Things to be grateful for #4

Charles Logan
Aug 22, 2017 · 4 min read
Today I wrote this from Alimentari cafe and Marios in Fitzroy, and Sea Eyes in the coastal town of Anglesea. I wouldn’t say I’m social but I do like to be social-adjacent.

Relaxing cafes: Living rooms are the best, so why would you limit yourself to just one? Your living room at home is comfortable but let’s face it, a little boring and sterile. When you wake up and make breakfast and read the paper…

this took me an embarrassingly long time to create

…you look around and it’s the same things with the same smells with the same people with the same noises (none) and then you get on the train with a heaving throng of humanity and you wonder why your day is shit. You gave yourself no buffer. I believe if you’re able to you should wake up a bit earlier and go to a comfortable cafe in order to ease into the day. Here’s why: It’s like your living room but with a little bit of new stimuli, a chance for a little chat with the barista, and chance to be around people but completely ignore them if you want, a chance to have some different smells and sounds. People I follow with lots of followers tend to flagrantly plagiarise “You win the morning, you win the day” and they’re right (ad dirty plagiarisers), it’s so critical. So my recommended plan is this: Home (easy) -> comfy cafe (easy but still some different stimuli) -> the world (harder than a cold nipple).

Unrelaxing cafes: the fast-paced, clattering odes to Instagram full of the people such a place tends to attract. I’m grateful for these places because everyone wins: those who get a thrill out of lining up so they can take a photo of mediocre food in order to validate their existence, and cool people like us. How do we win? We win because it means they aren’t wasting space in the cafes we like and we get a weird thrill out of watching them trying to fill the holes in their soul with smashed avocado.

50th Law: There’s something exciting about the story of the scrappy underdog, and I can’t get enough of it. This book was written by the unlikely combination of 50 Cent and Robert Greene and is as close as this middle class white boy from Melbourne is going to get to understanding street rules and how people get things done without whining.

How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia: this book is so well-written it makes me want to vomit. Don’t let the douchey sounding title fool you, it’s a masterpiece, and right up the alley of anyone interested in the struggle of people from the subcontinent.

People saying ‘crema’: I really hate people saying ‘crema’ and I don’t exactly know why. I’m aware it’s the correct term for the froth on top of coffees but I’ve found the people who use it tend to be the same people who pronounce Paris as ‘Paree’ and drive Alfa Romeos in their scarves. There’s more than a hint of snootiness to it.

Fuck off. All of you

Mobile detox: mobile phones are like fast food for our attention and in the same way it took us decades to figure out how bad for us excess consumption was, ditto for mobile phones. Giving everyone in the world cheap access to information in the form of a smartphone is one of the greatest things to happen to society this century, and we as unprepared for its effects — both positive and negative — as we were for fast food’s. It’s no coincidence mindfulness and meditation have taken off recently: our attention is being pulled in a thousand directions except deep under the surface, and we need a break. You can take a detox in a number of ways, but they all require you to forget about your phone for a while: you can buy a light phone and leave your smartphone at home, not use your phone at the start and/or end of the day, lock your phone in a safe when you go on holiday, or just turn notifications off on your phone. Either way, just notice things.

A quote from Fred Rogers in 1995/1997 (!) when interviewed by Charlie Rose. I got this from Kevin Rose’s wonderful The Journal newsletter — who possibly stumbled across it after searching his own name ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

That’s all I have to say about that.

Grateful for everything, even that stupid hat you’re wearing

)
Charles Logan

Written by

I am large, I contain multitudes

Great Fool

Grateful for everything, even that stupid hat you’re wearing

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