#personalessay — Public Fediverse posts

REVIEW: Sufjan Stevens' Carrie and Lowell, Ten Years Later | 🔗 https://brennan.day/review-sufjan-stevens-carrie-and-lowell-ten-years-later/

#MusicReview #PersonalEssay #MentalHealth #Grief #Family #Suicide #MediaCriticism

It Was Always a Love Story, Actually | 🔗 https://brennan.day/it-was-always-a-love-story-actually/

#PersonalEssay #MediaCriticism #Gender #Love #Television #Anime

What have note-taking PKMs accomplished, really? | 🔗 https://brennan.day/what-have-note-taking-pkms-accomplished-really/

#PersonalEssay #Writing #Research #Productivity #KnowledgeManagement #AcademicResearch #Criticism

Broken Chair

I rescued the chair from outside someone’s apartment with the hope of fixing it and having it become a welcome member of our family.

But, as often happens, it sat around in various places waiting for me to find the time to repair it.

Finally, I decided it was one more project I did not have time for, and so yesterday I put it out on the sidewalk in the hopes that someone would take it home.

It sat out there all through yesterday in the rain and the sun, lonely, awaiting a new friend. A few people paused to look but then drove away. Periodically I would look out my window to see it still sitting forlornly there.

Then this morning I noticed an older gentleman walking past who began to inspect the chair. He picked it up, put it on his back and walked away.

It is a beautiful chair. It just needs to be repaired, and I am sure its new owner will do just that.

I don’t know about you, but I feel a lot like that broken chair, waiting for the gentle hands of someone to put me back together again.

I wait, broken, with the hope that those hands will touch me, I will be healed, and I can have a purpose again.

July 10, 2015

REVIEW: Missing 'Missing Richard Simmons' | 🔗 https://brennan.day/review-missing-missing-richard-simmons/

#PersonalEssay #Review #MediaCriticism #SocialCommentary #Privacy #Ethics

The Mocktown Principle: Why Doing Nothing Is Sometimes the Most Powerful Thing You Can Do

https://jaimedavid.blog/2026/06/20/06/45/56/analysis/jaimedavid327/11229/the-mocktown-principle-why-doing-nothing-is-sometimes-the-most-powerful-thing-you-can-do/

Angeler

I love to fish.

It is one of the things that has followed me from my childhood into my adulthood.

I’ve often wondered why a fisherman is called an angler. I discovered the etymology of the word means “one who fishes with an angle.” The word “angul” is from the old German meaning a hook.

So, an angler is not someone who is enthralled by geometric patterns though I’ll admit there is some calculation and mathematics involved in successful fishing.

One must cast at the correct angle (pun intended) in order for the lure to land in the correct spot in whatever body of water the angler is angling in. The line is of limited length. If there is not enough line on the reel, the place where the angler believes the fish are waiting will not be reached.

The cast. The return. The repetition. The circles emanating out from where the lure has landed. The waiting. The strike. The fish captured by the angle. The contentment. The release. Rinse. Repeat. Calculate the angle of the next cast.

Or is “angle” simply a garbled rendition of “angel” where the l and the e have simply been switched? If I, like Icarus, have fallen into the sea, will there be a golden line cast from heaven to capture me, send me soaring again?

We’ve been made a little lower than the angels. Have we no wings? Is the itching in my shoulder blades the faint memory of flight? Perhaps as noted before, I am simply Exocoetidea, a fish out of water, seeking flight, yet still tied to the depths.

I think I will call myself an “angeler,” in the hope that on a quiet morning on some sacred shore, the mist rising like incense off the water, I will rediscover my wings.

The Work Isn't Finished, It's Abandoned: Thoughts on WIP Pages | 🔗 https://brennan.day/the-work-isnt-finished-its-abandoned-thoughts-on-wip-pages/

#DigitalGardens #IndieWeb #WebCulture #PersonalEssay

JAPA — When the Grass Looks Greener from the Other Side, Until You Cross Over

“Japa” is not just relocation.
It’s hope stretched across distance—and the truths we only meet after crossing.

This piece is not against leaving.
It’s about what movement doesn’t automatically change.

🔗 Link in the first reply.

#JAPA #Migration #Nigeria #Diaspora #Identity #Belonging #PersonalEssay

JAPA — When the Grass Looks Greener from the Other Side, Until You Cross Over

“Japa” is not just relocation.
It’s hope stretched across distance—and the truths we only meet after crossing.

This piece is not against leaving.
It’s about what movement doesn’t automatically change.

🔗 Link in the first reply.

#JAPA #Migration #Nigeria #Diaspora #Identity #Belonging #PersonalEssay

JAPA — When the Grass Looks Greener from the Other Side, Until You Cross Over

“Japa” is not just relocation.
It’s hope stretched across distance—and the truths we only meet after crossing.

This piece is not against leaving.
It’s about what movement doesn’t automatically change.

🔗 Link in the first reply.

#JAPA #Migration #Nigeria #Diaspora #Identity #Belonging #PersonalEssay

JAPA — When the Grass Looks Greener from the Other Side, Until You Cross Over

“Japa” is not just relocation.
It’s hope stretched across distance—and the truths we only meet after crossing.

This piece is not against leaving.
It’s about what movement doesn’t automatically change.

🔗 Link in the first reply.

#JAPA #Migration #Nigeria #Diaspora #Identity #Belonging #PersonalEssay

JAPA — When the Grass Looks Greener from the Other Side, Until You Cross Over

“Japa” is not just relocation.
It’s hope stretched across distance—and the truths we only meet after crossing.

This piece is not against leaving.
It’s about what movement doesn’t automatically change.

🔗 Link in the first reply.

#JAPA #Migration #Nigeria #Diaspora #Identity #Belonging #PersonalEssay