Tuesday, March 4, 2014

X-Men and Sherlock Holmes Compete for My Attention

Some random thoughts:
There are too many shows that I need to watch. It seems impossible that I should ever get to watch all of them. A couple I’ve happened on lately: Sherlock and Burn Notice.
I enjoy Sherlock a lot, and I was encouraged to discover there aren’t that many episodes to catch up on. It seems intimidating (as intimidating as watching television shows get) to see six or seven seasons of a show I’ve never watched before and to be faced with the daunting prospect of watching them all. I feel the same sense of reluctant dread when I discover a long book series.
Maybe dread isn’t exactly the right word, but the self-inflicted pressure to consume and finish the long volumes or series can feel very much like a trap of wasting time.
On the subject of wasting time, a book that has grown tedious, boring, and/or generally lacking in joy can be a hard thing to abandon. Staying with a difficult text can be a rewarding experience when that moment of epiphany is finally reached. I will finish Moby Dick, though I’ve set it down for a bit. (Actually, I’ve enjoyed most of Moby Dick, but the chapters on the specifics of whaling get repetitive after a while.)
A rewarding experience I had with a difficult text that I finished was Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead. I was 200 or so pages into it and ready to give it up (it’s a 700+ page book). I set it down for a while and came back to it. After finishing it, I was glad I did. The story of the architect who never compromises his ideals no matter what became a compelling, if sometimes frustrating, book. I had read The Anthem by Rand, but that short volume had done nothing to prepare me for the lengthy tale that was The Fountainhead.
My most recent book that I’ve put on ice [and there have been books I’ve never come back to (at least not yet), namely, for one, Iain Banks’ space opera The Algebraist. I first heard of Banks in passing through one of the prompts for National Poetry Writing Month, an event I hope to participate in again after an aborted attempt last year. The prompt was to write a poem with the same title as one of Banks’ novels.] is a collection of letters from weird fiction author H.P. Lovecraft to a young correspondent named Robert Barlow. While the collection was originally intriguing, it developed (devolved?) into repetitive and uninteresting minutiae. A critic of my critique could argue that the personal correspondence of an author to a fan and aspiring writer would definitively be little else but minutia, but I had read from more than one source that some of Lovecraft’s letters were as good as any of the fiction he wrote. Still, Lovecraft wrote approximately 100,000 letters in his lifetime; I suppose they couldn’t all be literary masterpieces. Surprisingly, Lovecraft named the young Barlow his literary executor in the elder correspondent’s will.
I think the 2 volume set with Lovecraft’s correspondences with Robert E. Howard will be more interesting, though I obviously can’t be sure. I’ve skimmed through them, and they look to be longer for one. The fact that Lovecraft wrote these letters out long hand (he despised using typewriters according to respectable sources) is compelling, although perhaps a long typed letter would be more difficult to write in the 20’s and 30’s than a hand-written one.
While starting to write this blog, I was watching an episode of Sherlock that I hadn’t seen before, but I stopped it because I like to give the detailed stories my full attention. It’s one thing to have a show like American Dad, South Park, or Family Guy running in the background while reading or writing is one thing (and I do enjoy these shows; I think they’re funny and can be good mindless entertainment, though lacking the quaint and more frequent heart of The Simpsons), but to enjoy shows with intricate plots I like to be paying attention.
Actually, I do still have an episode of Sherlock going at the moment, specifically the one with Irene Adler. The actress playing her is very attractive, and I definitely don’t mind watching this episode again, or any episode of this show for that matter. 
When I first watched this episode, something about the name of Irene Adler seemed familiar, and it wasn’t from the Sherlock Holmes stories. A character named Destiny from X-Men comic books borrows the name as her real name.

