’ve created and found here on Tumblr and internet.

— don’t forget to check my fandoms post to see who and what I write for!

TROPES

1. Christmas

2. New Year

3. Valentine’s Day

4. Mother’s Day

5. Father’s Day

6. Wedding

7. Arranged marriage

8. Babysitter

9. Coffee shop

10. Book store

11. Fake dating/marriage

12. Forbidden love

13. Pet store

14. Parent

15. Teacher

16. Flower shop

17. Locked in a room

18. Bed sharing

19. Stranded due to weather

20. Next door neighbors

21. Bakery

FLUFF/GENERAL/ROMANCE

1. You seem like a bad boy/girl/person type. 2. Oh my god, did you just say that out loud? 3. You expecting someone? 4.Do you need a place to stay for tonight? 5. Look at us, we’re basically a couple already. 6. Compliments won’t pay my drinks. 7. Maybe, just maybe, if I get a free drink I might consider talking to you. 8. That won’t work. Try again. 9. You couldn’t handle me even if I came with instructions. 10. Do you trust me? 11. Can I kiss you? 12. It’s lonely here without you. 13. Is that my shirt? 14. You own my heart. 15. We’re more than friends and you know it! 16. I don’t wanna sleep alone tonight. 17. It was you the whole time. 18. I can’t keep kissing strangers and pretending they’re you. 19. I’m not going anywhere. 20. You make me want things I can’t have. 21. Steal the blankets again and I’ll put my cold feet on you. 22. You’re in love with her. 23. I don’t know if I want to kiss you or shove you off a bridge. 24. Are you even listening to me?! 25. I didn’t think you could get any less romantic. 26. You make everyday worth living. 27. You’ve shown me what love feels like. 28. You’ve always felt like home. 29. I can’t imagine a world/life without you. 30. I am home. 31. I’m right where I belong. 32. Can’t you stay a little longer? 33. You’re the only one I wanna wake up next to. 34. You make me want to be better. 35. I think I’m in love with you, and that scares the crap out of me. 36. I think you’re just afraid to be happy. 37. Why haven’t you kissed me already? 38. You’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. 39. I can’t stay away from you. 40. I’m better when I’m with you. 41. I tried my best not to feel anything for you, but I failed. 42. I don’t want to be alone right now. 43. I don’t trust myself around you. 44. I don’t think anyone’s ever said that to me before. 45. Can we just lie here for a moment? 46. I’ve never hated you. You just... make me feel things I don’t understand. 47. If you don’t tell me to stop, I’m going to kiss you. 48. I could get used to waking up next to you, actually. 49. Please, don’t cry. I can’t stand to see you cry. 50. You’re a terrible liar. 51. You’re the only person I want to be with tonight. 52. You’re not going anywhere. 53. You were always good for me. 54. You’re more than just a one night stand. 55. I’ve been falling in love with you since the first day we met.

ANGST & SAD

1. I can’t stand the thought of you. 2. Don’t fuck this up. 3. How stupid do you think I am? 4. You broke my heart and all you can say is sorry? 5. Don’t you dare to leave me. Not now. 6. I’m dying. There’s nothing you can do about it. 7. I’m not gonna lie. This isn’t how I planned for this to go down. 8. I can’t do the things you do. 9. I might never get another chance to say this. 10. Tell me I’m wrong. 11. How much of that did you hear? 12. I thought I could trust you. 13. Are you just going to leave me here? 14. Don’t. I don’t have to hear your pathetic excuses anymore. 15. You knew about this all along, didn’t you? 16. I still believe there’s a good person in you. 17. It was necessary. 18. I’m sorry this had to go down like this. 19. What the hell is wrong with you?! 20. Is that how little you think of me? 21. I’m too sober for this shit. 22. It’s not that easy. 23. You’re more than that. 24. She’s hot, but she’s evil. 25. Well, behaved women rarely make history, do they? 26. That’s not what I meant and you know it. 27. I have to tell you something. 28. Why am I not surprised? 29. She’s not yours. 30. There’s no us. There never was. 31. I made a mistake. 32. Please, don’t walk out that door. 33. When were you going to tell me? 34. The worst thing is, that even after all of that, I’m still in love with you. 35. Would you just shut up and listen to me for two goddamn seconds? 36. If i asked you to stay, would you? 37. I don’t know who you are anymore. 38. I trusted you. 39. Hang on. You’re gonna be okay. Keep breathing. 40. You crossed a line. 41. There’s no turning back from this. 42. I needed you, and you weren’t there.

