revived perspectives

Hello, October: think I've figured out how to (re)start this comics thing (yes, this is the gamble I'm taking on myself): each project tells you how it wants to come to life, what it needs from you in order to become something from nothing – in this case, a somewhat more linear writing process than MainFictionThing (in other words, a little less Muse and a little more Obsidian), until the prescription changes, of course. Middle section might have to be figured in Muse, though – I need to see it, shift it, move things around… still coming up with a series name for the little comics thing posted yesterday. Suggestions welcome.

muse and obsidian for brain and blood management / coordination

First section (or reasonable fascimile) of MainFictionThing finally in place. Some nips and tucks req'd eventually, but the main jist is there and duly reflected in reorganized and slightly less manic Muse board though it has to be said that working in Muse really helps me get into the fucked up headspace of one of – ok probably both of – my characters: the board's exhausting to look at – just as I'm sure it is to live in this character's mind.

I know the feeling.

Can't leave Obsidian out of what seems to have become a workupdate post: not only is it the focal point for the (mis)management of my creative brain, but it also helps keep me alive: makes an excellent tool at recording blood sugars and meals and such, especially if I eat at a restaurant: I've got a spreadsheet at the top of my daily notes and use a tag for the restaurant which lets me quickly find instances of when I eat there and the requisite insulin to make sure it doesn't kill me on repeated visits. Handy.

fri/20220916

55ºF, clear, yet foggy: finding that standing helps even more than I had previously thought: think it has to do with that movement – and my muscle memory of percussion, of standing and moving to different instruments, in this case, keyboard to iPad to writing by hand (and, in a nod to my past iteration, to practice pad for GL Stone's STICK CONTROL exercises – helps me think): Walter Murch called it a dance, as he stands while editing, and, unsurprisingly, Mr Murch is correct.

Helps too, that I finally found a use for Muse: while Obsidian is my default brain – and, largely, the home of each final document – , Muse is a digital version of how I think: details, relationships between paragraphs, how they move and interact: deep focus boards (on the Mac, the big screen) within big picture boards (on the iPad) to work and manipulate those relationships. So far, haven't encountered any vanishing text issues in this Muse-era: relief, though one eye remains, as ever, open.

Donations made to candidacies of Tim Ryan, Nan Whaley, Stacey Abrams, Raphael Warnock, John Fetterman, Charlie Crist, and Beto O'Rourke: always feels good to contribute though I wish part of the contribution would involve a "minimal emails" option.

thu/20220915

56ºF, clear-ish: monitor + keyboard riser + Obsidian + ipad + Muse + standing desk + pen and paper = a winning combo, a dance between different elements, between different phases and sides, etc etc, all coming together for the final whatever-it-ends-up-as. In theory, anyhow.

Post-great-aunt-funeral haze continues: a combo, I think, of too much socializing and of too much telling the story of how my mother died (thanks for not wanting an obit: now I have to explain to everyone that you're dead when they ask – I swear, if more had asked how I was or if I needed help when you were alive, I mightve been possessed of if not a different set of emotions then at least more qualified ones) mixed with a general dissatisfaction of current path and no clear modification to vary it.

Staring at Twitter, my fourteen years of it, and I have no clue – other than a general pervasive addiction and hope that somehow something will materialize from it (meaning that my buying into the hook/line has become learned and habitual) – just what the hell I'm doing there: have to learn to be content with toiling here in my own little corner of the ether of indifference. Working on it.

mon/20220912

63ºF, clouds: Slept through my alarm (only by twenty minutes; must've turned the thing off. Morning blood sugar check reminder alert FTW) and the world didnt end, at least for now.

Returned to working with Muse – NOT as an Obsidian replacement, but as a compliment – this morning: recognized that since MainFictionThing will be released only in physical form (Press (A) 02, hopefully) it needed the spatial thinking Muse does so well for me to approximate page turns and that the more rote, line by line nature of Obsidian wasn't working: I need to see it, manipulate it.

Attempting Muse again with one eye open: flashbacks / PTSD remain from the vanishing text issues that led me to abandon Muse late last year but I'm hopeful that the Mac-iPad sync will at least absolve some of them. Nonetheless, my stance that it's a brilliant concept remains firm: I wish only that my confidence in it wasn't so bendy.

Current method/solution: Obsidian on the Mac (since the Stream Deck works only on Mac), Muse on the iPad. Type things, do full on-writing in Obsidian, add, via Universal Control, to Muse board for manipulation on iPad, return, repeat. More handwriting? Hopeful ameleoration of vanishing text issues. Live back-up, etc etc.

The Switch is a delight.