Happy New Year, darlings. May love guide you. May your heart be open. Make plans. Share joy.Build community. Be soft when you can & fierce when you can't. Tell your own story. May you do no harm, but take no shit. When all else fails, remember we get through all of this together. It's a privilege.

Same.

Oh Christmas week, oh Christmas week How hard it is to work through I look around, it's only me. The office is so e-empty. Oh Christmas week, oh Christmas week How hard it is to work through

Global warming doesn't always mean that it feels warmer outside. It's way more complicated than that, and involves science I don't fully understand. But I do understand how creepy it feels to be hitting record-setting highs in the days between the winter solstice and Christmas.

I have a little video skill & often need to film simple things. I contemplated buying a fancy camera. And then I realized for how much it cost, I could hire a friend who actually knows how to film well 10 times and get better results. Yes this is a post about AI. (But also it's totally true.)

Sometimes, you gotta just look straight at the things you're afraid of, say, "I see you, scary thing, but you don't get to control me," and then get on with your day.

Still no power. Still no updates on when we might have power. Made a cup of tea with the jet boil, like I'm camping. I can assure my fellow tea snobs that there is something worse than a microwave.

Oh, hello power outage. It's been just long enough since the last one that it took me a minute to remember where to find the extra flashlights and lanterns. I also forgot that I'd need to find those at 4 pm, before the sun went down. Now I'm just sitting by the christmas tree in the dark.

My most valuable underrated skill: Distracting myself while waiting for news. There was a period of the early 2000s when I was unemployed, and I would go to cheap matinee movies in the afternoon instead of waiting for the phone to ring. I have other tricks now. What's yours?

This year, I managed to line up my semi-regular need to turn inward to rethink my big picture priorities and goals during the darkest two weeks of the year, at a time when I'm not really wanting to push hard on any of my creative projects, anyway. It's unusually good timing.

The hibernation urge is very strong today, friends. Very, very strong.

Insomnia at 4:30 this morning. Saw the time, and the first words in my head were "What time is it? 4:30. Is it late? No, No, it's early..." Yes, I was a teenager in 1993. Why do you ask? www.youtube.com/watch?v=e86o...

Apparently unpopular opinion: Most end-user software does not, in fact, need a year-end wrap-up that tells me how many times I used a particular widget. This is a bandwagon that didn't need to get bigger.

Little known fact: I was one recital and one half-credit repertoire course away from a BM in voice performance when I stopped singing entirely. It's absolutely amazes me that now, 25 years later, I can only really sing well when I'm not trying. The body holds some memories tighter than others.

This makes that Joni Mitchell song hit a little different...

You will be visited by 3 spirits

Just finished reading David Peterson's The Art of Language Invention, and while I learned a lot of cool things about language, I think the most important thing I learned is... I should probably just hire a conlanger for my future projects.

Turns out, this is kind of a fun writing prompt. (see the comments, and add your own terrible, glorious, or hilarious description of a staircase!)

Some days, writing is fun and easy. Other days, you* can't figure out how to describe a staircase. *I

What could possibly go wrong?

I would like to wish a cozy snowy day to everyone in my county, except for the asshole who carefully shoveled every square inch of his two-car driveway, and didn't even glance at the sidewalk.

When was the last time you asked a friend about the meaning of life? Thanks to @johngreensbluesky.bsky.social and @hankgreen.bsky.social, I found myself wishing I could just drop that question into casual conversation and just keep asking until someone answers... youtu.be/6OalVsc8SH4?...

Looking for a gift to give a creative person in your life? Give the gift of community, support, or coaching! www.patreon.com/Sand...

The second-best feeling to actually taking a four-day weekend is the feeling of sitting down to work, and discovering that I actually left myself all of the right notes so I could get back into the flow without much faffing about.

Why yes, I did "self care" my way out of a pre-holiday stress-attack. How? My definition of self care includes saying "Maybe Later" to goals that were too ambitious, being compassionate about my limitations, and rearranging my plans to make sure I keep my body moving.

