The Year of Weeks

RIFFS

week 1

This week I learned or honed new guitar riffs every day. A simple theme for a short week.

Musical

Rating: 8/10

29

30

31

01

JAN

THE DECIEVED

02

JESSICA

03

Slaughter of the Soul

04

Motherhood of God

Trivuim - The Decieved (full song, this one was a refresher for me but I played it alot, its a ton of fun)

Allman Brothers - Jessica (the main guitar part, very fun, this one stuck with me the most)

At The Gates - Slaughter of the Soul (intro riff, hard! I played it transposed up to D standard, the original song is in C standard)

Tribulation - Motherhood of God (clean/intro part, not too hard but a good multistring picking exercise)

MOVIE THEATERS

week 2

This week I saw more movies in theaters than usual, in different theaters than usual. Three, specificaly

Consumptive/Media

Rating 7/10

05

06

AVATAR 3 @ Williamburg Cinemas

07

08

09

NO OTHER CHOICE @ Angelica Film Center

10

11

CRONOS @ Low Cinema

Avatar 3 at Willaimsburg cinema, a normal theater for a normal movie. 2/3 really great, 1/3 retread of The Way of Water. The popcorn was decent, the theater was comfortable.

No Other Choice at Angelica Film Center. Park Chan-Wook delivers a movie about a guy who loses his job and handles it really poorly. A gorgeous film about how capitalism alienates us from our fellow man and makes monsters of us all. The line for concessions was a mile long so and the theater itself felt like being inside of a giant shipping container. A bizarre spatial experience for an uncomfortable film.

Cronos, Guierllmo Deltoro's first feature. I saw this at Low Cinema. A tiny 42 seat, 1 screen theater in Ridgewood run by John Wilson. The popcorn was $5 and too salty, the house was packed. Best movie experience of the week.

NEW FRUITS

week 3

This week I ate a new (to me) fruit every day. I described and rated each fruit on it's flavor, aroma, mouthfeel, visual appeal, and ease of use.

Consumptive/Food

Rating 7/10

12

DRAGONFRUIT

13

LYCHEE

14

PEPINO MELON

15

STARFRUIT

16

17

18

DRAGON FRUIT - Wild on the outside, mild on the inside
FLAVOR: 4/5, mild, like a kiwi but less tart. It is basically the perfect level of sweet.
AROMA: 3/5, minimal
MOUTHFEEL: 5/5 delightful. Soft but not mushy and full of tiny seeds that provided a burst of crunch in every bite.
VISUAL APPEAL: 5/5 The striking red color and nearly scaly outer appearance does not at all hint at the stark black and white inside.
EASE OF USE: 3/5. You need a knife to get into this one but the soft pliant skin comes right off the fruit. Not much work at all.
OVERALL: 4/5 I'm absolutely charmed by this fruit

LYCHEE - Subdued but distinct
FLAVOR: 3/5, Moderatly sweet and somewhat floral, every so slightly tart
AROMA: 3/5, a very mild floral/tropical aroma
MOUTHFEEL: 3/5 the smooth flesh was surprising, it reminded me of the smooth muscle of octopus
VISUAL APPEAL: 4/5 Lychee is a charming and vivid fruit, and the contrast between the outside and inside is exciting
EASE OF USE: 2/5, you really need a knife to start peeling a lychee. It's incredibly juicy and the necessity of avoiding the large seed means you're going to get that juice on you. Sort of messy.
OVERALL: 3/5 I liked this one, and I'd get it again. I think the lychee I bought were slightly overripe, I know to look for greener ones next time.

PEPINO MELON - a cucumber by another name
FLAVOR: 2/5, It tastes almost exactly like a cucumber
AROMA: 2/5, vegetal and mild, again, like a cucumber
MOUTHFEEL: 2.5/5 crunchy and juicy, not bad
VISUAL APPEAL: 2/5 Pepino melon looks a bit like a oblong baseball.
EASE OF USE: 5/5, You can eat these things like an apple if you like, it doesn't get any easier than that.
OVERALL: 2/5 Pepino melon was a dissapointment, even making the remainder of it into a smoothie didnt salvage the experience. I can imagine it being a good constituent ingredient in a salad, but Pepino Melon is not ready for the spotlight.