NBA Dreams of Not So Much Reality

I keep playing this video game I’ve had for years now: NBA 2K10. It’s on the PS2. I’ve yet to buy a PS3, much less the newer PS4.
This info may be boring to anyone who’s not an NBA fan, but here is my explanation of my boredom. I started the franchise with the Boston Celtics. The first season starts in 2009 and goes to 2010. In real life, the NBA Finals was between the Lakers and Celtics, as it was in the game. In my season, the Celtics won. Not that odd. Next season in the game, same match up and same result. Again, not that strange. In real life, the Lakers and Celtics met 2 times in 3 years between 2008 and 2010. Not that strange to meet 3 times in 4. 
The strangeness begins as Kobe Bryant leaves the Lakers for Minnesota. Kurt Rambis is the T-Wolves’ coach. Maybe a Laker connection and triangle offense sells Kobe on a switch. Phil Jackson retires. Doc Rivers retires a 3-time champ (2008, 2010, 2011). New Celtic coach. Next Final in 2012 is Celtics over a Kevin Durant-less Thunder (Thunder make Finals without Durant). My Celtics defeat the Westbrook-lead Thunder in 4 games.
Next season, Tim Duncan is not on a team. Another break in realism. Surely the Spurs would have made room for him. I decide to make room on the Celtics for him. With Duncan, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, and Rajon Rondo (Duncan signed for near veteran minimum exception) I defeat Portland in the 2013 Finals. (Lebron stayed in Cleveland through all this and doesn’t do much.) Okay, so that is a pretty good team and Brandon Roy (still healthy in this video hadn’t land) gets hurt in the Finals. Well, I sign Duncan to a long-term deal and trade him to Minnesota with Kobe for…Kevin Love. Granted, in this franchise Love was laboring away on Minnesota’s bench, so I freed him from that.
Well, in the 2013-14 season (in the game) I trade away Pierce, Garnett, and Allen. So, even though it made sense to trade off aging players, I likely would have been run out of town as the guy who traded off 3 five time champions (4 if you include Duncan). Except that with the addition of a promising rookie, I didn’t miss a beat and was the 2nd best team in the league still. I even tried loading up the other contenders to beat me. The Nets had Carmelo Anthony, a still healthy Yao Ming, and Jalen Rose (the game’s doing not mine on this one). I beat the Nets in 5 and the Anthony-less Nuggets made it to the Finals, where I easily swept them. Wish I had left Anthony on the Nuggets. That may have been a better match up. Just to see if I could, I scored 116 points with the rookie in a playoff game this season, too.
I’m now in the 2014-15 season and 2nd in the East to the Nets. The new rookie (now 2nd year) might be MVP. I have a new big three of Kevin Love, Rajon Rondo, and this Alvin Bridges. But I’ve won 5 NBA Titles in a row and probably on my way to a 6th. Why am I still playing? The season’s seem to be a forgone conclusion and the game is way too easy.

Selling your dreams

Some advice I should have listened to, and a sentiment I can empathize with:
”After all, the sale of one’s things merely postpones—& does nothing to avert—a crisis.About the last things I’d ever part with are books & other familiar possessions which have always formed part of my natural environment.”-H.P.Lovecraft
I’ve sold a lot of books and comic books and own a lesser fraction of those items than I’ve owned compared to what I possess now. There are times I lament the sale of my many volumes of comic books. Once I told a seller I wanted 90% cash and 10% trade (saying that I wanted 90 and 10), but being misunderstood as wanting 90 *dollars*, I was made a poor offer and regretfully accepted, as I was anxious to sell. I had a lot of stuff, collected over several years, and this wasn’t even everything I’ve ever sold. 
When I was moving, I sold vast portions of my existing comic book collection, holding on to maybe half of them. Large runs of Transformers, Avengers, Iron Man, Hulk, and Thor sold for pennies a copy. I wanted to make space, but I likely could have accommodated them in my new place.
Still more I sold of those I held onto, selling my X-Men comics at a show to a dealer. I carried 2 large boxes to a show and traded 10 years of collected stories for a mere 200 bucks, not even of cash, but in other comic books.
The past is past and past tense now, but I still regret selling some of those items. Other items I’ve sold and regretted, too, although I’m glad I’ve not become a hoarder either.

What I Was Afraid to Say (Poem)

