My name is Rashid Darden and I like not being sued.
Last year, both my fraternity and my day job got menacing letters from firms representing the interests of big companies that own photographs. These letters were financial shakedowns, trying to convince us that they would sue us if we didn’t pay them for usage of photos of theirs on our websites.
Well first of all, Rashid Darden ain’t scared of nobody, so there’s that.
Besides that, small bloggers and nonprofit organizations have been right-clicking photos on the internet for YEARS. You mean to tell me you really wanna spend all this money coming for people who are clearly not profiting off the use of photos found on the internet?
Even though I am legally protected by fair use laws, I decided you know what, screw it: I’m just gonna share photos of myself from now on. Or photos that I took. Whatever. I’ve regenerated. I don’t have time for this.
My purpose of this site is to write more about all the topics that interest me. The encyclopedia of Rashid. rashidipedia.
And my friend from college is now engaging me on epistolary writing activity between us. I tried to get him to consider writing physical letters, but he was like nah, so we’re doing emails.
It’s fun, so far, and good practice.
I’ve also made some decisions about writing projects I’d like to finish this year. Most important to me is finishing my Quaker novel. Then, I will get back to my other fiction projects, which I am more and more certain will be a series of short stories.
I do not know the fate of Joining Society, my nonfiction book. It seems like a more massive project that I anticipated and perhaps I need a research assistant.
Sometimes I am disappointed in myself for a variety of reasons. I feel I ought to be further along in my writing career than I am. It feels like nobody knows my name, and that so many others are surpassing me. It feels like the odds are always against me, that I’ve made bad academic decisions that still stand in my way, and that everyone else is happier than I am.
I hate that it seems like I can’t focus. A lot of my year will be spent in the process of regeneration, which means for me that I will be walking away from things that make me happy that are probably standing in the way of my success. Yet, I am scared that when I let those things go and it’s just me and my thoughts, I will still be a failure.