🔖📺 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.

An e-reader displaying the cover of a romance novel by Talia Hibbert, featuring an illustration of two people and a cat. The title is 'Get A Life, Chloe Brown' and it is a USA Today Bestseller.

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.

Two books and a pen on a dark surface. One book is titled “Rawness of Remembering: Restorative Journaling through Difficult Times” and has a purple cover with golden designs. The other book is a green bullet journal with a Librarian Tarot card sticker. A purple pen rests on the purple book.

🔖 Read 2024: The Year of the Personal Website 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 this post on gift-giving:

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:

  1. I noticed something that’s important to you.
  2. 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.

A close-up view of an open book with an inscription on the blank page in a handwriting font. The inscription reads: I hereby officially declare a Shenanigan.

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.

A book titled “FOR NEVER & ALWAYS” by Helena Greer, featuring two illustrated characters on the cover.

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.

A hand holding a book titled 'How to Excavate a Heart' by Jake Maia Arlow in front of a brightly decorated Christmas tree.

📚🗨️ “I want to live my life being irrationally hopeful. Loving people and fish and cities with my whole heart.” Jake Maia Arlow, How to Excavate a Heart

Yesterday my mom, who in April 2022 was told she would probably never walk again, walked (with a walker and people around to spot her) up my front steps, into my house, and over to the couch. This is the result of months of hard work and physical therapy. ♥️

🍿 Watched Hats Off to Christmas.

Stefan from Saturday Night Live, played by Bill Harder, says 'This place has everything'

This is the most paradigmatic Hallmark Christmas movie. It has everything:

  • a struggling small business
  • a suit guy
  • who is going back to his small hometown after life in the big city
  • a wheelchair-riding moppet
  • who miraculously recovers from the injury that made him need a wheelchair
  • a woman being stupid because of a conversation she eavesdropped on
  • who is a young widow
  • two chaste kisses
  • a happy ending

Is it a good movie? No. But is it a laughably bad movie? No. Haylie Duff is incredibly winning and the reason I kept watching. Her chemistry with her costar is non-existent but she’s so cute, I didn’t care.

Finished reading: Kiss Her Once for Me by Alison Cochrun 📚

This one was so lovely it made me cry. I can’t even sum up. Go read the description if it sounds good to you, try it out. Highly recommend.

A hand holding a book titled 'Kiss Her Once for Me' by Alison Cochrum in front of a brightly decorated Christmas tree with colorful lights and ornaments.

🗨️📚 “the emptiness was the absence of myself.” Alison Cochrun, Kiss Her Once for Me

I made this Funko Pop of myself using this Microsoft Designer prompt and I love her so much.

A collectible “Goth Mom” figurine from the POP! series, featuring a character with black hair, large glasses, and gothic attire, standing next to its packaging.

My little family is in the production of A Christmas Carol honoring the retirement of the director of the theater where W & I met. At rehearsal last night I looked at a particular spot on the floor of the theater & thought, “That’s where I fell in love with W.”

Bringing back The PhD Story’s predictive text New Year’s Resolution:

My resolution for 2024 is to be a good time.

Finished reading: You’re a Mean One, Matthew Prince by Timothy Janovsky 📚

Oh my goodness I love it. Matthew Prince starts out as a spoiled party boy but Janovsky slowly pulled the onion layers back until I loved him. And his love interest Hector is wonderful. Highly recommend.

A hand holding a book titled YOU'RE A MEAN ONE MATTHEW PRINCE by TIMOTHY JANOVSKY in front of a decorated Christmas tree and a lit fireplace.

📚 Listening to Patrick Stewart read A Christmas Carol and it’s just feels like having Jean-Luc Picard read it to you. 😍