Wednesday, November 20, 2024 →
Finished reading: Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange 📚
Newsletter
🧶 Wonky Star quilt
Monday, November 11, 2024
Posting about my latest quilt for posterity. This is a “wonky star” quilt using 10” precuts, measuring about 60 X 70”. I completed the sides last night and will hand quilt all of it with a mix of big stitch quilting.
Finished reading: Lit by Mary Karr 📚
So long
Thursday, November 7, 2024
Deactivated my Twitter account after fifteen years (sheesh).
Finished reading: The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates 📚
Finished reading: Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt 📚
Just talked myself into and out of $300 of yarn.
Currently reading: Abortion by Jessica Valenti 📚
Thursday, September 26, 2024 →
It’s the time of year when I can’t get around the nagging feeling that I need to buy yarn (I don’t need any more yarn).
Ephemera
Wednesday, September 25, 2024
Been playing with micro.blog for a bit now and very much recommend the experience. The interface is friendly and the team behind the app is ultra responsive. My fav features are Bookshelves - and the ability to push new posts to Bluesky and Mastodon.
In other news, I got a new bike.
Wednesday, September 25, 2024 →
Finished reading (a couple of months ago): Holding It Together by Jessica Calarco 📚
Wednesday, September 25, 2024 →
Read this in one sitting, reminded of “The Fire Next Time” in both style and urgency. Finished reading: Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates 📚
Finished reading: On Writing by Stephen King 📚
Thursday, September 19, 2024 →
“To create a novel or a painting, an artist makes choices that are fundamentally alien to artificial intelligence.”
🍳 Bean machine
Tuesday, September 3, 2024
It’s soup season - and I’m a newly-minted member of the bean club. This is more or less my favorite lentil soup recipe, except I deglaze the pot with a healthy dose of dry red wine before adding the lentils and stock, and I stew it with a big sachet of fresh thyme.
Finished reading: James by Percival Everett 📚
🍳 Meat People
Sunday, July 28, 2024
This butchery on the east side is owner-operated, and features meats only from local, humane farms. In addition, they are a “whole animal” butcher, in that they buy and break down a whole animal at a time, thus offering an array of extremely fresh products from sausage to steaks to specialty cuts (picanha, anyone?). One of the owners was working the counter this Saturday when we came in and greeted us with some suggestions for the day. We got a few pounds of pork shoulder to make carnitas at home, and while they were preparing our order, I perused the grocery area.
It’s clear that whoever curates their grocery knows their stuff. They had great fixings to pair with their meats, including a selection of curated wines, hot sauces and other sundry that reflect thoughtful food experience, travel and research. I got some wine, a series of hot sauces, and some tinned fish. Our tacos were delicious.
Currently reading: 100 Years of the Best American Short Stories by Lorrie Moore 📚
Watch House
Tuesday, July 2, 2024
Last week I joined an old friend on a road trip through Wisconsin. We saw a folk show, stayed at a vintage motel, and camped in the crook of Green Bay.
In our early years, we were both shit-kicking dirtbags, rebels, people who thumbed our noses at convention and were told (and fully believed) we wouldn’t amount to much. Today, we’re regular middle-aged ladies secure in our work, home and ambition, figuring out what the rest of our lives will look like. In that way, this trip was a fun reset: a reminder of where I’ve been and where I’m going.
I’m grateful to be surrounded by so many incredible women.
⚡ Acceleration
Tuesday, June 25, 2024
This has a bad headline, but the gist is that AI is already beginning to be used to power racketeering and ransom business models against vulnerable human enterprises. The net effect is a general erosion of the trustworthiness of written communication, especially online, as the same tools we use to perform our work and extend our social lives are increasingly used to scam us.
I read this again after a twenty year break. It holds up, but wowzers, my takeaways were different in 2024. Finished reading: The Red Tent by Anita Diamant 📚
“Again and again, I sought out high-challenge, high-stress jobs. I thrived when I felt bad.”
In relationship to collectors, purchases of physical media are on the rise, with vinyl outselling everything, and cassette tapes, CDs and DVDs making a comeback. I’m a longtime downloader and streamer, but have been buying vinyl lately myself. Indicative of lost trust in Big Tech?
61% of Americans are self-proclaimed collectors. 83% of collectors think their collection will be worth something someday. Young people identify as collectors more than ever, with Gen Z at 76% and millennials at 72%.
Starting to see some best practices emerging around AI capabilities in the higher ed space. Here’s a table of AI vs human capabilities in the Bloom’s hierarchy of cognitive tasks from Oregon State.
Maybe it’s because I’ve been reading so much, maybe it’s because I’m in a reflective stage of life, but I have the writing bug again. It’s been a long, long time since I felt the urge to write.
A clever look at feminist theory through celebrity case studies. My favorite chapters were on humor, leadership and nudity.
Finished reading: Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud by Anne Helen Petersen 📚
All the women I know are reading and gardening at a feral clip.
From the Garbage Day newsletter, my fav newsletter on internet trends and marketing, this blog post on looking for federated blog alternatives to Wordpress which links out to this handy dashboard measuring total users on federated platforms.