status
Newsletter goes out as normal on Sunday. Otherwise, I seem to be resolutely away from internet engagement; working on podcast-slate pre-production, doing admin with publishers, starting autumn garden prep, starting to plan work and life design for next year. Back soon. I meant to experiment this week with returning to a computer channel model, but I guess that’ll have to wait.
Inbox: 112, apparently. Huh.
Listening:
I took a long weekend off, but now it’s go time. If you read my newsletter, you’ll know that I am now commenced on a very large new project – you can subscribe at this link here to get the updates that will only happen on the newsletter, and read a few previous issues. So now I’m locking myself into strict work routine, which I may get into at another time and update the spring version of my work routine list. Locking myself into that method will also allow me to figure out how to fix this place up so it’s doing more work.
But, for today, I’m getting into concept work and outlines, and taking a new moments here and there to admire my last experiment, which was sowing autumn/winter crops. About 70% successful, which isn’t so bad.
Currently listening:
Last Kindle highlight:
The Russian offshore system generates so-called black cash: a slush fund to help buy influence abroad. For example, one lawyer running companies connected to Russian banks also owned companies connected to Czech politics. His employees provided over half of the total donations made to the political party of the Czech president, long considered an ally of Putin.
HOW TO STAGE A COUP, Rory Cormac (link)
Those little while flowers are on a zitava pepper plant that I raised from seed in June. With a bit of luck, it will produce peppers next year. I could use a bit of luck this week.
I need to start writing the newsletter today, and also to start figuring out some of the extra bells and whistles that the new hosting platform provides me. I’ve been talking recently in the newsletter about returning to digital publishing, which I’ve done a lot of in the past — NORMAL. CUNNING PLANS, ELEKTROGRAD and FREAKANGELS are just a few examples — and I’ve just today thought of a fun way to do that, so today’s status is: thinking.
On loop today: NEW SPACE MUSIC, Brian Eno, which you’ll find in the 2CD edition of NEROLI. I would suggest doing a Discogs dive for a copy if you need it, and don’t buy the single-CD edition by accident.
It is the Japanese microseason of:
After a week off, LTD is back on.
The rains have come, and have awakened the clover seed laying in the dead beds of my garden. This means I have a shot at wilding a few square metres of dirt at the end of the garden into a pollinator patch and wildlife corridor in the spring. After a few months of working with the soil, I’ve come to think of a garden as telling its own kind of story.
Sunday’s newsletter is written and ready to go out — you can subscribe here and read a few previous issues too if you like. This week includes writing advice, using an example from one of my more famous pieces of work, and a poll. I fed the plants this morning and gave everything the once over, and then planted myself at this desk to work, which included finishing the newsletter and doing some things on this site. While watching the rain pass on Ventusky and through my window. Occasionally sitting outside to feel the new chill. It’s been a tough and beautiful summer. The rain has become a novelty to enjoy.
With autumn comes the need to adjust my schedule. I want to try some new things here. I may even puzzle out a way to serialise some fiction – I’ve been getting nostalgic for the years of doing FREAKANGELS every week, though I’m sure I was less joyful about it when I was having to actually do it. (For those who don’t know, FREAKANGELS started as a weekly webcomic.) But I know I remember feeling it was a good thing to put something new out into the world every week.
Anyway. LTD is back on. And I have plants growing.
The newsletter went out today, and you can read it and subscribe for your own at this link here.
If you’re one of the daily readers of this site, be advised that I’m taking the next week off from online writing, as I need to focus down on a big project and also build in time to get away from screens for a bit.
According to my 72 Seasons app, this is the Japanese microseason of Limit Of Heat. And, right enough, the wind has been ripping through the garden this week.
I still have to get the newsletter started.
Today I learned there is a thing called “galactic superwinds”:
Galactic superwinds—large outflows of gas created by a combination of supernova explosions and stellar winds—are closely connected to a galaxy’s earliest stages of development and evolution, including aspects like its size, shape, and even how many stars will eventually call it home.
STATUS: all quiet here. I have to get to work.
STATUS: watching NASA apparently fail to launch the Artemis moon rocket. It’s a weird thing to look at, the Artemis. An Apollo shape, in early 1990s orange, with a couple of old Space Shuttle solid rocket boosters stuck to it. I get that they want to use known, mature technologies. But for what is. in part, a PR stunt, it’s kind of retro looking, in that dated “I can’t believe your mum still has that wallpaper up” way.
MOON STATUS:
My newsletter went out yesterday: if you missed it or don’t subscribe, you can read it and sign up at this link here.
I have to start my rewrites on the next-to-be-announced project today, and work on the outline for the one after that in the evenings.
There are signs of autumn in the air. The sky has finally clouded over, and there are fingers of cold in the wind. Growing season is almost over. Now it’s time for the work.
The heat peaked yesterday, and according to the forecast that was the last heat spike of the month. I’m hoping so, because at this point I’m kind of fucked up and my eyes won’t let me put a mornngcomputer together. (The heat spike created a huge pollen allergen surge, and consistent high heat creates more vision issues than you might expect.) I actually had to take a screenshot of an email from my manager this morning and zoom it so I could read it.
But now we have a little rain, and a little wind, and in a little while I’ll be able to read well enough to close a contract, read a proposal and get back into the vast outline I have to write over the next several days. While also, hopefully, carving out some time to put a plan in place for this site for the autumn and winter.
I’ve never been a summer person. I need the autumn light. Back soon.
Listening to: all my Kodo Drummers records.
I should have declared a heatwave holiday. I’m grinding through two difficult pieces of writing work right now, and doing that in heatwave conditions seems to mean that there’s not enough left in the tank to do the writing I want to do in this space. Hell, I can’t even get into the garden for long enough to save all the plants the heat has been murdering and to do the sowing I really want to do. Complaining about the weather is, of course, an age-old British pastime, but I am simply not made for Bahamian summers in my little nook of old England.
The newsletter goes back to normal on Sunday. Hopefully, I will go back to normal soon after.
It’s a little warm here. Expected to spike at around 38 C. I’ll be abandoning the office sometime in the next hour. All I’ve done so far is review my email, make notes and start the newsletter for next Sunday. Thinking of updating my spring 2022 morning routine post, as I’ve made some changes. Always be moving. Unless it’s 38C in a place not constructed for 38C and in a house built to retain heat. In which case, sit still and read a book.