notebook / @tww

(Duly filed under “Yes It Took Me This Long” but) STAR TREK: DISCOVERY is really good.

20 weeks.

Good morning; it’s currently 78ºF under sunny skies.

Thanks to a solid night of sleep, a rarity most welcome, I’m doing much better today. Nearing the end of my work on the fourth re/emergence story; one of those that took on a life of its own once I got out of my way long enough to let it do its thing – another moment of appreciating that I finally hurled DESCANSO into the world, its rhythms no longer blocking my brain.

Recognizing that part of – ok, most of – my problem has been that I spent so long in previous iterations of life and self, working – living – in the spaces between to avoid the conflict that the creative working process can create when mixed with the company and pseudo-parentage of the non– that, when I have the chance to be myself, to be who and what I am, I have little clue how to function and default to a default state of conflict avoidance.

(Get over that shit, I say; I’m working on it, I say.)

Curious iPad bug: it seems that, on occasion, copy/paste doesn’t work, even though it tells me that “iA Writer pasted from Safari” or whatever. Not sure if it’s an iA Writer bug or an iOS bug but there it is.

On with the day.

Good mail day.

EarBliss, 28jun2021: ALTER, by Lustmord and Karin Park.

Paying for a lazy Sunday in T1D currency, in that omnipresent feeling of not being able to stop, of not being able to slow down – even though all I want to do is sleep; the exhaustion, the weariness – it’s catching up with me. And I can feel it, more and more each day in the loop as it spins, faster and faster, ever and ever: the higher the blood sugar climbs, the less I’m able to concentrate enough to mitigate the stress response it unleashes; the less I’m able to stop the stress, the higher it climbs. Do more do more do more, ad infinitum. Just when you think you’ve got it fixed, you don’t; this is my life, now – self represented as a pingpong ball above and below the green, from one jarring to the next, in this neverending race to outrun myself.

(I am, fortunately, a runner.)

The week that was:

THE GROUND LOOP, Ep0008 - “What’s your omelette recipe?” (23jun2021)

No poison hemlock for you (24jun2021)

The Work, iPad Edition - Day One (25jun2021)

I Have Eaten in a Restaurant / iPadWork, Day Two (26jun2021)

The month’s MacroParentheticals dispatch inbound in +/60.

Seven years; happy anniversary, my love.

Playing:

Anniversary dinner (seventh, on Sunday), Sea Bass and steamed mussels and something else that escapes me – delicious. Had avoided restaurants since at least February 2020 because COVID made what was already an unpleasant experience (T1D testing, jabbing, counting, being around people, etc) even more unpleasant. That said, I’m glad I broke out of the shell: couldn’t ask for a better return to having someone else cook for me and, other than phone-based menus (which was kinda nice) and people further apart (even nicer), no real change from the last time I ate in a restaurant.

iPadWork update: USB-C connector works great. MG10XU mixer connects (though I have a lot of work ahead of me to master podcasting with an iPad) and, most importantly, I managed to find a way to make iOS’s abysmal monitor support work for me: plug it into the USB-C connector, use wireless mouse and Bluetooth keyboard - not the one that makes up half the case but the pair I’ve used for the last few years with the MacBook Air – and, since I have the monitor on an arm, lower the monitor in front of the iPad, transforming it into a single-task focus machine. Writing everything in Dark Mode helps mask the pan-and-scan-ness of said abysmal monitor support and, since it’s next to impossible to use iPad functionality (and I have a ton of distractions blocked while I work thanks to Screentime), it makes writing and focusing on one thing – and facilitating a mental adjustment to different purposes (iPad+Monitor+BlueKey = longform, single task writing / iPad +keyboard case = short, online, leaping about writing / iPad, sans case = mindless perusal and solitaire) –much easier.

In-lawn awaits; chainsaws and father-in-law hair cutting abound. Not with a chainsaw – though just test me, you cranky old bastard.

