cyborg pancreas decision trees etc

in

A brief example of T1D decision-making, even with cyborg pocket pancreas and being a Bluetooth-connected device: had to change out my CGM this morning because it was 18 minutes from the end of its 10-day lifespan but it was a running day and I’d have to run with the thing warming up so, even though it’s a beautiful, pre-wind advisory Sunday morning – my favorite day to run, so long as I don’t end up on the path of Amish buggies on their way to whoever among them is hosting church that day – I decided to stay home and box instead. Main reason being that the CGM was going in my abdomen this time and the last time I tried to stab myself in the stomach with its flexible stabby thing the goddamn thing failed during warmup, so I had to put it in my arm again which isn’t always fun and I didn’t want to have to deal with another one failing and going three for three in my poor left arm.  Good news: this one is working fine, and my gambit paid off - even if my blood sugar won’t be quite as happy as it would like to be; I am nothing if not a moderately-functional part-cyborg Bluetooth device. Victory, for the time being.

the (as yet) unmade

in

In the throes of limbo on two metal projects so here’s a list of things I’ve yet to make that I want to make:

  • a series / gaggle of weird little zines

  • a graphic novella (with or without a collaborator, though i'd prefer the former)

  • a narrative short film

  • a novella

  • a large metal dinosaur

  • a damn good track / ep that eschews my institutionalized music composition reflexes for the same visceral and improvisational central to my totally clueless – and intentionally ignorant – metalworking practice.

Do I have any of these in me still? I'd like to believe I do (99.99% that large metal dinosaur is happening this summer), but time will tell.

/202509161355

in

An acceptance that I will never be good with or at the influencer (when, out of curiosity, did "thought leader" wane? I hated that term too - but at least it had a little less of a manipulative bent - but I'm curious as to its erasure from the lexicon) video / TikTok-itization of the internet and am, as such, content to be an internet dinosaur talking to and with himself and his past selves and the two other people who might imbibe his blogs and newsletters and such.

/202509091200

in

Today being one of those post-project massive Shed clean-up days which have become essential rituals - but this one especially so: I'm finally getting the laser welder set up. Or at least figuring out what I need to get to set it up (I think just a thing of 1mm steel wire but 🤷🤷🤷. Also have to set up a thing to mount my little argon tank to the wall which may need to be changed depending on how much argon this Goldfinger device actually uses. Computer monitor sits, wanting me to work at it but these days my happiest creative moments are spent away from screens with a (shielded) faceful of sparks or scribbling with a pencil in a notebook. Rolling with it.

a big fucking corkboard

in

For the first time in more than 10 years I've a raging desire to buy a big fucking corkboard and fill it with index cards with scenes and scraps and phrases and stuff on them (in no particular order), a desire to bring the tactile prototyping approach to thinking that metal (or cardboard and tape) brings to the present (and far-preferred) iteration of my creative practice. Not sure what these hypothetical cards are meant to become – I remain proudly medium agnostic until the time comes to declare my project-faith – though I do know it will be something a.) I can do on my own (or learn to do on my own) and/or b.) nifty, the latter of which is really all that interests me these days. Or, perhaps, it's all just a desire to redecorate The Shed and make one of the walls more useful than as a shelf for things that could and probably should be shelved elsewhere because they're going to fall on me any day now.

thinking of writing something again why why why

in

yes but one written in this new way of working and influenced more by my passion for metalwork than encumbered by my past lives in various creative media that wanted nothing to do with me by virtue of shit timing and/or shit luck and/or shit writing; 67% honored as I was, I can't have three obituaries be the final things I get published (and they won't be – but the next non-self publishing is a ways off, and really out of my hands at this point). And, as metalwork starts taking off, I'm not adverse to showing up at art shows (otherwise I'll have to build another shed just to house all the shit I've built) but I think showing up with not only aforementioned shit but with a zine of ?? might make for an interesting melange. Have some notions I want to play with plus, since I've got some fresh ink that prevents me from doing any metalwork for a few days, might as well take the opportunity to play around, see what comes – maybe something, maybe nothing. Either way, it's nice to have that desire to write again – even if it won’t ever be the all-consuming thing it was, once upon a time.

a few stray thoughts on recent comics

in

While every title in the Absolute DC line is fantastic, Deniz Camp and Javier Rodriguez's ABSOLUTE MARTIAN MANHUNTER is my favorite by far. Insanely good; invention pours off the page... At this point, I'm reading DAREDEVIL solely out of my love for the character - no matter how much I love seeing the black armored costume again: Ahmed's run is readable at best and moderately painful at worst; ideal team: Chris Condon and Montos from GREEN ARROW but please keep them on GA too because it's so good and it's nice to read GREEN ARROW again... ... ASSORTED CRISIS EVENTS is at the top of the to-read stack every month (and Camp's THE ULTIMATES is my favorite of the line which makes sense given that he's writing ABSOLUTE MARTIAN MANHUNTER which brings me full circle to....

refuel / bridge

in

Riding and occasionally drowning in the wave of The Void, the BIG Void, first zilch period, no long-term projects, in almost 25 years. Simultaneously liberating and terrifying, finding my way back to having a creative brain again or, rather, a creative brain able to concoct something interesting be it word, picture, word and picture, scrap metal, and/or any combination thereof. Perhaps more regular textual postings will appear here (as I've wanted before) but I do know that I've brought out my paints and canvi and am painting again. Seems to be a bridge / gap pursuit / release that yields things in those other media that I have slightly more than a fetus's ability at and even then – and an invaluable tool for returning to "play and explore," something I'm going to fight like hell to maintain going forward, no matter the medium. Think it was something I read / heard David Bowie say, that when he's stuck or empty, he turns to painting to reignite. If I'm going to take anyone's advice...