/202308240737

in

Still learning to be bald, still liking it – though my head does get cold, which is a new thing.

Moderately exciting weather last night, severe storm warning, et al: ended up being nothing major but we did have a definite downpour along with some flashy lights and the occasional gust. Power went out for a second or two (having gone out for about two hours yesterday afternoon) overnight, long enough to make one clock blink but not enough to require re-setting. Seems as though I won't need the chainsaw today but I won't be surprised if I do; can only see so much with a flashlight at 0500 and heavy leaves and broken tree limbs do, after all, have a precedent in this yard. While we had no indoor flooding or anything like that (yay windows), we did have a terrified Morkie (thunder scares the literal piss out of her).

Postscript on DR MABUSE, THE GAMBLER coming later today (or perhaps tomorrow, depending on if I can find the words to say what I want to say). TLDR version: loved it.

reMarkable 2: six weeks later

in

Despite the occasional nostalgic yearning for and effort to return, haven't rushed back to paper journals as I found that, as soon as I used the reMarkable 2 for work, I missed using it for everything and went back to its digitally papery embrace, a combo of writing with a thick fountain pen and a Papermate Flair.

(Rite in the Rain index card wallet more than fills the handwriting capture void – though I've shifted from pencil to a Rite in the Rain pen; prefer the clicky on the go).

Present function is as combo daily note, journal, and scrap workings, all scrawled across a single infinite scroll page and moved into Obsidian as a PDF at the start of the next day, rinse/wash/repeat. Tried the Typefolio again, but, as my wife said of hers (she bought an rM2 a few days after mine arrived, and has been loving it for teaching), the instinct is to write by hand and so I do. Pen remains the Lamy EMR nib / top half with my Lamy Studio bottom half (prefer the weight) and posted cap. Don't feel a need for erasing since I did everything in pen before anyhow. Only complaint is that I wish there were more highlighter color options.

Still in love and don't see that changing anytime soon: easily the best work purchase in ages. Essential.

CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS, No. 7 (Wolfman / Pérez, Ordway, Giordano; DC, 1985)

in

Every Wednesday morning, I make a blind pull from Siri's (randomized) choice of one of the 20 alphabetically-organized shortboxes that constitute my comics collection, (re-)read it, write about it, and publish whatever emerges. Earlier installments live here.

(Box06): Pleasant surprise, this one: a chance to revisit a single issue of something I'd read only in trade and rather recently at that. And, while my hope that I could read CRISIS as more than "a gorgeously illustrated historical document with too many one-note action figures" remains elusive, I did, nonetheless, sense a humanity missing in most of the rest of the series (a portent of a shift in storytelling priorities in the post-CRISIS world?): the iconic cover, of Superman holding Supergirl's lifeless body still packs a punch; I can only imagine the impact seeing that had on the reader as it stared back at them from the racks.

While he rightly receives plaudits for his rendering of spectacle and universe-shattering narrative turns, Pérez has a unique and unmatched ability to both illustrate said universe-shattering for our eyes and through the eyes and expressions of the characters experiencing it: he brings the anguish, the fear, and the rage to life, pouring it off of every page, especially in the issue's final, unforgettable pages. Similarly - and perhaps it's because I (re)read it out of context with the other eleven issues – I sensed a desperation on the part of the heroes that I didn't feel in other issues: maybe it was always there and my initial, overwhelmed and trade-paperbacked reading missed it or maybe this was the issue that it all, indeed, turned. Interesting that hundreds of worlds had died in issues previous but that it took one iconic death to hammer the stakes home.

Brings up a note: in my eventual re-read of CRISIS, I'm going to do it via single issues and not in trade. Want to see if this approach lends a different experience and makes me see what I was missing – the weight, the history-shattering stakes, the humanity – in my first go-round. If this issue is any indication, I have a feeling that it will.