- So the kid does this thing.
- If she starts a book, she feels bound to finish it.
- Obligated.
- I don’t think I’ve ever been that way.
- Last night, well, yesterday, she read an entire 400-page book she didn’t really like or enjoy reading.
- Me: “I don’t understand why you read books you’re not enjoying.”
- Her: “Because you never know. It might get better. It might have a great ending.”
- Me: “If it’s not good, you know that’s not going to happen.”
- Her: “It might.”
- And then there was something about having bought the book, so maybe a bit of financial obligation, too?
- Me: “You know, if you got a Kindle, you can do samples of books.”
- Her: “I’m not getting a Kindle. Stop trying to sell me on a Kindle!”
- You will learn, grasshopper.
- When you’re away at college and money is nonexistent, you’ll be calling home to beg for book money.
- And because that’s a good habit, I’ll probably still give it to her.
- Because I’m a sucker.
- Since I’m kid talking today …
- We have one of those L-shaped sectionals.
- She sits in the corner against the wall.
- The Korner.
- She’s earned the nickname Corner Troll.
- I did not give it to her.
- Anyway, there she was yesterday when I got home from work/grocery shopping, book propped up on knees, covered in blankets.
- (No, I don’t know what book it was. I can’t keep up.)
- There’s this croissant bread, a whole loaf, I’ve found intermittently at Whole Foods, and only Whole Foods.
- She loves it.
- I carried it into the … TV room and showed it to her.
- Her eyes widened.
- I turned around and started to walk off.
- “You bring me that bread!”
- Made me laugh.
- I have a bread problem.
- I won’t foist any of the blame upon Steph.
- (She likes it, too.)
- Genetics.
- Hellva thing, right?
- Foist was a Wordle word a couple of weeks ago.
- I think.
- You know what’s awesome about having some kind of growth near/in your brain?
- You get to make all kinds of jokes and excuses.
- “I’m sorry. I don’t remember that. Brain tumor.”
- I’m doing it for at least a year.
- We’ll see what October brings.
- (Next MRI.)
- Yesterday, we listened to party hits from the 2010s.
- Today, I’m on someone’s “Songs that give me the thousand-yard stare” playlist.
- Not bad so far.
- I guess I should give you Spotifyians the link just in case.
- Here:
- Oh, wait.
- I’m not online.
- Long story.
- I’ll get online to post this.
- Obviously.
- Also, I have no recollection of adding the playlist to my Library.
- Sigh.
- It’s probably all AI-generated.
- Which goes against my values.
- I get the potential of AI.
- It has the ability, as a tool, to revolutionize a lot of things.
- Definitely going to change our world.
- I hope the outcome is not Elysium.
- I wish people would focus on that instead of trying to take the human out of everything.
- Creatively speaking, I’m sure they’ll use AI to make all the things.
- I’m definitely having an old man response to it.
- I’m not alone, and plenty of the AI rebels are younger.
- But all it can ever do is mimic the human experience.
- It can’t have any of its own.
- Even when it’s sentient, its experiences will be alien to ours.
- Until we all start getting implants anyway.
- I won’t be around for that, but the kid might.
- I have a novella I started during the Pandemic about that kind of thing.
- It got bulldozed to the side by the book.
- I’m told sometimes it takes years to write a book.
- The fact mine’s unfinished makes me feel like a failure.
- I talked to my therapist about this.
- All fear-based.
- Loss of identity.
- Negative self-talk.
- Working on it.
- I’m self-aware on a lot of things now.
- Would not have gotten there on my own.
- I’m a therapy zealot.
- It’s changed my life.
- Could change yours, too, if you need it.
- Working on the book yesterday …
- Okay, my process involves reading what’s already there to get in the right flow and headspace.
- And I had an idea about an interaction between two of my main characters that changes their relationship a bit, so I’m going to have to go back and rewrite a bunch of conversations.
- I think I told you that.
- Anyway.
- During rereading yesterday, I made myself laugh.
- The protagonist has a super dry sense of humor.
- And I could hear her delivery.
- I laughed out loud.
- Just once.
- But … kinda felt good, you know?
- Battled some of that impostor syndrome.
- Brad sent me this Trae Crowder clip yesterday where the comedian riffs on the advantages of being dumb.
- He’s not wrong.
- (I’ll find that link, too, here in a minute. You won’t be able to see it on FB, but it’ll be there on the blog.)
- (No, I’m not doing the comment link thing.)
- (Maybe.)
- (If someone asks for it I suppose.)
- (I’ll post it in the Discord.)
- (About time to share that again I suppose.)
- Gonna have an Old Fashioned tonight.
- Just the one.
- I actually want to build a Top 10 Best Old Fashioned list for Tulsa, but …
- I don’t want to go to all the bars to try to figure it out.
- Maybe Top 10 Best OFs in Tulsa Restaurants.
- Still a bold quest.
- Nevermind.
- I like ‘em at Jimmy’s Chophouse.
- Waterfront.
- Bull in the Alley.
- The Tavern.
- (McNellie’s Group cornering the market …)
- Oh, Charleston’s.
- I guess it’s Friday when you start thinking about cocktails before lunch arrives.
- My weekend to-do list is monumental.
- Things piled up (sometimes literally) while recovering on my ass for 12 weeks.
- Speaking of that.
- Don’t do that ever.
- I’m sure part of the pain I’m dealing with is the Prednisone leaving my body, but goddamn man, everything is tight. Everything hurts. When I stand up, I look like an old man. I mean, my freaking heels hurt, and that is the worst.
- Sitting all day in an office chair doesn’t help.
- Standing desk, bro.
- You know what I’m going to say, right?
- …
- C’mon, I repeat the hell out of myself.
- “Do not go gentle” into that good weekend.
Arrow to the Knee
skepticlysm 
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