i have family in Venezuela & their immediate reaction is (understandably) is just pure unbridled joy--which i totally get: life under Maduro (and Chavez before that) was a nightmare, but

“A war game run during President Trump’s first term assessed what may follow if Mr. Maduro were ousted, forecasting chaotic power struggles as military units, rival political factions and guerrilla groups vie for control of the country.” — www.nytimes.com/2026/01/03/w...

this one’s different, this is the one time we are going to be greeted as liberators.

“Velvet darkness falls over my Caracas. The stars are out in thousands. The Milky Way stretches its mysterious belt of whiteness across the heavens. The Southern Cross shines. The little city of my boyhood is sunk in slumber.” -TR Ybarra, YOUNG MAN OF CARACAS (1941)

I would die for them

Today’s #postitdoodle is the current leader of the expedition.

Happy New Year! It’s the first fresh day of 2026: take a moment to write.

This is me extricating myself from 2025.

Today’s #postitdoodle is the current leader of the expedition.

“I AM THE QUEEN OF MAD.” —the 4yo, at full volume

I drew the current leader of the expedition.

an old sketch: It’s your phone after it built an enormous fort in your backyard from all the boxes you had lying around.

❤️ this list, ❤️ this publication

CITIZEN KANE but it’s a horror movie about a cursed sled.

A fond farewell to the 2024 planner & to planners past, & excited about the 2025 planner: I know it’s dorky & I know there’s a whole Hobochini fad but switching to paper planners changed my life—

Today’s #postitdoodle is the current leader of the expedition.

“I’m a PRESENT! hiding! UNDER the Christmas TREE!” — the 4yo, at full volume, when the 10yo asked what she was doing

-- Palestinian Christians in Gaza are slowly bringing back Christmas celebrations after more than two years of war. Some gathered at The Holy Family Church in Gaza City to decorate and have Christmas services.⁠ -- www.instagram.com/reel/DSqKx_K...

Christmas means you can drink an entire eggnog container meant for the whole family & your partner will find it Seasonally Appropriate.

I drew 2025.

🤖 this lil bot is taking a break till january 2. you are not a bot: you deserve rest if you need rest, and writing well doesn't necessarily mean writing nonstop. i do plan on writing/revising during the next few days, but i'll be doing TONS of loafing too, tons of reading too. see u in 2026 ❤️

You will be visited by three spirits. One of them has notes on your novel.

Check out this @sarahkokernot.bsky.social essay just out on @tricyclemag.bsky.social right now: tricycle.org/article/free...

Here’s the poor tree before all the colors

every tv executive’s now trying to figure out how to get Weiss to pull their show off the US but accidentally let it show up briefly in Canada

I drew a Christmas tree and the trimmings, here with tidings.

And now someone has uploaded a version that wasn't filmed off a TV. There's also the torrent link there, which is probably the fastest way to download the 60 Minutes segment on CECOT if you want to save the file locally to your computer.

bari weiss saw this and decided that she had to hide it from the american public

We've complicated something beautifully simple. Writing doesn't need seventeen browser tabs open. It needs you, your thoughts, and zero distractions. Freewrite brings back what writing was always meant to be—just words flowing freely.

this is starting to feel like some kind of Road Runner situation

ok this story has been going on since yesterday and I can only assume they’re chasing the world’s fastest oil tanker

I bet there’s a pretty brutal Bari Weiss Signal group chat going on at CBS rn

Paula Maxa was a Grand Guignol actress known as “The Most Murdered Woman in the World” & that is such an excellent title for a novel or for anything

THE PRICE OF ART. Behold this neglected, lapless cat.

our brain is BRILLIANT at coming up w/ excellent reasons for not writing. but we can do it. we can write. i wasn't in the best mood for writing, but i did it anyway. you can too. i believe in you.

🤖 I woke up early. I had programmed the coffeemaker the night before, so I was all ready to go. And then I sat down & the cat sat on my lap as I drank my coffee & I was so sure I couldn't write, the laptop was far away. Because cat. But it turns out you actually *can* move a cat. ❤️

you will be visited by three spirits. one of them is a professional assassin.

If you get the pre-writing scaries, try just doing an *easy* simple task, the easiest thing, a page or two, or a line, or even just opening the file. Try it now.

🤖 It’s morning, everyone was asleep, and I snuck in a few handwritten pages. I’m supposed to be revising a long, close-to-finished thing, so I’m writing to procastinate on “real” writing, which I recommend. Write what you’re not supposed to write. ❤️

I’d add that Columbo frequently had the detective navigating his failing car, his worn shoes, the high cost of everything—all while the killers were often these super rich, super entitled jerks.

🤖 I’m on a treadmill right now but plan on handwriting a little while my kid swims. Nothing major. You could too, if you’re feeling like it, but it’s the weekend & you could also not write—you’re not a machine. Rest, read, have fun. Write if you want to, but keep it casual. ❤️

Writers, please don’t use genAI to create illustrations either. Support human artists. If you like visual prompts, collecting oracle and tarot decks is a fantastic way to combine this support for art into your writing practice.

you don’t need 37 dolls for Christmas, you just need your name slapped on a building

I drew the document you were hoping to read that got mysteriously infested with these weird long multilegged bugs.

🤖 Handwriting is a good example of a distancing strategy: it won't look good, it won't look like "writing," it'll be messy. That's fine! It's just words on the page. I'll share more distancing/structuring strategies some other day. I also have to put some words on the page (on a cheap notebook). ❤️

🤖 Did you write? You still have time! Two drafting strategies to use, even if pressed for time, are (1) distance & (2) structure. Try drafting a page by hand. No fancy pens or paper, just whatever you have. (If you *have* to use a computer, change the font to something ugly and BIG.) (1/2) ❤️

Becoming a tenured professor is a bit like becoming an NBA forward or a successful recording artist. (Or a novelist or a working fine artist or a pediatric cardiologist.) The supply is massively greater than the demand, and everyone is excellent. This is a hedge fund of yourself, not a career goal.

Today’s weather is Chicago Mix popcorn.

OK, my *other* Spotify Wrapped is all the awesome music I discovered through our local college radio station, starting w/ John Holt's gorgeous reggae cover of "Help Me Make It Through the Night" (1974) www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgTJ...

I really needed this reminder today. I've been hitting a wall—one looking suspiciously like a blank document page—and this is the nudge I needed.