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After about a year of the same design, it was time for a quick fall refresh. I also updated a few pages to correct links that had decayed, added a quick copy of this new design to the web design page, and refreshed the side banner.

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Volunteer research assistant

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For my mom, who always sees the first robin

#watercolor #birb #robin

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Another day, another website update, this time with shading.

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If you haven’t yet, today is the day: Vote.

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I’ve been rereading the Stormlight Archive in preparation for the release of book four, Rhythm of War. Substituting the kindle app for some chunk of my daily doomscrolling has led to me finishing these 1000-page books at a rate of one per week, which I think is highly illustrative of how much of my mental energy is being sapped by the two-hit combo of internet and 2020.

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Sisyphus of Fear

Years ago, I spent one angry evening attempting to set up a wireless HP printer on our network. There were epithets, there were tears, there was the temptation to cut open a screen and throw the cursed machine out the window into traffic. Eventually, I was successful, but at what cost.

Five years ago, we moved to our house and I haven’t had the stomach to attempt this feat on our new network. At first, I claimed that it was only because I was waiting for an internet service provider to expand into our neighborhood and necessitate a new network, but when that came and went, I was forced to admit I simply feared the misery. For these years, it was easier to keep the machine on a high shelf, where on the rare occasion I really needed to print I could take it down, find paper, and USB it to my laptop sitting on the floor.

Finally, today, feeling well-rested and as emotionally calm as possible in Our Year 2020, I decided to take on this task. With a fearful heart, I pulled the machine from its place and the instructions from the web.

It took 2 minutes and it’s happily humming along.

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We’re starting to get chilly around here. #adayinthelife

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Today, we cleaned up the Boxes of Mysterious Cords and I ran across my old iBook, neatly stored. On a lark, I booted it up. The screen is broken, but I still had the RCA adaptor, which the computer used to gamely send some video over to an external monitor. The screen was much too big for the input so the text was blurred with colored edges, like I was looking back through a time machine to the year OSX10.4. I’d cleaned the files off, but it still had a Hikaru no Go desktop image, my eternal friend the MoofMenu, Quicksilver, Sherlock, and Grapher.

This is the computer that I hauled all over Japan in my messenger bag as a student and a teacher of English, so it was a nostalgic reunion, even as I now return it to a boxy slumber.

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Backlinks for notion backlinks for notion backlinks for notion–

I am feeling some excitement.

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Hobonichi Techo 5-year

This upcoming year will be my sixth year with a Hobonichi Techo, an exciting milestone. While I don’t write every day, there is such enjoyment in looking back and seeing the joys, small and large, over the years.

This year has been more difficult than usual with the worries of COVID, disrupting being able to see friends and families, as well as blocking much of my planned professional and academic work that relies on international travel. I have been so thankful for the resiliency and kindness of those around me. But at the same time I have been a bit intermittent about using my Hobonichi in this year of challenge.

For next year, I am excited to try starting a 5-year Hobonichi, in which there are years for each set of two facing pages. I hope that in successive years I can fill in the pages with more joys, thoughts, and plans for the future to create something that is both a tool for action and a beautiful artifact to keep.

Also, in case others are looking, I can confirm that the Hobonichi 5-Year Techo does fit in the ohayo case. The case is full when zipped but other incidentals would fit within reason. There is not much give for pasting things in but I tend toward ink and watercolor so this suits me well. Plus who can resist a little dancing fox?

#hobonichi #hobonichitecho #ほぼ日手帳 #hobonichi5-year

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Website Update

Maybe a decade overdue, but this website is now responsive to screen width. On smaller widths the links now move to the top of the screen to leave the full width for the text. Hopefully that works well for a mobile experience without cutting off the functionality of the site at all since the same elements are all there, just in a more convenient place.

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This guy

Panel 1: (drawing of cat) Once upon a time there was a cat who liked to nom.

Panel 2: (drawing of pen end) Especially things that look like bugs moving around in the air.

Panel 3: (random scribbles) Yep.

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Panel 1: (drawing of cat) Once upon a time there was a cat who liked to nom.

Panel 2: (drawing of pen end) Especially things that look like bugs moving around in the air.

Panel 3: (random scribbles) Yep.

#cats #humor #hobonichi #hobonichitecho

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Ode to a Nose Swab

Surprise, tap, swish

Bright, brisk

A dab of wasabi in the nose

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Support in 2020 is telling your sleepy but anxious SO that you’ve already been doomscrolling this morning and there’s nothing they need to know about so they can go back to sleep.

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It’s clear that I have two papers to write: in the last two days, I have upgraded my computer to Catalina, tried mmhmm, created a Society6 account, prepped art, and troubleshot upgrading processes for my wordpress account to work with my host’s idiosyncrasies. Oh, and posted in micro.blog twice.