boogie board return

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After a few years away – it was a 2018 post by Aral Balkan that initially turned me on to it – I started using my Boogie Board Blackboard writing tablet instead of legal pads this morning: I've lost the penchant for the over-romanticization of handwriting and paper and turned more towards writing in Obsidian / Drafts so I don't need the paper to write, only to think, and the Boogie helps me do that (and prevents me from killing too many trees in the name of my inane and mostly illegible jottings). Pen / stylus nearly same weight as my beloved Lamy Studio fountain pen so there's little lost in translation; also nice that my inveterate southpawness doesn't result in (as much) smearing as it does with dry erase boards and ink.

Current workflow: determine the specific point – the more specific I am, the more useful it is – that I'm working from, then spew thoughts and notions all across the "boogie-page" (nice to use my right fingernails to circle stuff as I go about scrawling with my left), scan for something worthwhile (though I do tend to do that as I go, a habit picked up from living with my shitty handwriting because it's hard for me to read what I wrote five minutes later), type that up, hit the delete button on the Board, and start again.

One complaint: a bit hard to see in my low-light Paintshop cavern, especially when my left hand covers much of the light. Moving lamp to right side helped considerably - though I wish I could write in white on the black screen as I do in the computer on Obsidian. Still, a useful tool – glad to be back with it.

THE PASSENGER / STELLA MARIS (McCarthy, 2022)

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While I preferred STELLA MARIS to THE PASSENGER – not saying much, but both characters were far more interesting than those featured in THE PASSENGER, one of them far more interesting than they were in the latter – I couldn't shake my disconnect to, well, everything throughout: I don't mind being lost – in fact, I've always loved being lost in the winding paths of McCarthy's mindpages – but this wasn't that: this was something... less. One of my notes read, "... first time reading McCarthy that I feel like I'm reading his interpretation of someone else's work.”

While both PASSENGER and STELLA showed glimmers of McCarthy at his best, those glimmers were few and far between: I want to believe that I'm wrong about all of the above and that a re-read of both would change my mind and perhaps it would – but I'd prefer to not give it more time than I already have; a stinging disappointment that the return of one of my biggest inspirations was so uninspir/ed/ing.

My complete reading list, from 2013 to the present, lives here.

quick note on THE MANDALORIAN 3-3

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While I mostly watch THE MANDALORIAN at this point only because my wife is a total Grogu otaku (Grotaku?), I’d be down for a series set in the Coruscant amnesty program housing complex: that was a solid diversion that begs for deeper exploration – and in more nuanced hands than Favreau; Tony Gilroy, get on that. (Note to self: still need to watch ANDOR.)

things id like to do here this week but will probably forget by next

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  • More text mixed in with cool pictures of old movies and toys.

  • Consider, with the above in mind, publishing something longer on Weds to not only add more textual elements here but also to force myself to take a day away from Main Projects to avoid newsletter-discussed fuckall for remainder of the week.

  • But: you do intend for this space to be representative of where you are in each passing moment. Perhaps the current moment isn’t so text-laden (here) and to attempt to force yourself to do otherwise would be a middle finger to the present moment?

  • Which I suppose gets to what a blog is, perhaps.

  • And now I’m just thinking of random shit and typing it.

  • Because now I’ve added text.

  • Carry on.