rainfalls lovely sound
pollen’s excess washed away
the air now refreshed
Category: Personal Reflections
Lessons learned about life; pearls of wisdom I’ve gleaned through pain, failure and honest reflection
Claustrophobia?
I spent several years of my life in the US Navy on submarines. Now, I had NO issues with the cramped spaces, nor with being many, many feet under water. I even crawled into very tight “void spaces”. Things like tanks. Not a problem! However, that’s not the case anymore. I look at this image above, and I feel claustrophobic. Deeply. And this isn’t that crowded. I’ve seen other images/videos where the train staff are literally pushing people together into the car. People are crushed into each other! Yeah, I’d be hyperventilating big time.
For me, this juxtoposition is striking. Nothing traumatic happened in the decades since. I have simply lost any tolerance for confined spaces. On a related note, I also didn’t have any issues with heights back then, but now I struggle.
Weird, methinks. Have you noticed any evolutions like this in your life?
Typewriter and Tea
I stumbled upon this image on Pinterest. It brought back some stuff for me. I have long had a fondness for typewriters. I have long valued my typing skills highly. Once, I could type over 100 words a minute with high accuracy. Well, my speed is still pretty high, but my accuracy has weakened. I chalk that up to, first, spell-check, and later autocorrect. The tools have made me lazy. I’m working on building that back up, as I still value this.
Anyway, though I first learned to type on a typewriter, they were electric (I’m not THAT old). My first typing experience was on the IBM Selectric. A lovely, if noisy, machine.
I used these heavily from high school all the way through the Navy. Then they faded from dominance, though I’d still need to use one on occasion (usually for government forms). By the 2000s, they’d vanished.
Now, though I liked the act of typing, I was also motivated by envisioning a future dominated by computers. Being able to use the keyboard would be a powerful, powerful tool. Clearly, I called that right!
Yeah, perhaps the image above is AI (I’m quite confident it is), but that’s not really the point. I found it fun and “enough”. Which might be AI’s main contribution: it’s enough. Mediocrity commoditized. But it’s enough to get me thinking, to capture a mood. Enough, I guess.
Some thoughts on transition
I came across this little gem earlier today over on Instagram.
The one that most strongly resonated with me was the first one: “To get somewhere, you have to leave where you are…” As someone who is rather risk-averse and values comfort, this one speaks strongly to me. I do wonder if I might be a Hobbit.
Another one that spoke to me: “Stillness notices what distraction misses…” Living fully immersed in the distraction economy/society, but somewhat against my will. I feel a strong pull to work on this. Little things like spending time reading books, as in paper, not my Kindle, not blog posts, nor Tweets.
I like starting the day with some reflection, with challenging the ways society pulls us…sometimes against our will, sometimes like an undertow in the sea of numbed distraction.
Emerald City Comicon 2026
I went to Emerald City Comicon on Friday, March 6. I’ve been meaning to go for decades. There’s always something, some reason, some conflict. I finally felt compelled to go. It helped that I’d talked with several other folks, so had accountability partners, including my wife. I’m so glad I did. It was an awesome experience. Below are just a few thoughts on finally going.
Man, the cosplay! I love the passion of cosplayers. The artistry was so impressive. Understanding SO many references mad me feel that I was amongst “my people”. Recognizing so many characters and knowing their key lines made me able to validate others. Understanding the references just made it that much more wonderful for me. Valuing the same things is just so lovely.
Another thing I adored: the inclusivity. The boldly open affirmation of the LGBTQIA+ community delighted me, as did the way they embrace neurodiversity. Things like quiet rooms made the space safe.
The immensity, the scale of it all. My goodness, there was so much going on. So much space in use. So many people. It was perfect. All the vendors, and all the cool stuff was great, too. Floors of stuff.
I opted not to photograph much. Mostly just a few things that caught my eye. Nothing to share. It felt rather like a rather invasive thing to do. I’m probably overthinking that, but I REALLY wanted to be respectful. Maybe next year I’ll be more deliberate about photography.
My wife loves it as much as I did. She’s insisting that we go the full week next year. I’ll see if I can break away that long in 2027. And, who knows, maybe I’ll need to expand out to other cons.
Did any of you go? Or have you gone to a different Comicon? What did you think? What was your favorite part.
A quick note and a blog post recommendation
I’ve been following Mr. Wheaton ever since he launched his blog (dear God, I think it was the late 90s!}. Through all kinds of changes, I’ve read the posts, felt the stories. But this one is special.
I love hearing stories about childhood heroes living up to their legends. If you’re of my vintage, it features John and Ponch. Which makes it *chef’s*
So, my friends, enjoy this charming piece.
An Update
I’ve been thinking about something of a rebrand. Basically, want to align different elements of my web presence with elements of my life. The professional side, the poet, and, well, everything else. What I’ve decided is to distribute my content across three sites (I already held these domains)
- CarlSetzer.com (this site…professional content)
- CarlSetzer.net (for haiku and other poetry)
- NotJustSeattle.com (my blog for the other random things)
CarlSetzer.com has the most SEO for my name, so I wanted recruiters and those looking for freelance talent to find me and my professional content quickly.
CarlSetzer.net started as a poetry site, so it’s really just coming back to the beginning. I just brought over all the poetry I’ve written over the past few years to get this page up-to-speed. This will tie into most of my social media accounts as that mostly been poetry.
NotJustSeattle.com fits me as someone who considers himself a lifelong Seattleite, but who was born in Newport, Rhode Island, and spent a lot of his childhood travelling the country. I’ll figure out this page soon and start updating with energy.
I’m not planning on porting my subscribers over, but am amenable if that’s what you want me to do. If I did that, I guess I would bring everyone over to CarlSetzer.net, and most of you seem to have connected with me over my haiku. Let me know what you think.
So, I’d love it if you popped over to the other accounts and subscribed. It’d mean the world to me. With all this, I’m planning on relaunching my haiku a day series on CarlSetzer.net. Come and join me there!
I love this little video featuring Charlie Mackesy’s work
“What do you want to be when you grow up?”
“Kind.”
“I believe that you bring to this world things that no one else can. So hold on.”
May you find your value, my friends.
This video is built upon the work of Charlie Mackesy, and it was my introduction to his work. I see great value in exploring it completely.
Are you familiar with his work? Let me know your experience.
A wrenching story highlighting the importance of vaccines
Today, I came across this story via LinkedIn.
“A brief, shining time: One of my sons died of a disease that later became vaccine preventable. But now that and other vaccines have been struck from the recommended list for children.”
As a dad, there’s nothing more brutal than the thought of my son dying. Ms. Dalstrom Anderson’s story brings those feelings to the fore, taking my breath away. I also feel her pain and frustration at the “current environment,” which is undoing the work of decades of vaccine research.
It’s my hope that this reminder of the human cost of this attitude is real and awful.
Please give this story a read. I deeply believe it’s worth your time.
Thoughts on Yearly Goals and Resolutions
A blogger I respect, Pooja with Life’s Fine Whine, posted a few days ago a review of 2025: How Many Of My 20025 Goals Did I Keep? For most of my blogging tenure, I have not posted such things. The closest I can find is this one, from 2015, “Growing Healthier“, where I express my concern with my weight (Follow Up: I was successful with getting my weight down 20 lbs, though I recognize that I have more work to do).
With that, I’m wondering if I might find some value in doing so. For instance, have any of you found the public accountability helpful? How many of you have posted either your yearly plans or an evaluation of your year’s results per plan? I do make plans and evaluate things, so creating a post would be relatively easy.
Anyway, I’d love to hear your thoughts.