Ecce Sigum

Immanentize the Empathy

Category: Life

Weekly Round-up, August 29, 2026

John Winkelman
A bumblebee drying itself on the side of my garage after a sudden downpour.

Well this was certainly a hell of a week. Dolly Parton and Tim Curry, gone on consecutive days. Then Peter Cullen not long after. Three wonderful people with amazing voices.

Reading

I just finished reading Season of the Swamp by Yuri Herrera. It takes place in antebellum New Orleans, and has a lot to say about American society of the time, including the lives and tribulations of slaves and immigrants. Reading it soon after finishing Human Capital put my mind in a particular place, and I am adding a lot of content to the notebook for one of my novels-in-progress

When looking back through old reading lists I realized I read Season of the Swamp last year around this time, but I don’t remember a single thing about it. This time it stuck.

Writing

The creative juices are trickling like treacle. I have rough drafts of a couple of poems intended for a time capsule project, due at the beginning of October. Any momentum I had at the beginning of July has ended and the remaining inertia is just enough to occasionally jot down a line or two in the middle of long journal entries about how I don’t have enough time to write. So it goes.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Economics, Aliens
Setting: Ocean
Genre: Magic Realism

Listening

“A Fifth of Beethoven”, by Walter Murphy and the Big Apple Band, from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. I heard it recently while picking up a couple of slices at Martha’s Pizza. Now it’s in your head too.

Interesting Links

Weekly Round-up, August 22, 2026

John Winkelman
A seagull atop a lamp post, lit by orange evening sunlight, against a blue-gray sky.

…then again, being a reverse centaur can be a pretty groovy gig, as long as the PMC is fully invested in AI. Which they are. My coding skills are atrophying but my prompting skills are improving, which puts me in a perfect position to be a mid-level manager. I can Disrupt Things.

And every time anyone has ever said they wanted to disrupt things, what they really meant is that they wanted to insert themselves into an already-working process in order to siphon off some money and make the process worse for everyone. See, for instance, the entire gig economy. And also every technology which falls under the umbrella of AI [SIC].

Reading

After finishing Derek Künsken’s The Quantum Magician, I picked up and completed Grand Rapids by Natasha Stagg. This was an interesting book. I had been aware of it for a while, as it was published by Semiotext(e), a publisher of which I am a big fan. A couple of months ago I was wandering through local bookstore Books & Mortar and found the book on one of their recommended reading shelves. Stagg lived in Grand Rapids for a number of years, and she name-drops a number of familiar places and events.

Now I am reading Season of the Swamp by Yuri Herrera, published by And Other Stories. I am about a third of the way through and loving every page!

Writing

I have been playing around with some simple writing prompts and vaguely poetic lines, but can’t focus on anything long enough for something concrete to emerge. I blame capitalism. And LLMs. Which is really the same thing.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Spiritual Beings, Possession
Setting: Virtual Reality
Genre: Science Fiction

Interesting Links

Weekly Round-up, August 15 2026

John Winkelman
A monarch butterfly resting on a milkweed plant.

As a fully-committed reverse-centaur, when the LLMs are starved, my stomach growls. That is all my life is any more, within the boundaries of work.

Outside of work I spend my time recovering from work. So it goes.

Reading

At random I pulled Derek Künsken‘s The Quantum Magician from the shelf a couple of weeks ago. It is quite good! Quantum Magician is an Oceans Eleven-style caper, set several hundred years in the future and starring a cast of heavily modified humans and the occasional AI. Recommended.

Writing

As mentioned last week, the River City Poetry Collective and the Grand Rapids Poet Laureate have put out a call for submissions for a time capsule project. Grand Rapids poets are invited to contribute a poem to be placed in a time capsule which will be opened fifty years from now, in the year 2076. I am playing around with some ideas. A letter to future Grand Rapids. A letter to future me. An offer to open lines of communication, because causality is bunk. The deadline is in a few weeks, which is plenty of time to procrastinate until the very last minute.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Artificial Intelligence, Cyborgs
Setting: Virtual Reality
Genre: Utopian

Interesting Links

Weekly Round-up, August 8, 2026

John Winkelman
Our ginger girl Pepper, enjoying a lazy afternoon on the bed.

Thanks to work stress and high levels of heat and humidity at night what sleep I manage has been of low quality. I feel hung over and did nothing to earn that feeling.

Already we are well into August. even ten years ago I would have enjoyed all of the heat and humidity because I would be out at the lake several days a week. Now that I am in my late fifties that is no longer quite so attractive. Now I just want some peace and quiet, and maybe a nap.

Reading

Earlier this week I finished Colleen Alles’ latest book of poetry Luminescence in Season. Colleen is a friend and reading her work is always a joyful experience.

Writing

The Grand River Poetry Collective has issued a Call for Submissions for a time capsule project. I have a couple of first drafts in my journal, and more bubbling around in my head. The poems will go into a vault, to be unsealed in 2076. I might still be around, though I will be very old. Full details at the GRPC website.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Robots, Espionage
Setting: Mountains
Genre: Weird Fiction

Listening

Ray Bradbury‘s short story “There Will Come Soft Rains,” read by Burgess Meredith. The story takes place on August 4, 2026.

