The new yard guy, despite needing to delay a day from the original schedule, arriving a bit late and taking a while, did a fine job. He didn’t charge extra for the abnormally tall grass due to the other guy’s failure (but I supersized the tip anyway), and also offered to fix our gate latch next time, no charge. So that’s encouraging.
Thursday last week, my computer at home starting making a constant grumbling moaning sound. It had made weird noises sporadically before, at least once related to the liquid CPU cooler, but this was definitely the sound of one of the three case fans failing. Bearings going bad probably, since it resisted spinning by hand.
The old ones were InWin Sirius Loop fans — but thanks to Calvinball tariffs, those are no longer shipped to the US unless you pay some third party $120 for an $11 fan. My replacement choice was an Arctic P12… basic, cheap but with a solid reputation for quality. The cables were different though, and I had to rig up some crazy stuff with jumper wires and electrical tape. I think I’m lucky I didn’t fry anything while accidentally hot-plugging stuff with the power still on, or accidentally get cables irrevocably tangled up in one of the other working fans. Still, it’s done now and I’m realizing how much low-level noise the old fan had been making all this time.
I roared through reading Lessons in Magic and Disaster. It definitely wasn’t entirely a feel-good novel — there was a lot of loss, loved ones being difficult, dealing with trust issues, dealing with harassment, and 18th century English literature. There were no unambiguous moments of “and now everything is okay.” But there was magic and wonder, moments of queer joy or simple delight, and a few moments with a certain kind of satisfaction in them.
It is very much a story for the times. Anders began writing it while dealing with the loss of a parent to Covid and the stress of the first Trump administration. One of the transphobic jerks in the story just happens to be named Gavin, which tells me that the novel was probably completed relatively recently. (CA governor Gavin Newsom was once thought of as an LGBTQ+ ally, although criticism began in 2023 when he vetoed a bill to consider trans kids’ gender identities in their parents’ custody battles. His March 2025 embrace of right-wing media figures’ transphobia was seen by many as a surprise betrayal, and is the reason why none of us want him as the candidate for 2028.)
At the time she also wrote Never Say You Won’t Survive, which is like the nonfiction counterpart to the novel; it’s about being a writer during difficult times. I’ve started reading that one too. The advice is specific to writing, but some of it applies to other creative pursuits as well. “Part of the joy of writing is being surprised,” she wrote, and that’s absolutely something I love about making music.
Joy is resistance. To paraphrase Woody Guthrie, the “machines” of creation kill fascism. Or as my spouse said in a Kemetic Orthodox context, “creation defies isfet.” (Without writing a lengthy discourse: Ma’at is essentially both “what is right” and “what is”; isfet is its nihilistic opposite, the vacuum that abhors nature.)
I think this upcoming album is going to be a bit of a mishmash. I want to keep negative space in mind, and the first track very much does that. But I also want to explore a shoegaze-adjacent space, and the second track very much does that. Sort of a sharp, crystalline beauty but also blurry; delicate but heavy AF. I’m just going to wing it and play what comes to mind. I have an experiment to do for the next one, with a certain aesthetic I want to go for, including that negative space.
I filled a lot of time with Guild Wars 2 this weekend. There’s a largish sale going on for in-game stuff, and a beta test for upcoming profession specializations. In the process of giving my squad a fashion update, I wound up doing a couple of collection quests for items to convert crafting materials I’ve been throwing out into something with a chance at some value. And that used up my entire stash of those junk minerals, so now I have something to farm for to increase my chances at giving one of my Sylvari a warm golden glow.