I go to bed angry. I wake up angry. I don’t sleep much. Instead, I fume through the night. It’s hard to work, or read, or even eat. Like a lot of people, I’ve been tormented by rage ever since the President of the United States incited a mob to attack the Capitol. The more facts […]
I try not to talk politics at work. This started out as a form of self-preservation, since I’m a progressive in an extremely conservative industry. Most engineers are tolerant and accepting, but there’s definitely a fringe of rigid, crazy autodidacts. Over time, it’s become a matter of principle. I believe that when you work long days […]
I spent all day yesterday working in the lab, integrating engineering software and hardware, slogging towards a modest goal that seemed to recede as the day wore on. By late afternoon, we hit an error that we couldn’t clear and couldn’t explain, and agreed to adjourn for the day. I got my phone out of […]
In March I started writing journal entries about the Covid-19 pandemic because it seemed clear that we were living through unprecedented times. A lot of people didn’t notice what was happening in Italy and New York City, or felt it didn’t affect them. I started noting the case numbers and deaths in Arizona because I […]
A lot has changed since I started writing this journal, an answer to Daniel Defoe’s fictional account of the Black Death, Journal of the Plague Year. Arizona made national headlines over the summer with a horrific spike of Covid-19 cases and deaths. People started wearing masks; cases and deaths eased. On October 30, I scheduled […]
As I was walking over to the shared dumpster in my alley, I crossed paths with one of my neighbors as he was walking his dog. The dog was an absurd bug-eyed little black thing. The neighbor was wearing a T-shirt that said, “Unfiltered and Deplorable.” I smiled at his dog, and did a little […]
Sometime after noon today, I realized I’d run out of dry cat food. Lyndon had been pointing this out in increasingly shrill Siamese tones, but I’d ignored him, murmuring, “I know, Buddy,” and thinking, I must have an extra bag of salty crunchy stashed somewhere. When I went to the trouble to look, I realized, […]
Today was a wonderful day because my beloved Time Market has reopened, and I picked up a framed print from Bob and Wade at Deadwood Framing. I’ve missed the Time Market terribly. A few times a week, I would order a salad and a slice of pizza, and sit in the picture window people-watching, and […]
So, here’s a pet peeve of mine. When reporters from major media outlets — think, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and just about every cable news show — deign to report from Arizona, they rarely venture beyond the Phoenix metropolitan area. This article on whether the Latino vote will finally flip Arizona blue […]
The scenes in which Tereus gets my innocent, teetotaling hero drunk and cooks him a steak are loosely based on the raffish habits of my mathematician friend, Sol. Once, when I had a bad cold, Sol cooked the best chicken soup I’ve ever tasted, and left it warm on my porch. On another occasion, he […]
Biography of Inglorion Atropos Androktasiai 