Author Archives: richardporter

By all accounts, time has loosened up. It’s playing tricks. Days of the week are disjointed and quarantine deadlines keep stretching further into the future, seemingly by arbitrary criteria. Time was already relative. Now it’s just become bizarre in its unstructured format. Meal times are nebulous, especially when you have a family of five andContinue reading “Day 21 – Time”

To survey the emotional landscape: My baseline feeling is one of industriousness. Staying busy is my go-to cure-all in life. I like to work — idle hands make me anxious. Working from home, though difficult, gives me a purpose and a direction. I appreciate that. I’m actually running out of home improvement projects at thisContinue reading “Day 16 – The Billionaire Philanthropist”

It’s hard to know right now what is an appropriate level of paranoia. Sometimes I feel like I’m a little bitch. That previous generations had to face worse economies, that epidemics are nothing new. My understanding of history shows that plagues and job losses and widespread fear are pretty common to mankind, most of theContinue reading “Day 15 – Patterns”

The following list of quick chill outs are for my personal reference. If they help you out, too, that’s great! -Take 5 minutes of fresh air. Breathe that calm, cool, air in and hold it. -Wash your face in the bathroom sink with hot water. Emerge from the bathroom feeling fresh with nice skin. -TakeContinue reading “Day 13 – Chill Outs”

Of course, real life is all around us. It’s not on the screens that dictate work regimens, provide entertainment and escapism — the screens through which we interact with other humans by proxy and order groceries. Real life is unavoidable and must be encountered. This is part of the work: the mental toil of facingContinue reading “Day 11 – Real Life”

Keep busy. Lose yourself in the flow of craftsmanship and appreciation for details. Work on big projects that would otherwise take too long to complete in, say, a given weekend. This is your opportunity to get things done. Limit your social media exposure. There’s a lot of hand-wringing happening. Remember that a lot of whatContinue reading “Day 9 – Nine Things To Do”

I see a change in online trends today. The busy-work emails of last week have quickly tapered off this Monday. Everyone seems to be listlessly waiting and unfocused. The work-related Zoom calls are perfunctory and end quickly. The uncertainty grates on nerves. The Coronavius memes have tapered off, too. People don’t seem to find thisContinue reading “Day 8 – Taking Stock of Silver Linings”

I rode my bike downtown this morning. It was my first time out of the house in 48 hours. I knew that the city would be quiet, but I wasn’t prepared for that type of quiet. No cars. Homeless folks only on the streets. I’ve been wondering about that. About what if you were alreadyContinue reading “Day 7 – From a Bicycle”

I’ve been thinking about “The Greatest Generation” — our grandparents or great grandparents who lived through the Great Depression and World War II. These pre-Boomers emerged on the other side of history as better, more resilient people for having endured and overcome national hardships. I think of my own generation. We’re the much-aligned Millennials. AreContinue reading “Day 6 – The Greatest”

Unstructured days call for structure. I wake up. I join the my work team’s video Zoom link. Our faces pop up in a live-stream grid like “Hollywood Squares” or “The Brady Bunch.” The professional fourth wall is gone — you can glimpse the insides of coworkers’ homes. Turns out there’s real people behind our businessContinue reading “Day 5 – Intervals”