Miscellany
Warm enough to eat outside today!
Does Felonious Husk even think about the probable consequences of his reliance on self-dealt government contracts come the midterm elections? Do his investors and boards? Add to that the destruction of his cars' reputation, and he is poised to fail hard.
Sounds like artillery fire. Guess I’m close to Aberdeen Proving Ground. That, or things in DC are escalating.
Maybe 4 in (10 cm) of snow last night. Not as good as down on the Gulf of Mexico, but still something.
Had to cut short a walk this afternoon because I was not dressed for the wind, which was making 19°F / -7°C feel like 5°F / -15°C.
21°F / -6°C outside with a real feel of 11°F / -11.5°C, and people are still ordering iced coffee drinks.
My mother received nine carolers from her church this afternoon. I steered clear so she could enjoy the company without me getting in the way. They stayed a good while, and left her a very happy camper.🎄
My feel-good television series this past year: Elsbeth on Paramount+.
Snow flurries this afternoon. Windy. Should’ve worn my long johns.
Nearly 10:00am, and the sun sets in 6.25 hours. I need to get outside.
Am reacquainting myself with the literal wintertime darkness, learning again how to move through it without letting it consume me.
My mother has been watching her church service online so she can hear it. That means I hear parts too. And I can see what’s happening on the desktop I’m streaming to the TV with. Different vibe today. Pastor began by inviting people to settle, to be present, to allow themselves to have their feelings. I also saw more people in attendance than is often the case. The service emphasized themes such as inclusion, compassion, and justice, the last term describing something very different from the hypocritical, moralizing, vengeful God that I despised and rejected in my youth. If I had a religious bone left in my body, this place could be one point of connection with the local community.
It’s 69°F outside. There’s an outside to enjoy, an outside in which to wear out my anxiety and calm my mind.
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Trans Lifeline’s Hotline is a peer support phone service run by trans people for our trans and questioning peers. Call us if you need someone trans to talk to, even if you’re not in a crisis or if you’re not sure you’re trans.
Okay, I’ve made it this far into my day without coffee because there was none. That’s changed, so time to put the moka pot to work. ☕️
Sun sets at 5:40 this afternoon, and it’s 3:10 now. I gotta get outside while there’s still time. 🥾
The DMV can be tricky no matter where you live. My last experience in DC was easy and pleasant. Today’s visit in rural NH was a little confusing.
Just shipped a package from the post office. Clerk: Any hazardous materials? Me: Well, books. ⚠️📚
Got to see a niece today who I hadn’t seen since 2017. She got to meet a niece of her own, my granddaughter.
Creepy noises outside: Sounded like a life-and-death struggle between two small creatures in the woods, but maybe they each got away in one piece.
Monsters in the News
If you have the stomach for more on relating to a filmmaker's work who you now know (but perhaps tried to forget) is a child molester, this piece from May 2016 by Matt Zoller Seitz is worth considering: "I Believe Dylan Farrow."
Such is the kind of reading I sometimes find myself doing these days when I least expect it. I'll try to escape the everyday with a comedy, but then I'll dig around the web to learn more about its makers or players. If this effort lands me back in the ugly everyday, pieces like this one help me see how other people deal with such contradictions, which are about much more than art.
Automation
I was standing near the driver in my bus yesterday, waiting for the light to change so I could get off. When the light turned green, but the car in front of us didn’t move, the driver beeped his horn. I said, “People need to get off their phones,” which earned a laugh from the driver. Then he added something I hadn't recognized about the situation: “Uber drivers are the worst. I thought taxi drivers were bad . . .” I almost quipped something about how automation will soon take care of that, but then thought better of it. Will we lose our bus drivers too?
Today there was this piece on NPR, “As Automation Eliminates Jobs, Tech Entrepreneurs Join Basic Income Movement,” which asks,
When we talk about the economy, we spend a lot of time talking about jobs—how to create more of them and how to replace the ones being lost. But what if we're entering an automated future where there won't be enough jobs for the people who need them?
This is an interesting, if not entirely new question, but also something of a gut punch when I think of all the ordinary human interactions I have in a day. On the other hand, it's possible that the Silicon Valley crowd is informed by more than a little hubris and so can't imagine all the areas of life that cannot—or should not—be automated.
Work Update
Although this blog would seem to indicate otherwise, I am still alive. Here's what I've been up to besides my usual not-blogging:
Archive Seminar
Someone else will be doing the GHI's archive seminar next year. Part of me wishes I was still doing it, because I enjoy working with the students, and I was looking forward to rethinking part of the program. At the same time, I need all the time I can get at the GHI for editing at the moment.
Editing
I'm finishing up the editing for a translated monograph by Annelie Ramsbrock called The Science of Beauty: Culture and Cosmetics in Modern Germany, 1750-1930. It has been a challenge in terms of making the translation more accurate and readable, while at the same time working to keep my inner control freak in check.
Research
I have been revisiting my Groener project, but most of my reading is on gender and war in the middle decades of the nineteenth century in Europe as part of a handbook project. I'm enjoying this work, and I'm managing to do it because I'm not teaching this semester—probably not next semester either.