essays
this winter break
Posted: 2022.01.01
this winter break I was going to write a bunch revamp my website establish good reading writing learning sharing habits for the coming year but I didn’t really do those things and though I didn’t do them I can’t seem to let the idea of still doing those things just go away so it may still happen just not necessarily in concert with an arbitrary Gregorian year change or an extended time[ more ]
On Virtual Coffee and Mormons Who Play Animal Crossing
Posted: 2021.11.27
I’m curious how Mormons1 who play Animal Crossing: New Horizons are responding to the new café.
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Writing the Great American Email
Posted: 2021.11.18
The last rays of the sun transfigured the water tower, the freeway overpasses, and the tops of the pins on the bowling alley sign, as I sat at my computer in an emptied office. I hadn’t noticed the sky darkening as I tapped away on my keyboard, compulsively shift-tabbing the cursor, re-reading, revising, substituting words, deleting phrases, and reorganizing paragraphs.
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I AM ASYNCHRONOUS LIFESTYLE 3000
Posted: 2021.10.22
I. Goodbye Facebook II. ASYNCHRONOUS LIFESTYLE 3001 – I. Goodbye Facebook So I am finally doing it - deleting my Facebook account. Not even Kate DiCamillo can stop me this time. I just have to stay clean by not logging in ever again for 30 days, as the last of their slimy hoops left for me to jump through. I drafted a long, awkward letter to my Facebook friends that I intended to post on the platform a few days before going through with the actual deletion.[ more ]
A Horse Called Dreamer
Posted: 2020.08.05
The school district received a herd of ponies. I was supposed to catalog them, barcode them, and figure out a good protocol for checking them out to students.
They were all in an old corral out in the desert, and seemed wild and restless, as if perhaps they had just been captured and swept in from that desert and we hadn’t exactly been told the truth about their (lack of) training. Also, it didn’t seem like anyone was taking care of them out there so it was maybe going to fall to me to feed them, scrape out their hooves, and do whatever else needs to be done for horses. I don’t know anything about horses.
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On Whether To Share Things
Posted: 2020.07.27
I’ve been here before. It’s a cycle for me. The compulsion to exist on social media, followed soon after by silence. I’ve posted variations on this dilemma before. I’ve almost posted on it many times more. I want and need to just live my life, do my things, think my thoughts, and not be performative about any of it. I despise so much in life that is performative, and I want not to contribute to it.[ more ]
The Opposite of Curation Isn't A Mess But Silence
Posted: 2020.06.22
Been thinking a lot about curation, both professionally and personally. Where, when, how, whether to do it. I’ve been in a holding pattern about sharing things for a long time now - I have digital and physical notebooks full of things to potentially share (good and helpful things, I believe), but it seems too big a deal to share them. There are too many options, each with benefits and drawbacks, each with different audiences, or in some cases no audience at all.[ more ]
A Break for a Minute to Imagine
Posted: 2020.04.16
In the past month I’ve found myself paralyzed in regards to social media, both personally and professionally. Whenever I peak into my feeds I’ve been easily overwhelmed by the content I see: deluges of RESOURCES FOR “ONLINE LEARNING1,” endless interludes of stay-at-home inanities and banalities, and then literal death and suffering, since underneath all of this inconvenience, opportunism, and political posturing it turns out there is an actual tragic pandemic that is taking lives.
I haven’t known how to contribute to this world, and ultimately decided the best way to contribute would be to just stay quiet. Or maybe I just choked and failed by dropping out of this resource-sharing, curating, connecting game at the very moment when it was suddenly THE THING TO DO.
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I Watched Permanent Vacation, 1980
Posted: 2020.03.07
It’s actually kind of inspiring how bad this film is.
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I Watched Stranger Than Paradise, 1984
Posted: 2020.03.01
I feel like every moment of my life going forward could be another scene of this film.
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Giulietta Masina - first and second impressions, while I was supposed to be regarding the genius of Fellini*
Posted: 2020.02.17
I think she might be the most hilarious actor I’ve ever watched.
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I Watched Killer of Sheep, 1978
Posted: 2020.01.05
Kids singing rhymes Dogs barking Car ignitions turning over but failing to start This bitter earth Scuffling and throwing rocks An ice cream truck on the next street over That’s America to me
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Happy Life Day
Posted: 2019.11.28
I forgot to observe Life Day several days ago, but I’ll observe it today on the Internet and on my website. I did share Life Day with my kids (just about 7 minutes worth) soon after when I had come to myself and realigned my priorities. They kind of loved it, and kind of thought it was terrible, which is just as it should be.
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THE VVITCH
Posted: 2019.10.19
It is currently 4 AM and I am awake for some reason, and I just heard a noise downstairs of unclear origin.
Maybe I shouldn’t have watched this with my 4 month old puppy around. Was that a mistake? Will she live deliciously now? Will she grow up and randomly kill us all one morning like that damn goat?