SMUT — 18+

1. Don’t make me take you home and punish you. 2. I’ve never wanted anyone to fuck me this badly. 3. You’re more than just a one night stand. 4. Like what you see? 5. Try to stay quiet, understand? 6. We’re in public, you know. 7. I really don’t care. You still look hot and i’m trying not to kiss/fuck you senseless right now. 8. Are you sure? Once we start, i might not be able to stop. 9. Make me. 10. Stop teasing me so much. 11. You’re in trouble now. 12. First one to make a noise loses. 13. Mine. 14. Behave. 15. What did you just say? 16. Come here. 17. Watch me. 18. If you interrupt me one more time, so help me god. 19. If you insist. 20. Could he make you feel as good as i do? 21. You make a sound and its game over. 22. If i have to stop what i’m doing, you wont be able to walk for the next week. 23. I haven’t even touched you and you’re already this wet. 24. C’mere, you can sit on my lap until i’m done working. 25. What? Does that feel good? 26. If we get caught i’m blaming you. 27. We have to be quiet. 28. Tell me again. 29. Say it. 30. If you don’t like my teasing, then why are you moaning? 31. I’m gonna fuck you so hard that you forget you ever even met that asshole. 32. You better shut that pretty little mouth before i put it to work, doll. 33. I really want to kiss you right now. 34. Then do it. 35. You’re not taking me to bed. Ever. 36. Who said it had to be on the bed? 37. She may seem like lollipops and rainbows but i bet behind closed doors she’s latex and whips. 38. Ah, he’s playing hard-to-get. Thats cute. 39. Don’t fucking touch what is not yours. 40. I’m not sure if its a sexual thing or not. 41. There’s people here. 42. I don’t care what you do, just fuck me. 43. Fuck you. 44. I’m not going to touch you unless you beg. 45. You can’t tease me like that and expect not to be punished. 46. I’m gonna strangle you. 47. Is that a promise? 48. You look a bit tied up, want me to come back later? 49. Stop distracting me. 50. I know for a fact that you can be a hell of a lot louder than that. 51. Saddle up doll. 52. What are you doing in my bed?! 53. If you're going to act like a little brat then I'm going to treat you like a little brat. 54. You'd better be quiet or everyone's going to know what a naughty little slut you are. 55. Look at you, I've only started using my fingers and you're already shaking. 56. I can't wait to be on my knees for you later. 57. Oh honey, you know, you really shouldn't tease me. 58. If you keep making those sounds I'm not going to be able to stop myself. 59. Such a needy little thing, aren't you? 60. You better watch your fucking mouth. 61. I love the way you look with my fingers inside you. 62. Wanna see what I'm wearing underneath all this? 63. I wonder what your girlfriend/boyfriend would do if they knew what you were doing right now. 64. Do you know how beautiful you are? It's truly distracting. 65. If you leave the house wearing that then the second you get back home I'm going to bend you over that bed. 66. I'm gonna fuck you in front of the mirror, I want you to see how pretty you look when you're spreading your legs for me. 67. Let me show you what happens to little brats who don't follow the rules. 68. You know, there wasn't a single thing to eat in the kitchen until you walked in.

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wayward-marvel-sommer1196 · 7 years ago

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Tag Game

Rules: you must answer these 85 statements and tag 20 people

Tagged by @kdfrqqg It’s been awhile since I’ve done one of these lol. I wasn’t even in the SPN fandom the last time I did one.

1. Drink? Pepsi

2. Phone call? My dad

3. Text message? My sister

4. Song you listened to? Say You Won’t Let Go by: James Arthur (literally gives me goose bumps every time I listen to it.)

