The 2nd day of 2025

I was productive. I read a lot. I'm off to a good start.

Photo by Alexandra Fuller on Unsplash

The second day of the year is almost in the books.

I spent the entire day reading, planning, plotting, and learning. I went walking with my dog for an hour (3 miles!), drank water, stretched, and ate good and healthy food. Now, I sit writing my second blog post of 2025.

This was a full day. May every day of 2025 be this full and productive.

There’s going to be a quiz at the end of this, so pay attention!

How many browser tabs do you have open right now?

I do all of my writing on an HP Chromebook that I paid a little over $200 for at Best Buy. It replaced my old MacBook Pro which died a slow and agonizing death in December 2023.

At the moment it died, I was in the middle of writing a commissioned commentary, and I needed to get back to work immediately because I was on deadline. Needing something I could just grab and go, I went in the Best Buy app, picked out the Chromebook, paid for it, and went to pick it up at the store within the hour.

I love this Chromebook. I’m an Android girlie, and it plays very nicely with my Samsung phone, and I love that for me.

My only complaint is that when I have a lot of tabs open in Chrome — currently, I have 35 tabs open — it slows down quite a bit. I know this is user error and not the system’s fault, but listen! It gets super aggravating when I’m working and it starts to lag.

Anyway, I’m currently working to whittle down the number of tabs I have open. I keep tabs open when there’s something I’m working on or I want to go back and read something later, and yes, it would probably be easier to save links in Pocket or something, but you don’t know my life or my ADHD brain, and the likelihood I’m going to open Pocket and look at a link I saved days ago is highly unlikely, so here we are.

Books and libraries and reading

I set a goal last year to read 75 books. I ended up reading 68, which is still good in my opinion.

I recently renewed my library card and got a new digital card from the LA County Library and, baby? Let me tell you how Libby is changing my life!

The combination of Libby and Kindle Unlimited means I’m not buying as many books (I am an admitted book hoarder), and I’m reading a lot more than scrolling and streaming lately, and that makes my soul so happy.

I’m currently rereading Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler, and so far, it’s just as good as I remember it.

Books make me so happy. I am truly a nerd at heart, and nothing beats chilling by myself reading a good book in either physical form or on my Kindle.

I’ve also gotten into audiobooks over the last year, and I love how Kindle keeps track when you are listening to the audio and reading the Kindle version of the same book. It will put you right where you left off no matter the medium.

Yay, technology!

My reading goal for this year is once again 75 books. I’m wondering if I will surpass that this time because I’m not just reading for pleasure this go-round. I have a lot of self-development books as well as learning books on my list this year, so I will likely be juggling multiple books at once.

I’ve found I can read more than one book at a time as long as only one of them is fiction. I am not able to keep up with multiple plotlines, but I can keep up with more than one book when there are different topics happening at once.

Is it time for bed already?

In keeping with my mission of getting at least 7 hours of sleep each night, I’m going to head to bed now. I hope your 2nd day of 2025 was as pleasant as mine, and even if it wasn’t, tomorrow is another day, baby.

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Miscellaneous Notes

You know I’m going to add some tidbits at the end of every post, so here we go:

The big announcement!

I’m starting a separate blog for some independent journalism, so please stay tuned for that.

I had initially considered adding those posts to this blog, but I decided I wanted a clear separation of church and state, so there you have it.

I’ll link here when it’s ready to go.

Good reads

Here’s some good writing I’ve come across lately.

• Ashley Reese
  is a former coworker of sorts. We wrote for two different publications at the same company once upon a time. I’m a fan of this latest post from her because it’s the type of personal blogging I want everyone to get back into.

• I want to write about what

  Naima Cochrane
  had to say regarding setting goals and making resolutions.

• I’m late sharing this, but it’s still worth reading Phil Lewis’ breakdown of the MAGA civil war that went down on social media.

• I love

  culturework
  (and her TikTok channel). The end-of-year recap was good too.

• I read this piece by

  Brittany Hanani
  and felt seen in so much of it. I’m constructing my thoughts and will share them as soon as I’m done writing them.

• I’m always super excited when I see new writing from

  Andrew Ricketts

• This piece from

  Tom Pendergast
  about going paid on Substack is old, but it floated down my Notes feed, and I read it because I’m always interested in people’s thoughts on the paid subscription model on this platform. He outlines all the reasons he decided not to do it, and it’s a bit of a cautionary tale for those considering it, so I highly recommend everyone read it.

  • Bonus points: there are a lot of links to other thoughts on the same subject as well as links to people who have done it successfully, and that is always helpful.

  • I went paid on this Substack because it’s an easy way for people to support my writing, but I also choose not to hide anything behind a paywall. I’m not sure if that will change in the future or not. Only time will tell.

• I’m so happy Jason Toney is blogging again. He’s one of the OG Black bloggers from way back in the early aughts, so you should read his New Year’s post.

Pop Quiz

1. How many miles did me and the dog walk today, and how long did it take?

2. How many Chrome tabs did I have open while writing this?

3. How many browser tabs do you have open?

4. How many books did I read in 2024, and how many did I set a goal to read this year?

5. How many books did you read in 2024, and how many do you plan to read this year?