4:00:00 PM- Read tweet.

4:00:14 PM – Clicked on site to read theme.

4:00:20 PM – Felt initial wave of disappointment that theme the theme wasn’t “resonating.”

4:00:30 PM – Questioned 48hr’s brand / editorial vision.

4:00:40 PM – Stared at screen. Thought about 5th grade, Georgia Tech basketball camp, kid being named “Mr. Hustle” because he was really good on D.

4:03:10 PM – Reread theme description: “The entrepreneur living on credit cards and couches.” Thought of Ross.

4:03:20 PM – Envisioned interview: “Ross Borden C.E.O. of Matador, World’s Largest Independent Travel Publication,” then visualized “big blocks of text” in the layout of a magazine. Modified idea to a kind of log with entries like “hours slept this week,” “calls made,” accompanied by photographs of Ross (a) heli-skiing and (b) up working at 3:34 am.

4:05 PM – Went outside. Sat in sun with wife and daughter. Took pictures of daughter holding cat.

4:23 PM- 4:37 PM  – Chatted with Ross about theme of hustle and interview idea within context of (a) being a good story and (b) getting on 48hr’s “radar screen” as potential media partners while at the same time realizing that if (b) was truly prevalent in my motivations  it likely would negate (a) in terms of literary value, although not necessarily. Checked the loading times of a couple Matador links. Looked at 48hr’s POD partner.

4:40 PM – Walked across forest and airstrip with girls. Took picture of man burning leaf-pile. Kept thinking “hustle.”

4:50 PM – Went to cerveceria with girls for afternoon snack.  Found cerveceria was closed. Told girls I’d go back and make tortillas. Left camera with Lau.

4:56PM – Walked back and saw old paisano carrying huge bundle of cypress trunks out of forest followed by woman in her 50s also carrying firewood, then a kid maybe 10, with a bundle. Thought “shit, this was the picture I needed.” Felt strong emotion when paisano set the bundle down 50 ft. away and  I could actually hear heavy sound of trunks hitting the ground. Thought “there are hundreds of  ppl right now simultaneously writing or thinking about writing on theme of ‘hustle’ but there are thousands of times more ppl just ‘engaged in basic survival.’”

4:57 PM – Crossed airstrip and thought about submitting the chat with Ross as a kind of  meta-portrait of “hustle,” that if you discerned some of the layers (such as the breaks in the chat to check certain links for loading speed), you realize it is essentially a “snapshot” of hustling.

4:57: 10 PM – Thought: “No, nobody wants to read that. It has no point of entry for the reader, no context for anyone outside of our crew.”

4:57:12 PM – Thought: “But what if I could provide some kind of chronology as a substitute for narration? Would that be something that looks good in a magazine’s layout?” Realized simultaneously that if I was thinking this it meant I wasn’t going to submit anything. Felt stoked for some reason.

5:04 PM – Made dough for tortillas. 2 cups flour. 2 tsbs olive oil. Tsb of salt. Half tsb of baking powder.