5. Time you cried? 4th of July (Don’t ask)

6. Dated someone twice? No, I’ve only ever had one REAL boyfriend and a bunch or near misses

7. Kissed someone and regretted it? Never kissed anyone

8. Been cheated on? Nope

9. Lost someone special? Yes

10. Been depressed? Yes, like all the time

11. Favorite colors? Purple, Blue, and recently Red

In the last year, have you… 15. Made new friends? Yes

16. Fallen out of love? Love-love no, semi-love yes

17. Laughed until you cried? I dont think I’ve ever laughed til i cried??? Laughed until my stomach hurt sure but not til i cried

18. Found out someone was talking about you? Unfortunately

19. Met someone who changed you? Yes, not in a good way

20. Found out who your friends are? 100% yes I love my girls so much

21. Kissed someone on your facebook list? No one that wasnt in like a family matter

General 22. How many of your facebook friends do you know in real life? a solid 97% only because some are family that ive never met.

23. Do you have any pets? No Dad hates pets, but do babies count? because they are equally as frustrating and I live with two under the age of 3.

24. Do you want to change your name? yes too many jokes and annoying nicknames

25. What did you do for your last birthday? Got my hair done, had some pudding cake, and went to Iguana Mia for a free lunch with my mom and her boyfriend and then binged Gilmore Girls b/c mom didnt feel well so we went home and did nothing after like 2.

26. What time did you wake up? 7:30 because of the babies I live with but didnt get out of bed till 8:15

27. What were you doing at midnight last night? On here actually

28. Name something you can’t wait for: Graduating College but that ties with Getting Married

29. When was the last time you saw your mom? a few weeks ago?? I know im horrible but her work schedule is all over the place and my life is so unpredictable but i do try and talk to her every other day.

31. What are you listening to right now? My family messing around

32. Have you ever talked to a person named Tom? yes

33. Something that is getting on your nerves? my job not giving me shifts and my step nephew with his lack of respect for adults

34. Most visited website? Tumblr

35. Hair colour? Dark brown with a tint of burgundy because I havent gotten it dyed since december (my bday) and red washes out real fast but leaves subtle traces especially in the sun

36. Long or short hair? As of now on the shoter side, like shoulder length, but if you would have caught me a month ago it would have been hella long got 10 inches cut off

37. Do you have a crush on someone? As of now NO because my last crush stomped on my heart and crushed then ran it over with a semi so I have sworn off men unless celebrities count????

38. What do you like about yourself? Honestly, right now nothing thats one of my issues. BUT if I had to pick I guess my loyalty??

39. Piercings: just your standard, run of the mill ear piercing

40. Blood type: 0+

41. Nickname: Don’t have one because I refuse to share what my mom called me throughout my childhood. So i just go my full name Sommer

42. Relationship status: single and hating men

43. Zodiac: Sagittarius

44. Pronouns: She/Her

45. Favourite tv show: UGGGHHH too many. SPN, most superhero shows, most crime dramas, Greys Anatomy, and more. I used to be a tv addict and started watching a bunch of shows and although i dont watch them much anymore doesnt mean i dont still love them

46. Tattoos: Yes, on my right foot. Its part two to a quote that me and my sister got together. “....but thankful for the one ive got.” she got “A perfect sister i am not.....”

47. Right or left handed: Right

48. Surgery: If getting my wisdom teeth taking out (all four of them at once) counts then yes other than that no.

49. Piercing: Already answered

50. Sport: None, I suck at all sports and hate them all too. I was and am more of a book person than a ball person, but I do enjoy a leisure swim on occasion

51. Vacation: Would love to take one but im broke. My last was a high school trip right before i started my senior year where we traveled through five states making stops in each until we ended in indiana for the convention we needed to go to and then came back.