It's 6:30. I've been awake for 3 hours already, for no reason other than the fact that my brain is sometimes an asshole. Ugh.

My little corner of the U.S. treats Thanksgiving like it's a full week-long holiday, and I find that very strange. (Most employers don't, actually, but all the schools are out all week, so people *act* like it's abnormal to keep working)

Now taking bets on whether Bezos is in the files.

Every once in a while, someone that I knew in an earlier moment of my life has a standout success that hits the news. It often triggers some "what might have been" thinking, but it's impossible to trace all the choices I've made since then, so I always come back to loving my life now, instead.

Lately, I've seen a couple of journalists doing interesting work about people's lost trust in journalism, and how the industry could respond. I wonder if the tech industry will ever have that awakening.

It's been a long time since I've taken on a random baking project. So, I find myself wondering what I could bake this weekend. Does it make any difference whatsoever that next week is Thanksgiving, and that "Holiday Treat" season will be well underway? It should, but it doesn't.

Someone posts about experiencing vertigo. Cue: somebody else recommending the epley maneuver without being asked for advice. Honestly, all the "medical experts" on the internet make me real tired.

Update: Two concerts. Both went well *for the choir*. I barely remember the first one, because my adult angst and my college angst mixed together into one heck of an adrenaline cocktail. The second one was fun, though. I'll figure this out.

Malcolm has always been good at posing, like he's having his 18th century portrait painted.

Tomorrow night, I'm singing in a choir concert for the first time since I graduated from college 25 years ago. I'm weirdly nervous. It's like all of my college angst came out of the box as fresh as when I put it away, and it is now mixing in with all my adult angst. It's uncomfortable. But fun?

You can learn so much about a person from how they treat other people. It's useful when watching how your date treats baristas and servers. It also applies to how public figures talk about children, whether those children need food, or are being forced to attend someone's depraved private party.

Celebrate every win!

Annual mammogram this morning. The waiting room is much busier than usual, and there's a woman here with her who is both underinsured and here for some definitely non-routine care. So lots of paperwork on top of whatever emotional strain. It's a perspective check, that's for sure.

Husband used the phrase "an oldie but a goody" last night. (Ironically - we were talking about my insomnia, which is not a "goody" by any means.) But that got me thinking... have we ever used "goody" in that sense in any other context? Or is just that one phrase? Where did it come from?

Every time Lauren Boebert is in the news, I realize that yes, I CAN be more embarrassed for my state. Every time.

Yesterday, I had a profound moment of going from extremely irritated with someone to peace, because I took a moment to take a deep breath, and extend that person the grace they deserved. It felt great, and I'd recommend it. Even if you are the person needing that moment of (self-) compassion.

You should vote today so you can tell your grandkids what democracy was like.

I voted! This ends the thread following the progress of my mail-in ballot. (with a little color commentary along the way) It's a great system, honestly. Every state should do this.

I try not to be too much of a nag about this, but have you made your plan for voting yet? As frustrated as some of us in the US may be with our national parties, they do pay attention to the numbers in off years like this. They will notice who is voting, and what they're voting for.

Yes!! That's my congressperson right there!

Just in time for Halloween - I've developed a strong fear of my own WIP.

I need someone to do me a favor: listen to an interview with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson without also watching it. (He was on Fresh Air last month if that's useful). Tell me if you think he sounds like Barack Obama.

I hope my fellow mayosapiens realize that any relative older than you is an aunt/uncle for a lot of folks. But I also hope we all know that the real purpose of this “story” is to put Mamdani’s name in headlines next to the words “hijab” and “9/11” and evoke that implicit association dog whistle 👀

Seriously, y'all, I really miss the stickers. One of these years, I really need to fit this in...

According to my e-reader, I was only 5% into Structuring Life to Support Creativity when I had an unexpected insight into one of the ways I get in my own way. It wasn't even in one of the chapters that I *thought* I would benefit from.