Boring people are great
Fiona was a fwot-twoddle.
In addition to turning my back yard into a work out facility for an axe murderer, she put off a bunch of scheduled things, dropped the power and generally disrupted the lives of many while ending the life for a few.
The disruption was energizing. I like disruption.
I also like routine.
Steve Jobs had a uniform. Interesting human. Boring fashion. He said it helped with decision making - having his clothes already picked for him.
Research shows that when we make fewer decisions, we frequently make better ones.I get it. I only really want to eat pasta. With pesto
chicken. And broccoli, if you insist on forcing vegetibles upon me. Breakfast is a power shake.No, I do not want to try that new restaurant. I want chicken pesto broccoli pasta and then I want to get back at it.
I’m super boring with food. I will eat adventurously. Occasionally. Very occasionally.
Most times, I want what’s normal, agreeable to me and comfortable. Most days I want the ordinary kind. Totally boring.
My buddy Josh? He’s perhaps the most creative person I know. He’s brilliant. And humble. And, like me, moderately addicted to adrenaline. He has his name all over a whole bunch of US patents. He’s brilliant.
And he’s boring as fuck. I do not know if this is true currently, but for a period of ten years he would bring the same salami sandwiches to work every day. Nothing else. Salami. Mustard. Bread. Bo bo bo bo ring the bell boring as hell!
Lunch was salami sandwiches. Patents for new technological advancements were more important than ‘what should I eat next?’ Mastery of new kite boarding tricks always came before lunch.
Creatively, I’ve already decided to write an email to you every day. I made that choice a year and a half ago. Now, I just follow through. No drama. No hand wringing about whether or not to write to you guys. Just the work without the drama. Boring.
As part of my daily routine,
I do a Bon Iver. This involves putting on their self titled album and writing stream of consciousness and gratitude for twenty five. After priming the pump, I switch to revising, editing and writing jokes for twenty five minutes.It’s actually more of a Bon Iver with a little Ben Howard thrown in to help me finish things off.
You’d think that listening to the same music over and over again would become boring.
It does at times.
And then, I get into what else I’m doing. I hang in beyond the boredom. That’s when time stands still and the words flow like my pomeranian’s turds after drinking a boat of gravy errantly abandoned on the table after a turkey dinner.
When Rodney gets the greasy gravy squirts, life is anything but boring.
A degree of normal has returned post hurricane. Having finished a pot of pesto chicken pasta, I am about to indulge myself in a fifty minute long, uninterrupted Bon Iver.
I’ve missed these.
What routines do you rely on every day?
How do they keep you safe?
Are you in a rut?
How are you routining your way to certainty?
Can you create disruption and doubt for yourself without killing anyone with a hurricane?
Fee Fee will have her name retired from the storm names list as she helped a few people reach the only promise that comes with being born.
As someone who has an echoed and slightly distorted version of this wardrobe, Jobbs approach to fashion is also a great way to just wear the same clothes for a week at a time without changing.
Kraft, from a jar, not home made.
Actually, if they have chicken pesto pasta broccoli, I’d be ok to go there. Well. I’d be ok if they let me cook it myself the way I like it. Otherwise? Meh. Though, I will always make an exception for New Zealand style meat pies.
Did I mention that he’s brilliant? I think due to his humility next to his apparent brilliance, mentioning this a third time still does not do this man justice. Raise your rates bud!
this writing is in addition to preparing these daily blasts here
Routine is a beat.
My life is jazz.
Improvisational jazz performed by a drunk monkey with leather work gloves.