52. Pair of trainers: don’t know what this means

53. Eating: I wish I was lol My dinner sucked ass. Man, I wish I had a nice juicy steak right now with a baked potato and asparagus yum

54. Drinking: at the moment nothing but the last thing I drank was at like 2 pm and now its almost 10 (oooppps) and that was a mocha coffee from DD

55. I’m about to: take a shower then outline some god damned stories that are haunting me right now

56. Waiting for? something good to happen in my life for once

57. Want? To be prettier, but I am slowly losing weight which is helping that problem. OOOOHHH and my best friends to be with me right now

58. Get married? I would love to at some point. Not anytime soon, but I also have to find someone who can put up with my difficult moody ass for the rest of our lives sooo..... that could be awhile

59. Career? Now none after college hopefully a forensic scientist/CSI since that is what my degree is going to be in

60. Hugs or kisses? Bith

61. Lips or eyes? On an S/O eyes hands down on me i guess my eyes

62. Shorter or taller? On an S/O taller I guess I have a type lol a bit of a height kink. On me shorter im only 5′2

63. Older or younger? Older although if it was only like 2 years younger Ii would be cool with that just not any further

64. Nice arms or nice stomach? These questions are so superficial and I feel superficial for answering them but I guess in a S/O stomach on me I have neither soo...

65. Hook up or relationship? Relationship, im a sappy sappy romantic at heart a hook up is too impersonal and so crass I want the feelings

66. Troublemaker or hesitant: hesitant

67. Kissed a stranger: No

68. Drank hard liquor: Being that I am only 19 I’m legally obligated to say no, but my oldest sister is a horrible influence so I may have had a taste a few times

69. Lost glasses/contact lenses: No but I have lost a retainer, twice, in the garbage. Yeah my parents werent to happy with me

70. Turned someone down: Depends? for a date no. for anything havent we all. sex never been offered.

71. Sex on the first date: Virgin, so no and I’ve only had one real boyfriend that wasnt really a relationship anyway so yeah

72. Broken someone’s heart: I want to say no, but I guess I have not in a relationship way but you can break anyones heart for any nimber of reasons

73. Had your heart broken: Hell the fuck yeah but so many damn people

74. Been arrested: No, close once but the store guy let me go on a warning

75. Cried when someone died: Yes, doesnt everyone unless the deseased is like an axe murderer or something

76. Fallen for a friend: Ugh this question. I hate it so much. Yes, that boyfriend I mentioned that was the situation and that didnt end well. And then my sophomre year I was like in LOVE with this kid I had known back in elementary school and he was my best friend and he was out of my league and let me down gently. Then i fell for my frenemy my senior year, but he neber knew and it was just a phase for me I guess it didnt last long

Do you believe in… 77. yourself? Wish the answer was yes, maybe come again another day?

78. Miracles? sometimes

79. love at first sight? I would like to but Ii just can’t

80. Santa claus? I wish, but I am glad to pretend for my niece and nephew

81. Kiss on the first date? Sure if it went well

82. Angels? Nope. Sorry

Other 83. Current best friend’s name: Well, I got three. They are my girls, my squad. Weve all been best friends for going on 4 four years. Sam, Dana, Solange

84. Eye colour: Brown, boring I know

85. Favourite movie: Can’t choose just one so like the entire Marvel franchise? Can I do that? Too bad I just did

Im supposed to tag 20 more people but honestly my hands are cramping its after 10 and I really need a shower so if you want to take a crack at this I totally encourage you too.

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myipscrapbook · 7 years ago

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How to Do Nothing by Jenny O’Dell.

Below are my real-time thoughts as I read How to Do Nothing by Jenny O’Dell. It took me the whole studio time because I kept stopping to write my thoughts out. TL;DR: I’m blown away by the relevance of O’Dell’s ideas to my IP project and my life, by the quality of the writing, and by the variety of sources, both personal and secondary. Incredible. So glad this exists.

1:39pm: I'm feeling nervous about finishing a draft tonight, but I need to appreciate that this draft doesn't need to be perfect. Despite how great yesterday's meeting was, only just now I found myself failing to provide a simple sentence to someone describing what my project will be. The form is still up in the air. Those tasks I had been told to do after yesterday's meeting, I haven't done them yet. So, instead of fretting over organizing my homework or my proposal, I'm just going to do those tasks first. Step one: read How to Do Nothing by Jenny O'Dell.

