Hello loyal readers!

The vibe sure seems to be different around here the last few weeks. We haven’t seen The Pink Sparrow in a hot minute, and lately we’ve gotten nothing but essays — both weird and serious.

There are two things at work here. One, I was pushing myself to come up with a The Pink Sparrow every week as well as micro-fiction story and was just burning out. I would literally sit in front of my computer, staring at a blank document with no idea what to write about. The last few weeks have been a mental crop rotation- writing in other styles and with different intentions and hoping that my brain would replenish the parts that come up with fun short stories.

The other thing at work is my own philosophy about growing. I was starting to get frustrated with some of the things I was doing because I wasn’t pushing myself. I had found something fun and relatively easy, but I wasn’t challenging myself. I was stagnant. So hopefully, as I push myself to write more essays, I’ll not only provide some thoughtful content, but also grow as a writer by getting out of my comfort zone.

And, I have a few short stories I’m working on that I think are going to be fantastic.

Anyway, here is what you missed this week:Fuel for the Spite Machine: Let me start by saying this piece is not autobiographical. Well, it is partially autobiographical. I do a lot of things out of spite. You tell me I can’t do something, I’ll go out of my way to do it. You don’t want me in your group, I’ll start my own group. This was inspired part by my spite-driven life and part by being constantly sold “a program” for “success”. Here is the deal: a lot of life is luck. If you’re going to do something creative you need to do it because you love it. If you catch a break and become successful, you didn’t suddenly discover some guaranteed life hack to sell to others. You just caught a break. You didn’t develop a master plan.

We Were Promised The Jetsons: I’m not the smartest person in the room. I’m barely the smartest person running this blog, but it does seem like we’re getting stupider, in general. This started as a rant against stupid people but shifted into a reflection of the situation in which we currently find ourselves. It would be great to read books, to spend entire weekends in the park discussing the meaning of life or to just have a drink with friends. But the world doesn’t allow that. We have to maximize the cash value of our humanity and that means working long hours, struggling to pay for the basics and maybe, if you’re lucky, spending some time on tiktok to figure out why everyone thinks Adam Mockler is so smart.

What I’m reading this week:A Parade of Horribles- Matt Dinniman: I don’t think I have it in me to read a series that stretches to 10 books. I finished Parade of Horribles this week and it was fine. I just don’t have the energy for it (maybe I need to watch a tiktok about the story). It’s not that I can’t read it, it’s more that my investment in the characters is waning. Am I going to read the rest of the series? Yes. Is it going to stick with me the way my favorite books do? Probably not.

The Brewers went 5-1 since last week’s update. They swept the Cubs and are back in first place. The starting pitching has been excellent and the bullpen seems to have settled down. They had a tough stretch that started with the Yankees series two weeks ago and ends with the Dodgers and Cardinals over the next week. They’ve played 12 games in this 18 game stretch and are 10-2. OMG my hopes are up!

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