~ The Second Annual Naive Yearly and the unadulterated joy of celebrating the ‘quiet, odd and poetic web’ 🌻
“I’ve found my people” and “I’m not sure what to do with my life”: the two themes of Naive Yearly that bonded us all together this year.
The second annual nomadic internet social gathering called Naive Yearly was held in Ljubljana, Slovenia this year (an intentional departure from last year’s Copenhagen), but there was no way we were going to be in that neck of the woods without first swinging by the world’s best city.
A quick digression:
Copenhagen is really such an anti-assault on the senses. It’s a bustling city with no honking horns, nature without trailheads and backpackers with dogs on leashes, more bikes than cars, and bits of affluence that aren’t shouting in your face. There’s tourism without street vendors or pressure, and fancy wooden boats without braggadocio. It’s an older woman being the one confronting a middle-aged belligerent man for being too loud, it’s tiny 2 year old children figuring out their own physical limits on skateboards without overbearing parents. It’s the best pastry you’ve ever had, at a random bakery with zero marketing, and never the wrong hue of lightbulb in any home or restaurant.
We made it to the cute capital of Slovenia for only one purpose – to experience the impeccable curation of an internet-to-real-life social gathering hosted by Kristoffer, an absolute gem of a human. This was the result of a collaboration that started over one serendipitous email a few months prior, and acted as Hypertext’s first real foray into An Interesting New Chapter ™️.
Hypertext Foundation is still a baby, but I endeavor to talk about it while raising it. What an unforgettable treat to have Naive Yearly 2024 as it’s first step.
Photographs by Ana Šantl and Tatjana Kotnik
My favorite accounts of it so far are from:
Josh // a stream of consciousness while juggling everything at once
Kristoffer // a short + sweet re-visit of the timeline of events
I wrote my own embellished diary of it that might make it someday into the “notes from the archives” section below, but for now it’s far too detailed for public consumption. Nonetheless, a few stand out memories include:
a calm boat ride down the river the day before the get-together. we were all simultaneously shy + bold, introducing ourselves and dodging anything related to our day-jobs
Photographs by Ana Šantl and Tatjana Kotnik
enjoying 8 speakers bend our minds with their incredible brains, art, and musings
kristoffer’s voice cracking with tears while thanking everyone who came together to make Naive Yearly 2024 possible
Photographs by Ana Šantl and Tatjana Kotnik
meeting annarose + sarah and learning that one convinced the other to join with zero context for the event, and that the other had dedicated her life’s learnings to applications in privacy in crypto
laying in the grass the day after and chatting with Ana about neighbors and kids and life with a lot of change
Photographs by Ana Šantl and Tatjana Kotnik
a perfect countryside tasting course dinner with 4 other fast-friends, laughing in disbelief over the quirks of the restaurant and each delicious bite
Until next year… 🌻
🧠 first draft emotions:
I recently found out that back in 1985 or so [before I was even around] my dad became business partners with his cardiologist, Dr. Karz, and became lead engineer for real-time heart monitor equipment (a pretty crazy feat at the time). This feels very on-brand for my dad… meeting someone, thinking they’re smart, and going all in on business + life with them. I have limited information about my dad’s business dealings (I was 19 when he died, still very much in the my-parents-are-not-interesting phase of pre-adulthood), so these glimmers of a past long ago are fascinating to me. I have Dr. Karz’s office phone number in my “personal to-do” list, waiting to be called and nervously asked if I might ask him a few questions about his old business partner.
Attending your young kid’s school program in the middle of their week with their other parents is a unique type of excruciating pain at this stage. She’s 4, and its confusing for all parties. While I didn’t want to miss out on the festivities and seeing the growth in the bravery it takes to do these performances, I wonder if the emotional disruption is worth it. Is it part of growing and learning? Or an unnecessary complication of feelings too convoluted to properly explain. My friends and therapists all say “it’ll all be fine”, but how do we define fine – or rather, accept it – when the goal is not “just fine”? She cried after the 3rd round of marching around, from the restraint collapse of seeing a parent she hadn’t for a few days and not being able to spend time, I cried in the car on my way home from my own form of restraint collapse of guilt + sadness, and time will tell if this is now a core memory that will shape her entire attachment style or a throwaway moment specially reserved for dual-home kids.
✨ flash obsession // lovehate lists
I originally saw this concept on DreamBaby Press and became temporarily obsessed with it, and decided I wanted to re-create it for people I love because, well, all artists are thieves [side note: also obsessed with Gawx]. I have a handful that I’ve made now and love how they turned out, despite being completely ripped off. I admit with this with the hope that:
DreamBaby won’t be mad at me
They’ll never even find out because of my terribly small digital footprint
pre admission > defense?
First up is my best friend of 27 years, Haley. There are no major milestones in my life that don’t include her presence, and hardly a day that passes without at least one text, meme, commiseration, or pebble of love exchanged. Despite living 1,500 miles apart and mostly living quite opposite lives, she’s profoundly consistent in her ride-or-die friendship and navigates my many messes with sensitivity and care.
PS. I’d be tickled if you sent me your top 10 loves + hates, too.
💌 notes from the archives
~ that i’ve never really shared before ~
🚧 disclaimer: these are snippets of thought, throughout the many years. some born from me, some borrowed, some real, some made-up. there is no order, or timelines, or dates, or names – on purpose.
⤵️
“The highest point a man can obtain is not Knowledge, or Virtue, or Goodness, or Victory, but something even greater, more heroic, and more despairing: Sacred Awe!”
“Behind every criticism there is often a wish”
“The 4 horseman of apocalypse for relationship decline: contempt, criticism, stonewalling, and defensiveness. The kiss of death for a relationship is contempt, a profound sense of dehumanization.”
Jealousy is intrinsic to love. It’s part and parcel for the experience and is not a negative emotion.
The triad of relationships is connection disconnection and repair
I can sound very confident but I am sure of nothing
Too much communication can inhibit desire
In fights, the form precedes the content
I hope to end up with the best regrets
An ugly picture of you becomes a beautiful one if you just wait long enough.
A flowchart on how to avoid starting the shit cycle of communication. Extreme projection is the start
“Set small and gentle goals for yourself”
Can you be as happy in a healthy way as you are at the delicious peak of an insecure attachment that is momentarily going right?
The goal for self acceptance is to be able to say I’m not perfect but I’m good enough
There is no such thing as escape velocities in relationships if you want to actually be happy. There’s no such thing as coasting.
Before you respond to anything ask yourself, are you projecting or about to?
People be like “my forever valentine” but how do you know? Maybe try for accuracy like “my valentine for the last 7 years and presumably the rest of my life but honestly who knows”
