A little over a week ago I saw a tweet¹ from Bryan Cantrill announcing that Oxide and Friends would be on a "dog days' hiatus" until August 4th.

Since seeing that tweet, my echolalia has had me muttering the phrase "dog days" to myself.

Now, I've heard of "dog days" before—most often as the "dog days of summer"—but I was not familiar with the origin of the term. I decided to look it up on Wikipedia:

The dog days or dog days of summer are the hot, sultry days of summer. They were historically the period following the heliacal rising of the star system Sirius (known colloquially as the "Dog Star"), which Hellenistic astrology connected with heat, drought, sudden thunderstorms, lethargy, fever, mad dogs, and bad luck. They are now taken to be the hottest, most uncomfortable part of summer in the Northern Hemisphere.

— Wikipedia, "Dog days"

Over the past week I've found myself in a creative rut. It was especially bad this past weekend, with me wanting to work on something, but not being able to find the creative energy to do anything.

So instead, I just sat there and tried to force it out, to no avail. I ended the weekend feeling drained, and like I had wasted it.

This was Sunday, July 20th.

Yesterday, I saw the latest episode of Noah Kalina's The Hotline Show in my YouTube sub box. It's titled "The Dog Days And Your Creative Juices". I decided to give it a watch.

During the episode's intro, Noah kicks things off with:

Today is July 20th, 2025. It's been a while. I've been away doing stuff. It's summer. It's the dog days of summer. Have you heard that expression? The dog days. I've always heard it: "It's the dog days of summer". But I never really looked up what it meant. So, I did.

He then goes on to read out the opening paragraph of the "Dog days" Wikipedia article I cited above.

Noah then calls his dad on the phone for some advice about creative energy, low periods, and the associated guilt.

Before reading any further, I would encourage you to go and watch the video for yourself. It's only eleven minutes, and I think it is well worth your time.

Noah's dad offers up a wealth of wisdom, and I'm going to be repeating a lot of it here. It will be a bit redundant if you took my advice and watched the video, but I want to have these things written down so I can come back to them.

He talks about what people tend to do when their creative juices aren't flowing:

They're trying to make stuff happen. They're trying to get into projects and it usually doesn't work. So what I think has to happen is people have to learn that at some point if they're trying too hard, they have to know the signs of trying too hard, take a breath, and do something to chill.

[...]

The trying too hard comes about when nothing's going on. You're in a lull, but instead of allowing for the lull, for the down period, you're pushing at it. You're working really hard, you're trying to think of ideas and you're racking your brains and it's not working.

Noah later mentions to his dad how he feels guilty for not working on his art. His dad replies with:

Being guilty about your work, being guilty about your art is very destructive.

[...]

So, what I would say is try to learn where the guilt is coming from. Try to hear the message in your head that says you're wrong or bad or something negative about being in a down phase and notice that it's a story you're telling in your mind. And when you notice that, come back into the present. Breathe and let go of that thought and be focused just in the now. That could be on your natural breathing or it could be the surrounding around you. Like I said before, you're in nature. Enjoy the trees. Listen to the birds. Be involved with what's here rather than what's in your head.

And continues with what will happen if this guilt is left unchecked:

But being guilty about stuff that's creative does nothing but destroy the stuff that you're creative about.

During his outro, Noah says:

We're not alone out there. We all go through these phases. I'm in it. The dog days.

I'm in the dog days too, Noah. But it's good to know I'm not alone.

This whole experience feels a bit surreal to me.

I've been thinking about dog days while dealing with a period of low creative energy, and then I find a video talking about the exact same things? Uploaded on the exact same day where I was feeling at my lowest?

Surely this is no coincidence.

When Noah started reading those words from Wikipedia—the very same ones I had read on my own seven days prior—I felt something deep down inside of me. As the words echoed through my brain, I felt as if I was intended to see this video.