8Sided Blog

the scene celebrates itself

  • 8sided About
  • memora8ilia

What Am I Doing Now? (January 2018 Recap)

02.01.2018 by M Donaldson // Leave a Comment

  • In addition to strengthening a daily journal habit that began a couple of years back, I’ve decided to plunge into Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman’s The Daily Stoic Journal, accompanied by a reading from The Daily Stoic. I’ve been casually studying Stoicism (indeed, taking part in what’s become a resurgence), fascinated by its intersections with Buddhist teachings. The most profound learning comes from action or reflection, so Holiday’s prompts to journal on these philosophical teachings are themselves an encouragement to dive in further.
  • This leads to a change in my morning routine. This month I’m experimenting with waking by 6:30 AM and quickly making a cup of strong tea (usually a teaspoon each of green tea, black tea, ginger, and MCT oil). I then read the day’s entry from The Daily Stoic and meditate for 20 minutes. After my quiet meditation, I journal in The Daily Stoic Journal, write at least a page about what’s on my mind in my blank journal, and then plan out my day in the Panda Planner (something else new I’m trying out). Then it’s coffee time, light breakfast, and the start of my workday. So far so good, and I’ll report back if this routine changes in the next months. (update: the Panda Planner is a great idea, and it might be perfect for you, but it turns out it doesn’t quite fit into my routine.)
  • Speaking of meditation, I highly recommend Kevin Rose’s Oak app. It’s free and useful for meditators at any level, though I still recommend Headspace if you’re just getting started. After using Headspace for a few years and becoming comfortable with meditation, I find that Oak’s unguided meditation feature is perfect for my needs. I’m enjoying the app’s breathing exercises, too.
  • I started 100 days of Seth Godin’s The Marketing Seminar. This is my second time through this program. The first time I didn’t finish as I got sidelined by things that needed attention in my personal life, and overlap with my intense four weeks in altMBA (which deserved 100% of my attention). Now that I’m fully focused, The Marketing Seminar is impactful, and I’m having a great time and learning a ton. It’s making me a better writer, too, as it’s kindly pressuring me to write all the time. (I highly recommend The Marketing Seminar and altMBA … feel free to contact me if you have questions about either.)
  • As part of a goal to ramp up a writing practice, I’m going to try my hand at writing record reviews (or short essays about records I’m listening to). Maybe this will also give some virtual ink, and a shiny new search result to a few overlooked album releases as I’ll be focusing on the mostly unrecognized. Here’s my first effort.
  • This month I spoke to a copyright class at Full Sail University and sat on a couple of panels at this year’s Music Placement Conference. Both were terrific and fun experiences, and I enjoyed talking with (and hopefully inspiring with encouragement) the students, songwriters, and music industry types I encountered. I’m aiming to do more speaking and panel appearances throughout the year.
  • My friend (and fellow altMBA alumnus) Dean Caravelis interviewed me for his fantastic Outrageously Remarkable blog. It’s a straight transcript, so I come off a bit ranty and stumble through frequent run-on sentences, but I believe this conveys the enthusiasm and excitement I feel when I talk about these subjects. I also don’t think I’ve ever publicly told that Mike Watt story.
  • What I Read This Month:

    Start With Why
    Perennial Seller
    The Accidental Creative

  • What I Watched This Month:

    I, Claudius
    Wormwood
    The Florida Project
    A Ghost Story (loved it)
    The Disaster Artist
    Call Me By Your Name

  • What I Listened To This Month:

    Art Feynman – Near Negative
    The Gentleman Lovers – Permanently Midnight
    Hiroshi Yoshimura – Music for Nine Postcards
    Ebo Taylor And The Pelikans
    Goran Kajfes Tropiques – Enso
    F ingers – Awkwardly Blissing Out
    Habibi Funk: An Eclectic Selection of Music From the Arab World

  • A Few Other Things I Enjoyed This Month:

    How to Be a Responsible Music Fan in the Age of Streaming
    Jaron Lanier on The Ezra Klein Show
    See With Your Ears: Spielberg And Sound Design
    Another Green World: How Japanese Ambient Music Found a New Audience
    How Kraftwerk’s Classic Album Computer World Has Changed People’s Lives
    Legend of the Fall: Mark E Smith Kept Swinging to the End

Categories // From The Notebook Tags // altMBA, Book Recommendations, Full Sail University, Meditation, Movie Recommendations, Music Recommendations, now, Ryan Holiday, Seth Godin, Stoicism

8sided.blog

 
 
 
 
 
 
8sided.blog is an online admiration of modernist sound and niche culture. We believe in the inherent optimism of creating art as a form of resistance and aim to broadcast those who experiment not just in name but also through action.

