Yesterday I returned home from five days in Philadelphia. My new project at work involves a lot of travel, sometimes twice a month. I told the project leads that such a schedule was excessive and disruptive, and that I would be able to travel, at most, once a month. And there would be some months where I would not be traveling at all. So with a little luck I will be home until at least April.

One upon a time, such travel would have been exciting, but now, for middle-aged me, with a partner and students and cats, it is exhausting.

Reading

I brought three books with me to Philadelphia, but due to exhaustion and fragmented attention span, touched none of them. On the plane ride home I pulled up the eBook of William Gibson’s Spook Country, which is quite good., and more suited to the corporate hellscape of 21st century America than is, for instance, Calvino’s If On a Winters Night a Traveler.

Writing

Nothing. Nada. Bupkis. I was so busy I didn’t even write in my journal.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Precursors, Spiritual Beings
Setting: Ocean
Genre: Horror

Listening

“Lockjaw” by Todd Rundgren, from Rundgren’s 1985 album A Capella. I had this album back in college. One of the first CDs I ever owned. I might even still have it in a box somewhere.

Interesting Links

• “Bitcoin/Crypto Crash Captures Headlines as Potentially More Serious Tech-Driven Debt Retreat Progresses” – It’s amazing how much imaginary money disappears when people stop trusting imaginary technologies.