1:52: I'm reading How to Do Nothing, and I had to stop to write about how great this piece is so far. It starts from personal experience, walking in a rose garden, then describes O'Dell's work, with a touch of humor, but then also generously describes other people's works that also revolve around creating structures that reframe our experience of the overlooked into an act of appreciation. I'm at a part of the article where O'Dell is talking about labyrinths, and it reminded me of how Sophia mentioned that this process is actually revealing a common thread throughout my 4 years here, because I also am fascinated by mazes and labyrinths– getting lost in order to rediscover something, or as the article begins, being silent in order to discover what's worth saying.

There's a difference between mazes and labyrinths. Mazes have an entrance and an exit; Labyrinths only have one entrance/exit. Mazes are prisons, like for the minotaur. (I know the myth says he was trapped in a labyrinth but it meant a maze-like structure... confusing) In a Maze, the aim and excitement is to escape, to get out. Labyrinths are not about escaping; you know that you'll end up back where you started. No, they're about getting lost, meandering, and returning changed and refreshed. They're designed, like the rose garden in O'Dell's piece, for people to stop and smell the roses. To observe and reflect. Labyrinths "make it possible not to walk straight through a space, nor to stand still, but something very well in between."

^O’Dell

I seriously can't believe how much this is related to my previous thoughts, inside and outside of the classroom. In Jennifer Metsker's writing class a year ago, I wrote about mazes, labyrinths, time capsules, observation/appreciation of the mundane. All before I really got involved with M-BARC's time capsule, and well before my IP thought process began. It's amazing how all these things are connected.

Libraries are like labyrinths. I enjoyed getting lost in the special collections archives. When I had to retrieve a book, I took my time back there, and took plenty of photos. I mean, a lot of photos. The categorization and tall Richard Serra bookshelf canals encouraged curiosity. There's a whole alleyway of every Don Quixote edition and translation one can imagine, all the same, and all completely different.

(weird panoramas are good) 2:10: Now she's connected the practice of Deep Listening to Bird Watching, or really "Bird Noticing." Can't help but think about iNaturalist, and how the app has restructured how I move through the world. Now I pay attention to strange new birds, insects, plants, all around me. I learn their names. I observed what a ladybug larvae looks like, and how it looks when it turns into an adult, and all this I've done because of this app. Isn't interesting that a system, an architecture of noticing, can be as simple as a phone app??

2:14: Watching birds and deep listening really requires DOING NOTHING. (Reminds me of Bored and Brilliant, and The Abramovic Method, which shows how sometimes its hard to do nothing. http://www.wnyc.org/story/marina-abramovic-goldberg-performance-art/ )

2:19: Noticing things increases the granularity of attention: you begin to notice AND IDENTIFY everything you never noticed before. O'Dell Compares this to realizing her mother spoke not 2 but 3 languages.

"With effort, we can become attuned to things, able to pick up and then hopefully differentiate finer and finer frequencies each time."

This is essentially the moral of the Parable of the Sunfish. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_Sunfish

(And It's worth mentioning Robin Sloan's great app, Fish, about using this parable to better understand our relationship to observing the river of internet articles we share and never return to every day. "To return is an act of love" writes Sloan. I agree. To pay attention, to listen, is an act of love, too.)

2:22: What's great about this article is that O'Dell always ties together her examples in concise language that gets to the root of their commonality. For example: (emphasis mine)

"What these moments of stopping to listen have in common with those labyrinthine spaces is that they all initially enact some kind of removal from the sphere of familiarity. Even if brief or momentary, they are retreats, and like longer retreats, they affect the way we see everyday life when we do come back to it."

She's investigating these examples and revealing to herself and the reader why they matter, and what their effect is. Christo and Jeanne-Claude's work would fit nicely into this collection– certainly an architecture designed to defamiliarize oneself with the landscape.

2:28: Now she's connecting many examples by their common underground aspect, and how it works to remove us from our environment, or context.

