Oops, I Broke My Brain
Getting a new computer at work has made me realize the extent to which I've lost my ability to focus. When I had to wait seconds or minutes for every action to complete, it was real easy to futz around on my phone while I waited. I couldn't get into a flow state anyway, so I didn't have a good reason not to. Now that I have a computer that works, I've realized just how dependent my brain had become on said futzing. I knew I was being unfocused, but I didn't know I had become unfocused. It wasn't just a state change, it was a phase shift. Y'know?
In hindsight, this contributed a lot to my frustration getting off the ground with linux. If my brain was healthy, the problems would've been there but I might not've become obsessed with fixing them all at once.
It's not really affecting my work performance, yet, but it is making me feel anxious and overwhelmed. So as of yesterday, I'm on a phone detox plan. I deleted subway tooter, logged out of the most time-consuming websites (including bear,) backed up my password manager database at home, and deleted those passwords from my vault.
It's still rough. I'm reaching for my phone and needing to stop myself constantly. Eliminating my biggest timesinks helped, I'm not getting trapped in the social media vortex, but my brain will find just about any excuse to focus on something it's not supposed to. If I want to look up information about something I hear in a podcast, I have to be careful not to fall in a wikipedia wormhole. I was thinking about my website (more on this at a later date) and found myself doing some ill-advised PHP debugging. On my phone.
Friends, don't debug PHP on your phone. We didn't even have phones when PHP was invented. It originally stood for Pigeon Hello Post, and it was a protocol for an avian message delivery system.[Dubious—discuss]
Anyway, I'm working on another epic tapestry of a post traversing the twisted paths of the labyrinth of my mind, but I'm trying my best to be mindful and intentional so I'm only giving myself ~an hour of writing time in the morning and then putting my phone away. So in the meantime, have a surprise issue of #GarbageDigest.
10:00 and 2:00
Not just a great mnemonic to help you stay safe behind the wheel, but also fantastic start and end points for your lunch break.
Yeah, I pre-ordered the Switch 2
I preemptively Switched 2 a better video game platform 😎
Bulk Discount
Shave: 1 bit
Haircut: 1 bit
Shave and a haircut: 1 bit and a bit more
The Setup
I'm listening to the Sep. 08 2013 episode of No More Whoppers where Alex talks about watching a South Korean horror film called The Host, in which he opines that the story of the titular host didn't wrap up in a satisfying way, and "it seems like the entire movie was named and conceptualized to set up a second movie [called The Parasite]".
The Payoff
I thought, "wait a second, South Korean?" I'd never heard of this film, but I looked it up and sure enough, it was written and directed by Bong Joon Ho, writer and director of Parasite (2019).
So the timeline looks like this:
2006The Host is released2013I listen to Alex talk about it2013-2019I forget about the conversation entirely2019I watch and enjoy Parasite2025I re-listen to the2013episode and my mind is blown.
Nearly 20 years of meticulous setup for this bombshell revelation. Bong Joon Ho and Alex Fraioli are shoe-ins for "Best ARG" at the next Oscars 🦝