Lagged behind on formatting and uploading blog posts, here's a first batch, and the last two posts kind of go into why I'm so behind (in their own obscure ways).

Life Ceremony is so good. I love Sayaka Murata. Completely agree with you about reading being essential to writing. I feel like you can tell through someone's writing when someone doesn't read, or only reads a very specific type of thing. Art can't come entirely from some pure inner kernel that's never been touched by the outside world

fallen off so hard with music discovery myself lately... but this might be some temporary ebb. or who knows. the appetite is there but theres some sort of fatigue going on that i feel like i gotta try figure out bc id like to get back to it

(im of the sort rn that doesn't actively use any streaming service atm - blew up my (second) spotify account from orbit late last year. i do have backlogs, so not that theres a lack of stuff to look at! anywayyy)

All caught up with Blaugust after lagging a few days behind last week, and media log + lists update.

i love your cat !!! Stinky can hassle me for treats any time

Ohh I really love that "syllabus to me" post, I might also need to take a crack at it.......

You may lack self-discipline, but is it also possible there's something you are avoiding, don't want to think about (or don't want to be alone in your thoughts) or are struggling with? A lot of those distractions are like dissociating, it's like our brains shut down and the pain or whatever goes away. The absolute best part, though, is you've made a HUGE effort to make changes. This stranger is proud of you :)

oh absolutely i was avoiding things, some of the most intense hours account for when a family member was dying! but yes haha thank you

Catching up on uploading blog posts, it's been a busy couple of days.

beautiful piece!! oh how i love public transportation <3 "a luxuriously indolent way to move" is such a lovely (and hilarious) turn of phrase.

thank you, good reminder! I love public transportation but still get anxiety in new places/systems so this is a good reminder to enjoy the ride!

aww I loved reading about your experiences on the bus. your excitement is contagious. you make the rides sound so idyllic, it makes me miss riding the bus! I always had a love/hate thing with it. I lived in a large, car-centric city, so my rides weren't always as nice as yours sound. but I also enjoyed being able to listen to music or read, and exploring new areas of the city. this post was a nice reminder. <3

also really loved how you connected it to the characters you write. there is so much to be said about how and why we literally move through the world the way we do.

Previews struggling to show up I see but I wrote teo blogposts about: 1. My terrible patterns when in love and 2. Ten facts about myself.

people can get used to the damndest things sometimes (re staying in unhappy relations)

I do love a good family saga (The Bee Sting included!) Have you read Jane Smiley's "The Last Hundred Years" trilogy? The first book in the series is Some Luck. I remember really enjoying that, although the last book goes a little haywire because Smiley's starting point was like ~95 years before the date when the book was published, so she had a go at predicting the future with... mixed results. But worth a read!

one hundred years of solitude is such an amazing book....the house of the spirits is one of my favorite of the genre. love a good magical realism family saga for the summer