Sheven Hunnert Dollahs Dahn

Writing is easier for me when there's some background noise. Usually that means putting on the same albums I've been listening to for 10+ years or queuing up a long Let's Play series. Lately I've taken to turning on whatever local station my tv's tuner picks up. The content doesn't matter. I'm not really paying attention.

For the last few weeks I've been feeling tense. Can't put my finger on the reason.

One moment I'm hunched over the keyboard riding a tidal wave of words and ideas. The next moment my eyes reflexively shut tight, my teeth clenched, fingers curled into claws.

This happens every eight to ten minutes, like clockwork. Weird, huh?

Maybe my body is doing this because I'm not eating right. I exercise and drink lots of water. Could it be too much water?

Perhaps the stress is simply my age catching up with me. I am in my 30s, which is ancient on the internet. You wouldn't believe how far I have to scroll on website age gates to get to my birth year.

This is, of course, a bad time all around. Has been for a few years. A lot of people are feeling overwhelmed and hopeless.

Then again, these episodes I'm experiencing seem too sporadic and sudden to be generalized tension. Something else is going on. There has to be a source.

Do these moments of acute full-body cringing happen when I'm listening to music? Now that I think about it, no. They don't. I'm only feeling stressed out at certain times when the tv is on. There must be a connection between the tv and the stress. Wait a minute...

My television probably had motion smoothing disabled. Turning it back on should fix everything. Phew!

– Dennis "Corin Tucker's Stalker" Farrell (@DennisFarrell)