lowering the stakes

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A desire, over the next several months, perhaps the next year – or, hell, whatever remains of my creative life, to figure out how / force myself to write fiction faster – not in a Walter B. Gibson two-novels-a-month-for-nearly-20-years (285/326) sort of way – but in a way that's at least moderately quicker than my current and past.

(I'd be stoked with a longer short story / novellete per quarter.)

Key part: perpetual mental effort to lower the stakes, as Rick Rubin puts it in his excellent THE CREATIVE ACT (excellent – though an index wouldve been far more useful than blank ruled pages in the physical book) –

"We tend to think that what we're making is the most important thing in our lives and that it's going to define us for all eternity. Consider moving forward with the more accurate point of view that it's a small work, a beginning. The mission is to complete the project so you can move on to the next. The next one is a stepping-stone to the following work. And so it continues in productive rhythm for the entirety of your creative life."

– and relegate the belief that I was defined by a single work (ref: seven-year-paragraph) to the shitheap of my personal creative history.

Mouthpad

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Designed by the folks at Augmental (a spin-off of the MIT Media Lab), the MouthPad is a Bluetooth-powered mouthpiece that lets anyone control electronic appliances with their tongue. A touch-sensitive panel sits against the roof of your mouth, allowing you to use your tongue as a finger of sorts to navigate interfaces. Tongue taps are registered as left clicks, while mouth gestures like pursing your lips (pouting duckface, for the Millennial and Gen Z readers) registers a right click. Through the MouthPad, individuals can now perform a variety of tasks with just their tongues. These tasks include sending emails, illuminating a room, enhancing photographs, and even engaging in video games. Additionally, Augmental guarantees that the mouthpiece’s sleek design will not impede speech, allowing users to communicate verbally with ease while wearing the device.

BAY OF ANGELS (Demy, 1963)

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(Written and directed by Jaques Demy; starring Jeanne Moreau, Claude Mann, Paul Guers, Henri Nassiet, and Conchita Parodi. Released 01 March 1963; watched 2023w16 via Criterion Channel)

Another (qualified) win from Tycherion's random Criterion Channel selection (this time without any decision data entered; I simply "accepted my fate"): first Demy film which, while a deeply moving – painfully so, at times – daylight noir (though this isn't considered a noir, I consider it one as it follows two people falling victim to the temptation of their addictions) owes its elevated position not only to Demy's writing and directing but to the magnificent lead performance by Jeanne Moreau: her Jackie is one of the great, unsung noir characters, a bright light forever chained to the dark cloud above her. As for why it’s a qualified win: the suddenness of the jarring, flick-of-a-switch turn at the end kills the noirness of the previous 88 minutes for me – though I suppose it doesn't preclude Jackie and Jean from beginning their destructive cycle anew on the other side of the credits.

why the extra w. is required

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"5:17 p.m. — Taco Bell, West Avenue, drug investigation. Tyler Weaver, 38, of ..., was arrested on fentanyl possession and drug possession charges, both felonies, as well as misdemeanor drug abuse instruments, drug paraphernalia and marijuana possession charges. Officers found Weaver unconscious in the driver's seat of a 2011 Hyundai Sonata with uncapped syringes, pills, drug paraphernalia and fentanyl in his lap or on the center console. More than 36 grams of marijuana, a cellphone, an anti-anxiety pill, $266 in cash and other items were seized as evidence, and Weaver transported to University Hospitals Elyria Medical Center. Weaver later left UH Elyria against medical advice, was arrested when he showed up at the Elyria Police Department to retrieve his car, and was taken to the Lorain County Jail."