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Mental health, bin men, and ridiculously elaborate names 🗑️ 👷🏼‍♂️ [Friday Goodie Bag]
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Reading time: 3.43 884 words Hey Reader, Say it with me: MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEMS. You cannot tell me that the algorithm isn’t literally (and I do mean literally) damaging our brains. I open up Instagram and LinkedIn (and I don’t even go near TikTok) to see the following in this order:
All in delicious 20-second soundbites as carne por la máquina. Distraction and sales-fuelled madness as the world burns, in order for a few people to profit at the expense of literally everyone else. This ain’t about digging at the rich, either (well, the billionaires can suck it) — this is about changing things. I want more wealth in the hands of people like us, and it is not going to happen while we’re all distracted by insufferable algorithmic bullshit and systems that are built to control us. So I have a suggestion. Sign up to hear from people who have important and/or joyful and/or helpful and/or inspirational things to say, in a way you can guarantee you’ll hear from them. Best way to do that? Email. Still. Email marketing is far from dead. In fact, I predict it’s going to be one of the most important ways to share information as we lose more and more control over how the media feeds us what it wants to feed us. Here are some bonus Friday Goodie Bag links for you to check out and maybe sign up to:
Get on the Positive News mailing list because the world ISN’T all terrible. Some of it is wonderful. Yay! This way, we retain control of our attention (somewhat) and decide what we’re going to feed into our psyches. Happy reading! And happy writing… And now, here’s what I’ve gathered for this week’s Friday Goodie Bag… Will the real Bin Shady please stand up…​Meet the Singing Binman who will bring some joy into your Friday and a little song into your heart. These obituaries for teenage girls who actually died when they said they were dying…McSweeney’s is always good for some comedy writing, and this made me snort. You know how people (usually teenage girls let’s be honest) say “omg i’m dying” quite often? Well, here’s the aftermath of that… This interesting piece about philanthropy vs remittancesWestern donations and philanthropy aimed at “underdeveloped” countries gets a lot of attention… but hardly anyone knows that the biggest donors are the diaspora themselves. Check out this really interesting article about the white saviour narrative and the difference between philanthropy and remittances. This dude who gives his paintings ridiculously elaborate namesI am absolutely here for naming things in ridiculous and extravagant ways — like this artist who paints sublime pictures of birds and then calls them stuff like "Fool Me Once, Shame On You — Fool Me Twice, And I Will Purposefully Utilize The Foundational Tool Of Democracy To Bring An End To The American Experiment, And With It, Democracy Itself” This amazing chef who had no formal training but did have star qualityEdna Lewis was the granddaughter of a formerly enslaved man (yes, it’s that close to living memory) and she left a lasting legacy in one of New York’s most beloved restaurants. Her story is really cool, shows you don’t need all the advantages in life to do something wonderful, and she wrote a cookbook too! Thanks to Sharon Hurley-Hall’s SHHARE group for this one! What I’m readingRight now I’m on holiday, so I wrote this in the past. Past me, though, is pretty sure I’m still working my way through The Expanse books! Space opera ftw! What I’m writingI’m working on some comedy bits on the beach. And I’ve got my watercolours out to paint some low-quality beach scenes. Woo hoo! Word of the daySpatula. Honestly I just like the feel of the word in my mouth. Quote of the day“I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don’t let anyone tell you different.” —Kurt Vonnegut How are you gonna fart around this weekend? TTFN, Vicky
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Learn to Write Like You Mean It
Join 500+ writers, creatives, misfits, and weirdos and learn to write like you mean it in 10 minutes a week. Get ONE practical tip, story, or shenanigan every Tuesday + a creative goodie bag on Friday 🖖🏼
Reading time: 2.01 477 words Read this email in your browser. Hey Reader, Have you ever ruined a perfect moment by screaming at it? I have. Just last week in fact. I was swimming out of the Witches’ Cauldron sea cave on the Pembrokeshire coast with Joe and my friends, when a seal popped its head up a few metres behind us to watch. My reaction? To scream like a twat and accelerate out of there. To be fair, the seal wasn’t fazed at all. It just bobbed there and watched us weird bipedals...
Reading time: 0.58 230 words Read this email in your browser. Hey Reader, I’m in that weird post-holiday marshmallow-brain state of what day is it and what am I doing here. This is not helped by the fact that it’s 29C today and I just want to read my book in the sunshine and admire my new ankle bracelet made from silver and sea glass and little silver starfish that I bought from St David’s market. I was on the hunt for bits and bobs for my journal and I found, among the surfer stickers and...
Reading time: 5.08 1,220 words Read this email in your browser. Hey Reader, We need to talk about bestsellers. Bestsellers are hyped; books are written. Lemme say that again. We don’t write bestsellers, we write books. Then we market the shit out of them in hopes they’ll become a bestseller. There are courses out there that proclaim promises like “write your bestseller with us” or even “write your bestseller in a week/month/insert improbable time period” and they really grate my carrot. Let’s...