Honking into the Void, April 2025
No April fooling here ... only a newsletter.
I wrote the following posts last month:
2025 Week 13 Notes: Still writing, still moving
ποΈ // 24 β 30 March 2025
- π₯οΈ I caught up with the previous weeknotes I missed posting on time, but I don't know if my RSS feed will tell you that.
- π€ Still feeling punky in the guts, but I think I'm through the worst of it.
- π₯ A new recipe I tried was a hit: crispy gnocchi with sausage and broccoli. Very easy to prep, all on a sheet pan.
- π€ FunkyPlaid is getting ready to head to Scotland for a while, which means I get to test my work/life boundaries. In the past, I've backslid fully into working all the time with no one around to nudge me. But I am hopeful that I've learned my lesson enough times not to do this.
πΈ Photos
Crivens has been plastered to me this week.
π Writing
Still writing every day, still moving slowly through story drafts.
π Reading
- Finished reading "One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This" by Omar Al Akkad
- Started reading "Gideon the Ninth" by Tamsyn Muir
πΊ Watching
- Finished the current season of "Mythic Quest", and only two episodes of "The White Lotus" to go
- Still watching old episodes of "The Great British Bake Off"
π§ Listening
- I've been listening to the first tracks on The Album Leaf's new album, "Rotations", and I'm pretty excited about the rest releasing on 11 April.
- I always want to hear what Kelly Hayes and Mariame Kaba have to say. This episode of Movement Memos gave me a lot of hope for what we can do right now: "We Must Burst Our Algorithmic Bubbles and Build Together Across Difference"
π Linking
How accurate is this very cynical depiction of university students right now? "Students are not absolutely illiterate in the sense of being unable to sound out any words whatsoever. Reading bores them, though. They are impatient to get through whatever burden of reading they have to, and move their eyes over the words just to get it done. Theyβre like me clicking through a mandatory online HR training. Students get exam questions wrong simply because they didn't even take the time to read the question properly. Reading anything more than a menu is a chore and to be avoided." β Hilarius Bookbinder, "The average college student today"
2025 Week 12 Notes: Lackluster cookies
ποΈ // 17 β 23 March 2025
- πͺ« Our EV charger, barely a year old, died unceremoniously in the middle of a charging session. None of our attempts to resuscitate it worked. It's under warranty, so they'll send a replacement, but because it's hardwired it'll cost us another installation fee to put the new one in.
- π€ I dealt with something that presents as moderate inflammation in my gut, the symptoms of which make normal routines unpleasant for a day or two. For longer, it's quite demoralizing.
- π₯ I made some lackluster new recipes this week, perfectly edible but not great, and then redeemed myself (to myself, my worst critic) by making that crispy roast potatoes recipe.
- πΌ At work, a minor milestone achieved: My new assistant starts on 7 April and I could not be more thrilled!
- π€ How can I show up for myself as much as I show up for others? What does that look like? I am wracked with guilt whenever I have to cancel plans because of illness. I've lost friends over not being a reliable attendee of plans, good people who just did not think I could really be that sick or that I was canceling for other reasons.
πΈ Photos
One of the lackluster recipes, salted chocolate chip cookies.
π Writing
I've stayed in my daily writing practice, which is a win, but haven't worked on any creative writing this week.
π Reading
- Finished reading "The Memory Police" by YΕko Ogawa, translated by Stephen Snyder
- Started reading "One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This" by Omar Al Akkad
πΊ Watching
- Finished season 2 of "Severance"
- Still watching the latest seasons of "Mythic Quest" and "The White Lotus", interspersed with episodes of "The Great British Bake Off"
π§ Listening
- I'm listening to the second season episodes of The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott, but I might be Severanced-out at this point.
π Linking
- I switched to the beta of Zen Browser this week. It's got the best of Firefox and the best of Arc, and I'm enjoying it so far.
- Nothing I read this week was worth saving to share later, apparently. And that's okay!
2025 Week 11 Notes: Tiny hailstones
ποΈ // 10 β 16 March 2025
- π―ββοΈ Lots of social time this week, including a visit from an out-of-town family member, dinner and a film with my sister-in-law, and co-hosting the monthly meetup for fans of analog tools.
- π₯ One real winner of a recipe this week: spiced chicken with cardamom and cinnamon. I'll definitely make this again!
- π€ Whenever I start posting online regularly again, I stop. This struggle with consistency makes me question why I share anything online, and have done so (on and off, of course) for over 25 years. I'm wildly uncomfortable with the performative nature of it, while still wanting to connect with others in this way.
πΈ Photos
We had a hailstorm on Thursday. These tiny hailstones stuck around a lot longer than I thought they would.
π Writing
I've kept up my daily writing practice, but didn't make much headway on my stories in progress.
