notebook / @tww

New, at Parenthetical Recluse: The Informalities return with “Notes on Efforts to Extract My Head From My Ass," the contents of which should be more or less self-explanatory.

Toyed with the idea of not doing this today – since I’m releasing a 1,000+-word essay/blovation in a few minutes – and instead making it a Monday-through-Saturday thing, but to hell with it; I like writing these and I might as well keep the chain going.

Was yet again felled by my niece in yesterday’s biweekly MARIO KART tourney, but my signficant losses aren’t quite as significant. So I’ve got that going for me. Also hid plastic eggs for the first time for said niece: the results, while uninspiring, were not necessarily indicative of my enjoyment of the process.

Can’t decide if I enjoy WOLFENSTEIN: THE OLD BLOOD yet or not. It’s mildly amusing, but there’s just not much there.

This week’s essay, “Notes on Efforts to Extract My Head From My Ass,” incoming.

Happy Diabetic Jesus Bunny Day.

My egg-hiding skills may not be spectacular, but my accidental-throwing aim is brilliant.

The text has come: balance will be restored this week.

Spent much of yesterday binging Apple Arcade’s expansion into classics and Game-Passery: Fruit Ninja, Mahjong, Tiny Crossword, SpellTower, MiniMetro; welcome additions all – and now I’m actually using Arcade, instead of just paying for my wife and sister-in-law to have it – the latter especially for ad-free gaming for my niece.

Wrapped up GODZILLA VS. KONG: pure fun and that’s all that really matters.

After much consideration, weekly essays will arrive three times a month, at Parenthetical Recluse, starting tomorrow morning; decided that I can’t have a writer’s website without actual writing, so I might as well make it a thing (again). Also, Status and Projects pages more in tune with one another; the constant tinkering continues. Recording the new mini/micropod Monday or Tues. Launch Wednesday.

Familial microgatherings shall ensue this weekend; I can’t stand Easter anymore because I can’t have the candy which was the only reason that stupid rabbit was worth a damn in the first place. Oh well: balance next week.

Agostino Ramelli’s Theatre of Machines (1588), via The Public Domain Review.

Emergent plant that ruined Johnson & Johnson vaccine doses had prior FDA violations, via The Washington Post.

French police are investigating an international Lego crime ring, via The Verge.

Warner Bros. & DC Not Moving Forward With ‘The Trench’ & ‘New Gods’, via Deadline.

In Defense of Thinking, via Cal Newport.

Sealed Super Mario Bros. sells for $660,000, shattering record for most expensive game ever, via The Verge.

The Beatles' ‘Blackbird’ Sung in the Indigenous Mi’kmaq Language, via Open Culture.

Total assembly required, day one.

My once back-from-the-dead Lamy 2000 is starting its slide backwards, so I’m using the Safari again. Happy to say that I’d forgotten how lovely that pen is: it’s like writing with a Papermate Flair - but with all of the fountain pen perks and idiosyncrasies.

GODZILLA VS. KONG still in progress: had to give up last night as HBO Max was more than a bit stuttery and that’s no way to watch a final battle. Or any scene, really. But it’s Godzilla vs. Kong: the vs. must be watchable and non-stuttery.

One of those rough mornings: mind all over the place, vacillations and fluctuations and the pervasive exhaustion that ensues from the “Puny God"ding of the mind. Somedays the vacuum is tolerable, others not so much: this is one of the latter. Stuck in the mud, spinning wheels, getting nowhere; this shit, getting old it is.

And yet: just do the work, just do the work. And so that’s what I’m doing; everything else is deck chairs on the Titanic. Back to it.

Just a little April snow squall.

Assembling IKEA shelf. If you hear more profanity than normal it’s just me.

Donning the winter running garb: welcome, April in Ohio.

O-hai-O, April: snow and Fern the Furnace kicking on, wheezing, “more of this shit, really?”