Star Fruit - secretly a pear
FLAVOR: 2.5/5, Sweet, tart. I think mine was underripe.
AROMA: 3/5, reminiscent of apples and pears
MOUTHFEEL: 3/5, moist and crisp. The seeds were a bit more prominent than I'd prefer.
VISUAL APPEAL: 4/5 this is where the star fruit really shines. When cut in cross section it's hard to imagine a more appealing snack.
EASE OF USE: 5/5, just slice and eat, skin and all. It's just as easy to eat as an apple.
OVERALL: 3/5, I found the starfruit pleasant, familiar, and unremarkable. I'd try it again, I fear I haven't given it a fair shake.

Grandma's Death

week 4

My Grandma died on January 15 2026. She was 96. This week was about her funeral.

Experiential/Death

Rating ?/10

19

North Carolina

20

Planning

21

Cooking

22

Alone In Her House

23

The Funeral

24

Going Home

25

I went through a lot of old pictures to find good ones of Grandma for the funeral. I found a lot of old pictures of myself as well, full of things I don't have anymore. Full of my family younger and healthier and happier. I'm trying to be helpful and loving and patient with my parents. I don't know what else to do.

The planning is done. The funeral is Friday. Me and Matt cooked dinner. Multiple friends have checked in with me. It's nice to feel cared about.

I sat in her house, by myself, and ate ice cream out of her freezer. I looked at her pictures. I flipped through a book a word search puzzles she never finished. It was surreal and awful. The temperature inside was 50 degrees. I grew up in that house. She picked me up from elementary school, she cared for me, she fed me, played with me. She helped raise me. Her house was the locus of our extended family life. Now it's empty. It's still decorated for thanksgiving. That's the last time she lived there.

The day of Grandma's funeral was mercifully warm and sunny in an otherwise frigid week. The service visitation was more crowded than I expected. I cried about as much as I expected.
On the drive back from the burial I asked my parents if it felt weird to be "the grandparents" of the family. The said yes. I added that it feels weird to be an uncle. After a pause my mom said it felt weirder to be an orphan. She had obviously been thinking about that for a while.
I loved my grandma very much. I still do.

The week was hard. I feel like I did nothing but chores and errands and housework. Planning a funeral is a lot of work. My dad was released from the hospital just 2 days before grandma died. He could barely walk, his muscles had atrophied so badly during his 6 week stay. It's especially taxing on my mom, who spent the last months caring for both dad and grandma. I did my best to help her and reassure her. To take as much work off of her as I could. To let her know shes been a good daughter and a good mother. I felt equally guilty and relieved to return home to brooklyn at the end of the week.

READING ESSAYS

week 5

This week I read essays, something I almost never do. I'm entirely unfamiliar with the form so I've tried to take what seemed like a broad swath from the genre, though I admit I have a bias for recent works.
This theme was miserable, I don't think I truly enjoyed any of the selections. I need a better curator.

Consumptive/Media

Rating 2/10

26

Some Thoughts on the Common Toad, 1946, George Orwell

27

What Is A Man, 1906, Mark Twain

28

Notes of a Native Son, 1955, James Baldwin

29

Notes on Camp, 1946, Susan Sontag

30

31

1

FEB

Some Thoughts on the Common Toad, 1946, George Orwell
Orwell's a naturalist, or at least a great admirer of nature, and he wants to be sure you know it. I presume this essay is written in reaction to a specific person or persons, but that's how so many great Posts start.
It reminded me of spring last year, watching a tiny bright green inchworm crawl it's way through the mulch and dirt in Maria Hernandez Park. It was so richly colorful and so new, and working so hard at whatever inchworms work at. I probaly watched it for 10 minutes. Orwell's right, they can't take that from you.

What Is A Man, 1906, Mark Twain
Twain makes the case for determinism and aginst free will via a Platonic Dialog. Long-winded, repetitive, and without any of Twain's trademark wit. This was a real slog.

Notes of a Native Son, 1955, James Baldwin
At this point I'm convinced I've done a poor job selecting essays. I should have picked essays more in line with my personal tastes and expertise, and education. I know Baldwin is an arresting speaker. I've listened to him. But I fell asleep reading this.

