You forgot the part where an "imaginary" reader says, "Wait, did that say January 2024?!?" (Or maybe not-so-imaginary one.)
Love your gentle touch of humor here--always one of the top things most needed when someone's in this kind of spot that you are in right now. “How do you go on with life? Or how do you go on with this post?” is classic: We treat our words like they're the be-all and end-all of the biggest of all big to-do's. (Or at least I do!)
"I trusted God. Even though I did not believe in Her, I trusted Her." <-- Also, this parallels what probably amounts to my first prayer. I was seven years old, and at school that day, I'd misunderstood an argument two girls in my class were having. They were arguing about whether you were ALLOWED to raise your middle finger, but I thought they were arguing about whether it was PHYSICALLY POSSIBLE to raise it separately from the other ones. So of course, I showed them! (Also, the teacher was out of the room at this time.) The entire class gasped, and I heard one classmate utter "She hates God!" After I got home, I still could not escape re-playing the horror of my embarrassment, and I found a quiet place where I could be alone, (you could almost say I approached the throne of God from a throne room, as there was a porcelain throne* in that room) and I informed God, "I don't hate You; I just don't believe in You."
Umm, I'm not sure what to say here about your grief & loss of your beloved wife. So I will say "Sorry for your loss. That sucks. :("
* Another internet friend came up with the somewhat irreverent wordplay that inspired this, and had me rolling in laughter some years ago.
I was going to write something about rebooting today. Not just today. Several times, including today. Haven't done it yet. Maybe today's the day.
I hadn't forgotten that I had written a post about rebooting, so I could not remember it. But I had forgotten what I had written.
So I read it. After re-reading it, I still do not remember it. But now I'm aware both of that I wrote, and what I wrote.
When I went back to reread it, I saw you lovely comment and liked and then *liked* it and went to your blog and read a things you had written.
And then I decided I'd start the re-rebooting blog post by copy/pasting this reply into a new, fresh draft, and continuing from there. And I'll dedicate the blog post to you.
HEYYY! Sorry it took me so long to reply. (but not as long as it coulda taken me!)
I've got a funny circumstance related to your ebullient responses to this comment and another comment.
I'm gonna tell it as a story, so be patient while I wend my way through it:
So, I had thought of an answer to your "Imaginary Reader" paradox, (that is, the question of "How could someone be an imaginary reader?") and it was this...
If I have 2 different Substack accounts, and I write comments to the same person from them, that would seem like two different people. (An imaginary voice replies to me, "It's called sock-puppeting; we had sock puppets and all even back in my day, on Usenet. Also, get off my lawn!")
But my point is - in that case, it inflates the apparent number of readers interacting with you by 1. Hence, you get an "imaginary reader."
Anyway, continuation of the story - I used this Substack account (for the Ideas.Imagery.Story. substack) a bunch in the past, then my writing there waned, and I later decided to spin up a new Substack focusing on a somewhat different set of topics. That one became the main one I used.
This is like digital archaeology, folks. (Do you remember that one Scott Alexander story about a far-future grad student studying whether some person in the 20th century who had a given Twitter account was also the person with such-and-such a username on some obscure forum?)
And the point is... I forgot which accnt I had commented from, and by this point in time, I have written on your substack under both of my main Substack accounts. So, through sheer accident, apparently I was the cause of an apparent "imaginary reader"!! :D
Disclaimer: This above is in NO WAY intended to be a metaphor or analogy for anything to do with the doctrine of the Trinity. Meta-Disclaimer on behalf of others: Actually, anything that claims to be a "nice simple analogy for the Trinity, which you can explain in less than 5 minuts" is probably grievously wrong!
Anyway, I enjoyed stuff in the latest post: "Having Subscribers is a pain in the a**" is a very identifiable through-line!
-Vikki, who hopes she's used the expression "through-line" correctly!
You forgot the part where an "imaginary" reader says, "Wait, did that say January 2024?!?" (Or maybe not-so-imaginary one.)
