Brandiwynš¶ v.2026, also known as Michelle Tuesday, is a musician, educator and writer hailing from Columbus, Ohio.
La Bene Vita
The (Tentative*) Topic Rotation Self Sundays: Personal blogging days about family, leisure, work, and health. May be boring.
Music Mondays: Commentary, articles, and links highlighting music, theory, and ed topics.
Writing Wednesdays: Discussion on the art and business of writing. "Invalid Item" Thursdays: A weekly original short story submission.
Friday Reviews**: Every Friday, I will review a minimum of one short story on WDC.
* I reserve the right to change the topic of the day at any time, at least until I acquire a million followers and gain official "influencer" status, at which point I shall be more consistent in order to meet the expectations of my adoring public.
** I can only commit to one review per week. If you would like your short story to be in my reviewing queue, please send me a WDC review request. Checkout my public reviews toget a sense of what to expect.
One possibly issue among asking AI to quantify your verbs for flavor is that it is also trained on the internet, which is the worst of all possible bullies. Whimsy isn't necessarily a good thing to it. AI can be introduced to brain rot by reading twitter but they haven't figured out how to fix it afterward.
I saw a post on Twitter the other day (originally from a few years back) that said, "I'd much rather be 'too sensitive' than whatever the fuck has happened to half of humanity." Sadly, I think of that quote often these days...
I just stumbled across my 2018 "Dear Me" letter, and this jumped out at me:
"Every year, you pledge to do better, to do more, to be more efficient, to stop wasting time, to complete more tasks on the never-ending list. Every year, you find yourself more and more exhausted."
Hindsight is 20/20 (although my vision isn't and wasn't; I started needing readers 3 years earlier when I turned 40 in 2015.)
Here's what I know now, that I didn't know then: I had Parkinson's Disease. My first symptoms appeared in 2015, and I was (mis)diagnosed with Essential Tremor later in 2018. It wasn't until March of 2022 that I finally got the correct diagnosis (PD) and the miracle medication (carbidopa/levodopa) that gave me my functionality and my give-a-shit back.
I've always been an overachiever. I think I may also be a closet people-pleaser, which you can see in the letter. I think we're all people-pleasers of one type or another. Even narcissists and sociopaths need to convince other people to validate them, whether that's through adoration, vilification or or just to get others doing things for them (see also: minions).
I needed to see this letter today. I started revisiting the database project in 2024, and the website project earlier this year in 2025, and it's been weighing me down that I can't finish either one. This letter reminds me that, it doesn't matter. And I'm doing much better on the things that do matter. My relationships have improved dramatically since 2018.
So, Go Me? But also, more importantly, don't be so hard on yourself. You don't have to please everybody; only the people that matter. And if you're exhausted, listen to your body. You may not have PD, but exhaustion means you need to slow down.
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, also known as Michelle Tuesday, is a musician, educator and writer hailing from Columbus, Ohio.
Thursdays: A weekly original short story submission.