Alex "Gus" Gustafson

Category: Life

  • What You Consume Drives Your Creative Acts

    Since it’s near the end of the month, I took a look at my blog stats. My most popular posts are about the webseries Critical Role on Geek and Sundry’s Twitch channel. But you may have noticed something; I haven’t been writing about Critical Role at all recently. You know why? I haven’t been watching. I’m so behind! Anything I could offer is already so well discussed in the community, it’s not really worth touching on.

    This got me thinking about a bigger issue. When it comes to your creative output, the way you consume things matters. It’s incredibly hard to dream up a new fantasy world if you’re low on fantasy fuel. Writing a personal blog everyday becomes near impossible when you haven’t left the house for anything but groceries in two weeks. This is the same reason so many prolific authors are also prolific readers.

    Think back to when you started blogging (or drawing, or playing the bass guitar, whatever creative outlet you call your own.) You probably had a fair amount of ‘taste’ before you ever started producing your own work. After consuming enough of someone else’s material it’s easier to step back and say “I can do that.”

    We need to stay in that groove. Consume enough that it keeps giving you energy to create that next lyric or paint the next stroke. Block out time for consuming the right material just like you’d block out time to do the big work. And feel no shame!

    You’ll need to face some reality though. Facebook and Twitter feeds are rarely inspirational unless your goal is “social media digerati.” Consuming the wrong type of media will not push your art, at best it will keep you distracted. Call this sort of consumption what it is: resistance. You are what you eat.

    My goal for this blog is for my readers to understand me as my closest friends would. It’s a constant experiment in sharing because even to my close friends I don’t normally share until asked. Looking at my blog as a whole right now, I think it’s clear I could use some quality consuming. The posts I’m most proud of are the book reviews – and that’s on-the-nose the cycle of consume to create. In coming weeks, I hope to make some memories and blog about them in new way. Letting my consumption habits change might also change my blogging for the better.

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  • A Conversation with Amber about Cats and Bacon

    Perusing the internet, I learned about this gem of a blog post from John Scalzi in 2006. He literally taped bacon to his cat just to prove to the internet that he would do it. I had to share this post with Amber right away. Her response:

    Listen, I know you’re going to replicate this. You can put bacon on the cat but you can’t tape it to the cat. And after you’re done with it you have to give the bacon to the dog.

    I don’t really have the energy to follow through with it right now. But it’s good to know what Ber’s limits are on this issue.

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  • House of Picards

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  • Public Speaking (on the Internet)

    I’ve posted enough videos on this blog that you all know how nutso I am. I speak fast and look around a lot. I mumble, stutter, and ramble all at once. Coherency is the antithesis of my extemporaneous speaking style.

    So that’s why I over prepared this time. For a fifteen minute talk, I spent over 8 hours defining my idea, creating effective slides (with GIFs!) and adding notes to the presenter tools of those slides. I did a dry run with someone whom I trust. I asked myself questions people might ask and iterated time and again to make my unclear moments more clear. Most importantly, I slowed the hell down.

    It still wasn’t perfect, but I survived a bout of public speaking in front of a group of peers. Peers whom I hold in the highest regards. And they actually took that time from their (very busy) day to listen to me yak on for a bit. It was thrilling.

    Over prepare. It’s so worth it.

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  • c25k and Social Media

    Everytime I finish a day on my c25k app, it prompts me with this hashtag-filled social media garbage. Thusfar I’ve been able to deny its desire to clog all your Twitter and Facebook feeds – but you better believe I’m gonna let it share on the last run. You’re not a runner if you don’t tweet about it, after all.

    2015-07-22 01.25.08
    #everymomentcounts

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  • Soundtrack to an Evening

    Ber is watching The Silence of the Lambs while I finish up some work.

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  • Star Trek: Nemesis

    Slowly but surely, I’ve been forcing Ber into the world of Star Trek. It was easy for her to enjoy the tv episodes of Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, but the movies from the Next Generation crew are so bad it’s amazing she hasn’t changed the WiFi password on me. For the longest time Netflix never had Insurrection, so the viewing had been halted. But once it got added to their library we watched it and tonight we concluded the era with Nemesis.

    It’s a wholly ridiculous movie and you probably shouldn’t watch it. But here’s a deleted scene that just cracks me up:

    You’re my boy, Wil.

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  • c25k and Ingress

    You might recall that I’m doing the Couch-to-5k (c25k) running program. I’ve completed the first four weeks of the program and in terms of habit-forming it’s been one of the easier ones I’ve attempted in my life. I piggy-backed on my habit of walking the dog around sun-down by turning that into my warmup walk.

    But my real secret? I hack portals while I run.

    A mere mortal would be content with only the c25k app of their choice running on their phone, telling them when to walk and when to jog. But why stop there when you could collect the XM, get an evening hack to help your Sojourner badge, and maybe do a mission? Not to mention that running is the fastest way to earn kilometers on your Trekker badge.

    I’m out of missions near my house that I can complete during a 30 minute c25k session, but I still always fire one up. So long as I keep my fingers off the lock button, the mission will keep my scanner up and running so I can hack any nearby portals. And you better believe I don’t run anywhere without portals.

    One of the appeals of Ingress is that it provides a game that gets you moving. It’s a lot easier to walk two more blocks when there’s a portal over there. If you apply the same idea to running, it’s a lot easier to take on that next jog when you know you’ll have fun. Out of breath fun, but still fun.

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  • If You Like Blogging, Why Not Try…

    • More blogs
    • Better blogs
    • Blogging everyday

    Adapted from this comic at Toothpaste for Dinner

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  • Be Prepared for Your Next Team Meeting

    Most of our communication at Automattic is text-based. We use Slack and P2 instead of phone and email. But occasionally it helps teams to conference together and a video call is a great way to do that.

    Today it turned out that the following are good things to have nearby when you do a video call:

    • A funny hat
    • A cat or puppy
    • A musical instrument
    • A whiteboard made out of materials that aren’t a manufactured whiteboard
    • A loud bird parked on the backside of your laptop

    Trust me on this. Share with your team.

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