Love your gentle touch of humor here--always one of the top things most needed when someone's in this kind of spot that you are in right now. “How do you go on with life? Or how do you go on with this post?” is classic: We treat our words like they're the be-all and end-all of the biggest of all big to-do's. (Or at least I do!)
"I trusted God. Even though I did not believe in Her, I trusted Her." <-- Also, this parallels what probably amounts to my first prayer. I was seven years old, and at school that day, I'd misunderstood an argument two girls in my class were having. They were arguing about whether you were ALLOWED to raise your middle finger, but I thought they were arguing about whether it was PHYSICALLY POSSIBLE to raise it separately from the other ones. So of course, I showed them! (Also, the teacher was out of the room at this time.) The entire class gasped, and I heard one classmate utter "She hates God!" After I got home, I still could not escape re-playing the horror of my embarrassment, and I found a quiet place where I could be alone, (you could almost say I approached the throne of God from a throne room, as there was a porcelain throne* in that room) and I informed God, "I don't hate You; I just don't believe in You."
Umm, I'm not sure what to say here about your grief & loss of your beloved wife. So I will say "Sorry for your loss. That sucks. :("
* Another internet friend came up with the somewhat irreverent wordplay that inspired this, and had me rolling in laughter some years ago.
Hi Vikki,
I was going to write something about rebooting today. Not just today. Several times, including today. Haven't done it yet. Maybe today's the day.
I hadn't forgotten that I had written a post about rebooting, so I could not remember it. But I had forgotten what I had written.
So I read it. After re-reading it, I still do not remember it. But now I'm aware both of that I wrote, and what I wrote.
When I went back to reread it, I saw you lovely comment and liked and then *liked* it and went to your blog and read a things you had written.
And then I decided I'd start the re-rebooting blog post by copy/pasting this reply into a new, fresh draft, and continuing from there. And I'll dedicate the blog post to you.
Here's the link: https://70yearswtf.substack.com/p/im-re-rebooting
Do you want to be writing more? I do, Maybe this will help
The deleted comments are because I tried to post the same reply 3 times. Silly me
HEYYY! Sorry it took me so long to reply. (but not as long as it coulda taken me!)
I've got a funny circumstance related to your ebullient responses to this comment and another comment.
I'm gonna tell it as a story, so be patient while I wend my way through it:
So, I had thought of an answer to your "Imaginary Reader" paradox, (that is, the question of "How could someone be an imaginary reader?") and it was this...
If I have 2 different Substack accounts, and I write comments to the same person from them, that would seem like two different people. (An imaginary voice replies to me, "It's called sock-puppeting; we had sock puppets and all even back in my day, on Usenet. Also, get off my lawn!")
But my point is - in that case, it inflates the apparent number of readers interacting with you by 1. Hence, you get an "imaginary reader."
Anyway, continuation of the story - I used this Substack account (for the Ideas.Imagery.Story. substack) a bunch in the past, then my writing there waned, and I later decided to spin up a new Substack focusing on a somewhat different set of topics. That one became the main one I used.
This is like digital archaeology, folks. (Do you remember that one Scott Alexander story about a far-future grad student studying whether some person in the 20th century who had a given Twitter account was also the person with such-and-such a username on some obscure forum?)
And the point is... I forgot which accnt I had commented from, and by this point in time, I have written on your substack under both of my main Substack accounts. So, through sheer accident, apparently I was the cause of an apparent "imaginary reader"!! :D
Disclaimer: This above is in NO WAY intended to be a metaphor or analogy for anything to do with the doctrine of the Trinity. Meta-Disclaimer on behalf of others: Actually, anything that claims to be a "nice simple analogy for the Trinity, which you can explain in less than 5 minuts" is probably grievously wrong!
Anyway, I enjoyed stuff in the latest post: "Having Subscribers is a pain in the a**" is a very identifiable through-line!
-Vikki, who hopes she's used the expression "through-line" correctly!
I love this, I could hear you talking to me as I read it.
Love this Dad. YAY! You published again.