Weekends are exhausting.

Reading:

For now I am 40.

With the launch of this second story, it’s the first time since February that, other than long-term projects and the next batch of Socialized Recluse interviews, my projects board is mostly empty. (Since Feb: Five TSR episodes, 11 Ground Loop episodes, three re/emergence episodes, two short stories, and umpteen daily Informalities (which are going whenever/whatever, like this one)… plus Kirby.)

I’ve already started filling it back up, of course - more news on that later…

Post-launch brain mush.

EarBliss, 06aug2021: RICHTER: EXILES, by the Baltic Sea Philharmonic and Kristjan Järvi.

THE SUICIDE SQUAD was the most fun I’ve had watching a comic book film in ages (since SCOTT PILGRIM?). Brilliance all around.

Incoming: my new short story, SPOKENSOFTLY, will be arriving later this morning for newsletter subscribers. You can sign up here, if so inclined…

Morning dance routine.

Kirby just caught the frisbee with a tennis ball in his mouth. Consider me impressed, dog-child.

Meanwhile, in “better late than never” news: that whole “submit your show to Apple Podcasts” thing that I’d been avoiding for so long because I thought it would take forever? Done. In five minutes: The Socialized Recluse is, apparently, now available through Apple Podcasts.

My least favorite running season is chipseal season.

The hills are alive with the screams of the feral neighbor-children and my brain is already at overflow capacity.

New: UNFLATTENING creator Nick Sousanis joins me on THE SOCIALIZED RECLUSE to discuss his work, his process, and the joys and pains of drawing 500 babies. Also: Bertrand Russell and Batman.

Update from pod-land: my interview with Nick Sousanis is assembled and ready to go for tomorrow. Earlier episodes live here. Also: I’ll be releasing a new short story - one that found its form, its missing piece after my conversation with Nick - to newsletter subscribers on Saturday (birthday gift of self-respect to myself, start my new decade right).

Status.

My brain is adrift in pod-land.

The Jorkie is presently sedated and having her teeth cleaned. Much consternation and trembling this morning, but all will be well.

In keeping with the promise of the title (sorry – eventually these will return to their status as pieces of general randomness and thoughts but for now – in keeping with being a semi-accurate accounting of my thinking in the moment of their creation –  they’re ProgressNotes on The Work):

First thing: I can tell that I’ve been thinking “big picture” for too long. Wrapping up the recording of the next SOCIALIZED RECLUSE episode today and publishing tomorrow will be a perfect end to the break from the main project. Will return on Thursday to those essential “small assignments,” the “bird-by-birding” of HUM into its final form, for release in May 2022.

Second: the big picture time hasn’t been without its fruits: aforementioned SOCIALIZED RECLUSE episode, featuring my interview with Nick Sousanis, drops tomorrow. On Saturday – in keeping with my designs on releasing SOMETHING when I turn 40 –  the second short story arrives for newsletter subscribers.

And third: unintended fruits of pod-interview research and thinking have yielded a form for a comics project and, most importantly, a path forward comprised of small assignments.

Potentially fourth: I may – may – have convinced myself that THE GROUND LOOP needs to make a return but I’m not there yet. The learning requirements of it might be needed again as I press on with the new pod-recording setup and editing workflow. Still considering a secondary show type for THE SOCIALIZED RECLUSE, but we’ll see.

The day – and an emergent-though-nonetheless-anesthetized Jorkie – awaits.

Six months old.

Next TSR interview - and first edited in Ferrite - is done. The process will still take a bit of getting used to (as will the new recorder), but I can breathe a sigh of relief. Next: record intro / outro, write the post, and publish. So far, Wednesday holds.

Status.

Anti-depressant helping immensely during waking hours but last night turned sleeping hours into waking hours (as is, apparently one of the side effects). An evening blood sugar spike (stress from a yelping Kirby? He ran into a hose which, of course, required howling at the world so as to notify it of his suffering before continuing on his KirbyDerby across the yard) either part of or cause of. Still operating, however, on the notion that this is just my body getting used to its new normal, its biggest change since I came out of hospital with brand-spanking-new T1D: having my waking hours free of that screaming, criticizing, mindlooping busybody internal-other all the time is more than worth the (hopefully) short-term discomfort and inconvenience. That said, will continue to monitor and see what happens. (In spite of only four hours of sleep, I’m feeling fine.)

As for The Work: figuring shit out continues, but it’s in the right place – goal being, always, to pare it down to the smallest possible task and focus on that. Too big-picture at present, but that’s where it needs to be to reach that smaller and smaller, bit by bit. Reading, day’s run, lunch, then SOCIALIZED RECLUSE pod editing for Wednesday’s (intended) release. On with the day.

Covid Is Pulling the Plug on Beloved Japanese Arcades, via WIRED.

Lucia Mantione: murdered Sicilian girl finally given funeral after 66 years, via The Guardian.

A French woman stole $5.8 million worth of diamonds and replaced them with pebbles in an elaborate heist, via The Washington Post.

New Investigational Helmet Device Shrinks Glioblastoma, via Medscape.

Robot arranges 100,000 dominoes into a Super Mario Bros. mural in one day, via The Verge.