I gave myself to you,
Fully and completely it seems,
Or else I wanted to.
I wanted to be lost,
I wanted to dive completely into a shallow pool,
Do what I wasn’t supposed to,
What didn’t make sense.
Afraid to write what I feel,
Afraid to say, “I love you,”
Because did I really?
Could I really?
Does it matter
If it felt real to me?
Is a simulated emotion less than a real one?
What I tried to say in verse, or couldn’t,
Was that I loved you, as best I understood how,
As best as my heart knew how,
As much or as little as I wanted to,
And I wanted to.
I wanted to believe
Believe you were the person I wanted you to be:
A reader
A beauty
An introspective soulmate.
You were all of those things and more
Or less; I don’t remember which.
I tried to tell my poem
All the disappointment I held
That you were not meant for me.
That poems would not be written about us
That lines would not form any symmetry between us
But maybe they did in another world.
I felt a love, a passion, that did not exist for you,
But seemed to for me.
I don’t care who realized it wouldn’t work between us
Say it’s you because it’s probably true.
I do remember you
And that time I loved you
It seems yesterday
But it might be now
At least a facsimile of an emotion, but no less real
For feeling that way
That way I remember now
That love I created yesterday
Lingers as the memory of today and the longing of tomorrow.

Technology Fix

I’m learning more all the time about online communications. Sometimes I feel I write as if I’m a visitor from the past and just learning about these new computers.
Something I’ve considered today, something I probably should have thought of before today, is appropriate conversations to have online. I don’t mean just not inappropriate things to say, but conversations you shouldn’t have online, but in person. If I’m talking out issues and questions concerning a relationship, maybe I should wait to raise some of those issues in person. Not the issue I was imagining, but I’m reminded of the episode of Sex and the City in which a character breaks up with Carrie Bradshaw via a post it note. Maybe there are conversations you should have in person, whether it be for embarrassment or just because it’s a more personal conversation.
For all my talk of being an internet noob, I can handle myself online a bit. I think maybe I just like to be mindful of the entire process. I do like privacy, but I don’t mind saying some things that I’m into: H.P. Lovecraft, NBA basketball, comic books.
I use the internet to enjoy these things.
Buy Lovecraft books on Amazon. Watch NBA streams online. Download comic books off torrent sites or read from online subscriptions.
Activity journal quick hits:
Started reading Lovecraft’s letters to Robert Barlow. Sad preface to the book. Barlow wasn’t able to see Lovecraft on his deathbed before he died and Barlow may have killed himself over the threatened revelation of his homosexuality. Lovecraft corresponded with Barlow when he was as young as 13, though Lovecraft was unaware of his age until they had been corresponding for three or four years.
The Golden State Warriors have a very good basketball team this season. Steph Curry is an incredible player and he may end up being an all-time great player. He is fun to watch. Watching a live online feed of the Warriors game. Jazz and Warriors tied. Jerry Sloan, longtime coach of the Utah Jazz, will be honored at half time. He holds the record for most wins with one franchise and for technical fouls.
Rereading the Fantastic Four comic book series. (Reading for the first time for some stories). The cbr files read better on my phone than the Marvel Comics Unlimited app. I read the cbr files on the comic book reader app Komik, and I can’t speak highly enough of the Komik app. Convenient to be able to read comics on my phone. I used cbr files when I did research for my undergraduate degree in English. One of the funnest papers I wrote was a paper for a Queer Theory class on sexuality themes in Grant Morrison’s New X-Men. ‘Impotent Supergods’ was the title, I think.
I’m able to enjoy these things through the internet, and I think I enjoy them as much or more with others. I like sharing my interests with others, and it can be gratifying to share yourself with other people.
Another part of myself I’ve shared lately is what I affectionately call my book addiction. That may be a post for another time, but maybe I should start reading more of them right now.
Another aspect of my online life I am thinking of is my ability to fix my computers. I am no computers technician, but I know how to use Google. I’ve solved many a problem (with admitted assists from actual computer tech friends). I still don’t know how to talk about computers sometimes, and maybe I can’t keep up with computer techs, but I like to have these conversations about mediated communications online and our interfaced lives with computers.

Simulated Feeling, But No Less Real (Poem)

Lost I was, thinking of you.
Lost, past tense I say or do I lie?
That first visceral feeling I felt
Seeing you for the first time sitting outside before class.
Was that the root of what I felt?
Pure lust for your smooth tan thighs?
Is all the flowery talk of love and life just nothing but lies?
I don’t think so, but maybe a mix of truths.
Talking of romantic things, then looking at you,
Hearing romantic thoughts come out of your pretty face,
Imaging talking to you in all those beautiful imaginary places.
Talking to you now in the present place,
Recognizing my admiration you did, admiring my appreciation of beauty of all things
Even of you and this impossible ideal I set up in my mind.
All of these beautiful thoughts and things are as beautiful as they were then
As real as they ever were, or even more so.
Idle thoughts really, but aren’t those the best kind?
Imaging us together, but no more than we ever were than when we met.
I live to love bravely, though perhaps too quickly or slowly with you,
How hard to trust a fiery love that burns with disingenuous flame.
How easy to regret a question asked too late or soon
Or never said at all.
Simulated feeling, a facsimile of love,
Does a cloned emotion result in any less of a broken heart?
Broken I am not, but remembering you tonight I am,
Wallowing in an emotion,
Reminiscent for an epic romance that never was,
Lost in the pages of that book you lent me,
Misremembering a love you scarcely caused.