Slowly but surely finding that sweet spot for the work schedule: all morning’s a given, now I’m parsing five-minute chunks, shift one here, shift there; add, subtract, et cetera et cetera. That balance between self-respect, rush (and it’s hopeful lack ), feeling as though you’ve used the day wisely, and feeling as though you used it wisely but didn’t get enough – this being the key to continuing the chain, the cycle, the next day, ad infinitum.

Ikea shelf is here and ready for afternoon assembly: my walling off of myself will be complete, that practice room mentality lingering still.

Back to work.

For years, a mafia fugitive hid from police. Then they spotted his Italian cooking videos on YouTube., via The Washington Post.

[Behold the Elaborate Writing Desks of 18th Century Aristocrats](Behold the Elaborate Writing Desks of 18th Century Aristocrats https://www.openculture.com/2021/03/behold-the-elaborate-writing-desks-of-18th-century-aristocrats.html), via Open Culture.

Errors ruin 15 million doses of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine, via The Verge.

Pastor’s wife plotted his murder amid love triangle, authorities say, via The Washington Post.

Netflix Near $400M+ Deal For ‘Knives Out’ 2 & 3; Daniel Craig & Director Rian Johnson Reprising, via Deadline.

Gardening table, still somewhat in progress, but at least it’s in its home.

Now reading, from the the unknown stacks…

Personal ecosystem vaccination update: grandfathers, in-laws, wife, mother, and self all fully vaccinated. Go science.

When you accept writing lesson payment in Ikea shelving in lieu of cash, you know you’ve reached peak something or other.

A strange relationship with rainy mornings: I love them because it means I get to work in the darkness for longer, before the sun invades and brings with it external duties and calls upon my time and waning mental capacites; I loathe them because it means that, if it’s a cold rain – I’ve run in blizzards and I run in warm rain, but I refuse to run outdoors in cold rain – I’ll be doing the daily run on the elliptical – but at least I’ll get to finish up THE RIPPER on Netflix (worth a watch, BTW: even though it’s essentially a survey course in the 1970s-80s Ripper killings in England, it’s nonethless an engrossing survey course).

Back and forth on weekly Informalities return: while I’m fine with – and enjoy – writing and giving these picayunities and the newsletter (though that price is an email address) away for free, my tolerance of doing the same on longer-form non-fictions is way past the wane. However, see 12mar post re: pitching and utter blankness. Can’t deny a feeling of spinning my wheels on the weekly end, but IDK. I’ll figure it, or something, out.

Looks like there will be two Socialized Recluse episodes this month. I’d love an assistant for the six days a year that the 359 days of the year bear fruit but alas; at least it’s a way to put those former-executive-director skills to use in a world passing by – nevermind that being busy with the propagation of personal and professional forward motion is so much sweeter than the stagnant alternative (see above paragraph re: essays).

Back to work.

‘Schitt’s Creek’ Motel Now On Sale For $1.6M – But There’s A Catch, via Deadline.

100,000 Cherry Blossoms Made of Salt Scatter Across the Floor of Setouchi City Art Museum, via Colossal.

The Louvre’s Entire Collection Goes Online: View and Download 480,00 Works of Art, via Open Culture.

Man climbs down side of building in Tokyo to steal…a bunch of Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh! cards, via Sora News 24.

CD Projekt Red is changing how it makes games after disastrous Cyberpunk 2077 launch, via The Verge.

The History of Tattoos Gets Beautifully Documented in a New Book by Legendary Tattoo Artist Henk Schiffmacher, via Open Culture.

Gardening table, in progress.

The time has come to retire my little MacBook Air after 10 years, two books, and countless stories and essays of service, for something new. Considering the M1 Mac Mini. Thoughts and recs welcome.

In the absence of proper cutting tools, I gave my battery-powered chainsaw its first gig: cutting shutters in half to make a backing board for my wife’s gardening table. ‘Tis the season.

Finally have my Status page the way I want it (for the moment): Latest, InProgress, Inputs, and Incoming.