April 8, 2022, 8:40 a.m.
Volume 3, Resources 7: Burnout as a Trauma Response, Guide to Accessible Images, and Some Bonus Treats
Enthusiastic Encouragement & Dubious Advice
This is a public issue of Enthusiastic Encouragement & Dubious Advice. Feel free to share it!
Hi friends! Thank you for the overwhelmingly kind responses and birthday wishes to last week’s newsletter, “On Not Needing to Struggle Alone.” I’m definitely back in the snail mail groove and I’m still totally accepting addresses via this form if you want snail mail. Apparently auto-fill doesn’t give me your whole address, so double-check when you fill it out.
Also, in the near future I will begin working on finding a different platform to house this newsletter because Substack promotes hate and misinformation. I’ve known this for a while but as per my last newsletter, I have not had the spell slots to dig in to make the move. Now that I have some breathing room, this is at the top of my list. If anyone has any recommendations for platforms that 1) make the move from Substack simple and 2) allow me to keep my subscribers, please let me know! I would love it to be as seamless as possible so as not to disrupt your experience; however, if it needs to be disrupted a bit so that I can get off this hell site, then I’m sure we will all manage.
This week is a resource week and I’ll get to it after sharing this photo of me on my birthday:
Resource #1: “Have We Been Thinking About Burnout All Wrong?” by Eve Ettinger for Bustle
This is a fascinating article that rearranged my brain a bit and shifted my perspective. As time has progressed, I’ve moved further from the idea of burnout as something that we can each personally [successfully] manage toward the idea that the causes are systemic and therefore its systems that need to be fixed. This article talks about that a bit, but also asks if the term “burnout” starts to fail us if everyone is feeling it? Perhaps it’s something more and perhaps it’s something we should consider naming in a way that allows for medical support, like complex PTSD. Sounds extreme, yes, but don’t knock it until you read the article and give it some thought. As the author posits, “So is burnout just a trauma response in disguise?”
Weirdly, reading this article made me feel better in some ways.
Resource #2: “A guide to writing accessible image captions” by Chase DiBenedetto for Mashable
Pretty self-explanatory by the title. You can find bits and pieces of this information all over the internet but I like this pretty inclusive and thorough guide on Mashable. Please. I beg of you. Label your images. Even if you think no one who follows you needs them.
A fun thing: Typatone
I am so incredibly fascinated by this. It assigns musical tones to each letter you write and then it turns your sentence or grocery list or confession or whatever into a little song. This is blowing my mind specifically because sometimes when I am typing and get into a flow it feels like I’m playing an instrument and this website is like a little peek into what goes on inside my head. I think it’s lovely. I composed a little note for all of you.
Gratuitous book recommendation: Disorientation by Elaine Hsieh Chou
This satire made me simultaneously laugh and cringe the entire time reading it. I talked about it in a bit more detail on All the Books! when it came out a couple weeks ago. It is definitely on my list of favorite books I’ve read so far this year.
That’s it for this week! You can shop any books I’ve mentioned in this newsletter at my affiliate shop, The Infophile’s Bookshop, and support independent bookstores. If you want to send me some snail mail, you can find me at P.O. Box 21481, Oakland, CA 94620-1481. If you are a paid subscriber and would like for me to send you some happy mail, feel free to give me your address.
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