2:30: Now connecting it to John Muir's life?? And his near loss of vision, which convinced him to reconsider to what end he was using his senses to appreciate his world.... I never knew all this. (Only a few paragraphs ago she briefly mentioned Rebecca Solnit's description of an earlier example... How many people and places are mentioned in this piece?? And yet it all flows so naturally; none of it feels forced.)

And then transitions it to her dad's experience of removal! Always tying it back to personal experiences (Why has this mattered to others? --> Why does this matter to you?) There is a structure to this whole piece in this way. Also, John Cleese managed to slip in too.

2:36: ..."the granularity of attention we achieve outward also extends inward" What a realization. Reminds me of Robert Krulwich's commencement speech https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AA2JtZ_7yE (love that man) about sitting on a rock, uncertain about his future, and just, sitting. And thinking. His granularity of attention increased internally... He realized not only why he was unhappy as a lawyer, but why he was unhappy seeking a perfect love life, a reframed what his goals were. There are SO MANY IDEAS in this article. God I should print it out to keep on my desk.

2:45: Great paragraph on "Bios." What is my "bio"? What is my artist statement? How do I describe myself?

2:46: The precarity of nothing: A new section does a turn that Metsker would approve of: points out an obvious critique of this logic (one I admit I hadn't thought of at first.)

2:50 This article is taking an interesting turn into what the value of public spaces is, and the value of doing "what we will." The value of doing things that have no economic purpose. I can feel guilty about doing things that have no economic purpose.

This reminds me of 17776, the speculative fiction published this summer about a world in which, for some reason, everyone stops dying and being born. All of us here, we live forever, and no one else will. Without death, the whole idea of "spending time productively" falls apart, and with it many Americans' sense of purpose. After a few decades, a century, people begin to get past this capitalist mode of life-meaning, and start to spend their time, well, playing. In this story, it focuses on how immortal everyday americans play football in a future with no end. It's absurd and oddly beautiful at parts.

2:57: Took a break and ran into Franc. Told him I was reading the How to Do Nothing, and how excited I was by it. He said he enjoys looking at my blog and seeing what I'm thinking about, and feels that I'll know exactly what I want to do real soon. 1. I'll never stop being surprised this blog gets read. 2. That vote of confidence is really encouraging. I'm starting to feel the same way. I also told him that I got the invite to the dinner with Mark Dion: "That's the way to do it," Franc said. Feeling great.

3:02:

"The removal of economic security for working people — 8 hours for work, 8 hours for rest, 8 hours for what we will — dissolves those boundaries so that we are left with 24 potentially monetizable hours that are sometimes not even restricted to our time zones or our sleep cycles."

Oh my god. That Uber game taught me exactly this unsettling point. Every hour of one's day became a resource for Uber to mine for money, at the expense of one's quality of life.

3:17:

"I know that in the months after the election, a lot of us found ourselves searching for this thing called ‘truth,’ but what I also felt to be missing was just reality, something I could point to after all of this and say, this is really real."

I am blown away that this O'Dell reached this point in this same article. This is what I was grasping at very early this semester, but I never imagined it would in any way be connected to this other topic, of slow observation and "doing nothing." Perhaps close observation of the tangible world around us IS a way of addressing Truth.

I am reminded of my conversation with Julian, the Arcade Cellist, the one who was spouting off his beliefs that we never landed on the moon, and that the earth is flat. However, after an hour and a half talking, he gets to this point:

“The things you know are real to you every day in your hand. You can see them. The things we don’t know, they’re everywhere. ... This is real to me."

“This” being his cello, his music. And he started playing a beautiful song, and I could at least appreciate what he meant.

Photo credit @Mark Bialek. My 4min Audio Piece:

https://drive.google.com/a/umich.edu/file/d/0BwjQk6D2fHggZFVMclJLdVBrYTQ/view?usp=sharing

Since the election, and even in the months leading up to it, I've considered deleting my facebook, or at the very least avoiding it. Not avoiding the NEWS, but the chatter. Looking at sidewalks and fire hydrants and bugs, walking outside, felt very grounding. This article feels very validating because I haven't talked to anyone about this feeling, that it can feel refreshing to take stock of the immediate truths around you, the air and the sidewalk, the flowers and trees. Playing the cello. There's no agenda to it, no politics, no hate, only greater attention and understanding.

