Notes
Finished reading: The Frame-Up by Gwenda Bond 📚
I thought this was going to be a romance book with a heist, but I was mistaken. It’s a heist book with a romance! It’s beautifully done. Full review coming soon. The Frame-Up releases February 13. Pre-order it now!
Friends of the Internet, timelines move too fast for where my head is at right now. I’m not abandoning them but I hope you know that if something big comes up and I don’t weight in, it’s 99% likely it’s because I didn’t see it, not because I’m staying silent on purpose.
🍿 Watched Heartburn.
This one is written by Nora Ephron & directed by Mike Nichols, and it’s mostly very sad.
But the cries it made me cry were mostly happy cries because Meryl Streep’s character clearly loved her kids so much and I love my kid so much, too.
🍿 Watched The Intern.
Another Nancy Meyers film. I really liked this. It made me cry. I think it was a little tricky because it seemed both to critique and support Anne Hathaway’s character’s intensity as an overnight CEO, but I guess that’s a good approach, not moralistic.
🍿 Watched It’s Complicated. Happy to have watched. It seemed to me mostly to be about how a manbaby doesn’t want to contribute to his new family and tries to get his ex-wife to take care of him now that she’s an empty nester and won’t need his help. Spoiler: it doesn’t work.
If you like analog tools, you probably want to sign up for @cygnoir’s analog meetup.
🔖 I’m genuinely thrilled for the Gen Zers and others who have the energy for a weekly everything shower, but this chronically ill Xennial is pretty sure it would use up all of her spoons.
🎮 Finished The Legend of Zelda (NES).
A classic, of course. I’ve never been able to get very far before, but I played it with Nintendo Switch Online and made liberal use of suspend points (aka save states) and walkthroughs. I had fun and finished both quests.
Finished reading: Never Been Kissed by Timothy Janovsky 📚
Another delightful romance given to us by Timothy Janovsky, whose little details feel so calculated to please me. This time: The Great Movie Ride (RIP) figures in a key scene.
🔖📺 Watched Pokemon Concierge and read Pokémon Concierge’s Psyduck Is for the Millennial Pokémon Fans.
I’m a Xennial: Pokemon was more for the kids I babysat than for me, though I did get into the card game my freshman year of college.
Psyduck has long been my Pokemon soul mate, with her constant headaches and love of water. And this article articulates why Psyduck appeals to me even more in Pokemon Concierge.
I like @ayjay’s idea of reflecting on what you’ve read weekly or monthly.
🔖 Read The Web Renaissance Takes Off by Anil Dash.
Sign me up.
(I’m trying to make a web-related pun here about Lucrezia Borgia, but it’s just not happening.)
Finished reading: Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert 📚
I’m late to this party but happy to finally be here. As sweet and hot as the romance here is, it’s the portrayal of fibromyalgia that makes my heart sing.
Gonna be updating my about page soon. If you were going to choose something to include on my about page, what would it be?
🔖 Read Ambient Co-Presence by Maggie Appleton.
This sounds really nice. My favorite locale for physical ambient co-presence is a university library, which I use a Winter Whale sound video to replicate at home. I use a few co& working sessions via a Mighty Networks or Zoom to do this, too. I wonder what the role of services like Focusmate or Flow.club is here.
🔖 Austin Kleon’s list of 100 things that made his year is excellent, as always.
Leigh Bardugo encourages people on New Year’s Day to Begin As You Mean to Go On, meaning to spend 15 minutes doing something you want to do more of this year.
So I spent 15 minutes journaling with Esmé Weijun Wang’s Rawness of Remembering journaling course.
🔖 Read by Matthias Ott.
How about, from now on, we make every year the year of the personal website – and make the internet human, creative, personal, and weird again?
I’m down.
Responding to :
For me, the sweet spot for a gift is when you can use it to show that you’ve paid attention to what the person needs or cares about. Not because you want to be smug or feel good about yourself, but because as the receiver of a gift, it feels good to be seen.
Most years, I only give gifts to family, which certainly makes this easier. In recent years, I also pick an annual formula, for example, everyone gets a book or everyone gets a T-shirt.
This year, everyone got a donation to something they care about plus a token to unwrap.
- My brother got patronage of Defunctland and a Defunctland brochure.
- My sister got a symbolic adoption of a red panda through the World Wildlife Fund and a DVD of the Spirited Away stage show.
- My brother-in-law got a donation to the Order of the Good Death and an occult-themed cocktail recipe book.
- My mother got a donation to the American Cancer Society and a T-shirt with a meme she likes on it.
- My father got a manatee adoption from the Save the Manatee club and a Jeopardy! card game.
Each of these gifts says:
- I noticed something that’s important to you.
- I noticed something you enjoy.
There’s no perfect formula for gift giving, but I find using it as an opportunity to say “I see you” is a useful principle.
🍿 Watched Lady Boss: The Jackie Collins Story.
A fascinating documentary about a fascinating person.
Finished reading: For Never & Always by Helena Greer 📚
I love it so much. Finished it in under 48 hours. Helena Greer has given us a lovely place in Carrigan’s Christmasland and a host of delightful people to populate it. I keep seeing different bits of myself in each of her characters and it makes me happy. Highly recommend.
It is not humanly possible for Helena Greer to write fast enough to meet my desire for Carrigan’s content. It’s generous of her to give us a book a year. Yet I’d read however many she wrote as quickly as I could.
Me: I started this book last night and read only one chapter before bed. Now I’m on page 214.
W: Sounds like my wife.
📚
Finished reading: How to Excavate a Heart by Jake Maia Arlow 📚
Lovely and sweet. Made me cry when the main character’s mom really shows up for her. Also kinda makes me want to travel to DC.
