Friday Inspiration 476 – Semi-Rad.com

The summary of this short film reads: “A woman comes to believe that building a great ass will single-handedly pull her life out of its mediocre trajectory.” As I clicked the play button, I thought, “maybe this won’t be such a great fit for my Friday newsletter,” but then about two minutes into it, there were already so many great lines that I figured at least a few people would laugh at it. Whether or not you have gone on a quest to improve the appearance of a certain body part, I believe this will resonate. (video)

I am a longtime fan of Austin Kleon (most famous book: Steal Like an Artist) and of Ryan Holiday (probably least famous but most meaningful-to-me book: Perennial Seller), so when this latest conversation between the two of them came up in my feed somewhere (YouTube I think?), I thought it would be worth a listen. And of course it was—especially the part that starts about the 32:00ish mark when you hear Austin Kleon say “the arts, in some ways, are a good place to keep maniacs cordoned off,” and they have a brief exchange about how everyone should have a hobby, even if they’re no good at whatever the hobby is.

We just got home late on Tuesday evening after a 30-hour travel day back from New Zealand with an energetic (and underslept) toddler, and I made many less-than-ideal nutritional choices in three different airports in that time. So this article by newsletter sponsor Precision Fuel & Hydration, “Why do your eating habits change during times of stress?” spoke to me, especially that “mildly challenging and time-limited stress” actually suppresses our appetite, and “extreme and chronic stress” is what is believed to cause us to want sugary and/or fatty foods. [Reminder: Clicking the above link will give you 15% off your first purchase on the PFH website]

If you are not familiar with the wonderful Moomins, or Tove Jansson’s other books (like The Summer Book, recently made into a movie starring Glenn Close as the grandmother), I cannot think of a better introduction to her work than this essay by my friend Anna Brones, artist and Tove Jansson superfan. (Actually, even if you are familiar with Tove Jansson, it’s a great read).

I do not personally know Ravi Zupa, but I did meet my future wife at the Denver vegetarian restaurant where she worked, where the walls had been decorated by Ravi Zupa’s murals, and when we put together a bedroom for our soon-to-be-born baby, Hilary bought three framed Ravi Zupa prints to hang on the walls, and she later bought me his 5 x 7 print of Kurt Vonnegut’s famous Slaughter-house Five mantra, “So it goes,” and I recently bought his 5 x 7 print of the Noam Chomsky quote, “Optimism is a strategy for making a better future,” and I guess I’m just saying I’m a big fan of his work, and he’s having a 15% off sale on all his Vonnegut-inspired artworks through March 23, and maybe you’d like to check some of it out.

Marcy Dermansky answers the question she says all authors get asked: “What’s your writing process?” And I think this essay is my new favorite answer to that question, because she says so many things like “Know that works one day, will not work the next” and “There is always a new process. Believe this.”

I am not an expert at promoting books, but ever since my first book, I have been in charge of sending out what are typically called “promotional copies”—books that traditionally you might send to potential reviewers who might potentially write about the book, potentially in a big publication like The New York Times or something like that. I have long given up on the idea of any book I write landing me a spot on the Today Show, and have always just shipped out books to friends and acquaintances who I think might enjoy the book. (A professional book publicist might tell me to ask the people who receive the promotional copies to write a review or post something about the book on social media by a certain date, but I feel like that’s a big, awkward ask, so I just send the books and hope it feels like a nice little surprise gift.) When I published Ultra-Something last spring, I sent out a few dozen copies to friends who were into ultrarunning/endurance sports, and I asked Cody Townsend if I could send him one, since I knew he was dabbling in ultra + trail running in his offseason of being a pro skier, and since I think he seems like a thoughtful guy. I found out last week that he wrote a quick review of my book in his FIFTY+ newsletter, and I am happy to say that I believe he really GOT IT. Or at least got what I was trying to do.

I was unaware that this guy became a little bit internet famous for this, but I kind of love that he went to his city council meeting to complain about the Dallas Mavericks trading Luka Don?i? to the Lakers, a move that had so many people baffled. As one commenter on this Reddit post, said, “out of all of the “let me go to a council meeting and rant about ” at least this does have some non-zero chance threads of concern that were brought up”.

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