🚀
My most recent example of misanthropy (love this word), the one that probed my Ex to label me as such over the phone, is my current chosen state of extended solitude. Over a month ago, during a bad night’s sleep, I woke up at 3AM and decided to pack a couple suitcases and get on the next flight out of LAX. I ended up in Mexico City, where I don’t know a soul and can’t speak the language. I just had an intense desire to be alone and away from (mostly) everyone I know. And now I’ve been here for weeks and weeks, completely alone outside of a couple short visits from some good and trusted friends. And so, what I would like to recommend to you is the act of leaving. Leaving everything behind you when you need to. And you probably need to or have needed to or will need to. So just do it, leave! Leave your home, the place you live, wherever it is, as often as you can, whenever the impulse strikes, if you have the lifestyle that offers you that privilege. Get on a plane, get in your car, rent a hotel. Go somewhere, anywhere, that makes you feel a little apprehensive at first, somewhere new that you’ve never been, or somewhere far away that you know well and that you love. Go to see others, or go to be alone, but go for longer than you think you should. If you try to think of reasons not to leave, you won’t, so don’t consider any of them, don’t think about it at all. You will never regret it. And if you can’t get on a plane and go to another country near or far, if you have a solid job like a normal decent person, or something seriously tethering you to one place… Then get up from whatever you are doing and go somewhere else. Start walking to a park or drive to some neighborhood you’re not familiar with and spend time alone there. Explore your unfamiliar surroundings. Just forge an escape plan, suddenly and without thought, whatever it is or whatever it looks like, and just do it….
Related Recs
the older i get, the more i‘ve realized that it’s okay to GTFO of situations that aren’t serving you. i’m not saying run or quit as soon as something gets hard, because challenges are how we grow and change. i’m saying listen to your intuition, find and follow your north star. you will know when it’s time.
your workplace treating you badly or your job wearing you out? start looking for something else.
in a relationship that’s toxic or that you can’t sparkle and thrive inside of? advocate for yourself and get out.
your living situation bad for a myriad of reasons? start looking at your finances and figure out if you can move.
all of this is to say, it is your life! be an active participant in it. i’ve quit jobs, apps, relationships, apartments, vices, etc. there is no shame in leaving the party early.
Feb 2, 2025
🚶
Literally, just into another room. Figuratively, just into another corner of the mind. When it gets to be all too much, introduce a movement in some new direction, and if the thing you’re trying to get away from follows you, consider locking the door. Or enlisting a handy person to help you board it up. (That handy person could be you and a YouTube tutorial.)
Feb 15, 2025
Top Recs from @blu-hunt
📖
Well, first, let me just say that if you don’t read often, my initial recommendation is that you change that, and begin reading often.I love to read. I refuse to borrow books from people, and I never lend them out. I’ve always felt like there was something special about the physical copy of the book you read any story in. Something I love to do is to inscribe my books. In fact, it’s sort of a rule of mine, or if not a rule, a sort of ritual. Years ago, my inscriptions started out simply, usually just when and where I got the book (i.e. Mast Books 2019) with my signature underneath. But over time my inscriptions have become increasingly more detailed. In addition to when and where I got the book, I now write everything about the moment in which I bought it, including my day preceding the moment of purchase, my mood during the actual sale, and whatever else springs to mind. After this I write another equally detailed inscription whenever I actually start reading the book. Finally, I write a culminating inscription in the back of the book as soon as I finish reading the last page. Through this process, every book I own becomes a sort of makeshift diary, demarcating the specific period of my life in which that book kept me company. Little bits of ordinary days that I otherwise would never have thought to remember become a matter of permanent record in my library. And when I flip through an old book, I remember not only my life at that time, but also how it was interwoven with the actual narrative of the book. It’s a strangely comforting feeling. Whenever someone gives me a book, I always request an inscription from them, so I never forget who gave it to me, and when I give a book, I of course inscribe it for them too. So, if you ever find yourself looking at your pile of books, big or small, and can’t remember when you read them, or who gave them to you, just start inscribing them! You don’t have to be tedious and sentimental about it like me (although being tedious and sentimental, I do highly recommend), just write a little something, and then you’ll have a library of memories too. And an inscribed book really is the best gift you can give! (Along with cakes)(If you do want a good book rec, check out The Factory by Hiroko Oyamada, it’s like 120 pages, so hardly a book, but a really great quick and profound little read)
Oct 13, 2022
🫧
I am always chewing gum. Gum is the ultimate satisfaction to the demands of my oral fixation. However, most gum is evil. Most gum is just literal plastic and sugar. When you chew ‘regular’ gum you are also chewing the same chemicals and substances used to make plastic bottles and bags and things. But what’s even worse than that, is that the sugars in gum cause bacteria in your mouth that makes your breath smell like shit. There are lots of organic, clean, sugar-free options of gum to choose from, but Spry gum rises above them all. It’s the only dentist recommended gum. It cleans your teeth and contains not a single naughty ingredient! Spry is what gum should always strive to be and only does what gum should do. Sure, its durability is lacking, you can’t chew it for long, but this is a solvable sacrifice. I buy my Spry in this weird apple sized bulk container, so as soon as I’ve chewed one through, I can begin anew without any worry of running through my stockpile. I find myself at parties handing out little chiclets of gum to various drunk people, who when they see my funny little container contraption suddenly not only want a piece, but also to ask me about it, and like a character in an infomercial, I am always ready to tell them.
Oct 13, 2022
🎂
I love baking cakes for people. Store bought cakes are so boring. What do they show? That you have fifty bucks and a half hour to kill? Who even needs a cake at all at that point. Cakeake isn’t about being a cake, it’s about thoughtfulness, decorum, and perseverance. I will exhaust myself and push myself to limits I didn’t know existed in order to make elaborate cakes for my friends’ birthdays. The funny thing is, I always run excessively late at finishing them, barely getting the frosting on… And by the time the cake reaches its destination, it inevitably falls apart. But they always taste good. People think they can’t bake, even people who like to cook think they can’t bake… And I guess I kind of just explained how baking is hard and I’m not great at it, but that’s exactly why you should do it! It’s good to not be good at things and who knows, you could be really great at it. And if you aren’t it’s still fun and makes people happy.
Oct 13, 2022