July - The Stanford Marshmallow and me

My class will be graduating in September, though I don't yet know if this will be in person. At present I doubt it, because weddings in Ireland are only now allowed to host 50 people, and people need to marry; but nobody needs a formal graduation ceremony that can easily be held online.

The Stanford Marshmallow Experiment (1972) tested young children to see if they could last ten minutes alone without eating a marshmallow. If they could do this, the experimenter would return and give them two marshmallows. If they ate the single treat, they wouldn’t get any more. The kids were filmed trying hard to resist the lure and researchers noted the cognitive skills they applied (or not). Over the next 40 years, the study found that those who were better at deferring pleasure were ultimately more successful and achieved more aims. Deferred gratification, as this is called, is now considered an indicator of future success in life. The 2015 look at this story:
https://bingschool.stanford.edu/news/...

For four years I have been busily deferring. College came first, whether from a financial or social or activity viewpoint. During summer I would rush through the house, cleaning and decluttering; by the way, I never once missed those old computer monitors and printers. I would read for review some wonderful books which had been stacking up during the semester.

I spent days each summer decluttering electronic storage such as e-mails (having to change subscription due to what we called the great Eircom meltdown) and photos. Delete the bad ones, the blurs, turn them all right way up, delete the doubles. Create folders and name them sensibly for photos and footage, so when you need them, you can find them. Location, date, family, pets, flowers, assignments, college societies, etc. are good categories.

During my Easter break this year, the entire first day was spent in sorting photos and footage, in order that I would find what I needed. As a multimedia journalist, you create and use a lot of visual material. During the rest of Easter, I picked one major project each day and worked straight through that. This meant my lecturers were not available to assist; however, when you only have a brief online class, you can’t get an entire film project or website more than started. All I could do was make the project and look for feedback.

Colleen M Story blogs about writing and wellness, and her latest post encourages us to get uncomfortable rather than comfortable, in order to grow and succeed as writers. She also recommends investing in our writing education.
http://writingandwellness.com/2021/08...


Now I’m gradually unwinding, catching up on reviews again, but also reading physical books. The review ones are electronic. I live in Ireland and many of my review books are published in America; but due to the pandemic, American reviewers are also now getting e-books first and foremost.

I had previously read paperback Wool by Hugh Howey, and we had Shift and Dust sitting here for the past few years. Now I’m reading my way through them each evening. That’s a marshmallow which tastes delicious.


Other marshmallows included putting on a DVD. I’ve done that a few times now. I had not watched a film or entertainment tv since last summer. There was just never time. I found it impossible to understand the young students, many of whom were working, being told not to stream Netflix every evening; who has time? College social events were on Zoom, so I suppose they would turn off one stream and on another. All year, I would get the news late at night. And I’d read a book while it showed. Lately, RTE aired the Danny Boyle film Yesterday. I enjoyed that marshmallow too.

I’ve cut up firewood. I’ve played some computer games. During the year, RPGs were banned, and I treated myself to ten minutes of Solitaire at the end of the day, with a couple of hours of Civilization on Sunday evening (if I’d got through my work). Now my gaming is occasional, but fun, for a longer period. I was passively decluttering (a term I coined to mean using up what products are in the house before buying more) and now I am actively decluttering (going around looking for items to use up or discard). And with easing of restrictions, I have met family and met friends. Great days.

Currently I’m running potential book themes through my head, deciding what to write next. I might return to a long-running nonfic project, or dive in to fiction, or both. This is going to be fun.
In the absence of the Dublin Horse Show for the second year, I'm making Murder Against The Clock free to download and enjoy.

Grab it August 7 – 10.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01LTDYFXO

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LTDYFXO


Anyone not in the UK or US stores should click the US link and they will be brought to Amazon.com which will offer to take them to their nearest store.
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