“More Babies!” — video with short rhyming poem, artwork

by New York poet NG Swett

Just a quick video post today, including a couple of extra pieces of material:

• notes about the substance of the poem

• when and how I wrote it

• creating and posting the video

The substance of the poem

The billionaires, plutocrats, oligarchs — some are calling for more babies.

Women should have more babies, some say. Women shouldn’t be able to end a pregnancy under any circumstances, some say. Life is too… precious!

Over a lifetime, families can easily shell out hundreds of thousands of dollars per person for taxes, health care, child care, education, shelter, food, transportation, weddings, and finally assisted living. The willingness to pay is only limited by our means. The value of a statistical life was estimated at $7.5 million in 2020 according to FEMA. Oh how the shareholders must drool at a number like that!

Other happy civilized countries don’t have things set up this way. Every heartstring we have is tapped for all it’s worth. Every fear stoked for our last dime.

There’s pushback on social media to this idea of women as livestock, especially among women. But the good news for the owner class is that they can mute ‘em with algorithms. (Studies show that social media is terrible for women’s mental health, especially secular liberals.)

Scientists proved that the human race is stripping the planet of resources, causing mass extinction, and polluting it to the brink of extinction. So do we really need more people? Or should we get our house in order first?

Writing the poem

So this all tickled my funny bone a little, so I jotted down this little rhyming poem, “More Babies!” just this week in a big black journal that I’ve been using lately for sketching and writing.

To illustrate the poem, I pulled up a painting I did some time ago of a made-up plutocrat, “One.” It’s from a series of a couple dozen mini acrylic paintings I made as art therapy to get me through writing and editing my first novel — a very, very challenging project! The paintings are all illustrations from scenes of the novel.

In the painting, One lounges god-like across a royal-looking chair in front of a glass window at night. You can see a bridge lit up behind him. The rug under his shiny black boots is a rough map of the Outer Lands Archipelago.

Making the videos

With the poem, the painting, and some branding basics for 4seasonshelf, I then made a short video in two formats, wide and vertical mobile. I added two audio tracks, one with the sound of a typewriter and another with the sound of an eerie lullaby…

I’m placing the wide format video here on 4seasonshelf.com first.

Then they will go on the billionaires’ platforms…

Why do we have to be SO consistent? (I asked ChatGPT)

by Nan Patience

Plus tips for improving consistency.

The number one thing you hear around the creative economy, ecommerce, and social media platforms when you ask how to please the algorithms is this idea of consistency.

Consistency is key. It’s basic. It’s foundational.

We might ask why. Given how hard most people find consistency to be, we should probably ask why it’s so darn important for humans to be consistent.

Why is consistency in humans so important? I asked ChatGPT directly

Yes, I went straight to the source and asked ChatGPT (OpenAI).

We talked, we laughed, we lost five pounds!

You can read the short interaction between me and ChatGPT on this question at this link but you don’t have to because I’ll include key ideas below.

How consistent are YOU?

Are you consistent with everything in your life?

Consistency comes up a lot in parenting. I’ve had a quarter century of experience right there. Consistency is grounding; chaos is hard. There are times when dang-nabbit, we may not feel like doing something, but we just have to, and so we do.

When it comes to creative projects like writing and making art, sometimes I am consistent, and sometimes I’m not, which I suppose is the very definition of inconsistent haha!

Showing up to work regularly, even if we’re students or we work from home or work a remote job, is vital to keeping projects alive and building them.

If you don’t believe it’s important, try staying on task and being consistent for a while and see what happens. Over time, your efforts will show positive trends, at least in the area you’re being consistent about. Once you see that, you want more. You may try even harder.

Consistency helps us know what to expect over time and makes the world a more predictable place (per ChatGPT).

There’s just one small thing: we’re human. Humans are wild. We’re supposed to be wandering the hillsides hunting and gathering. We’re a life form, connected to the Earth’s biosystems to survive. Many, many things go into how we feel from day to day and from hour to hour about things that we’re doing all at the same time.

It’s easy for machines to be consistent. They only need energy and data. A mere spark can set off a long chain of events.

For A.I., seeking to understand the world that it’s being born into, inconsistency is hard. As artificial intelligence gets stronger, it will be able to handle a wider range of inconsistency. But for right now, it needs a home with structure in order to function.

Consistency for humans

Humans are not as consistent as machines. Stuff happens. Maybe we’re busy being consistent with one thing and something else falls behind. Some of us are running a three-ring circus on the daily.

Sometimes we get distracted, or the sun comes out, or we have to run an errand. Don’t beat yourself up too much.

Consistency is something we can work on. It’s about building small habits, making decisions, and taking action.

Superhuman consistency is what we’re up against in virtual reality. To get in the game and stay in it, don’t imagine it’s easy! The good news is, people are doing it.

