sat/20220820

63ºF, sun: storms and rain this weekend, apparently – more basement flooding in my future(?)... my back my back my fucking back in process of being less my back my back my fucking back thanks to one of those awesome massage guns (so worth it)... return to meditation (five minutes, three times a day) a pleasant pause and refocusing... a note to self in my handwritten illegibilities: FIND SMALL DETAILS – EVOKE, DON'T DESCRIBE... addition of a weight vest to the day's run a change – what kind of change, TBD... return of MAKING THE CUT a most welcome, pandemic-era balm of artistic celebration... 50 years to create, a mile and a half long, viewable only on foot: spectacular... the day awaits.

fri/20220819

60ºF, sun; a little fog: my back my back my fucking back, day five – but not quite as bad today so it's all about the little victories... like that I'm still in love with my Lamy Studio LX (the latest addition to my obsession with all-black fountain pens)... or that SHE-HULK is absolutely fantastic: Maslany is perfect and the feel of the show just works right out of the gate – and I agree: the world needs a Yelena / Jen buddy comedy ... freedom/release the from in-lawn, conflicted and triggered but yay – at least I don't have to pretend anymore... a couple more movie reviews / catalogings – Sam Fuller's HOUSE OF BAMBOO and Martin Campbell's THE PROTEGE – coming later today (trying to get in the habit of writing up a little thing about most everything I watch) or throughout the weekend; finished Koji Fukada's GIRL MISSING (also Criterion) yesterday – will add to the cataloging, along with Ellroy's WHITE JAZZ – though both require more percolation... the Onion unleashes a classic… the day awaits.

thu/20220818

59ºF, fog: day four of my back my back my fucking back (though cold is helping FAR more than heat this time out)... basement drying after ankle deep floodwater adventures at 2100 last night following a downpour interruption of POWERWASH SIMULATOR – yay for knowing where the blockage points of all the floor drains are and double yay for that dryer vent cleaner rod which is brilliant for all sorts of unclogging... I'm now a "professional" member (thank you, ComicStoryworld) of PEN America (so I've got that going for me, which is nice")... On DerbsBall has been updated to include video of a game in progress... in love with my new pen, a Lamy Studio LX; I think this is my Neo, I do, I do... the day awaits.

wed/20220817

62ºF, sun: welcome for it is day three of this particular cycle of my back my back my fucking back... note to self in WIP(s): "What does this want? Listen and stay out of its way"... an index card above the monitor: PROGRESS NOT PERFECTION... school year begins in full for K, this being day one with 75 new progeny of the teeming micropolitan masses, The Morkie being suitably morose – there will be protest floor urination (from The Morkie, not the progeny, though at this point in the anthropocene who knows), I'm certain of it... clearly what the world needs now are snakes with robotic legs - evolution happened for a reason, cue Jeff Goldblum (yawning and stepping forth from that killer transition in THE LOST WORLD)... PS on WESTWORLD review: Hale's human chair was the best thing all season and potentially in the whole series; dismayed that I've been unable to find a screencap for that one... ten years since Ecce Homo’s restoration - though if you've played HITMAN 3, you know it's actually in an underground rave club outside of Berlin... the DUCKTALES theme song is stuck in my head and now it's stuck in yours: this is my gift to you... the day awaits.

tue/20220816

60ºF, cloudy: AC unit (success?)fully installed in K's room, duct tape improvisations seem to be holding... neckdeep in what is always a dodgy period of adjustment/reconciliation at the start of something new, an acclimation to the initial chaos of my process or what passes for it: my natural inclination being towards order and control (much to my chagrin) and thus an effort to if not embrace then at least accept said chaos (see sat/20220813 re: trusting / having faith in process which reminds me I do have more to say about that and the start of a piece on it somewhere) ensues... McFarlane SUPER POWERS remain MINE MINE MINE ALL MINE and the five year old me is ecstatic (note that they remain carded not because I want to cash out on them at some point but rather because I don't want to have to dust them (why waste a perfectly good protecting case?)... back to work then I’ll give a weighted vest a go on the day’s run… the day awaits..

