Number Cruncher

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Latest addition to the watch collection, this brilliant Mr Jones Number Cruncher (couldn't resist the red silicon band). I've wanted a jumping hour watch for more than a brief spell, and, not only was this one not insanely expensive (some of the prices for jumping hours are mind-boggling), but it has this glorious kaiju designed by Onorio D’Epario. Will definitely add more MJ watches to the collection - and devour more of D’Epario's work.

mr jones number cruncher watch

Okkto ROCKETEER 40th Anniversary watch

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While I've had my eyes on this beauty for awhile, I wasn't prepared how truly stunning Okkto’s work is in person: a marvelous tribute to one of the most enduring (and endearing) creations of the last four decades.

As it's not one of my usual G-Shock rotations, I'm only moderately terrified to wear this whatwith my lifelong history of cracks and smashes…

A Year in Avidities, 2022 edition

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It's been a general practice of mine over the years to scoff at year-end lists, but now that I've done my own, scoff-free, I see the value: as the newsletter is a useful clearing of the deck for the week, these lists are the same for the year – though don’t expect me to to start expressing my hopes and resolutions for a time of change blah blah blah in the new year yadda yadda yadda.

Anyhow, as "wrinkle" seems to be my word of the week, a bit of a wrinkle in my version of the list: my list is a hodgepodge of things I've allowed into my brain (or released from it) this year and is indifferent to the actual release date of said thing.

And now, in no particular order…

Timekeeping LOVE, resurgent

Bit of a cheat here but what the hell: 2022 has been the year that I let my lifelong love of watches and timekeeping out of its shell so I might as well combine the three elements of that love of timepieces into one thing. From CW&T, the SuperLocal 24-hour clock proved its bountiful utility within the first hour of figuring out how to use it while my one-of-ten-made-that-week Solid State watch now alternates with my Casio Dick Tracy yellow GA-B2100 G-Shock as my everyday watch. Also, the G-Shock/Nintendo Super Mario Bros collab is a work of staggering genius. Probably won't wear it as it's a limited edition, but I do love it – and love that I love it so.

RESERVATION DOGS, Season One

An ensemble as good as any I've seen in stories that teem with heart, laughter, tears – sometime in the same scene, always permeating throughout. I now admonish Kirby at least twice a day to not be a shit-ass. A-ho.

Attendance Cards

From Lynda Barry's MAKING COMICS, a daily discipline that I've adapted to my own needs, a daily curtain lifting in this space drawn in 4'33 (after John Cage's piece - Barry did tell us to write the time frame of a song, so that's the one I chose) as a way to get me ready to suck and to eschew perfectionistic tendencies. They've replaced the daily text posts and are, I think, a more apt look into my sketchy, 0530 mind. Will hopefully get back to going through her book and doing and sharing the other wonderful exercises inside Barry's treasure trove sooner rather than later. Direct influence on incoming weekly fictions.

The January 6th Committee

Hate that it had to exist but grateful that it did – and that it was populated by such thoughtful and thorough members fully aware of the weight they bore on their shoulders. The hearings were as riveting and sobering as any government proceeding that I can remember... and yes, I've got a physical edition of their report coming, which I will read in its entirety: I may be more than a decade out of the era when my life revolved around the indexing, understanding, and synthesis of government documents, but I still dutifully read each notable release. They don’t get much more notable than this.

WEDNESDAY, Season One

Take ADDAMS FAMILY, mix with VERONICA MARS, and add in the insane talent of Jenna Ortega (and one of the best supporting casts this side of RESERVATION DOGS) and you have pure magic. Jenna Ortega's performance here brought to mind the first time I watched ORPHAN BLACK and had my breath taken away by just how fucking good Tatiana Maslany was in the role(s). P.S., favorite dance scene since...

The Death of Twitter…

Was Twitter responsible for nearly all of my career circa 2009-2013? Yes. Did I let Twitter exacerbate some of / many of my worst mental fuckeries? Yes. Did it become a replacement for smoking in terms of addictive substances (and far less fun?) Yes. Did I make some amazing and now lifelong friends? Yes. Do I miss it now that Elon Musk has used $44 billion as kindling? Nope: if some rich asshole wants to waste more money than I can conceive of and his entire reputation to self-immolate in a firestorm of bad decisions and faux conservative outrage, be my guest. A valuable lesson in why I've invested so much mental capital in this space: create your garden in the digital ether and own it, cultivate it: it's the only way to protect from the whims of people with more money than you. Everything else is barely subletting.

… and the rise of mastodon

Own my own instance? Check. Following new and fascinating people? Check. Reuniting with old Twitter friends? Check. That feeling of being part of something new and exciting? Check: though it functions as a social mirror – an enhanced mirror, certainly, but a mirror – of this space (I have posts there set to delete after a month), Mastodon is wholly its own piece of remarkable, and to see its stratospheric rise (I had been there since 2018, off and on) has been one of the best examples of the good guys winning that I can remember. This is its moment – and, though it’s clearly going through some growing pains, I’ve bountiful faith that it will rise to the occasion – and then some.

EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE

As I told my grandfather when I dropped off the Blu-Ray: no matter what you expect, it's not what you expect. Few films are capable of that – EVERYTHING delivered that and more. Michelle Yeoh is a goddess that walks among us.

House of Marley turntable

Finally settled on a turntable to play my growing vinyl collection – and House of Marley's Stir It Up turntable (paired with Edifier's R1280 speakers) turned out to be more than a brilliant-sounding and beautiful-to-behold machine, but a sleek transport into a world of physical EarBliss.