Stuck

Stuck waking up early. Had dreams today, but don’t remember as much. Need to start writing them down.
I’ve been more social lately and am actually getting out a little bit more. Need to start doing things that don’t cost as much money, though, ‘cause I need to save money. It’s my own fault, really.
I’m trying to not be too hard on myself still. I can always start saving again and being more thrifty. I did it in November and part of December, so I can again.
Full week. Feel like I was pushing it too much maybe, trying to do too much. Friday: shopping, chilling, movie. Saturday: eating out again, mini-golf. Sunday: watching football out (no cable). Monday: work. Tuesday: work, movie, etc. Wednesday: aborted plans that included a concert, lots of sleeping.
Future? More of the same this week. Book club tomorrow and meeting a friend for lunch and catching up. At least I think lunch. Haven’t figured out what to do or where to go. Work Saturday. Museum Sunday with another friend.
Time to start saving again, though, too.

Can't We Just All Get Along?

I hate being around people who are fighting. It happens to everyone at some point, but, like sometime said last night who was around this fighting, it reminds you of when your parents fought.
My friend fought with her friend. It was all a bit of a misunderstanding, like these things are, but I felt like find consideration could have saved the day, or spared some feelings anyway.
My older friend seemed to want us to take sides, but I didn’t want to do that. My side is peace. I had gone outside to talk to the girl who was crying and my friend whose house we were at wanted the girl to leave her house and told us to come back inside and told her to leave. I wanted to comfort the woman who was being kicked out, but I listened to her and went back inside.
The people inside afterwards were saying mean things about the girl who got kicked out, and I didn’t appreciate it, but didn’t say anything. If I had been the stronger person I wanted to be,I would have told my friend that I don’t take sides with friends. It turns out there was another reason for the fight, or another stated reason anyway, but I feel strongly that she wanted people to take sides. Even the drama that this drama is supposed to be about shouldn’t be a huge deal and had been exaggerated to my reckoning. I was merely trying to be kind and I regret going back inside when she asked me, to. It seems petty on her part, and I should have said no.

Virtual and more or less than real adventures in awkwardness

I’ve had some experiences with mediated communication mixing with personal ones. I mean, everyone has, especially with the internet being a reality. I mean comparing online interactions with face to face ones. It can seem as if you’re better friends with someone than you really are. It seems Facebook had changed the definition of the word friend. Are all these people on our friends list really our friends? Maybe they are friends in a different way.
I’ve had friends who I’ve had long conversations with, chatting about comics and cosplay and Dragon Con and all things geeky. Online these chats were, and long and interesting and involved, too. Jokes made, anecdotes shared, confessions made. Then the revelation: a meeting in person. In my mind I imagined all of these things I was going to say, how it was going to be, the feelings I would have. But I met her and I felt awkward and I didn’t know what to say. I tried to talk for a bit, and I did manage a short conversation, but then I decided to leave, because I was feeling awkward and didn’t know what to say. Maybe I should’ve stayed longer and worked through the awkwardness, feeling the feelings of not knowing what to say.
Was it because I had a crush on her? Did I have a crush on her? Can you get to know someone through a few (okay, a lot of) conversations online? On the MTV show Catfish, people meet another person online and then find out he or she is not as the person represented themselves. This was not that situation: I first met this woman in person and I know she is who she said she is. Or do I? You can’t second guess everything, but Catfish does remind us that you can be deceived online. Could it be a friend of hers who talks to me at times? Or her boyfriend? I don’t think so, but who knows?
So, I got cold feet. I was tongue tied. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that her boyfriend was sitting there. I don’t think I had designs on her affections (she’s given me no indication that she wasn’t happy with the guy), even though I do find her looks and personality very attractive.
I don’t doubt that I could have a conversation with her if given another chance. I was very nervous. Maybe I do have a crush on her. Crushes can be these innocent things and don’t have to be the end or the beginning of anything. I’ve talked to her since. Things seem to be pretty okay, but it’s still online and text right now. Maybe I’ll see her again (it’s likely even. We have some friends in common.) I think I just have to temper my expectations and be more confident.
As to the question of whether our not you can develop feelings for someone from online interactions, I think maybe you can. If both parties are honest and present a face that can be understood or related to. People in face to face interactions don’t always represent themselves truthfully, after all. I’ve maintained many a friendship, crush, or love through online interactions, so I think it’s possible.
In this post, I started briefly by presenting this situation as a hypothetical (I’ve had friends…) and moved to the very real story of what had happened. Call it confessional blogging, but it’s a big load off my mind

