/11oct2021

After a few days of post-fall recovery and continued mending, K returns to work today, wristbrace in tow, rocking the pro-bowler look. Instructions / desires relayed to her as she exited: be careful, stay vertical. Please.

In The Work: a title for The Main Thing found and no I'm not going to reveal it anytime soon. Also, slowly working my way towards a solution to my main issue with zettel / Obsidian method: because of all the sheets, figuring out where to start each morning is a bit of a chore. A fix is coming together / becoming apparent: work from a single sheet broken into dates, but with deeper, separate offshoots. Efforts to walk the line between chaos and too much control.

Finished Viet Thanh Nguyen's THE COMMITTED last night: haven't decided if I loved it. Something never clicked with me though I don't have a clue as to what that something is; that said, I'll read anything he writes because of the briliance of his rhythm and voice but this one nonethless left me a bit cold, so far. Retrospection might change that.

ICYMI: released, Marionette, the first of my Etudes – microfiction conceived, written, and published on a single weekend. Will defnitely do more of these, but only when I feel like it. A pleasant palette-cleanser and a worthwhile experiment.

Squarespace still broken: while I have my workarounds that they must exist at all is more than a bit annoying.

Morning catch/fetch, then back to work.

New Etude: MARIONETTE

Unveiling the first of my Etudes, a new experiment / challenge I started this weekend to cleanse my narrative palette in the throes of Main Thing work: microfictions written, from chickenscratch to consumption public, on a single weekend, accompanied by a piece of featured “art” (as it’s “art” by my hand, I’m using the term in the loosest, most charitable form possible), shared above. 

Here’s the first effort, MARIONETTE, written from Saturday morning through just now. (I seem to be using my music notation again.) My part is done – hope you enjoy.

/10oct2021

Weird morning, temperature and color palette-wise, but such is whatever passes for Fall in this slice of heartlandia, "Welcome Friends!" on the porch, "Tumor2024: Fuck Your Feelings" in the half-opened garage (yes this is a nearby house – and, yes, I'm continuing my Tumor naming because I wont denigrate my thoughtspace with its name).

In other news: the in-lawn is mowed, BLACK WIDOW is, so far, so-so – but Malia J's SMELLS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT is stunning – and I've returned to Kamurocho in YAKUZA 3 because THE AVENGERS finally repeated its way into monotony and deletion.

The new thing is about to launch / watch this space.

Back to work.

/09oct2021

New maybe thing mentioned yesterday will be a real, definite, in-the-wild thing tomorrow: a fun little experiment, a weekend diversion – a way to get my brain to fiddle with something different, unclog, push myself to make a single-spoon meal quickly and share it publicly before diving back into the Main Thing(s) at hand.

(Could the single-spoon become larger parts of the Main Things later or Main Things themselves? Sure – but for now, tomorrow will be all that they will be.)

Other items: still trying to figure out a comment system but peculiarities that I can't reconcile with Squarespace's templates are causing much head-scratching and consternation (probably over nothing)... wrapped up the first season of OZARK last night: Ruth is one of the best characters to come around in ages... and, while I still enjoy Square Enix's THE AVENGERS, it's becoming overly-complex, repetitive, and more fuel for my fire that says I wish they'd done a third DEUS EX game instead – but Disney money so there you go.

Workday is done; the day's run and the in-lawn await. Let the games begin.

/08oct2021

More dense fog has lifted.

The morning's hope: that Squarespace updates their now-fucked-beyond-all-recognition iPadOS app: can't add links to posts, can't re-order the nav menu... timing of these upfucks more than a bit frustrating as I've a.) paid for another year and b.) have started pushing forward with new things, all of which revolved around the stability and utility of this space.

But, other pleasantries:

I love STAR WARS: VISIONS: the first episode was a spectacular Kurosawa/Leone/Hammett RED HARVEST tribute and the second, "Tatooine Rhapsody," was SCOTT PILGRIM-meets-STAR WARS remix genius. (That they're 15 minutes each makes them even more wonderful: perfect pre-bed watches.)

K's doing better. A few days of rest seems to be helping; the weekend should help more.

Speaking of "new things" being pushed forward: came up with something this morning that I want to try over the weekend: if it works, it'll be a fun new thing; if it fails, I've only lost a weekend and might have the starts for something longer-term. Breakfast blood sugar was 140 so I'm reasonably certain that this thing isn't a byproduct of hyperglycemic mental haranguings.

Oh, and THE GROUND LOOP has returned. Now, if only I could update my nav menu pages. Ahem, Squarespace...

New: THE GROUND LOOP Returns

A months-long reprieve has come crashing down as THE GROUND LOOP, my weekly-ish mini-podcast where I answer a frequently-asked question that I’ve never been asked (and occasionally one that I have been), returns. This time: What’s up with this “Zettel” thing you’ve been prattling on about?” You can check out the full episode here.

Of Wrist splints and Wet Floors

Spent an hour yesterday afternoon sitting in the worker's comp doctor's parking lot while K had her wrist and knee examined: fell in the water-soaked bathroom at school, landed on both. X-Rays show a bruised up knee and a possible hairline fracture on her wrist. Given that she suffers from psoriatic arthritis, she's presently in a world of hurt. We're both relieved, though – it could have been so much worse.

(Cue my repression of urge to strangle the child who left the bathroom faucet on or whatever the bastard hooligans do for kicks in these, our days of plague but, if nothing else, I managed to get a bit of Lapham's Quarterly's "Scandal" issue read: I'm fascinated by that magazine – but I still want to strangle the offending child.)

A lesson learned: when a non-current project notion pops up during main, pre-breakfast work, I write it down but view it with suspicion until I check blood sugar at breakfast: if it's high, I file it said notion under "maybe.” If it's normal, I move ahead.

I'm moving ahead with it – and I might even release something into the wild this afternoon, assuming I haven't tracked down the water-spewing child and strangled them in the interregnum.

Comment System Loathe / Obsidian Love No. 1068.3

Current siteissue attempting to figure: the comment system. Talked with a friend last night who informed me that he is not notified when I respond to one of his comments on a post. Brief testing / QA later, we have indeed found that no one is notified when I reply to their comment, which sort of kills the appeal of a comment system in the first place.

I've considered installing Disqus, but: in addition to other numerous and well-documented unfortunates, it's bloated – which is the last thing I want (nor do I want to turn your comments over to advertisers and have to pay an extra $132 a year for Scott and I to talk to each other in public). I could turn on the "simple liking" function, but I switched here to get rid of the need for hearts and likes so to hell with that. Discord chat stream? Eh. I don't understand Discord (I don’t even know how to share my username here). I want to understand Discord. Maybe this is the way to do it? But, eh, effort...

Until I get this figured, I've turned off the commenting system. Thoughts on alternatives welcome – just email me if you've got an idea. I've added a "Something to say about something I said" checkbox in the contact form. (Starting to think that the “comment via email” method is the way to go.)

In other news, you may file this bit of wonderful under why I love Obsidian, reason 1068.3: I've found a community plugin that automatically generates a list of updated files in my Daily Notes document. Much easier than trying to keep up with myself as I go through the process of processing – and it lets me use my shitty handwriting / notebook for capturing loose thoughts and stray thinkings. Think I'll make it a thing to hit that button during my post-dinner shutdown and have it ready for the next day.

Back to work.