POWERWASH SIMULATOR

A soothing blend of first person shooter and OCD cleanliness mixed with a deliciously weird story set in a town filled with weird people (via in game text messages every 20% you clean) near a volcano on the cusp of an extinction-level event. Currently available on XBox and Playstation, but a Switch version is coming, which I will also buy, because I want to powerwash things in portable format too; expect the Switch version, if it arrives next year, to be on this list again.

Mario Question block Lego set

Mario's second appearance on this list and the first set assembled in our annual Christmas break Lego bender. Easily one of Lego's best sets, a masterful feat of plastic and rubber band engineering in a delightful package that uses the iconic properties of the Lego brick to its full potential as a work of art. Partway through the Jazz Quartet set and, had I finished that before this writing, it most certainly would have joined the Question Block here.

My Comics Organization Project

A relatively recent development / impulse to reintegrate my decades of comics love and collecting, two periods of, rather, into one and bring them home to the Paintshop. The shelving will be replaced at some point by handmade shelves that my grandfather has undertaken as a project in what will be his 97th year. Now that I have a place for them to call home, a third era of comics collecting and reading will commence. Only took ten years after I wrote [(a/my/the) book](https://parentheticalrecluse.com/comicstoryworld) on them.

DICK TRACY MONTHLY antique mall haul

Speaking of resurgent comics collecting habits, a spur-of-the-moment trip to an antique mall at the far end of a roundabout – totally off the subject, but, having spent ten years getting used to roundabouts when I lived in Massachusetts, I'm more than a bit amused at Ohioans' trepidatious acclimation to them in their own neck of the woods – yielded (no pun intended) the above sub-headingly-eponymous haul of Golden Age DICK TRACY MONTHLY comics, the first from that holy period of comics that I so adore and now actually now own.

Velociraptor toilet paper holder

Need I say more?

CW&T - Solid State Watch

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Received my CW&T Solid State watch (one of ten from their latest batch drop) and I’m transfixed, intrigued, and in love:

Solid State Watch is a Casio F-91W movement permanently cast into a transparent resin case. It's in there forever. No buttons, no functions, no light, fully waterproof and no changing that 10 year battery.

...

We’re casting each and every Solid State Watches in our Brooklyn Studio. The process involves a series of steps, beginning with a 3D print of the main body printed on a Form 3 printer. Then we cast, heat, vacuum and UV cure a movement set to your timezone into the body. This casting process is done in multiple steps to achieve our desired finish. All of these steps are done by hand, and we embrace the slight imperfections of the process that make each watch unique.

Already decided that this one is going to become my everyday watch – at least until the next time change, upon which my Dick Tracy yellow GShock will assume the mantel (unless I decide I need two Solid States); either way, I will remain hypnotized by the shifting globule of resin encased within. Head over to CW&T’s site to learn more about the Solid State Watch and its creation and to check out more of the wonderful things Chei-Wei and Taylor are building - like the “where were you all my life?” Superlocal.

implements/20221117

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Thought I might make this a regular feature here, my own version of “Uses This” / “Cool Tools.”

on screen :: primary writing app / second brain is a combination of Obsidian (for generating, storing, and linking) and Muse (for drawing scribbles all over texts and arranging it all across a 34-inch widescreen monitor).

in hand :: Lamy Studio LX black with fine point nib (same nib I've used on all of my Lamy pens: I always take the one that came with the pen off and replace it with that first nib, been there since my first Safari) flowing with black Pilot Iroshizuki Take-Sumi ink upon Baron Fig Confidant notebooks held in a Cold Creek Leather A5 journal cover..

on person :: Rite in the Rain's (appropriately titled) On-the-Go mini notebooks for being on-the-go in Rite-In-The-Rain Wallet (which is pretty useless as a wallet but is an excellent running/daily-wear-n-tear holder) with mini-pen; first thing that goes in my pocket in the morning and stays with me all day long…. Gerber Lockdown-Pry Mutlitool: I never realized how much I would use a small exacto knife until I used it all the time. The rest of the components are great too. I was using a Leatherman Skeletool but I need scissors far more often than I need pliers on a daily basis…. Any one of two “tough solar” Casio G-Shock watches in the current rotation: a GAB2100-1A or a GAB2100C-9A. Simple, no-frills. Love them both.

in orbit :: CW&T's Superlocal: my relationship my daily ritual has been forever altered. A work of functional art… House of Marley Stir It Up turntable: oh, how I love this thing – and how I love the ritual of vinyl. Will probably upgrade speakers though – I prefer more bass than the HOM speakers allow…. Donner Practice Pad + Vic Firth American Classic 2B sticks (wood tip) + George Lawrence Stone's STICK CONTROL: a perfect combo for drumming while thinking. STICK CONTROL is a warhorse, published in 1935, still the go-to-text. Repeat each exercise 20 times. A meditative way revisit a previous iteration when stuck in the current – and keep my increasingly arthritic hands moving.

superlocal

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Week of indulging my passion for unique timepieces continues: CW&T's Superlocal, their 24-hour magnet-and-steel daily ritual sculpture (inspired, in part, by Mason Curry’s DAILY RITUALS book), had been on my radar since I fell in love with their Pen Type-C (at first use on the day it arrived) and I finally let myself take the plunge: a hefty, stunning work of art and function that’s already giving me notions of how to reshape my day.