Production measurement devices

As opposed to yesterday’s semi-productive state, today neared levels of vegetative states. I worked today, so I wasn’t totally unproductive, but I feel like I didn’t get much done, and that’s okay.
I didn’t make any progress on my book today, but I did find out that I have off the day of the book club meeting, so that’s a plus. I think I was about 42% finished last time I signed off the Kindle app. Not sure I like knowing the percentage of how much farther I have to go in the book. Sometimes when I’m reading a book in print, I try not to look at the page numbers and just enjoy reading, but that can be as distracting as knowing the page number.   
Anyway, work’s kind of a blur, because it was really busy. I know
I walked to lunch with a coworker, but I think I just watched a movie on my lunch break, when normally I would read some of my book. I have until the 24th to read it, so I should be okay.
I spent my time at home chatting on Facebook. Some of what I talked about was opening up to people, with me fearing doing so too quickly. But you know what? I’m going to embrace that fear, or face it rather (whichever makes more sense. Maybe both), and open up as much as I feel comfortable doing or want to even. Why should I be afraid for someone to know me? Consequences might just be a more authentic self, and that would be a good thing.  
Unproductive day may have started bad after I woke up late after starting to watch Walking Dead. Woke up late, not even time for a shower. Time for one now, I think, and maybe I’ll try to read a little of my book.
Not the conversation I’ve been promising, but I did talk a little about mediated communication, I suppose. Facebook can be such a time drain. A different world, a unique version of cyberspace, where people get lost, interact, and seemingly find themselves all over again, all in the span of a few hours or minutes even, drifting in a simulated world perhaps real in a different way.

IT Sympathy and More Random Thoughts

I think maybe I’m done being productive today. Not that I was very productive to begin with. I did read a bit for the book club that I joined, that is if I can find a way there, and if I get it off work. I asked for it off, but generally we’re only granted 3 off days a week (if we’re lucky) and I had already asked for one, so who knows? I’d be nice is all I’m saying, but I guess I shouldn’t hold my breath.
Back to today. Waited for the internet guys to get here today. Supposed to be between one and three; they came a little after 2. Guy asks me if it’s okay to drill a hole in the wall. I don’t really know what to say: it’s not my house. I asked my dad and felt kinda stupid for asking, but I didn’t think I should just say sure, even though I was *pretty* sure he was going to say it was cool, which it was. Then the guy asked me if my computer was wireless and I didn’t really know how to answer that. I mean it can be. I asked him what he meant and though I was sure I could have figured out, I thought I should go ahead and let him set it up since he was getting paid for it and everything. It took him a second and he eventually did set it up, but I spared him from having to set up the other 10 devices this household wanted to set up (only slightly exaggerating). I thought I’d let the guy slide with setting up one, since he was pretty nice and it wouldn’t take me much longer than him to do it. (When it took me longer than a minute to set up his laptop, my dad wanted to run the guy down. I all but told him, ‘I got this!,’ and after taking the device upstairs so he wasn’t literally breathing on my neck to set it up, I had him ready to go in less than 5 minutes.) Patience is a virtue, but I can see what Information Technology guys and gals probably go through, even though my skills are limited.
Later I collected on a Christmas present (guy who rents a room here gave me an IOU for a Subway sub) and watched an Arnold Swarzenegger film with my father. Not bad. The one with Sif from Thor and Johnny Knoxville. At one point, after questioning the logistics of a scene for I suppose one too many times, my father answered with, ‘Because it’s a movie.’ Oh Kay.
On my third book this year still. I put down Ender in Exile just in case I can make it to Book Thief book club meeting. So if I finish those this month I’ll still be on a good pace. I told myself last year that I wouldn’t be overly concerned with reading pace or number of books read, but I’m having fun keeping track of it.
Also, I had a shopping lapse. Spent 9 bucks on Kindle this weekend (not that bad) and 90 at Barnes & Noble (a little worse), though 25 was toward a membership (made sense with how much I was getting). I still have a bit saved and a plan to save more, though sometimes I’m not sure what I’m saving towards, though I have a general idea. Independence? Financial security? Dragon Con? Still need to get that credit card paid off, student loans, and medical bill from hurting my shoulder. It’ll happen, but I’m beating myself up for spending too much. Can’t be helped now. At least I’m working and I have vacation soon. I don’t think I’ll go anywhere or do much. Just sequester myself in my room and read all these books. Not to say I won’t go out with friends maybe.
Still more on online communication to come. Just putting it off more.

