“Let’s do this more often…let’s pass more bills to help create more good jobs, strengthen the middle class.” —President Obama to Republicans in Congress before signing the Workforce Innovation Act, which will help connect more ready-to-work Americans with ready-to-be-filled jobs.
Unrelated to the piece: I find the convention of signing each letter in the President’s signature with a separate pen to be utterly stupid.
Anonymous asked:
samsykesswears answered:
Not really.
There’s other stuff I have to do: run errands, go to meetings, make sure I get exercise, cook food, whatever. These are all things I could, ostensibly, do in pajamas (most of the meetings are from my house), but that can lead down a dark path.
Weirdly, when you work in isolation, you need to remind yourself to be human, force yourself to be social, make sure you follow some protocol even though no one’s there to observe it. It’s extremely easy to become slovenly and lonely if you work from home and both of these things can easily lead to depression.
Yep and yep.
There is a certain pleasure to be had in occasional slovenly days… my preferred writing clothes, especially in the summer, are not exactly high fashion. But there’s a lot of value in even taking just a few minutes to maintain yourself, to change your clothes, to give your “work self” a touch of formality.
My therapists over the years have emphasized the importance of staying in touch with transitions and boundaries. That sounds highfalutin’, so let me break it down. It means trying to stay aware of the date, the day of the week, the condition of the outside weather. It means listening to stuff like NPR, if only for a few minutes, to hear news and a voice from the outside world, to reaffirm that days change and things are happening. Because that sense of “futurelessness,” that sense of “eternal now” that grows from depressive isolation, is one of the most damaging things about the whole condition. Maintaining a calendar… listening to the news… looking out the windows… wearing different clothes for work times… these are all tiny elements of what you might think of as ritual maintenance of one’s sense of place and self.
Also, even when you’re all alone for a long time, you should change your underwear regularly. Because, damn.
Oh god yes… And also in a cafe, restaurant, etc.
Because here’s the thing about a book: when you pick up a story, you put down your own.
Holly Smale, All That Glitters (via quoted-books)
If you read too many, or spend too much time reading, are you preventing yourself from telling your own story, though…?
tastefullyoffensive