2025-W11 EOW Report

Anti-Goal Cycling

• So after wrapping up the Myers-Briggs/Tarot-Faces matrix, it was time to actually put all the systems to the test. Tuesday morning, picked a random index card from the ideas section of the Zettelkasten, and tried applying ARCs and CDAs. Was able to build a couple spines that works out emotionally. It seems like it works. Now building out more flesh on the loose scenes.
• The twenty minutes of history each day rule is working. Finished The Cheese and the Worms (1967) this Saturday night. Will need to take a few notes to add to the history Zettelkasten, and then reread Inventing Sincerity, Refashioning Prudence (1997) and The Secret Life of Elias of Babylon (2014). And also, this week, going to start The Return of Martin Guerre (1983).
• Reviewed AURA and BELLA after not opening them up for over a year. I can see a path forward on how to clean them up and move them forward now. I also realized, in reviewing them, they weren’t horrible. It’s like I’m coming out of a haze of thinking I was bad, swimming in insecurity. I don’t know. Maybe this confidence is overstated for now, but maybe the ARCs is really the final piece of the puzzle.

Four Thousand Weeks

• OK, so second week where I’m hitting all the stops on my Habitica and “10 Rules”. Kinda happy about that. Also, been using 2.5mg of melatonin every night this past week. I think I’m relatively back into a proper routine.

Story Introspection

• This week was not very strong for my Marvel pulls. The X-Manhunt event continues to be OK. Phoenix is something I should technically like because cosmic space-traveling superheroes, aliens, and Cthulhu/primordial gods is what I’m into right now… but this is just not hitting the beats. The arc isn’t there. The plot is OTAA. The thread of Adani feels undercooked. And compared to what Jeremy Adams and Morgan Hampton is doing over on the DC side with Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps., it just doesn’t compare. Absolute Superman continues to be top notch.
• Yet another wonderful loser/train wreck story this past week. The Palace Thief (1993) by Ethan Canin. Except this guy is unaware and the whole time I’m reading, I’m squirming, cringing, and holding-my-hands-over-my-eyes-in-embarrassment. But also, also – can’t help but feeling like this rollover, expecting-enemy-to-play-fair, and thinking honor-over-dirty-games is basically the entire Democratic party. They just keep losing and losing and still think, in this day and age of hyper-polarity and social media that taking the high moral ground is the best path forward. I mean, I guess it’s admirable. I guess it’s what we want to read inn our fantasy novels. But c’mon. Seriously. They had to have the Lincoln Project do their dirty work in 2020 for them. Anyway. Great short story.
• Also really enjoyed Why Don’t You Dance? (1981) by Raymond Carver. Such a great simple story. The young woman has a genuine, real, surreal moment of authentic connection and all she can do is dismiss it, laugh it off, and make it a joke. It’s from 1981, but it’s just as relevant today. We still laugh off our most surreal authentic connections… but now we also turn all our moments into these bite-size posts on social media. Or maybe that’s fine. Or not. I don’t know. Maybe the paradigm shift is that we’re so obsessed with documenting every single one of our life moments we’re not present in them. We’re filming everything with our phones. And maybe these moments were meant to be temporary, transient, ephemeral.

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