A bit on mediated communication (though not a comedic one...as much)

Continuing reposted thoughts from Tumblr.

I promised to write about online interactions, so here are some thoughts. The fancy scholarly way to talk about online interactions is mediated communications. This can be anything almost that’s not face to face interactions. Anything from a cell phone call to a walkie talkie exchange. Mediated communications can be different than face to face ones, even difficult. They can also be easier.
The types of exchanges I’m talking about are the intersection of the two: mediated speech mixed with actual speech. Talking on the phone about that thing we did in person, asking you on person about that thing you posted on Facebook.
Short aside: this is one of my favorite phrases to which I usually answer, You’re going to have to come to me a bit more specific than that; I post a lot of things on Facebook.
Online exchanges can be less awkward. You have time to compose your thoughts, correct your spelling, consider what you’re saying. I’m so much cooler online is the subject of a funny song. These are not original thoughts, obviously.
Have you ever had a conversation with someone in which they try to act like Facebook didn’t exist? Many people use it, so why should we be embarrassed or uncomfortable about it? Embrace it, own it, joke about it. ‘You’re on Facebook a lot, Jeremy, how do you get anything done?’ (Not easily is the answer.)
I do believe and am hopeful that the two can merge and exist together successfully. Why not? Just be mindful and responsible. After all, mediated communication can lead to face time (online dating, Facebook event you’re invited to).
Next time: In a related vein, a further discussion of online communication, including but not limited to a frank discussion of the MTV show Catfish. But to end, don’t hesitate to laugh and make jokes about something being strange or awkward. Sometimes admitting awkwardness can negate said state of existence.

Even Gradual Change is Good, if Not Deceptive

Reposting some stuff from Tumblr. I'm not sure of the dates, but I'm putting them here and deleting them from there. 

Got some stuff done today. Besides the daily goofing around on Facebook that seems to have become a way of life (and a lot of that was constructive today at least, as it was talking about poetry with like minded individuals), I got the house cleaned up a little. It’s not my house (my father’s), but I’ve come to peace with that for now. Can’t change things overnight, after all.
A few years ago, I was at an age that I was ashamed to be that I was at and not have a college degree and still be living at home (minus a brief nearly year long stint of living with my brother), and I decided to change it. Good decision, but still not easy realizing that change doesn’t happen over night. Sometimes a change doesn’t have any obvious advantages, so it can be discouraging when things seem to remain the same. But incremental changes are important nonetheless.
I even went back to the last job I had before I went back to school, but at least I had a job barely 2 weeks out of college (not a very good paying job, mind you). The job is easy, though, and I do get vacation time.
What became even more frustrating was that after a few months of working my checks started to be garnished. Not child support or anything like unpaid parking tickets, but a judgment made against me when I first stopped working and I couldn’t pay off a credit card I had. For the next several months (ends in about April), I will be making minimum wage at 60 hours every 2 weeks, despite working 80 hours or more most pay periods. (Goodwill doesn’t pay me much more than minimum wage, but losing the hours stinks).
But I will simply continue to exercise patience. I have small luxuries that I give myself (usually end up saving for Dragon Con every year). I’ve started to pay off my student loans. And I have some quality friends that I choose to spend time with (in various and alternating capacities). 
I have some thoughts about online interactions, but I think I’ll save it for another post.