Daffodils are blooming and the cherry blossom trees are just starting to pop, a good sign that’s spring here in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. That’s a shot of Rosie from last week on Saint Patrick’s Day.
I have a few creative projects I’ve had to set aside lately—I try not to think of it like giving up on them completely, because I often find myself returning to things even years later—but I’m feeling good about the current book. We’ll see how it goes. I have to say, it’s been tougher to stay in any sort of creative space the last few months, for what should be obvious reasons for anyone living in the United States, but that’s all I really want to say about that, at least here. I’ll only add that I’ve never been more glad that the founding fathers of my country, as flawed as they were, had the prescience to design a system of government with the kinds of checks and balances that fears mob rule as much as a takeover by a would-be tyrant.
In a minor update, I’m back on social media, at least on one platform—Bluesky. You can find me at https://bsky.app/profile/scottwilliamcarter.com. A couple years ago, I deleted all of my social media accounts—Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, the whole deal. I did this partly for personal reasons (to cut down on the noise), and partly for reasons similar to what Cory Doctorow articulated in his viral essay on the inevitable “enshitification” of all Internet platforms beholden to shareholders.
It probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do for my creative career, but I’d finally had enough. Bluesky is trying to be different in all sorts of ways, but what I find most helpful is the control they give the user: muting, blocking, no ads, allowing me to see posts displayed chronologically, etc. I’m still pretty committed to being an Internet Minimalist—I have a hard enough time turning off the fire hose of information without constantly tempting myself—but it’s been fun to have a place again to post random thoughts on books, movies, creativity, and other things. Join me, if you like!
