{"id":5924,"date":"2011-03-11T18:29:45","date_gmt":"2011-03-11T22:29:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=5924"},"modified":"2011-03-11T19:00:29","modified_gmt":"2011-03-11T23:00:29","slug":"wintertime-blues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wintertime-blues","title":{"rendered":"Wintertime Blues"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s been a while since I&#8217;ve posted anything of note. Here&#8217;s a list of reasons for that, but I&#8217;m not sure which ones have the most weight:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I suffer from anxiety<\/li>\n<li>I suffer from mild depression and\/or this winter has depressed the crap out of me<\/li>\n<li>I have a lot of work to do at my day job and feel guilty if I &#8220;waste&#8221; writing-time on myself<\/li>\n<li>I don&#8217;t feel like writing or sharing things that I once did, because <a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/gil.roth\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a> has become the default destination for minor personal observations<\/li>\n<li>I feel like I can outsource being clever to <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/groth18\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a><\/li>\n<li>I use <a href=\"http:\/\/montaigneslibrary.tumblr.com\" target=\"_blank\">my tumblr blog<\/a> to post short book-excerpts and literature-related thoughts<\/li>\n<li>I let myself get distracted and drown in tweets and RSS feeds<\/li>\n<li>I spend too much time by myself and the lack of conversation really takes a toll on me<\/li>\n<li>I feel tapped out and don&#8217;t have much to say (I think this is a big one, but it&#8217;s just a symptom and not a cause; I&#8217;ve started a couple of posts that just seemed useless, so I zapped &#8217;em)<\/li>\n<li>I make it too easy not to write<\/li>\n<li>I would rather write a book of anecdotes and observations about my old man<\/li>\n<li>I would rather launch a regular podcast, if I can just suss out some technical issues and get over my anxiety about asking someone to sit down for an interview<\/li>\n<li>I would rather work with Amy to make video-montages set to music<\/li>\n<li>I have a sneaking suspicion you&#8217;re all tired of my stories, observations and complaints<\/li>\n<li>I have a sneaking suspicion that I&#8217;m a fraud<\/li>\n<li>I don&#8217;t get around much anymore<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I know that if I just get back to writing, it&#8217;ll alleviate a lot of the symptoms, but I just can&#8217;t do it. I&#8217;m afraid I sound like a DTC ad for an antipsychotic med.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe I should go back to posting those\u00c2\u00a0<em>What It Is<\/em> updates every week, but I came to resent the imposition of those, too, just like all the other regular features I tried to write.<\/p>\n<p>I often find myself singing John Entwistle&#8217;s song, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=n2ZOhWAaGVs\" target=\"_blank\">905<\/a>: &#8220;All I know is what I need to know \/ Everything I do&#8217;s been done before \/ Every sentence in my head \/ Someone else has said \/ At each end of my life is an open door.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s never a good sign for an adult to find life-parallels in any song by The Who. I&#8217;m gonna try and cheer myself up with some Sam Cooke.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s been a while since I&#8217;ve posted anything of note. Here&#8217;s a list of reasons for that, but I&#8217;m not sure which ones have the most weight: I suffer from anxiety I suffer from mild depression and\/or this winter has depressed the crap out of me I have a lot of work to do at &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wintertime-blues\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Wintertime Blues&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-1xy","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4610,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/lost-in-the-supermarket-halloween-edition","url_meta":{"origin":5924,"position":0},"title":"Lost in the Supermarket: Halloween edition","author":"Gil","date":"October 28, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Halloween's comin'! Time to eat way too much candy and suffer intestinal distress! Or, to phrase it another way, it's, uh, time to pass the hot pumpkin: Yuck. I don't know why this needs to include a party music CD, but I guess I've led a sheltered life. (Yeah, I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Lost in the Supermarket&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Lost in the Supermarket","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/lost-in-the-supermarket"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3280,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/lost-in-the-supermarket-whiter-teeth-chicago-style","url_meta":{"origin":5924,"position":1},"title":"Lost in the Supermarket: Whiter Teeth . . . Chicago-Style!","author":"Gil","date":"January 20, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I always find it sad\/funny when companies suffer font blowouts on their marketing materials. It's a shame\/riot to see a print ad with super-high-end photography and a tagline that renders in Courier. So my attention was caught by the packaging for something called \"U SMILE\", an \"advanced tooth whitening system\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Lost in the Supermarket&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Lost in the Supermarket","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/lost-in-the-supermarket"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3517\/3211864765_01060f09bc_d.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1128,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/pictures-of-paris","url_meta":{"origin":5924,"position":2},"title":"Pictures of Paris","author":"Gil","date":"October 1, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"We shouldn't have taken that afternoon nap, since we're now wide awake at midnight. Grr. But, since we're up, we decided to process today's Paris pix and upload them to flickr. Here's my batch, shot on a Minolta Dimage Xt, the little pocket-sized camera I tote around. Here's Amy's batch,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Paris&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Paris","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/travel\/paris"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":835,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/from-buttman-to-superman","url_meta":{"origin":5924,"position":3},"title":"From Buttman to Superman","author":"Gil","date":"February 8, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"VM contributor and all-around good guy Tom Spurgeon recently posted a neat review of a Superman comic on his comicsreporter.com site. I don't read much in the superhero genre anymore, but I've been a comics reader since I was a little kid. I'll flip through issues on the newsstand, trying\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8285,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/podcast-much-abides","url_meta":{"origin":5924,"position":4},"title":"Podcast &#8211; Much Abides","author":"Gil","date":"October 20, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show: Ashton Applewhite\u00a0- Much Abides \"Knowing that things are finite gives life meaning. Avoiding mortality means you're avoiding living, not avoiding dying. Aging is living.\" Ashton Applewhite is on a crusade against ageism (lack of gray hair notwithstanding). She joins the show to discuss the myths and roots\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Big Business&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0345329201","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11172,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-253-john-leland","url_meta":{"origin":5924,"position":5},"title":"Episode 253 &#8211; John Leland","author":"Gil","date":"January 22, 2018","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 253: John Leland \"The wisdom of old age is something living with us right now.\" New York Times reporter John Leland joins the show to talk about his new book, Happiness Is a Choice You Make: Lessons from a Year Among the Oldest Old. We get into\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;literature&quot;","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/03insider-leland-85andup-image-master768.jpg?fit=768%2C576&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/03insider-leland-85andup-image-master768.jpg?fit=768%2C576&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/03insider-leland-85andup-image-master768.jpg?fit=768%2C576&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/03insider-leland-85andup-image-master768.jpg?fit=768%2C576&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5924"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5924\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5932,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5924\/revisions\/5932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}