2025.08.DisappearingMoment
I hope there is something that you love to do as much as I love to write. For me, it is the perfect balance of difficult and rewarding.
Beth and I went to the Omega Institute earlier this month. While she took a workshop, I had a self-led writing retreat. It was a dream fulfilled.
We would arrive at campus by 7:45 a.m. and I would write until 5:30 or 6:00 each evening. I took breaks for lunch, meditated once or twice each day, and ran the Omega trails twice. Other than that, I wrote and edited short stories.
My goal was to complete at least one that I would submit for publication, and try to complete two. I completed three, and abandoned a fourth after working and reworking it for a day.
I set them aside when we got home. I revisited the three complete stories this weekend to ensure they're ready. I plan to submit them to journals this week.
The odds are against these stories. I learned near the end of my retreat that one of Beth's classmates at Omega has an MFA from an elite writing program. This writer said they average 90 rejections for every successful publication.
I look forward to having these stories get rejected. And others, many others. I want to write dozens of stories that I like and have each of them collect rejections, too.
Writing is the right balance of difficult and rewarding for me. Whether editors publish my stories is immaterial. I love writing things that matters to me.
What story could matter more to me, as a writer, than one that I would subject, if necessary, to repeated rejection? It isn't the rejection that I want. No one wants rejection. What I want is the confidence to know that I won't like writing any less if it happens. That I will do work that I like doing, even if it isn't what other people want to publish in their journals.
Welcome to August 2025’s Disappearing Moment, an inventory of my experiences. I hope you enjoy it.
Podcasts
Front Page Fitness (I Liked It): Eric Trexler is the Michael Hobbes of strength training. He and Lauren Colenso-Semple are developing a strong collaboration. And becoming some of my favorite teachers.
Nerdy Software
I write my notes, fiction, and Disappearing Moment in Bear. It works on my phone, iPad, and Macs, and it's accessible through browsers now, too.
Free Font
Vollkorn is a passion project. Friedrich Althausen “love(s) sailing, cycling, canoeing, choir singing and (his) kids.” Also type design: res ipsa loquitur. .
Bougie Products
When I travel, I miss good toilet paper. Spending less on toilet paper is not how I want to save money.
Personal Finance and Investing
Most art is a bad investment, more burden than treasure. Increase your satisfaction by buying art, in person, from the artist whom made it.
Reading
- Brett Berk, “You Don’t Need A Full-Size Pickup Truck, You Need a Cowboy Costume” (I Loved It): “All Cars Are Drag”!!! If you drive, get a smaller, less expensive, unflashy car. Help the earth and make your life easier.
- Philip Bump, “The Power We Use and the Power We Give” (I Liked It): Don’t follow writers who use Substack or Twitter, and avoid posts on either platform.
- Ana Marie Cox, “I Wanted to Be Friends With You” (I Liked It): Parasocial friendships. People loving your art even if you don’t. Risking kindness, enthusiasm, and vulnerability.. These are a few of my favorite things.
- António Guterres, “Secretary-General's remarks to the Informal Meeting of the General Assembly Plenary on the UN80 Initiative” (I Loved It): Doing bureaucracy well demands humility, discernment, sobriety, and vigilance. It’s tempting to be dismissive, to try shortcuts and hacks. Which always leads to catastrophe.
- Dan Harris, 10% Happier (2014) (I Liked It): I started my ten days at Omega with a three-day meditation workshop with Jeff Warren . This book prepared me for the workshop.
- Amy Amla Kartar, Toru Horinouchi, et al, “Neurobiological substrates of altered states of consciousness induced by high ventilation breathwork accompanied by music” (I Liked It): While I wrote stories, Beth studied breathwork. Altered states of consciousness, 30 students, 8 days, led by an ex-actor from Kentucky. What could go wrong?
- Anthony Moser, “I Am an AI Hater” (A Personal Favorite): “Incoherent empty men want to sell me the chance to stop reading and writing and thinking… to stop choosing what I do or knowing why I do it.”
- Iris van Rooij, “AI slop and the destruction of knowledge” (I Liked It): See also, “Gell-Mann amnesia effect.” Lie to me, Pinocchio. Lie. To. ME!
- Timothy D. Wilson, David A. Reinhard, et al, “Just think: The challenges of the disengaged mind” (I Loved It): Matt Levine’s favorite study. People will give themselves painful electric shocks to avoid sitting alone in silence. As a new, daily meditator, I relate.
- Jamie Zawinski, “LOL Github” (I Liked It): “The Clown is just someone else's computer and they can and will fuck you.” See also, Gmail, Google Calendar, and, bless your heart, Google Search.
