/23sep2021

Temp dropped overnight, a brisk 49ºF at present. Hoodie run - for the first time of the season: a most welcome change.

Flirted with a physical zettelkasten (and did move the library catalog out to The Sanctum (where I think it looks better anyhow)) but came to the (present) conclusion that, given how awful my handwriting is, a reliance on technology - Obsidian + Drafts – is more future-proof (a sad commentary on the state of my handwriting – though I will continue to do most capturing via my handwritten journal and notebooks).

Spent much of the morning getting Drafts to properly send to Obsidian after the iPadOS15 upgrade seemed to have borked it. Wish I could more easily share an inbox - accessible via widget, of course - and send things from one vault to another, but no luck. Perhaps in a future update.

First chat for next TSR episode next week. Have to jump back on the research bandwagon. Also want to get somewhere on a third Story. The dogchildren require sustenance, the day awaits.

Playing:

“Communicating with Slip Boxes”

"For the inner life of the card index, for the arrangement of notes or its mental history, it is most important that we decide against the systematic ordering in accordance with topics and sub-topics and choose instead a firm fixed place (Stellordnung). A system based on content, (like the outline of a book) would mean that we make a decision that would bind us to a certain order for decades in advance!"

Niklas Luhmann http://luhmann.surge.sh/communicating-with-slip-boxes

As I’ve been working my way through an overhaul of my working / thinking processes and placing value on more on strange connections than linear progressions, my interest in the zettelkasten system has been growing. A bit too complex for my tastes, but I’m attempting to incorporate elements of it into my process, both in physical and in digital form. The above is an excerpt from Niklas Luhmann’s essay, “Communicating with Slip Boxes” about his own use of the zettelkasten system.

Robert A. Caro on Writing by Hand

Read Caro's WORKING awhile ago, but this bit, on why Caro writes so much of his initial drafts by hand, has stuck with me:

"At that final meeting, after first saying something generous about my writing, he added: 'But you're never going to achieve what you want to, Mr. Caro, if you don't stop thinking with your fingers.'"

Robert A. Caro https://www.worldcat.org/title/working-researching-interviewing-writing/oclc/1158974868?referer=br&ht=edition

And so my attempts to more vigorously incorporate handwriting – and improving said handwriting – continue.

That strange sensation when…

You get a book royalty statement for the first time in six years…

Did I earn out, eight years on?

Or is it another patented T&F accounting error? Leaning more towards that one.

If it’s not an error, that’s the sweetest 58 bucks I’ve ever made.

(In retrospect, this surprising and joyful debacle is one of those times that I regret not being more active in seeking representation. I can do all of this kind of stuff, but it’s at the low end of my priorities, for better or for worse.)

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/22sep2021

Efforts underway, following yesterday's doggydayspa-dropoff/schedule im/explosion to diminish the fragility of said schedule / routine and thereby ameliorate the phenomenon of the shit domino collapse should one of them tumble. At least the Jorkie and The Morkie look cute.

On mind: default – always – to starting from story, not from desired final form. Eliminate desire, let the story, The Work, be what it wants to be.

More rain today, but cooler temps on the other side of it. Sustenance, human and dogchild, awaits.

Farewell, Craft: second time today it threw all of my documents back into the inbox after I spent much of the afternoon reorganizing them. To hell with it. Back to Obsidian-Drafts workflow I go – because at least there, even though it’s a few extra steps, it WORKS.

Four years ago today…

… a car ripped out in front of me on the day's run: when the dust cleared, a puppy, the imprint of her collar still on her neck, her feet freshly wet from the grass, confused and wandering around the power station fence. I approached, said hi,  got a tail wag, picked her up, and carried her home – the rest being, as they say,  a history of love and many dog pictures. Happy Discovery Day, Dear Puppers: I loathe how we met, but I'm forever grateful that you're in my life. 

/21sep2021

Morkie + Jorkie delivered through a drizzly predawn morning and blinking bicycle and buggy light obstacle/ocular course to the doggydayspa, the warning of an angry Morkie duly delivered.  Doggydayspa-day = my dayschedule resoundingly fucked but oh well.

Related: I can tell I’m not getting enough reading time in.

Meanwhile, that strange sensation of being pleasantly surprised: my general rule of thumb WRT pitching/querying response is 85% ignored, 10% no, 5% yes. So you may consider me stunned that yesterday was one of those five percent days…