notebook / @tww

Newsletter update, already: my in-laws' cat has returned home.

Issue 0039 of MacroParentheticals is on its inbox-journey. The week ends/the week begins.

Weather report.

As per normal after our writing lessons, my niece decimated me in Mario Kart. While the lifelong gamer in me is deflated, the uncle in me is quite proud.

The schools of the future can be built in less than a week, via Fast Company.

Pipe bombs found near Capitol on Jan. 6 are believed to have been placed the night before, via The Washington Post.

If you’re starting an online class, check to make sure your professor is alive, via The Verge.

Endangered Flora and Fauna Are Recreated in Textured Paper Sculptures by Mlle Hipolyte, via Colossal.

New AI Can Detect Emotion With Radio Waves, via Defense One.

The Missing Manhattan Socialite, via Abbott Kahler.

Encore: my SOCIALIZED RECLUSE podcast returned this week with my chat with Alison Gaylin about writing, crime fiction, and cat video film festivals - plus a reading from her latest, THE COLLECTIVE, out in November.

When you decide to say to hell with it, throw seven years of work into the file cabinet, push forward with an idea that’s been haunting you for a decade, and set yourself a deadline of when you turn 40 (six months from now) to get the damn thing finished.

EarBliss, 04feb2021: TO YELLOWKNIFE ~ CHAPTER 01 and ~ CHAPTER 02, by Mending.

Haven’t picked up a pair of drumsticks in 20 years (I went to music school, a percussion performance & music composition major) but recently felt the urge to play again (for fun): the return path starts all the way back at the beginning.

Considering a return to daily posting starting next week. Only thing giving me pause is that, while the practice does help me empty my brain on a daily basis, it might render my brain too empty.

Update: the once-dead pen is still alive and functioning as well as it did before its untimely drop.

I don’t want to celebrate without further testing, but I may have brought my Lamy 2000 back from dropped-and-thought-dead status. For now, I’ll call it a conditional victory.

Weather report.

Reading:

Ye olde post-launch haze/daze.

This week, at Parenthetical Recluse… THE SOCIALIZED RECLUSE pod returns with my interview with novelist Alison Gaylin, in which we discuss writing, exorcisms, social media, crime fiction, true crime, the inauguration, chainsaws, self-respect, and cat video film festivals - and an exclusive reading from her upcoming novel, THE COLLECTIVE, out in November.

(Been awhile.)

A right pane: Thomas Becket’s miraculous mix-up, via The Economist.

Wisconsin pharmacist who destroyed more than 500 vaccine doses believes Earth is flat, FBI says, via The Washington Post.

77 Days: Trump’s Campaign to Subvert the Election, via The New York Times.

How to Root Out Extremism in the U.S. Military: via Defense One.

A Dramatic Bouquet of Paper Flowers Interprets an Ornate Pattern in Three-Dimensions, via Colossal.

A cult leader gets 1000 years in jail, via The Economist.

Nike’s new Flyease Go shoes snap right onto your feet, via Fast Company.

Demented Toys by Obvious Plant Confront Harsh Realities and the Mundanity of Life, via Colossal.

LEGO Amelia Earhart Tribute (40450) First Look, via The Brick Fan.

Clearly the only solution to COVID vaccination woes, via The Far Side.

Confession: when I get stuck in The Work, I turn to paint-by-sticker coloring books. A horse, in progress.

It’s been almost a year, but I still have to remind myself to avoid random profanities within earshot of K’s microphone. Apparently I’ve gained something of a rep among her fifth grade students.

A much-needed week off from The Third Book - being that my brain is begging for some distance - to fiddle with and scribble upon the second episode of re/emergence, my experimental short fiction and music collab with Elizabeth Joan Kelly; first episode arriving 14feb in my newsletter and 17feb everywhere else.