π Reading
πΊ Watching
- Still watching the new seasons of "Severance", "Mythic Quest", and "The White Lotus", interspersed with episodes of "The Great British Bake Off".
π§ Listening
- Still listening to The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
π Linking
- "11 Reasons Iβm Still Wearing a Mask in 2025", a zine by Violet B. Fox
- "How denial of airborne COVID transmission broke the world" by Blake Murdoch
2025 Week 10 Notes: Surprisingly listenable
ποΈ // 3 β 9 March 2025
- π₯οΈ I didn't spend much time online this week, and I didn't miss it.
- π₯ I made a couple of new recipes: sticky coconut rice and chicken, and stir-fry pork udon. At the last minute, I managed to rustle up a pantry meal of spaghetti, marinara sauce, and vegan meatballs, and I'm going to have to remember that trick for later.
- π» Crivens and Criminy were pronounced healthy at their annual checkup!
- π€ Who are these weeknotes for? I wish I knew.
πΈ Photos
Would you like a mochi donut?
π Writing
- Jumped back into the flash fiction story!
- I didn't submit any stories this week. I need to break out of this slump.
π Reading
- I finished reading "Demon Copperhead" by Barbara Kingsolver, which was the most fun I've had inhabiting the mind of a flawed protagonist in a good long while. Also I love the feeling of trusting an author completely; I never once worried about where the story was going or how it would end. (You don't need to know the plot of Charles Dickens' "David Copperfield" to enjoy it, but I loved the nods to the original.)
- I started reading "The Memory Police" by YΕko Ogawa, translated by Stephen Snyder.
πΊ Watching
- Still watching the new seasons of "Severance", "Mythic Quest", and "The White Lotus", interspersed with episodes of "The Great British Bake Off".
π§ Listening
- "stelluB" by They Might Be Giants is surprisingly listenable. (It's "Sapphire Bullets of Pure Love" sonically in reverse.)
- Still making my way through the first-season episodes of The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott.
π Linking
- Project Management in your Bullet Journal (Free Template) by Nicola @ My Inner Creative
- Democrats Are Acting Too Normal by Tom Nichols
- Spring 2025 Campaign Forecast: Our Libraries on the Ballot by EveryLibrary
- It is as if you were on your phone, a game by Pippin Barr
2025 Week 9 Notes: The opposite of fussy
ποΈ // 24 February β 2 March 2025
- πΈ Spectacular spring days arrived! The plum tree and raspberry canes are already budding. This tracks with the current microseason.
- π₯οΈ Mozilla released new Terms of Use for Firefox on Wednesday, which have already been revised, but it doesn't bode well for the future of the browser. I really don't want to switch browsers; I have been a happy Firefox user for ages. But I'm looking elsewhere because capitalism ruins everything.
- π₯ I made four new recipes this week from my new cookbooks, including honey-glazed mushrooms with gluten-free udon; crispy gnocchi with burst tomatoes and mozzarella; slow-cooker Moroccan chicken with potatoes and carrots; and sheet-pan shrimp with tomatoes, feta, and oregano.
- π Personal planner update: I have become very fond of my passport-size Common Planner. I carry it in my passport Traveler's Notebook, my daily driver for 15 years, which fits in my minimalist handbag so I'm never without it.
- π€ I haven't been sharing many photos online lately, but I cannot suppress my love of fountain pen ink, so I started writing little descriptions of them and posting them to Mastodon.
πΈ Photos
Cast-iron skillets are so good. I held out for a long time because I thought they were fussy, but they're the opposite of fussy. Like this dish: gnocchi, tomatoes, cheese.
π Writing
- Stalled out on the flash fiction story. π
- Discovered a draft of a slightly longer story that I got excited about.
- I didn't submit any stories this week.
π Reading
- I finished reading "Falling Back in Love with Being Human: Letters to Lost Souls" by Kai Cheng Thom, recommended reading for anyone who struggles to love themselves.
- I am still reading "Demon Copperhead" by Barbara Kingsolver.
πΊ Watching
- Nothing new here: FunkyPlaid and I are still watching the new seasons of "Severance", "Mythic Quest", and "The White Lotus", interspersed with episodes of "The Great British Bake Off".
π§ Listening
- New throwback for my "nostalgia is a toxic impulse" music thread: "Be My Lover" by La Bouche. Everything about this song is so utterly 1995, including how it goes on for four full minutes. Perfection.
- Still making my way through the first-season episodes of The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott.
π Linking
- Video: Become a Wikipedian in 30 Minutes by Molly White
- Unfortunately For Us All, A Lot Of Trump Voters Do Actually Want This by Robyn Pennacchia
- Northwestern Libraries' website removes DEI mention as University responds to executive orders by Melody Xu
Read these posts and more on cygnoir.net.
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