3.2 — Skimmer

Realizing that looking only a week ahead, when I reliably send this later than I expect, is pretty goofy, so I’m continuing to tweak the scope and structure of this a lil.

        May 26, 2026

3.2 — Skimmer

        Realizing that looking only a week ahead, when I reliably send this later than I expect, is pretty goofy, so I’m continuing to tweak the scope and structure of this a lil.
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Every Wednesday forever (including this one, May 27) is Weekly Wednesday Worknight. $5, or free for members.
On Saturday (May 30) Case, a Company friend and regular who runs Calm Tech Institute and gives talks at conferences all over the world, is hosting an unconference at The Company! It’s called CyborgCamp, and it’s about the future of humans and technology. Adjusted from our last mention of this, it is now just Saturday, May 30, from 10:30a–2:30p. $15, or $10 for members.
Madeleine’s next Creative Writing Workshop is Monday, June 1, and the theme is Shelter. $10, or free for members.
PowerPoint Party No. 39 is Saturday, June 6. $10, or free for member and presenters.
An early heads up ’cause you gotta prepare: Mary Ann’s Book Club will be reading Life After Cars on Monday, June 29.

Yesterday kicked off the spiritual start of summer, which means that again some of us are setting forth on the sometimes laborious but deeply enriching journey of paying close attention to the arbitrary bounds of the season, so that, at its end, we can try to draw some meaning out of it to share with each other.
I refer to Summery, Livvy and my annual story- and reflection-driven end-of-summer picture show, now in its 9th year, in which we convince our friends to show us pictures of their summer (loosely defined) and tell us what they mean. As always, it’s taking place on the very last day of summer, which this year falls on Tuesday, September 22.
Livvy excels at the format. If you know anything about her rigorous journaling practice and her preternatural ability to ✨memento mori✨, this will make perfect sense to you. And she has, of course, already begun working on her piece, of which she recited an excerpt to me over breakfast this morning. I was with her all of yesterday—remember all the same things that happened—and still, it made me tear up. I benefit, it’s true, from an undying fascination with her mind, as well as from my own preternatural ability to ✨cry easily✨, but I think it is also to do with how lovely it is to hear what someone thinks will be worth remembering in the future.
To look back over a week, a month, a season, a year, and see something emerge is its own kind of beautiful, but it’s another thing to sit in a moment and know that this will mean something to you later.
I hope your summer is filled with such moments. That you’ll be able to notice and set down markers of all the good times while you’re in them. And I hope I’ll get to hear about them.
Hugs and H.A.G.S.,

—Ivan
P.S. Adam, please skip right past the thirty-third photo, and if you forget, definitely do not look closely at the image on the screen.
← May 17–23
Bureaucratic Minutiae

Another fly appeared but was vanquished by Beth.
At Worknight: Jessica S. worked on a script; Alex selected and printed material for 8 songs; José finalized the next section of PRD; Beth finished her PowerPoint presentation; Ivan and Madeleine added a new portion to the Beth story; Patrick scheduled all prospective tenants for tours, went to the gym, and retrieved ice cream; Livvy booked Michigan flights, sent shower dates to family, and read and took notes on The Art of Gathering; and Joe created focus group questions from survey. Writeup by Livvy
At In the Making: Patrick presented progress on Rock Paper Smash, Ale gabbed about a fashion podcast, José shared about his work programming apps for dumbphones, Sylvia planned a salon, Earl shared the world of a new comic, Lauren S. presented her explorations in landscape design, and Madeleine and Ivan previewed a rough cut of an audio story about Beth.
At the second Overtime, we played games, assembled Legos, sketched, read magazines, talked, and hung out with Asher.
Finally, a reminder that The Company is a member-supported gathering place. If you’d like to pop in for a workday and you know one of us, reach out to schedule a time and we can let you in for free. If we don’t know you yet, reach out so we can get to know you, or come by an event and say hi.