Notes on Camp, 1946, Susan Sontag
IDK what I was thinking, I'm totally out of my depth here. I got nothing out of this. I view that as a personal failure, not a deficiency of the essay, but it did not make for a good reading experience.

ORIGAMI

week 6

This week I did a bit of beginner origami

Artistic

Rating 5/10

2

3

crane

4

parakeet

5

lotus blossom

6

swan

7

swan

8

first fold: crane
This was simple enough, and even my poor choice of paper (salmon pink construction paper, cut into a near-square with kitchen scissors) didn't hold me back. Not challenging at all, but delightful.

second fold: bird (parakeet)?
I got proper paper for this. This was even simpler than the crane, but my finished product is sloppier. I like it, it reminds me of my grandma's budgies.

third fold: lotus flower.
I like this, but I did it upside down so the colored side of my paper is mostly hidden. My petals are too large as well. I think I'll try this one a few more times, its quite simple but really pleasant. I'm really starting to get the importance of perfectly exact folds, even small misalignments get amplified quickly!

fourth fold: swan
Very easy, probably my best fold. I'm getting better at long thing points, though it's head is still a bit of a mess. I'm quite happy with how this turned out

fifth fold: swan
did another one, its cute

AUDIOBOOK

week 7

I've tried to "get into" audiobooks a few times before but always struggled to focus, letting the drone of the story fade into the background while my thoughts roam elsewhere. But I like the *idea* of them, so this week I'm giving them another shot with.

Consumptive/Literary

Rating 6/10

9

Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber

10

11

Chapter 1-2

12

13

Chapter 3-4

14

Chapters 5-7

15

Final thoughts

Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber - I enjoyed reading Graeber's "Debt," it seemed like time to give his most popular work a listen.

Sunday/Monday: I did struggle to focus a bit, but the material is engaging enough that I can usually settle into it. Graeber is a witty, if slightly dry, writer. I like that about him. The first 2 chapters are very funny but seem to deal almost entirely in subjectivitives, which did make me bristle a bit. I've come to expect a more scientific analysis, and Graeber's squishiness reminds me of pseudo-science charlatans and politicians, at least a little. That said, I do *agree* with his admittedly subjective claims, and I suspect the later chapters will get more dull and full of numbers. His breakdown of "bullshit jobs" into 5 classes is funny, you could run the worst TTRPG of all time with them.

I'm up to chapter 4 now, and Graeber has spent a lot of time talking about how the current system of wage labor is both a historical abberation (no one was keeping track of every hour of every worker's day until ~1900), as well as how this state of affairs is particularly demoralizing. He also spends a great deal of time talking about how many jobs insist that worker spend hours doing nothing at all but pretending they're busy. He uses the term "spiritual violence." It's a good companion analysis to marxism I think. I feel lucky to no longer be in such a job. My bosses don't seem to care what hours I keep, as long as the work gets done. Indeed, I left work at 4pm today to go to the gym, and listened to this chapter while I did my dead lifts. I believe this made me a better employee, not a worse one.

I finished the book, and thought I did struggle to maintain focus, it was nice to fill my idle time with something more enriching than news podcasts or youtube. Graeber finishes with a chapter on UBI. Though he insists the book is meant to describe the problem of "bullshit jobs" and not to perscribe a remedy, he can't help himself from making the pitch.

Graeber's an interesting guy, his anarchist philosophy comes through more loudly in this book than in "Debt." The book was less of a study and more of a meditation. Graeber's arguments are largely anecdotal, which is fine. He's not an economist or a chemist, he's an anthropologist. That said, the fact that the book *is* largely a work of philosophy stands at odds somewhat with the author's insistence that he doesn't have the answer(s) to the problems he observes. Maybe Graeber's anarchism prevents him from insisting on particular solutions too loudly lest he be mistaken for a statist, or worse, a corporatist.
I liked the book. I liked the audiobook format more than I have in the past. I think I'll give it another try for nonfiction works in the future.

YOGA

week 8

I've done a bit of yoga in the past but never made it a part of my fitness routine. I feel like I want more flexibility and mobility so I'm trying to incorporate yoga into my day, mostly short solo sessions but at least one in person class at a local studio.

