Dear Future Veronica,
It’s December 1, 2025. I (you) just posted the first animated short on Auntie Grammar. I am proud of myself for it; I hope you are proud of me, too.
I have been contemplating values lately, and it’s as good a thing to talk about as any for a grammar show.
Often, issues with communication don’t come down just to a difference of language. A difference of language can cause, or be caused by, a difference in values. Language is culture, and culture includes values.
[image – umbrella of culture]
Dear Past Vero –
Just posted a video about “ethos,” another language’s word for value.
Your point stands.-March 2026 Vero
What is the culture of Highs Below Zero? What’s the culture of Auntie Grammar? I’m figuring it out, one value at a time.
The first Value I’m talking about is Time.
As you can imagine, there’s a lot to say. I spent over 8 hours this week writing about time, mainly focusing on the question:
Why do I have trouble keeping a consistent schedule?
I wanted to know the answer so I could answer the more important question:
How do I get better?
My Method
I started with “Due Monday.” AG videos would be submitted and ready for viewing on Mondays. I set that goal for myself knowing it was doable – I could work on them Sundays or Mondays, both of which were usually pretty free for me.
This was 4 weeks ago.
In December. So it was November.
After 3 weeks, I noticed a trend – I was making the videos entirely in 1 day, on Mondays. They were not good and I didn’t like them, and no one else really did either.
I wondered why I was delaying making them.
I had a theory. My foolish brain interpreted “due Monday” as “do it Monday.” Or, more like, “I have until Monday to do this.” But really, it was “By Monday, it needs to be done. It needs to be posted. I have until Sunday to do this.”
On Saturday, I made a lil manifesto for myself (just a “git to work” one, not a “you’ll see this on the news” one). On Sundays, we read the Monday Manifesto – which is, essentially, “if it’s due Monday, do it by Sunday.”
The following Saturday and Sunday were productive for me because I had a clear goal (more on that later) and timeline. I worked in between doing chores and life stuff.
My first goal was “write and record the entire video essay in a week.” By Friday, I readjusted to “make a video about making the video.” This goal was developed from exhaustion. I mentioned earlier I wrote for 8 hours this week. That was on top of working multiple jobs. The 8 hours translated to about 11 pages of messy notes, research, rants, ramblings, and journaling.
Editing all that, turning it into a cohesive essay, after spending so much effort producing it this week — it got boring and tiring quick. So instead, I made a lil video about the issue I was struggling with.
This helped by putting my issue into perspective – I sometimes make the mistake that thinking due date and do date are the same thing.
They are not. They are very much not.
So I needed to re-adjust my expectations about when to do the work. “Due” is no longer Monday; “due” is now Sunday. Monday is “overdue.”
This means that, I can still be overdue, and on time, all at once. Overdue to me, on time to Them.
Culture and Time
That’s the subject for the video essay, Vero! “On Time/Overdue” – work on it. Take the notes, turn them into a rough video. Doesn’t have to be good. We can work on it again later.
This is how the work gets done.
Love ya, chat later
Vero, Dec 1 2025
Posting this for Monday April 13, 2026. Better late…
Highs Below Zero 
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