> ### The point of living good is being good; defining this starts and ends with the heart. <br> # 02.08.26 Steve, It's feeling like full-circle: if only I could remember when you first brought up the amazing fact of OSU students rely in some way to pick who to date—**based on phone brand**? I didn't know about the tricks and methods to get a paper indexed like I do now, so with that I'd love to write a paper on this with you. In the meantime, I suggest reading Braun and Clarke's [Using Thematic Analysis in Psychology](https://koggz.nl/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Braun-Clarke-2006-thematic-anaysis.pdf) as breakthrough work. It's a free host of the PDF paper. As of today I've discovered four really interesting papers on it. Below is my online folder for you to check them out, there's one on how children around 5 or 6 respond to people who are fat, and how our education isn't showing kids to normalize this morbidity as some of the in-verbatim transcripts code for lack of awareness: kids here say fat is solved by the hospital, even with some saying they'd pretend they wouldn't know their parent when out in public because they are obese. It's a killer paper. Apparently that TA paper by Braun and Clarke is also the most cited paper of its year in 2006, so it continues to offer a lot of impact and I think we should write something using this technique. You can find my list of papers on it in [TA & Qualitative Research](https://www.zotero.org/lemasterdj/collections/GNLADR9K/item-list). Bonus, too, is an example of what our citation might look like once our preprint is out: > ### Smith XS, LeMaster DJ. Phones, People, and Parrallels: A Themantic Analysis of Eudaimonic-Hedonic Consumption and Romantic Brand Tribalism. SocArXiv. 2026 Oct 1. doi: <00000> Cheers you psych scholar, David # 01.22.2026 Steve, I find meaning in every talk I match eyes with and every crossover into what it means to learn. It also means I've taken a step back from the fact to critically critique it. A recent vision has given me a second wind to embrace waking up and consider the human condition in fractions. This vision also rewards me with the much needed satisfaction to grow with new questions all the time. I know you have the patience to nurture this like I have; your intolerance to a sensationalized way of living will humble you. Getting to know people enough to observe a blindspot has started to really bother me as one problem of the world. This second-order way of thinking enriches me and I wish I came across the things like it more soon. How character develops is up to us as it is closely matched to the further refinement of our looking-out and -in toolkit. Maturing alone centers itself with personal solutions to everyday problems and what happens in front of our eyes. Studying a subset of reality of what we don't see but live through anyway has started to eat at my mind. Solemnly, David # 01.04.2026 Dear Steve and Janet, I want to start this message with intent that it finds you well; that means in good health, faith, and a fierce desire to continue exploring uncharted paths in life that continue to bring you immense purpose. Steve's spoken a lot about our communications, how they're deeply personal, and how funny enough, usually resemble that of a letter. To me, it's a great compliment to think of our messages as letters as they immediately convey a lot of seriousness in communication and careful consideration of what to share. In that way, I dedicate the entirety of this page as one single letter to share my true appreciation behind what it means to know you, and grow alongside you. Most origin stories are too good to be true. It's High street, the greater central Columbus is beaming with life and with a camera in hand desired to capture just a part of whatever that meant at the time. It so happened to be that right outside Buckeye Donuts that you, Steven, are enjoying the pace of a good walk and meet me. What we were doing hours before that was probably completely unrelated, but it was enough to put us on the trajectory to meet right in front of a donut shop and the rest is history. Since then there's been plenty of room to take in what the world is about and we've both had our setbacks. You've seen me taken hardship and you've shared with me plenty times in which people have screwed you over, too. It's even worse to consider we're so young, that while there's countless things to take in and be a part of, there remains the best part of ourselves that seek out the better things in each learned experience. It's truly satisfying that we carry no motivation for worse when it comes to people and it's why I say you don't have a bad bone in you. I want you to feel seen for even just a second: cross your eyes some and see that these are simply lines on a screen, pictographic symbols assembled in the correct order and conviction to address what is otherwise irreducible to word when it comes to highlighting just how good it is to not be evil for a change. It takes one to know one, right? These blurry lines are definitely not the result of sifting sand in a bucket to render the correct picture, but rather, the direct convergence of mature, better souls in it to win for people's sake. There is simply not enough energy devout to the kind of things we practice, and it's what people attribute to us most when people get to know us. Now, what I mean by that is there is a reason why all things come together in oddly the right way. We might've met before in a different life and I wouldn't doubt it. But for things to appear at this scale is the result of a need-to-be intervention that shapes and casts such amazing people into the world. I also do think the deficit of less, that is the deviance for souls to become less mature is the result of some kind of true devil and it's something we'll just have to keep on seeing. It's a movie plot: we need a villain, a necessary thing which pokes at the reality we live in. Something to disturb our mode. It must sound backwards to claim there is never ever really a "comeback" for the hero when the story ends off right: the path leading to an important and valuable conclusion means things are meant to be that way and that's how the story's written, lived through, or even experienced at first hand. It's an honest big fear of mine to lose people to confusion. If we stay present, then there is never a point where we cut the convo short. There has always been a need to work through things, take our time, and grow our sense of patience. If I recall, some of the most funniest shit I can recall right off the top of my head is "Allegator" and even then it quickly lead to breaking down the story into chunks, and sorting what things needed to be done. There was never a thrive to waste time in figuring stuff out and I love that about you. It takes a lot of time for the right people to band together and this is the kind of stuff I need from a bigger brother. Much love, David