There were 10 responses to last month’s question, which was, “Do you like surveys?”:
- “Yes, I adore surveys. I hope this becomes a regular feature.” (9)
- “No. I never respond to them or care about others' opinions.” (1)
Words and phrases that I try to avoid: Compiled and Updated
Previously:
- A Demi-Abecedarian Enumeration;
- A Demi-Abecedarian Enumeration (Part 2 of 2);
- Words and Phrases I Avoid (an addendum);
- Words and phrases that I try to avoid (an addendum to my addendum)
Do you know how I can configure an editor to notify me when I use one of these words? I’ve been working on this problem for a couple of years. My next experiment: Nova and Vale. (Thanks, Jenn, for suggesting Nova.)
- 100%
- actionable
- actually
- advise
- all right/alright
- although
- amazing
- and more
- antioxidant
- anymore
- anyway
- articulate (meaning fluent)
- ask (as a noun)
- baller
- balls
- barf
- basically
- belch
- bitch
- blow
- boob(s)
- boss
- busy
- but
- capitalism
- cellulite
- chef’s kiss
- chick
- circle back
- civil (meaning polite)
- clan
- clearly
- codependent
- comprise
- concerned (meaning bigoted)
- contagious
- content (meaning text, images, audio, video, etc.)
- cool
- cradle to…
- creator
- crepuscular
- cringe
- cripple
- crushing
- cuisine
- cuss
- damn
- deck (meaning presentation)
- deliverable
- dialog(ue)
- disrupt
- done
- douche
- ducks in a row
- dude
- dumb
- easy
- eclectic
- elucidate
- emasculate
- empower
- enshittification
- enthusiast
- epic (as an adjective)
- essentially
- etc.
- evangelist
- exacerbate
- execute
- fake
- fine
- first mover
- folks
- forte
- frankly
- freshman or freshmen
- from [X] to [Y]
- game changer
- gentlemen
- GOAT
- god
- gourmet
- groovy
- gross
- guru
- guy(s)
- gyp
- hashtag
- headhunter
- hella
- hey
- hopefully
- howdy
- however
- huge
- ideate
- impact
- inconsiderate
- inconsolable
- individual
- inflammation
- influencer
- innovative
- insatiable
- intellectual property
- interesting
- intimate (as a verb)
- it is what it is
- jam (indicating preference)
- jawn
- jell
- jerk
- jolly
- jowl
- just
- karma
- keister
- key
- killer (indicating superiority)
- kind of
- king
- ladies
- laid
- lame
- learning(s)
- leverage
- liberal
- like
- listserv
- literally
- loser
- mad
- magic
- maiden
- manipulative
- mankind
- master
- maximize
- may or may not
- ma’am
- me and
- meme
- merry
- moan
- move the needle
- musing(s)
- myriad
- myself
- nauseous
- needs (verb) (omitting the words, “to be”)
- neoliberal (and neoconservative)
- next generation
- ninja
- nowadays
- obese
- obviously
- of course
- offline
- okay/OK
- opine
- optimize
- out of pocket
- outside the box
- oversee
- overweight
- pain point
- paradigm
- passive aggressive
- patron
- PC
- pimp
- ping
- piss
- porn
- powwow
- presto
- pretty
- primitive
- proactive
- puke
- qi (or ch’i or karma)
- quaint
- quest
- quite
- random
- reach out
- reactive
- regards
- reimagine
- reinvent
- resonate
- respectfully
- retch
- robust
- rock star
- sacred cow
- savage
- servant
- shitty
- shoot
- signage
- simple
- sir
- sissy
- slave
- slut
- so (meaning very)
- sort of
- spark
- spearhead
- special
- spunk and spunky
- stammer
- stan
- state of the art
- stupid
- suddenly
- sugarcoat
- surface (as a verb)
- symbiotic
- synergy
- talent
- tendril
- thanks in advance
- though
- thought leader
- tolerant
- totally
- totem pole
- touch base
- toxic
- tribe
- truly
- trust me
- truthfully
- turd
- turgid
- tweet, tweeted, tweetstorm, etc.
- um
- uncertain(ty)
- unique
- utilize
- unlock
- verbiage
- verbings (e.g. appending -ize)
- very
- vibe
- viral
- visionary
- voila
- vomit
- warpath
- whatnot
- wheelhouse
- wherewithal
- whine
- whinge
- witch
- with all due respect
- without further ado
- woke
- wordsmith
- wuss
- x-factor
- x-rated
- xenophobic
- xerox (as a verb)
- YOLO
- you know
- youngster
- yourself
- yuck and yucky
- yule
- yum and yummy
- zaftig
- zealot
- zillionaire
- ZOG
- zOMG
Thank you for spending a few moments with me. I appreciate you and look forward to corresponding again next month.
Brett
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