This is also what made David O'Reilly's game Everything so profound to play; It was a game based on this idea of doing nothing, and appreciating being a member of this world, on par with the microbes and birds and comets. There's literally a game mechanic for announcing you exist, or that "I am,' called "singing," as well as a game mechanic for "dancing," or moving with others of a similar type, not towards a destination, but for the sake of moving. Isn't that beautiful? Isn't that NOT economically productive? Isn't that all that really matters?

3:29: Oh god O'Dell's talk about Herons, and posting photos of them on twitter, is exactly what I've been doing with bugs and creatures around town. The Grey Cross Spider that greets me on my way into North Quad. The Boxelder Bugs that welcome me into the Duderstadt.

(Hello cricket!)

Hell, this is how I used my Snapchat stories this summer, even now sometimes. I stopped uploading photos of myself or what I was doing, and instead I started to share videos of ducks. and squirrels. and swans. and caterpillars. and clouds. And I really liked it. And I even got comments from one or two friends that they really liked it too. Who knew Snapchat could be a place not explicitly for making others jealous about your social life? Maybe it could be a place for moments like these.

3:35: oh my god, I can't say how many times my brother and I have talked about befriending crows. It's on our bucket list. My brother loves loves loves birds in a very similar manner to O'Dell here. He once tried to make friends with crows by laying out peanuts like this, but they always got swiped by a seagull. Pssh. In a past life, I imagine that my brother was a Default Wren™. That's what we call those wrens, you know the ones, the Default brown birds everywhere. Here's an audubon picture of one:

3:43: This is just unreal. O’Dell arrived at the same point I reached at 3:17... This “direct sensuous reality” is like a “life raft,” as it was for Julian, the arcade cellist. The fact that she writes this following the election, and that I had the same response to the election in my life, is validating, because like I said, you don’t see this perspective at all on social media.

“I am not an avatar, a set of preferences, or some smooth cognitive force. I’m lumpy, I’m an animal, I hurt sometimes, and I’m different one day to the next. I hear, I see, and I smell things that hear, see, and smell me. And it can take a break to remember that, a break to do nothing, to listen, to remember what we are and where we are.”

People aren’t encouraged to talk about the mundane tactile world on social media. We’re encouraged to share things of “importance” and social merit, and to deliver our opinions on articles. I don’t ever share images of mundane findings on facebook; no one does. Nothing screams "boring person” than posting images like that. But maybe I am boring! Or at least by this definition of interesting and boring, I totally am. There’s a lot of shame in doing something “unproductive.” And anyways, there’s FAR more important things out there to post about than my day-to-day social life, and my political hot-takes. Seriously. And just as scandals and outrage is important, so too is taking the time to appreciate the immediate world you’re a part of, so you can react thoughtfully to these events.

I remember this summer, when I was thinking about my IP project, I was so angry, and I felt I was OBLIGED to address Donald Trump, yet I was exhausted by his existence and the hatred around the issues that he inflamed. It was all distracting from the importance underneath those issues. I stepped away from facebook for a while, and talked with my brother about my thoughts on this, and his advice for me was not to make something that directly talked about Donald Trump, but rather identify and address what angers me about him. I realized that what angered me most about him is his distorted view of all sorts of Americans. I remember realizing in this moment, AHA! I know what I’ll do! I’ll talk to my neighbors! I’ll interview my neighbors about their lives. Because my block is home to people of many religions, backgrounds, countries of origin, passions, jobs. It’s home to people of a variety of lawn care regiments and any number of children. It’s a New Jersey block. My block is America. Talking to my neighbors is a way for me to tangibly grasp on to what America is. It’s immediate and it’s real. It’s Truth.

Although I didn’t know it at the time, that’s precisely what spoke to me about that concept. I didn’t have enough time in the summer to execute on this idea, but I instead I put myself in more conversations with my neighbors, and in that way, was trying to appreciate being a part of their community. Doing nothing taught me what I needed to do.

