the monthly r.e.p.o.r.t.
same unhinged meditations, longer lead time
(Same prompts, longer timeline because I don’t switch my life up every week lol) If you’re reading this, congrats you’re still alive! And part of living is finding things that give you a serotonin boost to placate you until your next payday (if you’re my employer and you’re reading this- it’s a joke!) So behold, the weekly r.e.p.o.r.t., a highly curated and totally myopic list of my last week of
-reading
-eating
-playing
-obsessing
-recommending
-treating
Enjoy peeps!
R-Reading
I’m about 75% done with “The Day the World Stops Shopping: How Ending Consumerism Saves the Environment and Ourselves” by J.B. MacKinnon and the title pretty much says it all. This book is making the case against consumerism while asking some really existential questions about what got us here and what steps we need to make (not just individually, but systemically) to course-correct for our sake and for the sake of the planet. Much of the rhetoric online about anti-consumerism is squarely about the misgivings of the consumer, which is understandable but ultimately short-sighted.
MacKinnon’s book talks about consumerism from all angles: how we as end-users should examine the ‘why’ of our purchasing habits, how post- Industrial Revolution business models are predicated on the idea of people buying ‘more and worse’, how first-world government can incentivize people to consume less, questioning the validity of a country’ GDP (which has only been a thing for around 100 years or so!) and SO. MUCH. MORE. That said, it is a dense book- hence why I am still powering through because there’s a lot to take in. But if you take up the charge to read this book, it goes far beyond the typical conversation about buying less stuff. It will make you think about how the modern world is conditioned to always look for more. And it provides data to back up its claims, which I always appreciate.
E-Eating
Rabbit food and it’s wack. Between a new intolerance for dairy and gluten, AND the desire to have abs by June I have been relegated to the most failsafe of foods. Nothing wrong with it, it’s not bad food; I just miss the decadence of a good restaurant meal.
P-Playing
“3AM” by HAIM (feat. Thundercat). The weather has been kind of dreary and rainy lately and I don’t need much of an excuse to get into my melancholy music bag so I’ve been more than happy to watch the rain fall on my window while this plays softly in the background. Plus, any excuse to support an all-girl band. (Remember The Donnas? Just me? Nevermind.)
O-Obsessing
Over this fashion/lifestyle creator ‘ay0brandiiiii’ I found on TikTok recently. She is so refreshingly herself- that’s the best way I can describe it. Good personal style that doesn’t take itself too seriously, loosely inspired by contemporary trends but still very much influenced by a genuine curiosity about the world. Love her maximalist jewelry too. Her vibe just reminds me of the purity of fashion content online back in the day before this was how we all paid our bills lol.
R-Recommending
Taking a break from content all about gamifying your life and maximizing every arena of your life too. It’s not a bad thing to want to improve on oneself but I think some of us have gone off the deep end and are trying to outrun our troubles. There is no workout, no morning routine, no skincare routine that will allow you to outrun the things about yourself that you don’t like. Nothing wrong with treating our bodies the very best we can while we have them but that is not the type of self care most of you are after. A six-pack will not make up for the fact that you have a problem upholding boundaries in your life, for example. You’ll just be a pushover with a six-pack.
T-Treating
Myself to a bunch of physical media. I LOVE my Kindle e-reader and enjoy not being tethered to a physical book but lately I’ve been feeling called to have physical media back in my life. Maybe the news that recently broke about Amazon no longer allowing people to download purchased books on non-Kindle devices is partly to blame for this resurgence. I only exclusively used my Kindle for library loans but when you see headlines like that, it makes you consider the definition of ownership. Apparently, spending money on things no longer means we get to own them outright. So with this realization I suppose comes the desire to have things that no one (in theory) can take away from me. And now, 2 ‘friends of the library’ book sales later here I am with 3 tall stacks in my living room. But hey, at least Jeff Bezos can’t take them from me.
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-xoxo Jenn