notebook / @tww

Ohthankfuck (Senatorial edition); in Stacey Abrams we trust.

Bag Three.

Finished THE QUEEN’S GAMBIT last night and I’ll join the chorus: it’s absolutely brilliant.

‘Doctor Who’: BBC Refuses To Deny Report Jodie Whittaker Is Quitting, via Deadline.

Spider-Man-style medical gun spins out ‘skin substitute’ for burns, via The Guardian.

GTA 5 fans are obsessed with watching Franklin get roasted, via Polygon.

Jack Ma’s Disappearance From African TV Show Sparks Questions, via Deadline.

A Frozen Installation by Makoto Azuma Preserves a Vibrant Floral Arrangement in Ice, via Colossal.

Running partner turkey update: he has re-emerged, though I wasn’t interesting enough to make him look away from his own reflection in the passenger wing mirror of a parked Honda.

EarBliss, 04jan2021: ALL THOUGHTS FLY, by Anna von Hausswolff.

Robin Williams’s widow: ‘There were so many misunderstandings about what had happened to him’, via The Guardian.

“To read the file was to see the basic virtues of twentieth-century corporate life (exactitude, determination, careful record keeping) repurposed in service of a mania”: The Real Republican Radicals, via The New Yorker.

William Gibson: ‘I read Naked Lunch when it was still quasi-illicit’ | William Gibson | The Guardian, via The Guardian.

“But most of the projects that move the needle in my career — working on a research paper, writing a major article — never get discretized into bite-size actions on a list. I instead treat them with the level of intention that their formidable difficulty deserves”: Projects vs. Tasks: A Critical Distinction in Productive Scheduling, via Cal Newport.

All 10 living former defense secretaries: Involving the military in election disputes would cross into dangerous territory, via The Washington Post.

Bag two.

My only real goal this year is to not nearly call emergency services every time I change my watchband.

‘Morning.

It’s 2021: here’s The Morkie in an Ewok costume.

… and the stuff of nightmares.

Endless weekend amusement.

Wisconsin health-care worker ‘intentionally’ spoiled more than 500 coronavirus vaccine doses, hospital says + Wisconsin pharmacist who ‘intentionally’ spoiled more than 500 vaccine doses is arrested, police say, via The Washington Post.

This maker built a working Batman grappling gun in only a year, via The Verge.

Deadliest serial killer in American history dies at 80, with police still searching for his victims, via The Washington Post.

LEGO Botanical Collection Designer Videos, via The Brick Fan.

New coronavirus variant may have been in US since October, via The Guardian.

A journalist had a seizure while playing ‘Cyberpunk 2077.’ Then she helped change the game, via The Washington Post.

Eugene Wright, bassist with classic Dave Brubeck Quartet, dies aged 97, via The Guardian.

Bag One: in which I commence the assembly of our Christmas gift to my 94-year-old grandfather. Batmobile on hold.

In a happy confluence of interests, he loves both trucks and owning Legos of trucks (and making wooden display stands upon which to display his pre-assembled Legos of trucks) but can’t stand building them; I like to build them but lose all interest once they’re finished.

(He said he “already has some ideas” about the form his wooden display stand will take. )

And thus, the build begins.

Reading:

Bags 13 + 14.

Among my most unexpected — and now expensive (Happy Christmas to me from me) — media consumption habits of 2020 has been my new obsession with Ingmar Bergman’s work.

Just finished THE WORLD IN A GRAIN - Vince Beiser’s fascinating and must-read deep dive into sand and its myriad uses, controversies, history, and future - bringing my total books read this year to 80. My complete list, from today back through 2013, lives here.

No “year-in-review” posts from me because I can barely remember a week.

Vertical Dwellings Nestle into the Floating Miniature Landscapes of Rosa de Jong, via Colossal.

LEGO Botanical Collection Officially Announced, via The Brick Fan.

You can’t go to a concert any time soon. Can a pair of wooden speakers bring the show to you?, via The Washington Post.

Is Substack the Media Future We Want?, via The New Yorker.

Bags 9-12.

That strange feeling of accomplishment, exhalation, and slight panicked insecurity when you send something off to someone brilliant to work their magic on said something.

Monthly flea treatment / chase sequence complete. Ten seconds for Marley and The Morkie. Nine minutes fifty for The Jorkie.

EarBliss, 30dec2020: TIME OUTTAKES, by The Dave Brubeck Quartet.