007 ❖ packing it up

every week there are things I’ve noticed and want to hold on to at least for another week, and this week it’s…

the very specific way in which the ongoing avalanche of bad news forces something in me to pull focus in a way that lets me notice how our kids are laughing, how they’re unbothered except in issues of sharing and delayed snack delivery, mostly just that they’re getting better every day, funnier, smarter, cuter, more aware (probably too aware sometimes, I’ve noticed) ◆ the “inventory management roguelike” sub-sub-genre of games, which for a few minutes at a time allows me to microdose the feeling of finding the perfect way to cram our luggage in the back of a car before a road trip, but with potions and bugs and shit.

our crossing guard, a sweet but fiercely protective retiree who literally shields our kids from danger with her body, and how she reminds me that for every weak man that claims to be protecting you from an imagined boogeyperson who is, in reality, a sinisterly applied personal projection, there are thousands if not millions of helpers, real people, strong people, showing up for no reason but to help, and the thought that maybe that direction becomes clearer when you step off the wheel of producing value for shareholders and realize “well shit, what if I went and helped.” whatever meager gifts we collectively leave for her in her camping chair are not enough. ◆ an Internet not-yet-so terminally enshittified that people still find the time and energy for fun projects, like this daily 1-bit drawing prompt app (1-bit.day), and what that means for a person who has forgotten more lil’ projects than they’ve finished but at least wants to know there’s a place for them if that day ever comes ◆ Pinterest, improbably, a place to spend time with my little collections and interface with exactly zero people, as is sometimes an absolute necessity in order to recharge for whatever all this is ◆◆◆