These final days of a long strange year

December 18, 2024

Thanks to neepernu, Michael, Tegan, and svcseattle for their recent support. Hi friend, Grades are turned in. Assorted reports have been filed. January and...

You will find that I am the pig

November 15, 2024

Hi friend, I’m avoiding the news and yet it all still finds me. (Brain worm. The man had a lit-e-ral worm in his brain.) The problem with only sending these...

New old music

October 1, 2024

Hello friend, “Life is good.” I get why people buy t-shirts that say that, or put smiley face pins on their jackets, or buy flowers for themselves. Life is...

Sam is going to see that star

July 25, 2024

There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart,...

I’ve expected very little of it all

February 13, 2024

I checked in at 3:45. I’ll be checked out by 5:30; less than an hour from now as I write this. Nothing’s wrong with the room. It’s spacious, by Manhattan...

My Norah Ephron levels

December 15, 2023

Hi friend, How are you? I asked an IRL friend that the other night, too. Hadn’t seen her in weeks, hadn’t caught up for a couple of months. She gave an...

My toothless condemnation

November 7, 2023

Hi friend, How are you? People talk about whether good ends can justify bad means, or at least they used to. Why do the math if you know the answer is null?...

Or I can *not* do those things

September 13, 2023

Man at work. Hi friend, How are you? You may or may not have noticed my professional absence of sorts these past many months. Not writing to you, not...

A borrowed pencil on the bus to school

April 13, 2023

Hey friend, Lamott’s shitty first drafts (PDF) are a good approach to writing, but they don’t work quite as well when, instead of writing one bad thing...

Fine, fine, let’s do all that

February 10, 2023

Hi friends, Historically, you all seem to like when I’m miserable. “Like” as in “engage heartily with the newsletter when”, not “am happy when”. So I’m sorry...

There's no one else at the party

February 3, 2023

I had hoped, today, to work from the new coworking space I’ve been part of for a few weeks now. It’s a 40-minute walk (or 40-minute bus ride, because transit...

Coulda woulda shoulda

January 13, 2023

Hi friend, I’m in an odd place of intentional professional procrastination. I have leads I am not quite following up on, potential workshops I am not yet...

A little Christmas nest

December 2, 2022

Hi friend, I’ve decided to embrace my inner BCB — that’s Basic Christmas Bitch. Now, I admire the Spooky Girls and the GHB’s — Gothic Halloween Bitches. I...

A man with a different life

November 18, 2022

Hi friend, I’m near Tucson as I write this, visiting at my dad’s place in the general spirit of celebrating Thanksgiving. I am doing this before Thanksgiving...

A Typical Week for a Great Many People

November 11, 2022

A typical week for a great many people Hi friend, I’ve been in a tunnel all week. Figuratively, of course — I say of course because, as a broad category,...

The Lonesome Crowded Westin

November 4, 2022

Lonesome Crowded West Writing regularly helps me get more smarterer because I’m constantly looking up words and concepts to see if my understanding matches...

All went well despite me

October 28, 2022

YGEFSK October 22 Hi friend, I don’t smell very good right now. I showered — too long, per the standards of anyone I’ve ever lived with, as per usual. I...

Big King Energy

October 14, 2022

Hi friend, One of my favorite things to do as a public speaker is improvise something that draws an explicit connection between my talk and another session...

Learn thinky things

September 17, 2022

Hi friends, Folks seem to like my latest bit of advice for aspiring designers: Learn thinky things. I coined this advice (with an unconscious assist from...

An excuse to buy more gear

September 9, 2022

Hey friend, Sometimes the answer is so obvious and it took so long to get there that you want to smack your head and yell “Yadoy!” I nearly yadoyed myself a...

Oh, to be unreachable

August 26, 2022

Hi friend, I would have a healthier relationship with technology and social media — and be healthier in general — if it were easier to take the phone off the...

Logic versus (brain) chemistry

August 17, 2022

Hey friend, Me, I’m sad. But also not? Life is happy! That’s what I’m telling myself, because it’s true. In a funny place where I’m feeling low, just right...

Activities I Enjoy in the World

June 17, 2022

Hi friends, I woke up with a horrible mid-aughts acoustic alternative song in my head. Not that one, the other one. I vaguely recall hearing it a month or so...

I’m not confident I know what pithy means

June 3, 2022

Hey friend, I’ve been quite ill this week. Not sicker than I’ve ever been, but sicker than I’ve been in years. That was one small silver lining of COVID, I...

They can't sue everyone

February 14, 2022

Editor's Note: As will become clear, I wrote all this last evening, and intended to send it contemporaneously. But the problem with using independent...