mon/20220815

60ºF, sun: whenever I think about making a digital version of Press (A) my brain always returns to "fuck that: this is how I want it and this is what it is (its physical iteration being as much a part of it as its innards, a word I vastly prefer to content - even if no one reads it" so I'm going to stick to the way I'm doing it – though with continued upgrades as I make more and give another consideration to a runway/accessible MAKING THE CUT approach, Press (A) being the runway... started Book One of THE SANDMAN (read a few trades of it years ago but I've forgotten most all of it) and loathe that I have the edition that says "A Netflix Series" because now I'm a tool but whatever: if it gets me to read it, it gets me to read it (again – though will be fascinating to see what 41-year-old me thinks of it vs. my impressions at 15 or so)... what an awesome finale for WESTWORLD; additional thoughts probably later today, maybe, though more likely tomorrrow... K's school year begins, work days then full-start Weds: I loathe that I have to worry about my wife going to her job like the spouse of a cop worries about their partner; in-room AC install/fix custodial window improvisation continues... the day awaits.

sun/20220814

62°F, rain: Imposter syndrome ran rampant yesterday, eventually calmed – probably blood sugar, IDK or, as is more likely, that copies of PRESS (A) 01 are out in the world and therefore out of my control (though the nice thing is that, since I'm printing these myself, I can change things if I feel like it - though I am trying to resist that temptation) – but at least the in-lawn is mowed (and Marc Maron's WTF interview with Michael Mann heard – HEAT 2 is on the to-read stack; VERY intrigued - especially since the book is, according to Mann, NOT an “instead of” for a film and that the film is being made)... finally found a use for my antique cigarette case: a storage space for filled Rite in the Rain notebooks (the on-the-go model in my wallet / for the run)... my love affair with POWER WASH SIMULATOR is hitting a snag as the subway level isn't saving correctly and in ever know what parts i'll have to do over again... finished Morrison/Quitely ALL STAR SUPERMAN; quick writeup coming later today or tomorrow... air conditioning install in K's classroom this afternoon... the day awaits.

sat/20220813

50ºF, clear skies: internet is back after deciding hell no during THE PROTEGE (solid, enjoyable - particularly the homage to THE BIG SLEEP's "sexy bookstore clerk" scene but with the sexy bookstore clerk being an assassin; would love to see Michael Keaton have a crack at Philip Marlow, actually); will finish later tonight... a general, pervasive frustration with writing fiction that I was going to discuss here but figured, in the process of writing the first half of this blub, that it's all about a lack of trust in my own process: need to figure out, then, what it will take for me to trust that process... checking continues for Salman Rushdie updates (definitely recommend his memoir of his life under the fatwa, JOSEPH ANTON)... great consideration being given to trying to buy a Steam Deck just so I can play SQUIRREL WITH A GUN whenever it blesses the world with its existence; also fuck tourists and their mopeds... in-lawn/more words/back to work/the day awaits.

fri/20220812

54ºF and clear: schoolyear schedule starting to come into focus, shifting various ablutions around a bit for that maddening nine months of the year when I'm glad to have time to myself but worried, from 0700-1500, M-F, that my wife will get shot (or get one of whichever iteration of an immuno-evasing plague is winding its way through their non-air-conditioned and poorly ventilated building in which they've been advised to not use microwaves) in her efforts to educate the middle school progeny of the teeming micropolitan masses... in that phase of the new Work when my scope is too broad and the frustation rife until I manage to bring it down to the single, smallest element, a phrase, a word, a rhythm (What is the smallest detail that represents the largest whole?) – the rest of the process being (I suppose, this is the first time I've tried three at once) a balance between the broad and the specific, different pieces at different stages, all without sacrificing the spontaneity that gives the work its life ... having fallen in love with my Kindle Paperwhite, I’m intrigued by this e-ink monitor but not $1800 intrigued... still seeking an iOS shortcut to access my note in Obsidian from my homescreen but alas... the day awaits.

thu/20220811

62ºF, clear skies: the same breakfast I've had every morning for the last six years always tastes best after I've had to fast for a medical blood sacrifice to be told in two weeks everything I'm doing wrong (elevated calcium levels strike me as the "check engine’ light of the body: it’s either too much cheese or cancer and/or everything in between): not something I enjoy, but I do appreciate the transformation of something that's become so rote - two egg omelette, greek yogurt - into something so wonderful... managed to extricate myself from pernicious habit of checking comms in the morning before breakfast and now I need to stop it before bed (One Sec is definitely helping)... "It may be funny to you, motherfucker, but it's not funny to me" = GO BETO... the day awaits.