profile

Barry Fralick

Writer exploring culture, technology, life design, and the human experience. Writing at BarryFralick.com

PostsLinks
Featured Post

Sunday Notes 4/28/24

Greetings friends. Here are this week's notes. From me: A PSA I'm writing this email, except I'm not writing at all. Instead, I am organizing the refrigerator, wiping down the outside of the stove, and going through the spice cabinet. Writers are notorious for distracting themselves with dumb tasks. My home has never been so clean. Why? Because cleaning's easier than doing the hard thing. Writing, in this case, is the hard thing. But it doesn't feel good. I know this email is more important....

1 day ago • 1 min read

Hello from Upstate, NY. Here are this week's notes. From me: Thoughts on grief, mourning, and shame Grief is the overwhelming feeling that comes with loss. It is something out of our control. A visceral response that only fades with time and mourning. Mourning is the process of dealing with grief. It is the deeply personal and internal comprehension of events. Mourning is the creation of a map that guides us forward. Shame is the concealed element. It hides amongst grief. Thoughts like: 'I...

8 days ago • 1 min read

Greetings all. Here are this week's notes. From me: Breaking good habits I grew up in a small town. I ran a business in a small town. I don't have opinions. If you run a business in a smallish community you train yourself to stay silent. There is no benefit in discussing politics for instance. At best, a few people will agree with you. At worst, you alienate fifty percent of your clientele. Opinions are expensive. I trained myself to keep my mouth shut. A habit that served me well. These days...

15 days ago • 2 min read

Greetings friends. Here are this week's notes. From me: A note on notes Many things I share here are meant to be useful not only to you but to me as well. I use this newsletter as a roadmap. I feel like I spent many years living a life that wasn’t a good fit. Carrying on with no vision of how I wanted my life to look and feel. In a way, Sunday Notes is a byproduct of a guy relentlessly trying to piece a puzzle together. I could be experiencing a garden-variety midlife crisis, and so on, but I...

22 days ago • 1 min read

Hello and Happy Easter to those who celebrate. Here are this week's notes. From me: Some things that don't work Compromise - This will sound self-centered and perhaps it is, but every time we compromise, we dilute a small part of ourselves. Compromise too much and we all but forget who we are. Contempt follows compromise. 5-minute rice - It takes 6-7 minutes. I have timed it. Doing nothing - It is the most common path and one that never works. H/T Seth Godin Obsessing over political views -...

29 days ago • 1 min read

Greetings friends. Here are this week's notes. From me: On signs I don't believe in signs, or maybe I do. For instance, if you're looking for a sign to make a change in your life, the very act of looking for a sign usually is the sign. Conversely, most signs are right in front of us. They are as plain as daylight. They are as right as a rainstorm. We're just too scared to acknowledge them. Or admit to ourselves they exist. Really, I believe in gut feelings. And my gut tells me to believe in...

about 1 month ago • 1 min read

Greetings and Happy St. Patrick's Day. Here are this week's notes. From me: Random thoughts on money, minimalism, and consumerism. Dust pollutes the air. Chemicals pollute water. Clutter pollutes the mind. Shopping for sport is an expensive and addictive hobby. Money reduces stress. Stuff, in most cases, increases it. Luxury items signal a person 'had' money or is in debt. Consumerism is an economic reward for servitude to an apparatus that wishes you could be automated. Excess money...

about 1 month ago • 1 min read

Greetings from Upstate, NY. Here are this week's notes. From me: On talent I don't think I've ever been talented at anything, and I'm not sure it matters. I played baseball as a kid. I was neither talented nor athletic. To get moderately good, I had to practice more than other kids. Like way more. I would practice nearly every day during the spring and summer. As an adult, I've been on many different career trajectories each requiring different skills that I eventually got good at, but again,...

about 2 months ago • 2 min read

Greetings friends. Here are this week's notes. From me: A friendly reminder to ask for discounts. My monthly internet bill went up to $80. Three years ago it was $40. I called the company and asked for a discount. They lowered it to $65. Not bad for a 5-minute call. This is one of those annoying little things everyone should do. Call your cable company, cell phone provider, insurance providers, etc., and ask for a discount at least once every year or two. Many times they will say yes and...

about 2 months ago • 1 min read

Here are this week's notes. From me: About a toothache I had a toothache as a kid. It started to bother me little by little. I didn't tell my mom because I didn't want to go to the dentist. The pain increased and eventually, it became abscessed. I could no longer ignore it. I suffered through it on a Thanksgiving weekend because the dentist wasn't available. The following week, it was pulled and despite antibiotics and Novocain, it was an extremely painful experience. I hyperventilated. They...

2 months ago • 1 min read
Share this page