I can't stop starting new things.
My attention span is going bezerk lately. I'm having a hard time settling into doing just one thing at any given them, and I'm taking on new projects left and right as if I don't have enough on my plate as-is! These projects are completely self-initiated. It's not a matter of not being able to tell someone else no; I'm having trouble telling myself no.
A couple weeks ago I decided that I wanted to start interviewing local farmers to get their perspectives on local issues. I wanted to do this both for my own curiosity, to inform agricultural advocacy, and potentially as a means of pitching it as a series to local news outlets to get my foot in the door so I can quit the job I hate. I reached out to a local farmer I work with somewhat closely in another capacity and plan to interview him first, as a sort of warm-up.
Then, frustrated at the lack of centralized information I could find about the Illinois Senate primary candidates when I received my ballot, I decided to remake an old project of mine. I'll be compiling information about 2026 candidates in federal, state, and some local races to provide the exact resource I was frustrated didn't exist for the primaries. Check out Illinois Election Information for more info! It's bare bones so far, until the primary results are announced. Some races are surely uncontested, so that's something I could be looking into in the meantime.
And today I decided to start investigating a local solar farm to determine whether locals are benefitting from the energy production. Ask anyone in the area and they'll tell you that the energy gets routed to the coasts instead of used here to benefit us. That doesn't seem right to me—as in, it doesn't seem accurate, so my goal is to dispel it. But if it is true, then my goal will shift towards advocacy against it. Not against solar farms, mind you, but against the exploitation of local farm land for purposes other than the direct benefit of the people in the affected communities.
I'm still working full time, still visiting my parents once a week (when they'll let me), and I have a whole slew of articles to work on for GovTrack right now. My plate is plenty full, but my attention span says "more, more, more, more more!!!" and I'm not sure I honestly want it to leave me alone. (ha. Second Chris Crocker joke I've made in as many days.)