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a bench or a table

2024-12-24

2 minute read

My head has felt clear, though I've found it harder to sit down and write. I've always found it hard to focus here (A's house, Lago Puelo) mostly because I don't have a desk. Nothing here is made for sitting down and focussing.

I stand (sit) corrected. I'm at the kitchen bench on the kitchen side next to the kettle. It's perfect, and just the sort of thing I enjoy. Sitting at a bench, in a kitchen, I'm about to prepare a maté. Where will I live in Portugal? I know what I want - a bench or a table, and something to look at.

a change in the sausage making process

I used to write new entries as follows:

./yyyy-mm-dd/entry.md

---
title: ...
---

body of entry goes here...

and then I wrote scripts to accomodate that way of working. The problem was I would start an entry one day, then notfinish it, and not want to finish it, until another day. I had to manually update the date so my scripts would work. I think this known as leaky abstractions.

Now I edit in a file called "new.md", and when I want to publish that file is moved into a folder for the appropriate day, as "entry.md".

Here are the revised scripts:

./ss/new

#!/usr/bin/env bash

if [ -f new.md ]; then
	echo new.md
else
	echo -e "---\ntitle:\n---" > new.md
	echo new.md
fi

./ss/newd - used for opening immediately into nvim.

nvim $("$(dirname "$0")/new")

./ss/publish

#!/usr/bin/env bash

pp=$(date +%F)
mkdir $pp
mv new.md ${pp}/entry.md
echo ${pp}/entry.md

what else?

I've read some good poetry and some good thoughts on poetry. I'd like to use this journal for it's intended purpose, to help me write better, but I am lazy. I can barely push these entries out, how can I reread them and edit them?

For every question an answer: I read this piece by one of my favourite web artists, Laurel Schwulst, called Writing and Worlding.

I first created the world (the environment — feeling, constraints, audience, etc.), and then the writing came naturally.

For those of us who feel different, who don’t easily fit into structures of this society or this world, we have to make our own structures, definitions, and taxonomies to feel at home

Creating a structure, some constraints around which I write, could give me the place I need to reflect, edit and hone my writing.

I'd like to finish my bloom project before the end of the year, I got so close but put it on hold to pack my life upinto a few bags. Too many bags for my liking, c'est la vie. I was picking raspberries recently; admiring how the leaves branch off at 120° intervals from the stem, how the fruits bloom so brilliantly against the green mass of the bush.

I'm snacking a lot lately, always a danger here with facturas and galletitas por todos lados. It's alright. I'm sleeping a lot, I'd like to wake up before 8 at least twice while I'm here, to enjoy the morning a little more.

listening to

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Soundtrack - not this video but the game itself

questions

A thoughtful question from author Morgan Housel: "What was true a generation ago that no longer is, and who is clinging to that old truth?"