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Month: August 2025

Weekly Round-up, August 23, 2025

2025-08-232025-08-23 John Winkelman

A sign warning of the potential presence of snakes and alligators, at the edge of a sidewalk, at a facility in Orlando, Florida.

[A sign warning of the potential presence of snakes and alligators, at the edge of a sidewalk, at a facility in Orlando, Florida.]

I am back from a somewhat-sudden couple of weeks of travel. Z and I spent six days driving approximately 1,500 miles around Lake Michigan, visiting friends and family in Bloomington, IL, Madison, WI, Marquette, MI and Sault Ste Marie, MI, as well as stops at various places in between. We deemed this a necessary trip, as our family members are aging at the expected pace, which is to say, faster than we would like.

We returned home late Saturday afternoon, then I immediately began preparing for a work trip to Orlando. We left for the airport a little after 7:00 Sunday morning, and by late afternoon I was in Florida.

I spent three days doing work stuff, then hopped the plane for home. Z picked me up at the Grand Rapids airport around 11:45 Wednesday evening, and we arrived back home around 1:00 am Thursday.

And now I am tired, and very much looking forward to NOT traveling for a few months.

Reading

I finished The Unaccountability Machine while en route to Orlando, and made good headway in Simulacra and Simulation while at the work event. By the time I boarded the flight home my brain was complete mush, so I loaded up the wonderful We are Legion (We are Bob), the first book in the Bobiverse series by Dennis Taylor. It was just what my brain needed after such an exhausting summer.

Writing

Per events of the past couple of weeks, nothing here. Not even journaling.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Evolution, Colonization
Setting: Virtual Reality
Genre: Magic Realism

Listening

Starbuck, “Moonlight Feels Right“, released in December 1975. After picking me up at the airport, Z suggested we stop somewhere for food, as I had not eaten since breakfast. So we stopped at The Grand Coney for some comfort food. A song came on the radio which I vaguely recognized, though I couldn’t make out any of the lyrics. So I searched “70s song marimba solo”, and this was the first result. So if your day can be improved by a marimba solo, this is the song for you.

Interesting Links

  • “James Dobson, Burn in Hell” (Erik Loomis, Lawyers, Guns, and Money) – Conservative Christian child abuser extraordinare James Dobson was dragged squealing and bleating to his much-deserved reward. He was 89 years old, which means he lived about 88 years too long. He made a career of instructing conservative Christians on the best ways to beat their children to achieve the desired result of reducing them to the status of frightened animals instead of fully-realized human beings. Dobson was an active supporter of noted child rapist Donald Trump, which is really no surprise, as both men are held up as heroes by the white Evangelical church specifically because of these predilections. And if any conservative Christians read this entry and feel insulted, I would like to point out that it is not the job of real people to put any effort into differentiation between “good” conservative Christians and “bad” conservative Christians. If you don’t want to be lumped in with the bad ones, then you need to clean your house.
Posted in LifeTagged Starbuck comment on Weekly Round-up, August 23, 2025

Weekly Round-up, August 9, 2025

2025-08-092025-08-09 John Winkelman

Looking west toward Division Avenue from the second floor of the YWCA West Michigan.

[Looking west toward Division Avenue from the second floor of the YWCA West Michigan.]

Reading

My evening comfort read is Jim Harrison’s The Raw and the Cooked. The ten minutes between when I lay down in bed and when I fall asleep has been my only reading time this week.

Writing

Nothing new to report. Work ate my brain.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Cryptids, Mutants
Setting: Academia
Genre: Cyberpunk

Listening

PhD, “Little Suzi’s on the Up,” from their 1981 self-titled debut album. This was the fifth video played on MTV the day the station launched.

Interesting Links

  • “Trump’s Anti-Voter Agenda Crystallizes” (Michael Waldman, The Briefing)
Posted in LifeTagged PhD comment on Weekly Round-up, August 9, 2025

Weekly Round-up, August 2, 2025

2025-08-022025-08-02 John Winkelman

Zucchini blossom nestled in an overgrown zucchini plant.

[Zucchini blossoms in the plant which is slowly taking over our back yard.]

Less than halfway into summer, and summer seems to be almost over. The long heatwave finally broke and the outdoor temperature of the past few nights has been down in the fifties. I have slept better over the past three nights than at any point since early June.

