Release Candidate One with Chris Clark

The September Issue

If you’ve been wondering why the sudden uptick in posts since the start of September, it’s because my old (web 2.0 era) internet pal Colin Devroe challenged me and a bunch of other people to dust off the equipment and do some personal blogging.

I have to admit I work better under deadlines, and the “personal” constraint is very freeing; I don’t feel the need to be sage or timely, though I hope to avoid the inanity of my early twenties this time around. But hey, it’s fun. I’m on vacation right now, which means my brain is totally underutilized, so the challenge is timed perfectly.

When I go back to work, though? We’ll see.

One of the things I love (and yet still find the energy to hate) about my job is that it uses up all my creative energy. I can leave it all on the field, as it were. Even though I don’t blog very much anymore, and even though I consider that a loss, when I compare this reality to my late teens and early twenties—when I worked shitty jobs that left me intellectually unsatisfied but gave me plenty of energy for blogging—I pick the satisfying career. I pick the occasional night on the couch, not being creative, not doing anything. Even though I feel guilty about how much stuff I’m not doing when I go home for the night. Feelings are complicated.

(This entry was written in bed and barely edited, true to the spirit of Colin’s challenge)