Brushing

[cosmolinguist]

One of the best people I've found on fedi is Dan ifixcoinops@retro.social -- along with his classics about Home Assistant, the dick mousetrap, and how clothes shopping should work, he's just added another that I think will become part of my idiolect:

Y'know when you're doing this big multi-step DIY project that involves doing many things and getting parts and tools and materials and you're holding all this stuff in your head and you notice how much of a big noisy scrungly mess it is up there, all the thoughts and worries and tasks overlapping each other like spaghetti all going in different directions, and you grumble "This is ridiculous, a guy can't get anything done with all that yammering going on," so you start up the computer and the text editor and write out what's going on up there, not because you don't know what's going on but just because thoughts go wibblywoobly like gummy worms and writing goes left to right in a straight line and to turn your oh-I-need-to-do-this-and-that thinkings into a ah-I-need-to-do-this-THEN-that shaped Plan you need to untangle the spaghetti and make it go in the long straight writing-shaped hole

Do you ever think of that like brushing your brain

Like oh no my brain's all tangled I've gotta spend a few minutes giving it a nice brush and make it purr

My brain is all tangled. So much so that I haven't even been able to say it lately.

Comments

[otter]

Dan would be a good reason to sign on to fedi. Not that I will, but those posts have staying power.

We learned from Occupational Therapy about brushing (with a super gentle brush) the arms/legs to help deal with sensory overload. Brushing the brain tangles makes total sense.

[cosmolinguist]

That sounds good -- and I might try the physical brushing too! Because I'm getting more sensory overload than ever these days.

[silveradept]

Oh, that's lovely, and I think I may have someone else that I follow, because just from the Home Assistant post I was howling with laughter. (And because I have Home Assistant, I understand exactly what kind of hobby it is.)

Brushing the brain is good. It's also a little like cable management to get all the tangles unsnarled.

[cosmolinguist]

just from the Home Assistant post I was howling with laughter. (And because I have Home Assistant, I understand exactly what kind of hobby it is.)

Yes I thought you might like that -- having read (or, being me, skimmed) your updates here about Home Assistant. :)

[silveradept]

You understand your audience, and also what tour audience might find particularly funny.

Skimming is always okay. I figure that I'm actually too verbose, even for blogs, and so people well take what they need to from the posts and go from there.

[sfred]

<3

[adrian_turtle]

The clothes-shopping description reminds me of secondhand baby clothes shopping. It's mostly on FB now, but I used to see it happening at garage sales and on physical bulletin boards next to libraries or food coops or parks. "Bag of clothes for a 6-month-old girl, $10." It was an alternative to hand-me-downs for families without siblings. Little ones have clothes they outgrow before they have time to damage them, and baby clothes don't need to fit very exactly...It works less well, or not at all, for adults who might wear a pair of jeans for a couple of years and know that some "size 34" fit better than others.

[cosmolinguist]

My childhood was full of rummage sales that my mom, her sister, and their parents had at my grandparents' house, so I know just the kind of clearinghouse for little kids' clothes that you mean. My mom was actually disappointed that my brother kept wearing out his clothes before he outgrew them; that's not how this is supposed to work! But he was a rough-and-tumble kind of kid for sure.

Most excellent

[jesse_the_k]

metaphor, tyvm

[momentsmusicaux]

Yes, I often write out plans, or add things to ongoing lists, so I don't lose track of them.
I hadn't thought of it like brushing my brain -- interesting image!

[hunningham]

I like finding someone else who lives by the text editor. For me 'untangling' is more or less why I journal - writing things down is often how I find out what I'm thinking. Or feeling.

[cosmolinguist]

Same -- I think by talking, and if there's no one around to talk to, I journal. :)