Nostalgia
Do you remember the Punch Brunch? How again it was a kind of riot? How we appeared near the end with news of our journalistic visit to a church?
Or the lunch with charts going up and down? Our discussion of a reorg for Volume 3? Talking about primary caretaking, joke criticism, and how we chanted “skimmer” at Jessica S. and it hurt her feelings? Jim’s review of bathroom interventions under consideration?
The recess of Ricochet Robots? The final Moonlight Report, at the end of lunation #1278? How it led to a simpler iteration? The talk of lullabies?
Or the big crowd at the Creative Code Denver meetup? The small crowd at the overlapping book club?
Do you remember the surprise reappearance of Patrick? How Jim yelled “fridge!” at him when he came in? How Jessica said “buh!”?
How at recess you all walked me to my bus stop to see me off, and we waved at each other? Did I ever tell you how, when I finally sat down and turned around, the bus was full of people smiling at me?
Do you remember the outing to The Devil Wears Prada 2? How eleven of you filled almost the whole row? Some of you in dresses and some of you in sweatpants? How the nice woman took a photo that made it look like you went to see Hokum?
Do you remember the recess with both basketball and coffee? Our very quiet game of Ricochet Robots that wasn’t as quiet as we thought?
How before Worknight Livvy almost died from laughing? How we played the drums with our utensils? How we adjusted our goals to correct for starflation and achieved some hard-won stars? The speed of the star ceremony?
Do you remember our walk to Van Leeuwen for a celebratory ice cream? That I wondered, again, when Beth took the rare photo of me, if this is how everyone else feels? And how Adam shared that he had mostly gotten used to the camera, but would find himself wondering how I would later report on our conversations? Do you remember wondering whether I’d remember to include that moment?
How afterward there were more rounds of Ricochet Robots?
Our hurried setup for in the Making? The not-as-small crowd? How I did the spiel for the two first-time event attendees? How fun it was to see and test and hear the different works?
Do you remember the thirty-minute lunch conversation about the intersection between silly, goofy, and funny? The Venn diagrams and matrices? How seriously we all took it? How, near the end, Mark dropped some food and we deemed the act goofy?
How we all clapped goodbye to Beth? How we began a few rounds of focus sessions, and Dan yelled and shook before each one to get his energy out?
The recess walk to Krāv?
And do you remember the second Overtime? How we left our phones in a basket and spent time with games and bricks and paper and eachother? Our surprise at Asher’s knowledge of what a lifeguard station is? His diligent placement of the soccer ball?
Photos
Punch Brunch, one of the highest-rated unofficial bureaucratic events we host.
There was something about the hand movements representing graphs but I forgot to note what the graphs were about. Something funny that Jessica S. had said. Jessica is not goofy, she is funny. Also, it is funny to me how everyone is sitting in the same exact spot as the day before, with Jim sitting in for Jessica P.
Ricochet Robots is really having a major cultural moment at The Company.
The final Moonlight Report.
Gus and/or Norton’s Creative Code Denver meetup.
Pre-book club catch-up.
Book club proper.
More Creative Code Denver. Phil, the one presenting, is the one who got Norton connected with the venue for the very first Creative Coding Art Show, where we met Mason for the first time.
A new NES game.
Another lunch, with two-year-anniversary leftovers.
Another game of Ricochet Robots.
Patrick, a friend from Livvy and my Boston days, seems to have started a yearly tradition where he unexpectedly shows up in Denver and hangs out for a few weeks. And when he does, it is tradition to greet him with a word said in a goofy manner.
Waiting for the fifty-two.
Waving goodbye. Photo by Livvy
Upon the return from this walk, the crew picked up a stray Earl. Photo by Livvy
Jessica S. generously sharing Cream Savers with the room. Photo by Livvy
The Devil Wears Prada 2. Not Hokum. Photo by a stranger
Sometime after this, Madeleine noted that soon, if not already, there are going to be more photos of her playing basketball than her performing.
Goal-setting.
Livvy offering a die to help Alex make some decisions about the songs his and Jessica P.’s daughter will remember for the rest of her life.
Star-filling.
We’ve adjusted our star system to focus on goals (or combinations of goals) that would likely need use of all the work sessions. Much higher stakes. Also, hard to see at this size, but zooming in closely into this image it is clear that Patrick is eating ice cream with a fork. That’s silly.
Designing typefaces is one of the things I do, and on this day a new brand with a custom typeface that I helped out with got featured on an blog that’s important in the branding industry! Which is a big deal for me! To celebrate, Livvy said she’d get me ice cream.
Yum ice cream! Photo by Beth
One of Livvy and my very first times hanging out with Halie, who we had met in our elevator, was getting ice cream at the Van Leeuwen in Larimer Square.
Patrick sharing about “juice”, a technical term in video game design. As a reminder to Adam, seven photos from now is the photo you should skip.
Ale sharing about her and her friend’s forthcoming fashion podcast, with a name inspired by the famous cerulean scene in The Devil Wears Prada 1.
José, our resident dumbphone expert, sharing his recent work in dumbphone app development.
Sylvia presented about salons at a previous In the Making, and here invited us into the planning of one.
People contributing ideas. Notice how particularly thinky Norton looks.
The board filling up.
Earl sharing some of his character design explorations for a forthcoming comic. Some really nice details in here. Adam, the next photo is the one you should skip.
Lauren S. giving us a tour of her and Joe’s backyard. She specifically mentioned being hopeful that Adam wouldn’t show up because he knows a lot about yards.
Madeleine and me smiling at our audio story’s main character. Photo by Norton
Madeleine and me clapping for our story’s main character. Photo by Norton
When Patrick was last around, Mark and Michelle were hosting their salsa classes (taught by Jess), and Patrick—already knowing a fair bit of moves—showed us some new ones, including one we named “Patrick’s Deception” months later because we forgot the name he had told us.
This will mean something to you later.
Aforementioned Halie, in a rare, novel workday visit.
The Friday lunch crew.
This quickly became a working lunch to chart the differences between funny, silly, and goofy.
A walk to recess.
Overtime #2.
Adam and Asher helping Livvy and me get some important practice. Photo by Lauren T.
A game of Hues and Cues.
An emblematic moment. Thanks to Alex for noticing this.

—
This issue of Paperwork was written by Ivan with additional reporting from Lauren T., and was shot by Ivan, Livvy, a stranger, Beth, Norton, and Lauren T. Photo selection and editing by Ivan, Norton, Patrick, and Livvy. Editorial support was provided by Livvy. This issue, and The Company itself, was made possible by the support of our members, Halie, Drew J., Justin, Mason, José, Mary Ann, Trevr, Allyson, Lizzie, Elijah, Michelle, Jim, Jacob, Mark, Sabrina, Beth, Dani, Chris, Will, Marcia, Rebeca, Sarah, Alex, Jessica P., Jessica S., Ben, Sam Ad., Christof, Ryan, Lauren T., Madeleine, Simon, Adam B., Gus, Lauren S., Earl, Maddie, Bennett, Sylvia, Morgan, and Joe.
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