- “That Old Joke”
Been feeling this poem a lot lately. I think it might be one of my best. - “Revisiting The Lord of the Rings“
We’ve been playing a lot of Tolkien trivia at work, and this reread was very helpful for that. Also for another project I can’t talk about.
As for the review itself, honestly I think a pulled my punches in a couple spots and didn’t expand on some things that I should have, but I still think this is pretty good - “It’s Been a Rollercoaster of a Month”
I’ve never discussed this incident with the manager in question, and fortunately he works on the opposite side of the building from me so I frequently go entire days without feeling a sudden surge of bitter resentment that surely is disguised only by my mandatory face mask.
The story about the dog really was just the first anecdote that came to mind when I was writing and needed an intermission to, as I said, build tension. It was only in the revision process that I realized it could be thematically relevant, but in order to explicate that I’d have to give up the “this had nothing to do with anything” line and I like that line, so I left it alone.
I just had my first performance review since getting the new job and I got top marks. I’ve also been more stressed at work, I find myself caring about things that I’m ideologically opposed to caring about, and I’m generally too exhausted by the time I get home to do anything productive, like writing. But also the other day I got to spend 6 hours messing around with a spreadsheet. But also I had my first-ever Zoom work meeting—with people who all work in the same building as me. So, ups and downs.
I’ve also been hesitant to answer anyone’s questions about timekeeping issues.
My co-worker who’s name I didn’t know worked in another department and just retired a month or so ago, so I never actually got to use their name.
As far as I know only one person at work has read this essay, and they were a temporary hire who has since left. They said the liked it though.
My mother and her friends and I think one of my cousins insist I should send this to The New Yorker.
The zipper on my bag is still broken. - “Twitter Thread Digest 2: Discourse”
For how much I enjoy writing on Twitter it’s a real shame how terrible it is in almost every other regard. Also, I hadn’t realized that people can see when you quote-tweet them, and recently I did so rather snarkily and the person replied to me more graciously than I deserved, causing me to feel so bad that I bought their book. Twitter discourse is a dangerous thing.
Turns out I didn’t write much in 2021. Hopefully that will change in 2022…though it hasn’t so far. Also, I guess here’s as good a place as any to mention that while I didn’t do as much writing as I would’ve liked, I did start recording music again for the first time in a long time. So far it’s just a few mostly-acoustic covers, but I think they’re pretty good and I’ve been having fun learning a new DAW (also I have a real mic for the first time, so that’s cool). As with writing, for the moment I’m just treating this as a creative outlet, not trying to monetize it or build a career off it. If you’re interested you can check out my SoundCloud.
Certain of Eventual Failure 