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Are you okay?

Howard Taylor’s Schlock Mercenary is one of a handful of webcomics that I still read fairly regularly, and I’ve come to respect his opinions on movies, so I always check the blog post to see if there’s a movie I should see or avoid. I’m glad I’ve gotten into this habit, because it gave me the chance to read this short non-fiction piece about mental health. Do yourself a favor and check that out.

Something that occurred to me though was that the title, “No. I’m fine.” is something I’m likely to say if someone asks me if I’m okay. Regardless of whether or not I’m okay, I’ve been more or less trained to answer that question with “I’m fine”, “Yes, nothing to worry about”, or “I’m always okay”, and usually I don’t even spare a thought to consider whether or not I am, in fact, okay. (Does it still count as a lie if you don’t actually know & just answer automatically?) Read the rest of this entry →

Posted in Personal

4 Comments

Tags: Everybody needs friends they can trust with their weaknesses., Howard Taylor, mental-health, Now if I decide to participate in Movember I'll be constantly checked on by well-meaning people., Schlock Mercenary

There’s a point at the fulcrum that does not move.

Sep 15

Posted by Leo Tarvi

I suppose I’m still feeling introspective. I looked at the latest Zen Pencils and found a Sylvia Plath quote that I could deeply relate to. Go take a look at it.

I’m not familiar with the fig tree analogy, though, I usually heard about it as a hallway filled with doors, all open and filled with opportunity and just waiting for you to step through.

It always seemed appropriate to me, when I took it to its logical conclusion. You have all these doors, but you don’t really know what’s behind them until you step through. You don’t know what other doors may be through there, or what horrors may be hidden within that pleasant-looking room. You’re never sure how far you can go before you reach a dead end, and you can never be certain which doors will be locked while you’re exploring a particular room. Read the rest of this entry →

Posted in Daily Post

1 Comment

Tags: does anybody read tags?, I started with a fairly coherent idea but writing is hard and I got tired, mental-health, perspective is scary sometimes, pretentious philosophizing (redundant?), Two posts in one day! What sorcery is this?, you are beautiful

Novels of November

Oct 30

Posted by Leo Tarvi

November is coming up, and that means National Novel Writing Month. Well, I’m thinking about it.

The thing is, pounding thoughts and ideas into words is such a long, difficult process for me that I’m pretty sure writing 2,000 words per day would amount to a full time job at least. Some of you may recall that in the first few months of this blog I was unable to make a quota of 1,000 words per week,

But then what would I really have to lose? I mean, at worst I just don’t make it. So far every little goal I’ve set in this blog has failed, even though the primary goal of improving my ability to write seems to be succeeding. What’s one more tiny failure?

Well, nothing, really. But I’m getting sick of tiny failures. I’ve had an awful lot of them this year, and they add up to more than their sum.

On the other hand, it’s not like I have a lot of self-respect to lose in this department. And I have too much time on my hands, I haven’t been busy enough to get anything done.

So I’m thinking about it. I’ll have to make up my mind tomorrow, or it’ll be made for me. But I want to sleep on it.

Posted in Daily Post

3 Comments

Tags: mental-health, NaNoWriMo, postaday2012, writing

Vulgar Imagery

May 31

Posted by Leo Tarvi

I’ve managed to lose track of where I found this. It’s certainly striking, though.

Every now and then I’m just a little terrified that I live in a place where a man being tortured to death is a common, everyday image, while breastfeeding is shocking and controversial.