Interesting Links

Weekly Round-up, August 1, 2026

John Winkelman
The altar for our Sifu Day celebration on August 1, 2026.

Today our martial arts class held our annual Sifu Day celebration. We call it Sifu Day. It is more widely known as Guan Yu‘s birthday, which is traditionally on the 24th day of the sixth month of the lunar calendar, which for 2026 falls on August 6. According to Sifu Lee, it is okay to celebrate such holidays early, but you don’t want to celebrate them late. So this year we celebrated on the Saturday immediately before the official date, which was today.

This was our first Sifu Day celebration without Master Lee, who passed away in early September of last year. We said a few words, had a moment of silence, then demonstrated several of the tai chi and kung fu forms which Sifu had taught us over the past forty-plus years. Two of Sifu’s children (who are in their sixties) attended the ceremony and thanked us for keeping the school going through the difficult period of the past eleven months.

Sifu Day is also the anniversary of Sigong Chiu, Chuk Kai’s passing on Sifu Day 1991, at the age of 91. Master Lee was also 91 when he left us, so there is something to be said for the regular practice of tai chi and kung fu.

Afterwards, our head instructor Rick invited the other instructors to his house to burn the offerings of lucky money and incense. We bowed to the altar, had a moment of silence, then each said something about what we most admired about Sifu. Then we burned the lucky money, bowed again, and drove to Pho Soc Trang for lunch with several of our students and family and friends.

To say today was bittersweet is to overly simplify a great many complex emotions. Master Lee was our teacher, but he was also our friend, confidant, leader, father figure, and an example to which we all aspire. He was kind, generous, funny, and patient. And an unparalleled martial artist. And one of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet.

I miss him. Every day.

We will keep Master Lee’s class going for as long as we have students to teach. And in the absence of students, we will sue that time to improve our own practice. Just as Sifu did.

Reading

I finished Robert Jackson Bennett’s City of Stairs, which was quite good. Will probably pick up book 2 before the end of the month.

Writing

Yesterday I filled in the last page of a journal I started on January 1 of this year. This was the 44th volume I have filled in the 33 years since I started keeping a regular journal back in 1993. One day I will transcribe these words for posterity, assuming I can still read my own handwriting a decade from now. As with most of the previous journals, The last thing I wrote on the last page was a poem. It might eventually be a good poem. Right now it needs a lot of work.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Music, Evolution
Setting: Academia
Genre: Procedural

Listening

Dread Zeppelin singing “Black Dog”.

Interesting Links

Weekly Round-up, July 25, 2026

John Winkelman
A grapevine beetle (Pelidnota punctata) on a wild grape leaf.

Two weeks after returning from my three-week break, and I feel like I need another three-week break. Or a three-decade break. I feel like somehow the pace of my job has, over the past year, slipped into Red Queen Syndrome territory, where I continually need to run faster and faster just to stay in place. Once upon a time I was interested in going for a promotion, since I am still at the same level at which I was hired in twelve years ago. But given the amount of work and level of responsibility I have now, and understanding that those levels would increase significantly were I to jump to the next level, there is no way in hell that the money or other benefits would be worth the effort. I would need at least a 100% raise, guarantee of not less than 10% raises a year in addition to any raises based on actual merit, and a guarantee of annual bonuses equal to not less than 10% of my salary, after the raises. And since capitalism is feudalism with the serial numbers filed off, any extra labor value is always funneled to the top, and then mere crumbs occasionally flicked back down to the people who do the actual work.

Reading

I decided to take a brief break from all of the heavy nonfiction and picked up Matt Dinniman‘s Dungeon Crawler Carl, which was the exact opposite, and exactly what I needed. It was fun, light, engaging, and though not the most well-written of books, I can see why it is so popular.

Now I am about a quarter of the way through Robert Jackson Bennett‘s City of Stairs, which is very good, and giving me a couple of ideas for some of my own unfinished work.

When I have the emotional fortitude I pick up Ibram X. Kendi‘s Chain of Ideas, an exploration of the origin of the white supremacist Great Replacement theory, which has been espoused by conservative white Christians and members of the Epstein class (but I repeat myself) like Charlie Kirk, Tucker Carlson, JD Vance, Matt Gaetz, and Donald Trump.

Writing

Much to my surprise, when treating myself to an hour at a cafe yesterday morning, I re-wrote the opening scene of my unfinished novel Cacophonous. Rather than typing, I wrote it by hand, in my journal.

I quite enjoyed the experience! I felt much more connected to the words on the page than in the previous iteration of the story, which I wrote during NaNoWriMo about five years ago.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Environment, Dreams
Setting: Labyrinth
Genre: Procedural

Listening

Kirsty MacColl, “England 2, Colombia 0”, from her 1999 album Tropical Brainstorm. With the 2026 World Cup recently concluded, this song has been bouncing around in my head.

