Weekly Round-up, February 1, 2025

I am back home and in blissed-put recovery mode after four days of Monumental ConFusion. I will post a write-up in the near future.

Reading

I finished Speculative Whiteness, and am in the final stretch of Doctor Zhivago. Zhivago has been a very long project, due in large part to chaos in my day job and also chaos in the world at large. Concentration and focus have been in very short supply this year.

Writing

My brain is recovering from the past three months of *gestures at everything*, so not much writing this week.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Undead, Genius Loci
Setting: Library
Genre: Solarpunk

Listening

Marianne Faithfull and The Chieftains, “Love is Teasin'”, from the magnificent album The Long Black Veil.

Faithfull died this past Thursday, after a long, difficult, and beautiful life.

Interesting Links

Weekly Round-up, January 25, 2025

The view from the hotel window at ConFusion 2025. A parking lot, a frozen pond, and several roads are visible, as well as various evergreen and deciduous trees.

[The view from the hotel window at ConFusion 2025.]

This will be a brief update, as I am at Monumental ConFusion for the weekend.

Reading

With the crazy project finally mostly wrapped up, I finally have time and – more importantly – mental energy to dive back into reading. I am bouncing back and forth between Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago, where I am well past the halfway point, and Jordan S. Carroll’s Speculative Whiteness, which is a short but infuriating read, though now that I am well past the halfway point it is becoming amusing. The alt-right, in all their various facets, are a bunch of pathetic losers.

Writing

Not much writing happening right now, thanks to the afore-mentioned Crazy Project.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Empire, Genius Loci
Setting: Wilderness
Genre: Dystopian

Listening

“Father & Son” by Yusuf Islam/Cat Stevens. My partner and I have been watching Ted Lasso, with is remarkable and joyous, and the final scene of the final episode featured this song.

Interesting Links