Yesterday: a surprise - and most welcome - early arrival of my M1 11" iPad Pro. Took an hour, more or less, to get it set up for my processes: having taken it the full desktop/laptop replacement route, I have entered a future. Such as it is.

Keyboard on the Logitech Combo case is fantastic… love it. No regrets about choosing it over Apple’s Magic Keyboard ($100 cheaper). Hooked up my other Logitech keyboard, the one I used with the MacBook, old faithful - will use it when hooked up to the monitor - but have to wait on my USB-C adapter to arrive, scheduled for today and, though I have a wireless mouse I had been using with the MacBook Air, I’ll probably opt for a Bluetooth one at some point to keep the USB port on the adapter free.

Ease of keyboard hookup and decoupling makes an excellent mental switch from use to use, from focused, deep work longform writing machine to quick, daily ramble jottings. Monitor will add to that mental division, though I should mention here that, even if the monitor hookup gives less-than-stellar results, I can live with working exclusively on the iPad. This screen - the 11" - is stunning and clear as is - and is the same size as my erstwhile MacBook Air.

Downloaded and purchased: Ferrite for podcasting (I’ll miss you, Audacity, but the point of me doing podcasts to begin with was to learn new things; always be evolving). Considering adding the Apple Pencil to my tookbox for fine-tuning podcast edits. Hopefully the beautiful audio and processors in this thing help with the quiet MG10XU output to DAW; as the MG10XU’s replacement, non-Kirby devoured power cable also arrived yesterday, I’ll test along with monitor later this afternoon.

First quirk with iA Writer on iPadOS: the title bar stays at the top of the page in landscape: to eliminate, do a preview (Command-R) and go back. Presto, gone-o. Writing these posts - and most Micro-things - in Bear.

Current bottom line: Early stages of being in love. I WANT to write on this thing; it’s fantastic. Cutting the friction of startups and logins has been a remarkable change. Surprising myself: no inclination whatsoever to write on the MacBook Air – even without the monitor.

On with the day.

Autocorrect transformed my mangling of “Stories” into “So tired” and I’m pretty sure it’s trying to tell me something.

Marvel Launches NFT Comics And Collectibles Line With Veve, via Bleeding Cool.

Search is on for COVID-19 patient who escaped out a sixth-floor window of Osaka hotel, via SoraNews24.

“All Heroes Are Hated!”, via Pulp Covers.

Rembrandt’s Night Watch uncropped by AI 300 years after it was trimmed, via The Verge.

Igor Stravinsky Appears on American Network TV & Tells Stories About His Unconventional Musical Life (1957), via Open Culture.

(Another) long day.

Hello, beautiful. Let’s get to work.

Good morning; it’s currently 63ºF under sunny skies.

Completed requisite Wednesday in-lawn duties (lawnmowing + chainsaw trickery) sans bladed wandering into six-foot tall stalks of poison hemlock. I will, therefore, consider Wednesday to have been a success.

I’ve returned these pieces to the Informalities heading – now in my Micro space because writing and posting with any regularity beyond a week on Squarespace is a losing, maddening proposition (other plans, a long time coming, are afoot for that space) – and will push ahead with writing these pieces daily – even though the titling can, as I’ve said, fuck me up – simply because I enjoy doing so.

Until I don’t. But for now…

Turning this post-breakfast, pre-run chunk of time into online / publishing time (think I’ll also work the NL so it’s not a mad rush on Sunday mornings) so I don’t spread it into random distracted seconds throughout the day: never underestimate the value of dedicating/delineating clear timeblocks to ensure long-term mind respites.

Working: the text for RE/EMERGENCE0004 is almost done. Will spend the rest of the week (through Saturday) wrapping it up and shipping it off to EJK for her magic. Newsletter on Sunday.

For some reason or other, I’ve joined Discord. I have no clue what to do with it, but it does intrigue me… M1 iPad Pro (11") arriving tomorrow. The processes, they begin anew. On with the day.

For what it’s worth, I’m on Discord (for) now. I have no clue what to do with it or how to share my username or if I’ll even use or keep it. But it does intrigue me.