changes

I’m reading Everything Sad Is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri, and it is really good but it is taking a while because some nights I fall asleep while I’m reading it and then some nights I scroll through Facebook or web comics or websites about comic books instead of reading it. And then I feel bad, almost as if I, king-like, have killed Scheherazade by not continuing to listen.

That’s a metaphor like in the book. I should go to sleep now and the book will still be there tomorrow.

Just realized that violin motif from Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade has been in my head tonight and maybe I should listen to that while I read this book tomorrow night. I’ve always been a weirdly big fan of Rimsky-Korsakov; it goes back to when I was a teenager. But that’s Russian music and maybe I should find some actual Persian music to listen to instead. Don’t know much of anything about Persian music. Hmmm.

(A couple of nice YouTube options above, and below, what I actually listened to. It was an excuse to listen to some old favorites more than it had anything to do with the book.)

Standalone post link: ''readingeverythingsad''

I started reading Home Is Not a Country by Safia Elhillo

(A hardback “review copy” of Home Is Not a Country by Safia Elhillo rests on top of a couple of recent issues of Poetry Magazine, which I am also reading. Image uploaded to my CMS sideways and I decided to just leave it.)

Standalone post link: ''readinghomeisnotacountry''

I started reading The Inquisitor’s Tale by Adam Gidwitz with my kids tonight.

[Caption: The Inquisitor’s Tale on top of a book stack, surrounded by the Lego accretions of Will and Mia’s bedroom]

Will wanted to try this book but Mia was grumpy about it (“Can we just read a book with NO magic in it for once?” - valid request, actually) but she finally agreed that we could just try the first chapter tonight since we needed to read something. After we finished the first chapter, she started chanting “More! More!” and I had to read them half of the next chapter.

P.S. Posted this status on Goodreads because I guess I’m back onto compulsively noting all my reading updates on Goodreads again.

Standalone post link: ''reading with kids-theinquisitorstale''

I am on screenpage 455 of 1034 of The Overstory, by Richard Powers, reading it on my phone.

Past notes and updates on the occasion of my reading The Overstory by Richard Powers:

• It turns out I actually love reading books on my phone, especially large books. (Recently read Jemisin’s whole Inheritance Trilogy on my phone. It’s a habit now.) [8/1/2021]

• This book is kind of the Moby Dick for trees. Meaning, this book is tree-obsessed in the way that Moby Dick is whale-obsessed. Not that I’ve ever read more than 33% of the way through Moby Dick - yet. I read enough to find that it was completely whale-obsessed. Kind of want to join one of those Moby Dick readathons some year. Actually, that is completely untrue - I don’t want to sit around listening to other people read Moby Dick, I want to do my own personal readathon of Moby Dick. [8/1/2021]

Standalone post link: ''readingtheoverstory''

As of last night I’m 35% of the way into Summer in the City of Roses by Michelle Ruiz Keil, reading it on my phone. 📚

Standalone post link: ''reading-summerinthecityofroses''

You could daydream about what a collab between Kevin Shields and Frank Ocean might sound like, if they ever got around to it in ten years or something.

Or, you could just listen to boylife’s song “goldeyes” right now.

It’s the final track off his new album gelato.

Or you could even do both.

(Think I’ll be creating a ‘Favorite Music of 2021’ page soon, and I’ll probably add this album to it when I do.)

Standalone post link: ''boylife-goldeyes''

Been streaming this album a lot, so I bought the cassette.

No review, but it sounds to me like Waxahatchee fronting Siamese Dream-era Pumpkins, and I’m really into it.

(Haven’t actually played the cassette, though.)

Album: Twin Plagues Artist: Wednesday (Ashville, North Carolina) Release Year: 2021 Label: Orindal Records

Standalone post link: ''wednesday-twinplagues-cassette''

Yesterday morning I finished reading All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson. This morning I wrote six to seven pages of thoughts and notes about it, that I’m likely not safe to share anywhere right now, including here in unsyndicated nowhereland.

It’s a powerful book, though, if you’re willing to spend the time with it. And I’m afraid that fear of that power might be the true root and rot of the issue that seemingly requires me not to talk about it.

Standalone post link: Reading: All Boys Aren't Blue

I’m curious how Mormons¹ who play Animal Crossing: New Horizons are responding to the new café.

• Does anyone refrain from having their character drink coffee in Animal Crossing, so as to avoid even the very appearance of evil?

• Have kids been caught by their parents drinking coffee in the game and had the game confiscated or banned?

• Are any Mormons going bonkers drinking cup after cup of coffee in Animal Crossing because it’s “just a game” or “doesn’t count?”

• How does someone’s stance on coffee in Animal Crossing compare to their stance on violence and gore in other video games?

• Is drinking coffee in Animal Crossing ‘Word of Wisdom pornography?’

• Am I overthinking this, or at least thinking more about it than I ever would have back when I was a Mormon?²

I was always jealous when one of the island residents would be walking around the island with a cup of coffee or hot cocoa.

But it turns out that now that I can, drinking coffee in Animal Crossing is not all that satisfying. Doing almost anything in Animal Crossing is not all that satisfying for very long, to be honest.

Drinking real coffee in real life is generally satisfying, though.

Standalone post link: On Virtual Coffee and Mormons Who Play Animal Crossing

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
off work

so what did I do?

passed Wandersong

read some YA fiction

and read some Franz Kafka, which feels a little bit like YA fiction to me but only because the last time I read Kafka was when I was myself in the “teen/young adult” demographic

took the kids sledding

made masaman curry

made french toast

made sweet pork barbacoa for in-laws’ Christmas taco party (recipe pending here in these URLs because I’ve made it too much my own to link to where I started from)

engaged in various obligatory Christmas preparations and celebrations

shoveled actual snow (I don’t remember if that ever even had to happen even once last winter)

read from an ever increasing number of newsletters (reading links forthcoming)

doomscrolled
(even though I’ve deleted my Facebook account and logged out of my personal Instagram and Twitter accounts on my phone I still somehow managed this – my persistent traps / points of weakness are the Apple News app and the notifications I still get for work social media accounts)

and then there’s bandcamp exploration, which I don’t quite consider doom scrolling, though at times there I do scroll through actual doom

So I guess I actually did
do a few things that might be
worth sharing and linking
or potentially expounding upon

but I’ve limited
myself to this
platform
with no audience
and haven’t
sorted that
out yet

instead of waiting

or deleting

or further retreating

or plotting out
some clear future
for this website
and my writing
and my social
media participation

I will just try
by improvising
as I go
with whatever form
feels right
or useful
or interesting
in the moment

Saturday, January 1, 2022
Millcreek, Utah

Standalone post link: this winter break