well i tried logic

It is bitter fucking cold and I've reoriented my current thinking towards the application of my standard "well, I tried" home-repair response to everything as the best path forward. Noteworthy that nothing I've repaired has, thus far, broken again nor blown up - so I've got that going for me (which is nice). Hoping that this week is better than last but I'm not the most optimistic or faithful person so I'll content myself with taking things as they come as best I can. (Well, I tried.)

Return to MainFictionThing has, thus far this morning, yielded similar potentially fatal flaws in logic. Solution: consign all notions of events/happenings beyond the current one to the Fragments folder and build out from what I've already got. Forget the rest of it, focus on its "tonal frequency" of the present (as Zadie Smith would say) and let what comes come (see above / well I tried) / the day – and more shoveling – awaits.

Newsletter Sunday + Links 0065

Macro0065 inbound in +/-60 but first some linkage but before that, a random FAR CRY 6 vexation: while I know that they magically show up at my destination, that I’m forced to abandon my animal amigos whenever I climb into a vehicle makes me feel like a total dick.

Anyhow, a week in linkage:

Here we are now, entertain us; the day awaits.

On Furn's exertions and other adventures in (temporary) caffeine denial

An owl hooting nearby: haven't heard one in years, at least since I've lived here in The AC (10 years, +/-), sounds of the dark, sounds of the cold (Furn the Furnace getting a workout these last couple of days) – the children of the night, what music, etc etc.

Update: I liked yesterday's experiment very much – continuing it this morning, with the addition of using my Tasks app / Kanban boards in splitscreen with Obsidian to record specific tasks within The Work upon which to direct my occasionally wavering attention (current fiction work, AnotherFictionThing, is still too broad: working to bring it down to small assignments – if I accomplish nothing else this week, getting it to that small, subtaskery point will be considered a win).

In spite of the abundant backlog of content in Drafts that I'd like to clear out, I'm still not there on making a return to multiple postings per day; a little more flexibility, perhaps, but I still like the look and feel of these single combinatorial grotesques (as Montaigne would call them – a phrase I love and will gladly steal) each morning, a useful transition into the next part of the day.

Speaking of: to ensure timely return for Workblock2, deny self second cup of coffee until commencement of WorkBlock2; the day awaits.

ovenmittshuffle/scuffle(s)

(Being the placeholder for updated results of below experiment, perhaps).

Given that a.) by the time my hunger starts kicking in (+/-0630) – and that I really can't eat until +/- 0715 (go, T1D, thanks), I'm fairly useless at writing anything requiring deep focus, I'm trying something new this morning: splitting up the WorkMorning, writing this in the break-one/breakfast interregnum, consuming sustenance, publishing, feed dogchildren, kickballing, then back to MainThing until +/- 0930. Aforementioned balance of self-respect and daily return desire.

In other news: spent yesterday afternoon and evening in love with my new Kaweco AL-Sport until this morning when I found that it made – no matter how I held it – my hands hurt too much in order to control it. And lo, the Lamy2000 continues its reign – though the Kaweco is a wonderful pen, the tiny converter capacity being a notable and somewhat bothersome exception.

In more other and truly important news: Kirby, is, at present, on an ovenmitt (I spell ovenmitt like Spiderman, bite me spell check app spammers) kick: I've already taken two from him and I cannot vouch for the safety and security of other ovenmitts, secure though they may be (I give it another week or two before he figures out how to open doors and drawers). Ovenmitt sanctity and security will (perhaps) be similarly updated later in similar fashion to above experiment results; the day awaits.

voidwar snowball

Whenever I release anything, The Void – the antithesis of The Work – grows and grips, the only way to ameliorate being to make something else, to return to The Work – an amelioration which, in its end, eventually reconstitutes said Void thereby necessitating the begrudging acceptance that The Void is an omnipresent presence and that there's no way to avoid The Void (ha) but rather only ways to quiet it, temporarily: in the act of doing, of The Work – release; in the act of releasing, The Void.

Repeat, ad infinitum.

Morning’s other recognition being that structuring the workday is an exercise in balance-seeking between doing enough work to refuel your self-respect and not doing enough so you want to come back for more the next day.

(But then again, perhaps it is better to burn out than to fade away…)

Oh, wait, third realization: I never knew that all I ever wanted to see was a German Shepherd puppy being mystified by a snowball's vanishing act until I saw a German Shepherd puppy being mystified by a snowball's vanishing act.

Realizations being thus duly shared – and my TSR conversation with Abbott Kahler being live – the day awaits.

New TSR: Abbott Kahler

in

A return to socialization with Abbott Kahler, the New York Times best-selling author (as Karen Abbott) of SIN IN THE SECOND CITY, AMERICAN ROSE, LIAR TEMPTRESS SOLDIER SPY, and THE GHOSTS OF EDEN PARK, in which we discuss her first (professional) foray into fiction with WHERE YOU END, working titles, the process of forming a blueprint via 200+-page outlines (for the upcoming THEN CAME THE DEVIL) to harness the proliferation of weird across the page, living vicariously through characters you'd better find fascinating for four+ years, milk, cookies, ferociousness, convention-defying, and knowing upon whose blood you're stepping. Full episode here.

New socialization inbound

Update: latest socialization has arrived…

+++

Short one this morning: SOCIALIZED RECLUSE return - featuring SIN IN THE SECOND CITY, AMERICAN ROSE, LIAR TEMPTRESS SOLDIER SPY, and GHOSTS OF EDEN PARK author Abbott Kahler – imminent. Have to sort out the byzantine pod info stuff that I forget every time how to fill in but forget especially after five months of having not released a pod. Show notes/full description/description description/summary/WTF/IDK/FIIK; the day awaits.

Plans and pains via midnight Jorkies upon this day after MOON KNIGHT of nights

I want to see MOON KNIGHT now; that is (not) all.

After a midnight Jorkie barking spree, many futile trips to the snow-packed arctic tundra, and an inablity to fall asleep back to sleep, I feel more prominently the results of having shoveled – between digging us out to dig out Teh Oldze –all teh snows and the resultant manic blood swings, that see-saw of my life, Puny god, back and forth etc etc.

A plan begging for me to throw it out when reality smacks has come into view: I like this plan for it is a plan that gives me places to go, practical – if not as ambitious as previously thought – directions towards shuffling creatively rewarding notions into various states of being.

THE SOCIALIZED RECLUSE returns tomorrow; the day awaits.