Hi friends and family,

Both journeys this month were successes. First was the roadtrip to the Great Smokey Mountains, which lived up to their name. On the way, Tabby, Ian, and I stopped by D.C. as the midpoint between Boston and Tennessee where we spent most of the day touring the National Gallery and playing Smash Bros. The days consisted of walking like animals, long but rewarding hikes, bowling, and and a crash course in Smash Bros principles.

The Iowa state fair had the butter cow, some brilliant quilts, and overwhelming colors. The fair's vegan menu consisted of nine pages listing various lemonade, soda, and slushee stands, but there was one veggie dog stand: my campfire in the blistering cold night. Visiting the fattest pig in Iowa seemed more enjoyable in abstract than in practice, so we skipped it. I also tried what one of Lucas' friends called an evil malort, which consisted of malort, newport ashes, cuttlefish ink, carolina reaper, and truffle oil. Also more enjoyable in abstract than in practice.

August has been a good bout of unemployment. I've really only done one of the few things I've had on my unemployment to-do list, which was make 144 cookies in a day with 10 different recipes (I accidentally doubled two batches). I gave them to my friends to find the best cookie. Most of them, unfortunately, turned out mediocre. The top scoring cookie was Binging with Babish's, the one I have been adapting for a while, which scored a min-max normalized 3.73/5. Betty Crocker scored close behind at 3.70. The top recipes, unfortunately, don't have much in common so it'll be difficult to abstract lessons for cookie perfection. I'm additionally not sure how much to attribute to baker error, veganization, or the Fordist method by which I made all of the cookies. Much to consider.

Much of my other spare time has been spent making art and reading. I finished Bowling Alone, which was a long and dense but solid book on the decline of social capital within the United States since the Progressive Era. It's been one of those books which has really the way I engage with the world. I've registered to vote in Mass, donated blood and platelets, met neighbors, hosted, and am now excited to rejoin club life at Northeastern.

I also went to my first concert in a while with Citizen headlining. Though I had low HP after platelet donation, it was nice being around live music. I was mostly there for the openers, Anxious and Rocket. Anxious in particular is a very solid introduction to emo and I'm super pumped on where they're headed.

School starts on September 9th, which is less than a week away now. I'm unsure how much work my master's will be. It's only two classes, but in a field I'm not very confident in. With my free time I'll do some combination of a 10hr/week job, research assistance, political organizing around AI safety, and random clubs like beekeeping or music journalism. I'll keep you guys in the loop.

What I've been listening to:

• Rebecca Black! She's back and her DJ sets are sick. I'll see her live this month!

• Bambi by Anxious

• R is for Rocket by Rocket

What I've been reading:

• Bowling Alone by Robert Putnam

• Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action by Habermas

• Against Democracy by Jason Brennan

Longshot asks:

• Im going to Converge's hardcore festival on December 13, folks are welcome to join me :)

With love and care,
Ryan Baylon
ryanbaylon.com
ryanbaylon.substack.com
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