Get better at being consistent through consistency challenges and routines

Consistency can be a real challenge!

Have you ever tried doing a consistency challenge, like a 100-day challenge? I have! The first day of a challenge is fun. The second day is a little less fun, and by the end of the first week, if you’re still doing it at all, it will feel heavy.

I recommend challenges. You end up getting something done and pushing yourself out of the comfort zone a little. For example, last summer I challenged myself to write a poem a day.

OK, maybe I didn’t write a poem every single day last summer, but I wrote enough for a book of 36 love poems, and with black and white photo collage illustrations to boot (blog post: Love is in the air).

Benefits of a consistency challenge

• Challenges help stop perfectionism. Because at one point, it is pencils down, ship it, send it.

• It forces us through a process until the ideas, habits and tasks are (sort of) mastered.

• With consistency, the world can be more predictable and stable.

• Opportunities to learn lessons! For example, now I know that to last all the way to the end of a 100-day challenge, I’d better keep the task fun and small.

  Never, ever underestimate the challenges of consistency!

Good routines

Routines can help eliminate a lot of chaos and paralysis that get in the way of consistency, I find. If it weren’t for my morning routine, for example, there would have been many more days of getting nothing done.

So there’s my take on consistency and a couple of tools to get better at it. I hope that helps, and now I’ve gotta go work on my consistency.

~ Nan

P.S. Consistency is only one metric in life. Life has so many more metrics to think about. Check out my related blog post about how to check our online metrics dashboards without falling to pieces.

P.S.S. Keep scrolling down to browse other recent posts, like “Love is in the air…”

“The Best Season?” a small talkin’ one-minute love poem

Three slides of a short 1-minute mobile video for the poem “The Best Season?” by NG Swett, Outer Lands Archipelago / NY poet

This is the 1:09sec video for posting “The Best Season?” love poem from HOLD ME TIGHT poetry book.
The video and the individual slides (pngs) are for posting on social media platforms with links back here to this website at 4seasonshelf.com.
Audio is added on each platform to avoid copyright issues.

What is YOUR favorite season
-- winter, spring, summer or fall?

Here's a nice and easy one-minute short poem about a great small talk topic. Everyone cares about the seasons and the weather!

Small talk is a lost art, isn’t it? People are so shy and wary of talking to strangers. When you’re at the front desk, as I’ve been from time to time over the years, small talk is perfect for engaging with people. It’s friendly but not nosy.

People feel nostalgic for the seasons and what special things each season brings to life. Changes, cycles and transitions are in our human nature.

About this poem

The short rhyming poem, "The Best Season?", is one from my new collection of 36 poems, HOLD ME TIGHT (link to buy internationally). The book is available in hard cover and ebook formats. It’s gorgeous if I do say so myself. I love it!

Have you ever made a book? Or would you like to? It’s quite a journey, and I share it on this blog and in my enewsletter.

Minimalist aesthetic photo illustration

The poem is Illustrated here and in the book with a black and white photo of a flowering spring daffodil for a contemporary minimalist aesthetic.

In the book, each of the 36 poems shares a two-page spread with its own minimalist black and white photo collage illustration.

How did I make the book? People have been asking me, and I share all the details here in a blog post all about making and publishing the love poetry book. Here is the cover:

I’m experimenting with short mobile videos like the one above for sharing poems, blog posts and new paintings online.

Thanks for checking out my blog!

~ Nan

P.S. I invite you to keep in touch by subscribing to my email list.

~ Headquarters of 4seasonshelf and home to the New York poet NG Swett ~

The Outer Lands Archipelago is made up of all of the ancient islands along the East Coast created 30,000 years ago during the last Ice Age when the Labrador Glacier was halted by the mighty Atlantic Ocean.

The islands of the archipelago include New York’s Long Island, Block Island, Nantucket, Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, and many other stunning islands.

When metrics are hard (you need a pep talk)

by Nan Patience

How do you feel
when you check your metrics?

My dashboards today may not have inspired confidence, but they did inspire this blog post.

I looked at some metrics today, and they weren’t great. My insecurities got triggered, and I had to give myself a pep talk. So I’m taking the opportunity to give you a pep talk, too.

You know, all those dashboards that companies give us with our accounts? The histories and transactions — all the pretty little pieces of data moving through time — activities, views, clicks, sales, likes, follows, etc. The charts, the tables in red and black, the greens and the blues…

Checking metrics can sometimes take a toll on us emotionally, especially at the start, when numbers are zeroes and ones.

With any brand new project, we are going to start with nothing across the board. Zero. Zilch. I've done this a few times. Even successful projects start with nothing but ideas.

That’s what we do, we make something out of nothing. We build from there.