It's also the online home of Michael Donaldson, a curious fellow trying his best within the limits of his time. He once competed under the name Q-Burns Abstract Message and was the widely disputed king of sandcastles until his voluntary exile from the music industry.

"More than machinery, we need humanity."

Learn More →

featured

Why a Tip Jar on Spotify is a Bad Idea

Yes, recording artists need to make a living, and streaming payouts are awful. But digital tip jars are not the answer.

San Mateo: A Layer of Hiss

As San Mateo, Matthew Naquin makes the music of nostalgia, dreams, and expanding subterranean root networks. He’s given hints about his process. There’s usually mention of self-imposed constraints, of limiting the music-making tools he has access to, and how each new album has an intentional difference from the previous one.

Felix Laband: Sine Waves in Heaven

The subjects of Felix Laband’s collages are fractured, spare, and dramatically chopped. You might find animal life, anguished faces, African imagery, drab buildings, vague slogans, and pervy goings-on. And the collages, intentionally or not, serve as keys to unlock Felix’s music.

Mastodon

Mastodon logo

Listening

If you dig 8sided.blog
you're gonna dig-dug the
Spotlight On Podcast

Check it out!

Exploring

Roll The Dice

For a random blog post

Click here

or for something cool to listen to
(refresh this page for another selection)

Linking

Blogroll
A Closer Listen
Austin Kleon
Atlas Minor
blissblog
Craig Mod
Disquiet
feuilleton
Headpone Commute
Jay Springett
Kottke
Metafilter
One Foot Tsunami
1000 Cuts
1001 Other Albums
Parenthetical Recluse
Robin Sloan
Seth Godin
The Creative Independent
The Red Hand Files
The Tonearm
Sonic Wasteland
Things Magazine
Warren Ellis LTD
 
TRANSLATE with x
English
Arabic Hebrew Polish
Bulgarian Hindi Portuguese
Catalan Hmong Daw Romanian
Chinese Simplified Hungarian Russian
Chinese Traditional Indonesian Slovak
Czech Italian Slovenian
Danish Japanese Spanish
Dutch Klingon Swedish
English Korean Thai
Estonian Latvian Turkish
Finnish Lithuanian Ukrainian
French Malay Urdu
German Maltese Vietnamese
Greek Norwegian Welsh
Haitian Creole Persian
TRANSLATE with
COPY THE URL BELOW
Back
EMBED THE SNIPPET BELOW IN YOUR SITE
Enable collaborative features and customize widget: Bing Webmaster Portal
Back
Newsroll
Dada Drummer
Deep Voices
Dense Discovery
Dirt
Erratic Aesthetic
First Floor
Flaming Hydra
Futurism Restated
Garbage Day
Herb Sundays
Kneeling Bus
Orbital Operations
Sasha Frere-Jones
The Browser
The Honest Broker
The Maven Game
The Voice of Energy
Today In Tabs
Tone Glow
Why Is This Interesting?
 
TRANSLATE with x
English
Arabic Hebrew Polish
Bulgarian Hindi Portuguese
Catalan Hmong Daw Romanian
Chinese Simplified Hungarian Russian
Chinese Traditional Indonesian Slovak
Czech Italian Slovenian
Danish Japanese Spanish
Dutch Klingon Swedish
English Korean Thai
Estonian Latvian Turkish
Finnish Lithuanian Ukrainian
French Malay Urdu
German Maltese Vietnamese
Greek Norwegian Welsh
Haitian Creole Persian
TRANSLATE with
COPY THE URL BELOW
Back
EMBED THE SNIPPET BELOW IN YOUR SITE
Enable collaborative features and customize widget: Bing Webmaster Portal
Back

ACT

Support Ukraine
+
Ideas for Taking Action
+
Climate Action Resources
+
Carbon Dots
+
LGBTQ+ Education Resources
+
National Network of Abortion Funds
+
Animal Save Movement
+
Plant Based Treaty
+
The Opt Out Project
+
Trustworthy Media
+
Union of Musicians and Allied Workers

Here's what I'm doing

/now

Copyright © 2025 · 8D Industries, LLC · Log in