Readers, I have a favor to ask you. I’m going to invite you to hold me accountable.
Us professional writers sometimes refer to ourselves as “authorpreneurs.” When you’re an authorpreneur, you manage a staff of one – namely, yourself. I’ve written on Medium that my one employee is immensely creative and is capable of being a brilliant writer. However, that employee is also a rebel and a slacker, and he has a bad habit of cutting out early on his writing day to go to happy hour at the bars.
When the stupid pandemic restrictions lifted on May 15, I expected the volume of my professional writing to suffer for a couple of weeks. I rediscovered my favorite spots as I knew them before COVID. I threw in some late nights, which I did not do at all for a year. I started going out every day, whereas before I would take 2-3 days a week to stay home and write.
I figured my writing output would suffer for 2 weeks. That was fine. That was expected. When my hiatus from a regular writing routine crept into its 3rd week, I rationalized it by saying Memorial Day weekend made it hard to make me get back into my rhythm.
Now I’m at 6 weeks. This is ridiculous. It’s time for the excuses to stop.
So, here’s my invitation to you, my readers and my friends. If you see me out at one of the Downtown Memphis bars, ask me this question:
“What have you achieved in the past 2 days?”
There’s nothing wrong with going out and having fun, but it needs to be earned. It needs to be a reward. It shouldn’t be a default value. Writing – the thing that I’m working to turn into a career – should be the default value.
I asked my readers to hold me accountable once before, about three and a half years ago. Thanks to you, I kicked the habit of doing several shots of a nasty rotgut cinnamon whiskey on a daily basis. I probably wouldn’t be alive today had I not stopped that.
Now I want to be more than just alive. I want to be alive and wildly successful. I have zero doubt I have it within me to do that. But I can’t keep being the person who’s shown up the past 6 weeks and expect that.
So I invite you to hold me accountable.
And now, let’s get on to the news.
Penny Hardaway is said to be in serious contention for the head coaching job for the Orlando Magic. Penny claims his heart is in Memphis, but if an NBA coaching job came down the pike, he’d be crazy to not at least consider it. Calkins: The Hardaway era is on the brink
HAPPY INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY.
The Miss Tennessee competition, which will select Tennessee’s candidate for Miss America, will take place at the Cannon Center July 1-3. The CA has the details on what will happen.
New graffiti art to look at out my living room window!
This must have been done last night – wait, I don’t think I opened my blinds yesterday, so it could have been Saturday night.
And now I just noticed this, same building/adjoining rooftop, about 100 feet away:
Signature for the other piece, perhaps?
Seems like I heard fewer revving engines this weekend compared to previous weekends (although I still heard plenty). I wonder if that’s a sign that the speed bumps are working. I did hear one car that sounded like it was drag racing down Monroe last night. That’s not good if the bumps simply redirect the racing to the side streets. Monroe is especially not good because you have people walking out of Bardog and crossing the street.
I watched the 3-part biography series on Ghislaine Maxwell last night on Peacock Premium and would say it’s worth your time if it sounds interesting to you. Maxwell is the alleged talent acquisition scout for Jeffrey Epstein, the billionaire pedophile who “committed suicide” in 2019. Specifically, it’s alleged that Maxwell would go out and recruit “nubiles” (high-school-age girls) for Epstein’s sexual pleasure, as well as for the pleasure of his powerful friends.
Epstein was known to maintain friendships with Prince Andrew of the United Kingdom, former U.S. Presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, and Bill Gates. He had an extensive camera system in his mansion, including in bedrooms and bathrooms, and may have taped his famous friends with the nubiles. That could be why very powerful people wanted Epstein dead and arranged his “suicide” when he was jailed and awaiting trial.
As for Maxwell, the series explains her relationship with her father, the late media magnate Robert Maxwell. She may have been drawn to Epstein because he checked off the exact same “daddy issues” boxes that her father did. The series claims that Maxwell saw other people not for who they were, but how they could be useful – a classic trait of a malignant narcissist.
Forecast: Low 90s, slight chance of rain. In other words, it’s the end of June.
Time to start my day and earn the right to be out tonight. Assuming I do it, I’ll probably stop by Blind Bear this evening. Back tomorrow with more news.