📩 In Today’s Email

• TL;DR: A ghost story about fear, judgment, and the courage to post anyway

• The Deep Dive: The Ghost: not a monster, but the version of yourself you’re afraid to become

• The Stream: GhostRun (YouTube short film drop)

• The Squeeze: Brew-ha (Bruja): a Halloween mocktail complete with eyeballs

🤿 The Deep Dive - The Ghost

Sometimes the scariest thing isn't a demon or a monster.

It's the version of yourself you could have been if you weren't so afraid.

This week, I released a short film called GhostRun. It's about a man haunted by his better self.

The one who always shows up on time.
Finishes his reps.
Eats clean.
Gets the girl.

You know, the you that got away.
The one who doesn't flinch in the mirror, at the mic, or in the gym selfie.
That version moves through the world with grace.

The Ghost Isn’t Failure; It’s Judgment

Meanwhile, you're over here:

• overthinking the lighting

• flubbing your Spanish

• mixing up the Incas and the Mayans on your podcast

(something I swear I, err, you, knew) and now thinking about it daily even though nobody else remembers.

That's the real ghost:

Judgment.

And not even judgment from real people. Judgment from imagined ones. More ghosts. The audience in your mind. The old classmate. Family members who have other ideas of what you ought to be doing with your time. The friend who quietly unfollowed. The voice that says:

Etc. The ghosts in your head. At least, those are mine, and I'm sure you have yours. Everyone does. I hope you have fewer.

That is what makes putting yourself out there feel so risky. It isn't doing, or taking that leap, it's the silence that follows. Or worse, the one sarcastic comment that echoes louder than the rest.

So You Shrink

So you shrink before you ever publish.

You don't post your motivational gym selfie.
(“I don't look like Arnold!”)

You don't launch the channel.
(“I got what, 100 followers? Casey’s got ten million!”)

You delay the video.
(“It’s gotta be perfect! ((Perfectionism is the enemy of art.))

You rehearse the podcast intro 17 times and still feel stupid. (Even if you are stupid, people usually give you the benefit of the doubt. They figure you must know what you’re talking about.)

But Here’s the Truth

I learned this painfully. Publicly.
With a growing pile of footage to prove it:

The fear never fully goes away.
But it loses power when you keep going anyway.

And once you do, a strange thing happens.

You stop imagining the haters.
You start imagining the you who kept going.

That's why I keep publishing.

Why I show up in front of the camera, even when I feel soft or off or tired or, let's face it, just having a bad hair day. (If I didn't do things on bad hair days, I would have stopped going to school in 9th grade.)

It’s why I’ve started livestreaming myself building LEGO sets and talking about reinvention.
What’s more exposed than a live YouTube stream?
Every Sunday at 7:30pm. (Plug plug plug.)

What GhostRun Really Means

The title GhostRun comes from those racing games (Mario Kart, Gran Turismo) where you compete against the translucent recording of your best run. Your perfect lap.

The ghost doesn't make mistakes.
It doesn't hesitate.
It just glides through every turn while you scramble to keep up.

In the film, we used some trick photography to put both versions on screen at once.
The ghost me. The real me.
One fluid and confident.
One stumbling to match the pace.

It's just six minutes-ish, but I love it.
As much as those "real" films I used to make.

Because I don't want to be haunted by the version of myself that stayed quiet.

Do you?

Let's let our ghosts watch.
We are here to live.

📢 Newsletter News

1. We just passed 3,000 subscribers!

   Thank you for being part of this, whether you joined last week or from the first issue. The road is long, weird, and only getting better.

2. Every past issue is now archived on the site.

   You can now browse all 38 issues of A Texas Nomad (including today’s!) right from the archive. Binge responsibly.

3. Prefer to listen?

   You can now hear a weirdly correct AI-generated version of my voice read each issue aloud. Look for the PLAY at the top of every post and let me whisper slomadic thoughts into your earholes.

🌎 Visa Watch

🇵🇹 Portugal Update

– According to Reuters, the draft law from Portugal’s government would require most foreigners to wait 10 years of legal residence before applying for citizenship (up from 5 years). 

– The bill also proposes that citizens from Portuguese‑speaking countries would need 7 years, instead of the full 10. 

🦜 Rio’s Corner

🍿 The Stream - GhostRun by Edward McWilliams

🍋 The Squeeze - Brew-Ha

🍹 Brew-Ha = A Spooky Colombian Witch’s Brew Mocktail

Inspired by: haunting tropical nights, strange dreams in the Andes, and the taste of something alive and watching you.

Name: Brew-Ha is the pronunciation of Bruja, which means “witch” in Spanish.
Taste: A dare you shouldn’t take!

• 3 oz passion fruit juice (or lulo if you are in South America)
• 2 oz blackberry juice or purée
• ½ oz fresh lime juice
• Splash of sparkling water
• Crushed ice
• Mint sprig or basil leaf (bruised)
• Pinch of activated charcoal for that eerie black-violet hue
• Lychee “eyeball” or black sugar rim (for drama)

⸻

🧙 Assembly:

1. Shake passion fruit, blackberry, and lime juice over ice.

2. Strain into a clear glass over crushed ice.

3. Top with sparkling water.

4. Garnish with mint like a ghostly claw.

5. Coat rim in black sugar and drop in a lychee eyeball!

🛤️ Outtro

Reinvention begins not with where you land, but with what you make.

Every place is a blank page. What you write there? That’s your legacy.

If this newsletter sparked something, pass it on to a friend, a fellow explorer, or anyone rewriting their life.

This community grows through real connection. One story, one share at a time.

If you enjoyed this, share it.

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See you next week. Don’t Escape. Design.