“It’s a kind of nothing that’s necessary for, at the end of the day, doing something.” –––This. 4:07:

...“self care “is poised to be wrenched away from activists and turned into an excuse to buy an expensive bath oil.”

Exactly. This kind of “self-care,” this kind of “doing nothing,” is not/should not be misconstrued as disengagement, but is actually really its own form of engagement. Especially after this past election, it felt like you had no agency in the shitshow. But this kind of “doing nothing” can help clarify what true agency you DO have, so that you know what sorts of actions you CAN do that will have a positive effect. 4:15: My computer dies... I go back to central campus to charge...

4:34: “Doing nothing teaches us how to listen.” In this context, this means listen to OTHERS.

4:35: (emphasis mine)

“But even with the problem of the filter bubble aside, the platforms that we use to communicate with each other about very important things do not encourage listening. They encourage shouting, or having a “take” after having read a single headline.”

Oh man, this is what I was thinking at 3:43. 4:38: Connectivity vs Sensitivity. Sensitivity is more time, so, “too expensive.”

4:40:

“So, self preservation and the cultivation of sensitivity — these are two somethings we might get from nothing. But there’s one more: an antidote to the rhetoric of growth.”

O’Dell zooms out here, but is also really squeezing the most out of this idea. The article could’ve wrapped up here, but it has more to say. These insights don’t come without plenty of time spent sifting through these ideas. This medium article is a goddamn thesis. 4:49: This section about daily care, routine maintenance, vs growth, “progress,” disruption– it reminds me a lot of the issues confronted in the tech world with the quantified self, fitbits and the impulse to one-up your best mile run time, or to beat your friends.

This is actually what I decided to focus my sci fi prototype project for this month on. If some tech is designed to make us more competitive, can tech be designed to make our lives more routine, daily, reflective lives? Continued daily practice and care and work is so meaningful and underrated compared to “working smarter, not harder” and “innovation.” O’Dell also points out the gendered nature of these topics. 4:58: The point O’Dell makes about Solnit’s Paradise Built in Hell is exactly what I felt about recent Stamps Lecture Series speaker Keiji Ashizawa’s work in Ishinomaki following the 2011 earthquake in Japan. Ashizawa immediately worked towards bringing people together to rebuild as a community. For the terror of that disaster, this kind of work is the most noble and rewarding sort I can imagine there is.

(When Rebecca Solnit came to campus last February, she opened her lecture up to questions. I waited on line to ask her what she would recommend we put in the Bicentennial Time Capsule, regarding her speech on “generational amnesia.” There was no time left in the lecture to answer all the questions, but she let the remaining people on line speak their questions anyway. So I go the honor of asking Solnit a question, although not the pleasure of hearing her response.)

5:03:

“And I’m suggesting that we fiercely protect our human animality against all technologies that actively ignore and disdain the body, the bodies of others, and the body of the landscape that we inhabit.”

This section is a call to action. Metsker would approve. Nicely paired with images of Elon Musk and Soylent. This was the theme of Robin Sloan’s book Sourdough, which heavily features a soylent-type brand.

Emphasis mine:

“There are certain people who would like to use technology to live longer, or forever. Ironically, this desire is a perfect illustration of the death drive from the Maintenance Manifesto (“separation, individuality, Avant-Garde par excellence; to follow one’s own path — do your own thing; dynamic change”). To such men I propose that a far more parsimonious way to live forever is to exit the trajectory of productive time, so that a single moment might open almost to infinity. As John Muir once said, “Longest is the life that contains the largest amount of time-effacing enjoyment.”

CLAP CLAP CLAP 5:23: I finished the article and spent time listening to the silence of the Gordon Hempton “Desert Thunder” track, linked to at the end. This article is a lot to process.

IN CONCLUSION

I am so glad Jenny O’Dell synthesized these ideas so well and put these words out into the world. I look forward to reading her other writings and looking at more of her work, which she reflects on briefly to close this piece.

O’Dell says she doesn’t know what’s next for her, or what all these thoughts add up to. I don’t either for myself, but I’m very excited to see what she ends up doing next. Same goes for me.

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