That long period of zeroes and single digits can be agonizing. The work is harder and takes longer than expected. We worry what people will think. We worry that our ideas are dumb.

We care so much what other people think, but what we find out that literally no one is thinking about us at all because people are so caught up in their own lives.

No one cares?

There is the phrase going around: “No one cares.” This is sort of true. People do care about us a little, but not about our weird little creative projects. The fact that no one cares and that no one is paying any attention to us is both devastating and liberating.

If it was easier, more people would be doing it, right? Mental toughness and patience through this tough startup stage is the barrier to entry.

Two pieces of advice

1. lower you expectations about the outcome when you log onto dashboards to check the numbers.

2. Don’t check metrics too often. Compulsively checking is not helpful. Once a week is plenty.

We get so caught up in the nice charts, the lists, the stats. If it’s a scrolling platform, you may be tempted to spend a lot of precious time scrolling, emoting, and oversharing.

Our expectations are too high. It causes undue stress and unhappiness.

We underestimate how hard it will be and how long it will take.

Sure, there are lessons to be learned, problems to be solved, in every aspect of every little thing we do, including opportunities to get better. So what if there are things we can improve on? We don’t have to fall to pieces when metrics aren’t showing the progress we want right away.

Look for the glimmers of hope and interesting trends in your metrics, and you will find them. Try giving yourself a little credit for a change.

Low numbers aren’t personal. They’re not a character flaw or a moral failing. There’s room for improvement, though, if we’re willing to face up to it.

Signs of life?

What does everyone say to us when we’re on the struggle bus?

• “Hang in there”

• “Never quit”

• “Keep going”

• “You got this!”

If we do what they say, we start to get signs of life showing up on our dashboards. It may take time, blood, sweat and tears, but it happens!

With hard work, some smarts, and a lot of luck, the blips may turn into jagged up and down lines over time.

Maybe the lines show trends of growth over time.

What really matters

Here’s a thought: the dashboard metrics we get so hung up on may or may not matter to our mortal souls in the end.

In fact, chasing certain metrics can make us feel unwell. Studies show bad mental health impacts for literally everyone, but especially secular liberals of all ages.

Hit especially hard are women, and especially young women and girls. So much so that you now have municipalities suing big social media companies for causing so much the trouble. Apparently, we’re getting played.

Here I am nevertheless, a ringmaster in my own delusional media circus. Blog and all!

So that’s the situation we find ourselves in.

Payoff? is that all that matters?…

At the end of the day, the companies that are so kindly showing us our metrics are only thinking about one thing: the payoff.

And payoff is great, because grown ups have to make a living in this world. But is it really the be-all and end-all? Will there be no payoff without surrendering our freedoms for consistency?

If it’s payoff we want, we only need to follow the platform metrics. The analytics sections can be very helpful in that regard.

Here’s a partial list of some other key metrics that aren’t being measured on the digital dashboards that we put so much stock in.

What else is there?

Besides payoff, could there be other metrics in our lives that are also important?

At the end of our lives, what metrics will have turned out to be important?

Have you seen the interviews people are doing with elderly people asking them what they advise, what they regret. (You have to take these with a grain of salt because these people are not you and they’re not me, however…)

What older people would tell their younger selves or young people today, they always say:

• to not worry too much

• be brave

• have fun

• follow your curiosity

• don’t work too hard

• spend more time with friends and loved ones

• be honest

• be true to yourself

• be kind

Plus

No one says,

• “I wished I would have worked harder.”

• “I wish I would have been more consistent though.”

Where are the dashboards for these other important things that the wise older folks mention?

Where’s the fun-o-meter?

How do we measure these other important things in life?

• the satisfaction we get from trying new things, learning, and projects well done

• the happiness, health and wellbeing of ourselves and our loved ones, friends, neighbors, communities and beyond

• resources left for future generations

• our impacts on the planet

• our impacts on others, including all species, around the globe

• time to think

• time to do absolutely nothing

Ok, you’re right, enough!

How are we measuring things like these? Are there dashboards for that?

Maybe my shortcomings on corporate dashboards would look a lot better on my own control panel?

Beware the tyranny of the metrics, friends!

~ Nan

Mission Creep

This is a short vertical video carrying a scratchy dark noir island dispatch from Nan in which she’s graphically and symbolically dressed in an unofficial but also official pilot’s hat. This video was uploaded to 4seasonshelf channels/profiles on multiple social media platforms with audio added in from each platform. The video itself was created in Canva using a mobile video template selected for its mood and aesthetic.

When you begin, there’s the idea, an inspiration, a fluttering of the heart?

Then a path appears, so you take it.

Next thing you know, you’re signaling to merge onto a superhighway.

How did that happen?

It might be mission creep.

Nan, what are you talking about?

Mission creep. Wow will you look at that view!