tuning

in

In keeping with yesterday's clean break with the past and much of the present, I started something new today – and loved the process. Indeed, much of the impetus behind the great split / divide / whatever was a desire to bring my now-quarter-century-long writing practice in tune with the beginner's mind lent by my new practices of cartooning, drawing, and metalwork by banishing most if not all of my previous attachments and intentions: gone are the designs and hopes and dreams on and of a career, the designs on anything; I want to view whatever I write moving forward not as a stepping stone but as a thing that was written – like each day's Informality, like Miggy or Weldo – nothing more than another means of expression and communicating whether I'm heard or not: if I'm to be a tree alone in the forest, I'm going to fall where-, how-, and why-ever I damn well please.

clean slate

in

Following yesterday's successful execution of a really shit draft of something really cool and the requisite making of distance between shit and un-shittifying, I returned to another thing I'd been playing with for a few years and, after staring at the same words and the same stuck spot, felt the magic wave a middle finger at me as it skipped town. So I've decided to do something I've never done before and – with the exceptions of current commitments to other people (hi Uzi, hi Jess), my daily Informalities and the ongoing adventures of A.A. Void, and this space and the newsletter – make a clean break with my current project slate AND with all of the past, failed fragments and notions to which I'd normally turn in these times of void. Time to start a new day creatively and prepare and till a new field for whatever seeds may spring; I suppose starting my notebooks over with a new 0001 after 37 volumes and 15+ years this week wasn't just a fresh start at numbering but a herald of the creative Galactus that landed today.

paperturn

in

After several months or several weeks (whatever) of using the reMarkable Paper Pro, I've switched back to a paper notebook, a Baron Fig Confidant Plus with Pigma Graphic pen. Haven't fallen out of love with the rMPro – it's a brilliant, wonderful device that does pretty much everything I ask it to do; no, I simply missed the feeling of pen to paper (god I love the Pigma Graphic pens - similar to the Flairs but without that sharp angle that digs into my finger because of my weird-ass way of holding a writing implement) and the ease of turning physical pages: indeed, the only thing the rMPro does poorly is replicate a page turn: too slow, too unsatisfying to be anything more than a novelty. Other than that, progress continues – though it did take me a bit to figure out what needed my moderately awake brain this morning before the descent into the standard postprandial stupor that awaits.

zombie remake gamelife phase

in

Seem to have entered into a "zombie remake" phase of my gaming life – most of which I never played in their original forms: the amazing, limb-slicing DEAD SPACE remake was first, and now I've moved on to RESIDENT EVIL 2 (never played any of the original games when they came out) and DEAD RISING DELUXE REMASTER (which I attempted to play when it first came out). To swap between the atmospheric dread, low ammo, low health, and puzzles of RE2 and the pure mall-ratting insanity and narrative inanity of DR has proven a valuable balm for evening brain capacity needs. And when that fails, there's always POWERWASH SIMULATOR, that digital earthly delight to which, according to the Playstation app, I've given more than 61 hours of my life and will happily give many many more.