Joe Kinsey
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Here’s a lesson on you just don’t know who is reading Screencaps & your emails
Tuesday I received an email from a book company executive who caught Jeremy P. in Alpharetta, GA sharing his summer reading recommendations, which included several Jack Carr books. Carr is the No. 1 New York Times bestselling author of The Devil’s Hand.
If someone is able to get a hold of Jeremy P. Jack Carr would like to send him a copy of his new book as a thank you for recommending his series to your readers.
One thing led to another, and the book company executive was in touch with Jeremy, they handled business on their end, and Jeremy was emailing me to say how he’s going to have huge bragging rights this week while enjoying garage beers with friends.
Now, I don’t want 50 of you to start sending in emails with book recommendations looking for comped reading material for your exotic summer vacations. I want you guys to keep pushing forward with emails from the heart that show the true America. This is why I constantly ask you guys to tell the world what’s happening around you. This column is one massive dartboard. Keep throwing.
Jeremy P. innocently fired off an email on what he’s been reading and it turns into a cool moment he’ll be talking about for years.
I’m not going to lie, there are times when I forget the wide range of people who are reading this column and my work. Then all of a sudden a name will pop up and I’m like, “You read my work? Why?”
And then it turns out these names are like the rest of us. They want the normalcy these columns stand for.
You guys are absolutely killing it this month. There are four days left in the month, and if my numbers are correct, this will go down in the biggest month for Screencaps traffic in the 13 months I’ve been at this site. This column is a hog. Flat-out beast. And it’s because of you guys.
On staying in shape
• Reid S. writes:
My wife was a personal trainer and is a health science major (although now she doesn’t work in the field of her degree just like 90% of college grads, a conversation for a later date) & this is the best recommendation she gives for motivation.
Staying in shape just for the sake of staying in shape is tough work. Find a hobby, whether its golf, tennis, hiking trails, pickleball or anything that requires some sort of physical fitness. Use that hobby to motivate you too work out, for instance, plan a big hike as a vacation in 4 months, and focus on that as motivation to work out.
Do yoga to keep your body flexible enough to make a good golf swing. I know yoga can sound ridiculous to some (I personally was one who doubted it) but it is by far the 1 thing that just makes me feel great afterward even if it’s only 10 minutes of it (the youtube yoga instructors aren’t bad on the eyes either!)
Personally, I am a 33-year-old skateboarder / snowboarder / wakeboarder/golfer and I want to continue the boarding activities for at least another 27 years and golf til the day I die. The only way to accomplish that is with more gym time than actual hobby time. But the hobbies fuel and design the work in the gym. I hope this helps.
On blogger posture
• Tony DeB. in Cincy writes:
I’m assuming you’ve tried a standing desk? Nothing revolutionary here, but below is my setup in my tiny corner of our finished basement. Veridisk I bought for nothing from my old job closing locations and cheap IKEA underneath, all bolted to the wall (kids). I don’t even have a chair.
I can’t stand sitting (see what I did there) and much prefer to be up and moving around a bit. I struggle to make the time and motivation to work out consistently right now with work, three young kids and just life, so my thought is this little bit helps. It works for me.
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Full disclosure: I’ve never attempted to do this job standing up and I’m not confident I could type several thousand words each day while standing. Then again, I’ve never tried.
Someone out there school me on the standing desk and typing like a mad man for hours upon hours each day. Anyone out there writing books at a standing desk? Don’t make me get Jack Carr on the line to hear how he’s hammering out bestsellers.
Email: joekinsey@gmail.com
On the camping life
• Kevin from Gibsonia writes:
Love the SC community and all you do. All the people who follow you remind me of the camping community. Hard-working, hard-playing, love their country Americans. I highly recommend diving into the world of camping. It is relaxing, the people are great, the food tastes better and you can’t beat crushing some Moosehead Lights around the campfire.
Kids actually play outside with other kids. No one is on their cell phones. That being said, we are definitely not roughing it. My trailer was just delivered after a seven-month wait. Leaving work early today and heading to Happy Valley for the Blue/White game – went to my first one 36 years ago when my wife was my girlfriend.
Enjoy the weekend – don’t blink.
P.S. This is why some people buy a pickup truck
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- It’s nice to see Kevin using that truck like it was intended. That truck just looks happier after a hard day of pulling that Outback.