Interesting Links

Weekly Round-up, July 18, 2026

John Winkelman
The morning sun, framed by leafy branches, seen through a thick haze of smoke.

This past week another heat dome covered the Midwest. This time the humidity levels were lower than the previous heat dome a couple of weeks ago, which made the heat more bearable. Unfortunately, at the same time, Michigan was covered in a thick blanket of smoke from wildfires in Minnesota and central Canada. In an odd twist, the smoke in the air made the heat inside our house a little more tolerable, as there was slightly less direct sunlight heating things up.

Reading

I finished Laura Robson’s Human Capital and pulled Ibram X. Kendi’s Chain of Ideas from the shelf. I might dive in this weekend or I might read some genre fiction. Probably the fiction. My brain is mush right now.

Writing

This past week was my first back at work after an extended break, so all of my available brain power went to writing, reviewing, and debugging JavaScript. Thus not much left for creative work. The heat and smoke didn’t help things.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Music, Artificial Intelligence
Setting: Ship
Genre: Science Fiction

Listening

The Samples, “Little Silver Ring”, from their album The Last Drag. I first heard this song when I worked at CyberNet back in 1999, and it has stuck with me for these past 27 years. I am posting this in honor of a beautiful wedding Z and I attended yesterday, where we ran into an old friend and coworker I hadn’t seen in well over a decade. It was a good day.

Interesting Links

Weekly Round-up, July 11, 2026

John Winkelman
Purple Coneflower blossom

Today is the penultimate day of my three-week vacation. Three weeks was the most time I have had off, consecutively, in a decade. And it was also nowhere near enough time off. I need to retire. Or something.

I made a to-do list for my time off, which included about 30 items. I completed about 10 of them. Nowhere near as much as I had hoped to finish, but better than expected. I was sick for a couple of days, and the heat dome during the week of July 4 made outdoor work near impossible.

I also took some naps. They were wonderful. Highly recommended.

I have many little side projects. Once upon a time, one of those projects was creating games and visual toys in Flash. Flash is no longer with us, but I still have all of my source code and my compiled .swf files. When looking for a way to play those old files, I discovered Ruffle, a tool which is available as a browser plugin or as a standalone desktop application. I downloaded the app version and pointed it at one of my old SWF files, and it worked perfectly!

Seeing this, I felt motivated to translate one of the simpler experiments, a procedural flower generator, from ActionScript to JavaScript. Click here to see it in action. Below is an example of the output.

A procedurally-generated flower pattern on a black background.

Reading

I spent the week bouncing between several books – Human Capital, which I have mentioned in the past several entries. Also Evan Connell’s Notes from a Bottle Found on the Beach at Carmel, a collection of writing from The Evergreen Review, and various and sundry other works scattered around the internet.

Writing

While I didn’t write much in the past week, I did sit down with one of my manuscripts and figure out the timeline of events, rationalizing everything so events happened in the proper order and peoples’ ages added up appropriately across the years. I also gave the manuscript a cursory edit in the form of occasional scribbles in the margins. I am glad to have my head back in that space again.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Dreams, Disease
Setting: Wilderness
Genre: Steampunk

Listening

Bonnie Tyler, “Lost in France,” from her 1977 debut album The World Starts Tonight. Tyler passed away three days ago, on July 8.

Interesting Links

Weekly Round-up, July 4, 2026

John Winkelman

Happy fourth day of July, to those who celebrate. As this post goes live I am probably sitting in my house, hunkered down with a book and attempting to avoid all the loud noises. And the heat.

Reading

Finally some quiet time to read! I picked up and completed Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s The City of Mists, a collection of short fiction set in the Barcelona of his Cemetery of Forgotten Books series. Now I am back in the middle of Laura Robson’s Human Capital. Still good. Still infuriating.

Writing

I submitted a couple of poems to the Grand River Poetry Collective anthology. We will see if they are accepted…

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Precursors, Relic
Setting: Battlefield
Genre: Western

Interesting Links

Weekly Round-up, June 27, 2026

John Winkelman
A pair of fake eyelashes, arranged to look like an eye, on a metal railing overlooking the Grand River.

After a week of vacation, I am ready for retirement. Even though sidelined by a migraine for two days, this has been the most pleasant, relaxing week I have enjoyed since the Christmas holidays. I have written, I have read, I have slept. I have had quiet time.

And I have two more weeks of vacation before I return to work.

With time to reflect, I realize that I feel a deep, profound resentment for the personal time I lost while working long hours for six months. And more than that, I resent the mental and emotional energy wasted on work when it could have been put to much better use in the afore-mentioned reading, writing, and relaxing.

Reading

My comfort read for the past month has been the first five book of The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny. I haven’t read them in probably 20 years. They are good, but not his best work. But even mid-grade Zelazny is better than most other works out there.

Writing

I have printout of a couple of two-score poems and I am actively editing several of them. I submitted two to a new anthology being produced by the Grand River Poetry Collective. Another half-dozen might eventually be good enough to send to other venues.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Colonization, Music
Setting: Subterranean
Genre: Magic Realism