Reading

I am about halfway through Dan Davies’ The Unaccountability Machine. Still both enlightening and infuriating.

Writing

The only thing I wrote in the past week was Javascript.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Apocalypse, Genius Loci
Setting: Urban
Genre: Noir

Listening

Tom Lehrer, “So Long Mom (A Song for World War III).” Lehrer died this past Saturday, July 26, at the of age of 97.

Interesting Links

  • “Cruel Executive Order on Homelessness Is Also Ineffective Policy—Unless Goal Is to Discipline Workers and Boost Prison Industry” (Conor Gallagher, Naked Capitalism)

 

Posted in LifeTagged Tom Lehrer comment on Weekly Round-up, August 2, 2025

July 2025 Books and Reading Notes

2025-08-012025-08-01 John Winkelman

I had some time off in July, so I put that time to good use getting caught up with my reading. Or rather, using reading as an escapist mechanism to avoid the fact that I still have at least a decade before I will be able to retire.

Acquisitions

Books acquired in the month of July 2025

  1. Banu Mushtaq (Deepa Bhasthi, translator), Heart Lamp: Selected Stories (And Other Stories) [2025.07.01]
  2. Travis Baldree, Bookshops & Bonedust [2025.07.09]
  3. Cormac McCarthy, Stella Maris [2025.07.09]
  4. Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States [2025.07.09]
  5. John Jennings, David Brame, Bill Campbell, Yvette Lisa Ndlovu, Damian Duffy, The Adventures of Lion Man (Rosarium Publishing) [2025.07.14]
  6. Quinn Slobodian, Hayek’s Bastards (Zone Books) [2025.07.21]
  7. Rosalind Belben, Dreaming of Dead People (And Other Stories) [2025.07.28]

Reading List

Books

Books I read in the month of July 2025.

  1. Steve Kowit (editor), The Maverick Poets: An Anthology (re-read) [2025.07.04] – Every few years I just need to re-read this book. This is one of those years.
  2. Alejandro Jodorowsky, Alfred Mac Adam (translator), Albina and the Dog Men [2025.07.04] – Entertaining but mid-range novel.
  3. Frantz Fanon (Richard Philcox, translator), The Wretched of the Earth [2025.07.07]
  4. Christine Schutt, Pure Hollywood (And Other Stories) [2025.07.08]
  5. Travis Baldree, Bookshops & Bonedust [2025.07.10]
  6. Carl de Souza (Jeffrey Zuckerman, translator), Kaya Days [2025.07.13]
  7. John Jennings, David Brame, Bill Campbell, Yvette Lisa Ndlovu, Damian Duffy, The Adventures of Lion Man [2025.07.20]

Short Prose

  1. Christine Schutt, “Pure Hollywood”, Pure Hollywood [2025.07.06]
  2. Christine Schutt, “The Hedges”, Pure Hollywood [2025.07.07]
  3. Christine Schutt, “Species of a Special Concern”, Pure Hollywood [2025.07.07]
  4. Christine Schutt, “A Happy Rural Seat of Various View: Lucinda’s Garden”, Pure Hollywood [2025.07.08]
  5. Christine Schutt, “The Duchess of Albany”, Pure Hollywood [2025.07.08]
  6. Christine Schutt, “Family Man”, Pure Hollywood [2025.07.08]
  7. Christine Schutt, “Where You Live? When You Need Me?”, Pure Hollywood [2025.07.08]
  8. Christine Schutt, “Burst Pods, Gone-By, Tangled Aster”, Pure Hollywood [2025.07.08]
  9. Christine Schutt, “The Dot Sisters”, Pure Hollywood [2025.07.08]
  10. Christine Schutt, “Oh, the Obvious”, Pure Hollywood [2025.07.08]
  11. Christine Schutt, “The Lady from Connecticut”, Pure Hollywood [2025.07.08]
Posted in Book ListTagged Alejandro Jodorowsky, Alfred Mac Adam, And Other Stories, Banu Mushtaq, Bill Campbell, Christine Schutt, Cormac McCarthy, Damian Duffy, David Brame, Deepa Bhasthi, Frantz Fanon, John Jennings, poetry, Quinn Slobodian, Richard Philcox, Rosalind Belben, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Steve Kowit, Travis Baldree, Yvette Lisa Ndlovu comment on July 2025 Books and Reading Notes

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