- You won’t find an anti-camping argument from me. My mother and stepfather spent the better part of 20 years crisscrossing this country in multiple RVs and so many camphosting jobs that I lost track of everywhere they stopped. I never would’ve seen so much of northern New Mexico if it wasn’t for my mother’s life on the road in RVs. I wouldn’t have rafted the Rio Grande south of Taos. I wouldn’t have hiked in the Sangre de Cristo mountains, kayaked in the Everglades, gone on Keys’ boat trips with National Park Service employees. I’ve been very fortunate via their RV adventures.
- When I was 12, my parents gave my brother and I the choice to put a pool in the backyard or to go on a two-week vacation of a lifetime across the west. I’m not sure there’s a week that goes by in my life when I don’t think of that trip in some fashion. Are those Wall Drug signs still up on the South Dakota highways?
- My kids will go on their first RV adventure in July in northern Michigan.
- I’m trying not to blink, Kevin.
Minnesota is thawing out
• Danny from Otsego writes:
I’m pleased to report that TNML preseason is underway in MN. Still some tough spots from the ice rink but with a little love and some 19-19-19 I should be able to have it repaired by early June. Got the Aerator and the broadcast spreader out today and laid down some pre-season stripes. Did a little cleanup with the blower to keep any 19-19-19 out of the Mississippi.
The liquid aerator goes down tomorrow. Also going to fire up the zero turn and change some oil. I’m going to try and convince my wife to stand on the deck, sing the Star-Spangled Banner, and launch off some fireworks for opening day. Somehow I doubt she will be on board with the idea. Keep repping us working men and women. I’m incredibly happy to know there’s more of me out there.
PS. As I sit here enjoying my post-game CL Smoothie, I can’t help but notice the first signs of spring. Two birds getting freaky on my trailer. I think I’m gonna bring them a brewski.
The Screencaps Summer By The Pool ‘Advice’ series is already paying dividends
• Brent P. in Carmel, IN writes:
Mike from Layton damn near brought a tear to my eye. I wonder what the analytics say about the minority readership. There is common ground in sports, getting things done, doing hard things, and doing the right thing. I got to OutKick because of an article by Jason Whitlock.
Anyway, on to the best advice I’ve gotten.
My father told me this when I was in my teen years after I had told him that I couldn’t afford to buy something. He said to me: “Never say you can’t afford something. You are to say it is not my priority.” He explained that you can afford anything you want if you make it your priority. He pointed to his car and said “see the beat-up car I drive. I could have a nicer car if I wanted one but my priority is to attend you and your sibling’s ball games.” I have never forgotten it. So when someone asks you if you are sending your kids to private school, or is your wife going to stay home with the kids instead of work. Don’t say “we can’t afford it,” say “it is not our priority.”
A by-product of this thinking is that you will respect others’ decisions like Ed M’s upsize to his house. He is prioritizing his family and grandkids. Is he prioritizing it over downsizing and a vacation house? One never knows.
- I don’t have the analytical breakdown on minorities who read Screencaps, but I’ve heard from enough minorities across the southwest to know that Mike’s definitely not the only Hispanic reading Screencaps.
- LOVE the “priority” advice because I’m not a car guy. That’s my new go-to phrasing. I will say that a new, bigger patio TV is a HUGE priority this summer along with upgraded sound.
- I’m happy to hear from those who stayed after Whitlock made a career shift back in 2020. Jason has commented a couple of times on my work, and those have been those moments where I have to remember who is consuming this work. A compliment from Whitlock is huge.
That should be enough this morning. The sun is out. It might hit 60. It’s baseball practice night and it’s NFL Draft eve. Let’s have a strong day at the job and get home to fire up those grills to enjoy a mid-week feast.
Have a great day.
Email: joekinsey@gmail.com
Re: Jason Whitlock & OK … like many I’m curious re: the schism that quickly developed twixt JasonW & Clay. As a fan of both, I attribute it to Jason’s well-documented “doesn’t play well with others”. I share that quirk. JW has his “bully pulpit” and Clay certainly has his many “bully pulpits” so all’s well.
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If this has been a record month for SC … just imagine if you ran “Officer Shelton” pics more often !!! Just sayin’ …
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When JW left, and he aired his grievances elsewhere, I felt like he wasn’t too far off base with a lot of what he said. There are really good writers on this site, but man, the technical stuff was, at the time anyway, definitely sub-par.
That said, the guy seems to wind up in conflict everywhere he goes. I think he needs to look in the mirror a bit.
The dude with the pepper spray… Whoa… I’d like to congratulate Dr. Fauci and his lemmings for the substantial uptick in the cases of mental illness in this country.