Kimberly Hirsh

💬📚 “Real life is people leaning on each other when things are hard. It’s loving each other so much there’s no question about facing things together. It’s fighting for each other and with each other and being damned grateful for every morning you wake up together.” The Widow of Rose House, Diana Biller

📚💬 “Love isn’t naïve, Alva. It’s hope, and it’s faith, and it can outlast buildings and wars and empires.” The Widow of Rose House, Diana Biller

Halfway through the week of no school or camp and we’re not doing too badly, thanks to grandma time, the pool, and a moratorium on screen time limits…

🔖📚💖 A couple of links about pleasure reading for your reading pleasure:

• What Romance Novels Taught Me About Taking Pleasure More Seriously by Stephanie Fallon (The Good Trade)
• Don’t Call Them Trash by Sophie Gilbert (The Atlantic)

I like how when I text someone and am a lot, knowing they’re a lot too means I know we’ll both be okay because we’re both a lot and they won’t be mad I a-lot-ed at them.

There’s something really special about being a 90s comedy nerd married to another 90s comedy nerd.

🔖 Read A LETTER FROM THE NEW CORPORATE OWNERS OF HOOPER’S STORE (McSweeney’s).

This is hilarious and ends with a perfect button.

🎙🖖Listened to Our Opinions Are Correct, Episode 131: The State of Star Trek, with Mike McMahan. Spoilery still from the Strange New Worlds Season 2 trailer on that page.

This is a lovely episode, full of thoughts on what makes Trek Trek, when it’s at its best, and what Lower Decks does.

📝📓 Fascinated by this ethnographic study on youth’s “pocket writing” practices.

Most fiction I write happens in my pocket now and is mostly private, shared only with very specific people. As a teenager, I did a lot of writing that was tucked away in my backpack, only shared with particular friends.

🔖 Some interesting links around “wholesome” as a word for things that restore us, rather than a conservative metric by which to judge people:

• When Did ‘Wholesome’ Become a Gen Z Compliment? (NYT Gift Link)
• Why Are We Craving “Wholesome” Things? (The Good Trade)
• Wholesome Games 🎮

Installing Linux on my Windows machine…

📺 Watched The Baby-sitters Club S02E07, Claudia and the Sad Goodbye. 💔😭

If you know, you know.

🔖📓 Read How Pew Research Center will report on generations moving forward.

I love some of these alternate ways of creating age groupings. I could especially imagine grouping people according to their age at the time of key historical events or technological innovations producing valuable insights.

Does anybody else know why all I feel like doing is lying in bed and watching Netflix Originals? 📺

Finished reading: Wyngraf #1

The first issue of a cozy fantasy magazine. Full of lovely stories I very much enjoyed. Mother-daughter dragon calming, fairy diplomacy, what happens 20 years after you save the world, and more. Highly recommend.

🔖📓 Can ChatGPT Replace UX Researchers? An Empirical Analysis of Comment Classifications

This is an interesting study with implications for qualitative research beyond UX. Looks like the answer is, “It’s too soon to tell.”

🎙️💬

“Sometimes it can be hard when we’re fucking exhausted to choose the thing that feels nourishing.” Lindsay Mack, Tarot for the Wild Soul Episode 229, June Is Breaking Away

I’m only now catching up on the second season of The Babysitters Club and having Mary Ann as a triple virgo is brilliant. 📺

📺 The Babysitters Club S02E03, “Stacey’s Emergency,” brilliantly depicts what it’s like living with chronic illness.

Jami Attenberg’s #1000WordsOfSummer starts June 17 and the Slack is hopping right now, in case you want to join in on the fun. 📝

Finished reading: Demon in the Wood Graphic Novel by Leigh Bardugo 📚

Gorgeous graphic version of the Darkling’s origin story.

It was hard finding time to write while traveling, so I didn’t do all the travel blogging I would have liked. But I have consistent childcare for the next couple weeks, then for several more weeks after a one week break from now, and I’m hoping to write up some travel stuff during that time. 📝

🌊 Today is the first day of the 10th Annual 100 Days of Blue Mind challenge. As often as you can between now and Labor Day, “get near, in, on or under your wild, domestic, urban or even virtual waters.” Today I took a shower and hung out with my kid on some rocks near South Ellerbee Creek.

🔖📚 Read This Is Dedicated To Anyone Who Ever Left - Kelly McMaster interviewed by Lyz Lenz.

I like Manton’s Where have I been post and have had a pretty significant change in where I’ve visited since the start of the year, so I thought I’d make my own list.

As for what counts:

If I simply passed through in a car, train, or bus, it doesn’t count. If I was only there at an airport for a layover, it doesn’t count.

Everything else counts.

7 Countries:

• United States
• The Netherlands
• Germany
• Scotland
• Ireland
• England
• France

14 States:

• Arizona
• California
• Florida
• Georgia
• Kentucky
• Louisiana
• Maryland
• New York
• North Carolina
• Ohio
• Pennsylvania
• South Carolina
• Tennessee
• Virginia