Health/Fitness/Meditation

Rating 9/10

16

Day 1 - Morning Mobility, Yoga With Adriene

17

Day 2 - Morning Mindfulness, Yoga With Adriene

18

Day 3 - Flow Yoga, Yoga with Adriene

19

Day 4 - Yoga with Adriene

20

Day 5 - "joy" vinyasa, Yoga with Adriene

21

Day 6 - In-person vinyasa group class at baby cobra

22

This was a great return to a bit of light flow yoga, my hips are quite tight. I felt more awake and alert after a 20 min session.

Also a good way to start my day, but i found it a bit too meditative for my taste. I wanted to move more!

This one was HARD. I liked it, it woke up up. In fact, i woke up on my own around 630am today, dunno why.

My mood way low, I did this practice late in the day just to knock it out. I barely remember it.

Meduim difficulty. I find my shoulders are the muscle group that fatigues the soonest. That surprised me. I did this one in the late afternoon before lifting, which was a wonderful warmup.

This was _hard_. It was also really rewarding. In true nyc fashion though, no one was very talkative. It'd be more fun with a friend.

COMP. OVERWATCH

week 9

Some themes demand a lot of time, some are new and hard things. This week is neither. I just feel like playing video games. But I'll still try a new thing inside that familiar context - competitive ranked Overwatch.

Gaming

Rating 8/10

23

Warming up

24

Getting tilted

25

Turning off chat

26

Getting into the zone

27

Climbing

28

Branching out to other roles

1

MAR

Reflecting

I've been a casual on-again-off-again overwatch player since launch but I've always been a quickplay guy, never comp. I want to try the "real" game, so this week I'm playing some competitive ranked overwatch every day. I'm a zenyatta main, which is nice because he never gets banned and rarely contested.

My first competitive games were a mixed bag. Other players can be *very* toxic when your team is doing poorly. It threw me off, I only logged 3 games today.

Turning off all comms felt weird, I like the social aspect of gaming. But I have to admit it's improved the experience and helped me play better. I'm doing more winning than losing.

I feel comforable at this point, but I really only get into the zone on zen. I know his kit well. When I'm forced to swap for whatever reason my focus suffers. Thankfully basically no one wants to play zen, so I get him all to myself.

I've been climbing all week. After being place in mid-gold I'm now high plat. That's still in the middle of the bell curve, but it's on the right side now instead of the left. I'm quite proud of myself tbh.

I'm plat 2 on support now, and dipped my toes into damage a little. I'm less confident on dps, and i dont have a "main." It shows! I did much worse.

I have a lifelong aversion to "doing the hard thing," lest I be revealed as not actually good. This was a healthy thing to try. I don't know if I'm "good" at overwatch in an objective sense but I'm better than I expected to be. I should carry this lesson into my career and social life.

HOUSEPLANTS

week 10

This week I took care of some long-overdue houseplant upkeep. I said goodbye to a few long-dead plants, repotted my overgrown succulents, and bought a new Orchid for my bedroom window. A low-effort theme, but I'm happy to have done it.

Housekeeping/Decorating/Gardening

Rating 6/10

02

03

04

Orchid

05

06

Fancy Plants Store

07

Repotting

08

I bought a white orchid. I haven't been able to own one for a decade, I had a cat. Orchids are toxic to cats. I don't have a cat anymore so it seemed like the time. It lives on my bedroom windowsill, getting the morning sun. I hope it thrives there.

I went to the fancy expensive bushwick plant store and bought some potting soil. The very cool 20-somethings working there complimented my jacket. I felt very cool too. That's not really a plants thing but It happened becuse of the plants. So maybe that's a plants thing.

I (finaly) repotted my succulents. My long neglected cactus which had too little soil. My overgrown aloe which had to be split into 4 different pots. I said goodbye to a prayer plant that's been in poor health for a year, and to another small long-dead succulent. Plants from a former life.

Website

week 11

I knew from week 1 that I wanted to make a webpage for this project, once I had a couple month's completed.

Coding/Design

Rating 7/10

09

10

11

Getting Started

12

Data Entry

13

Deployment

14

Sharing

15

I decided on the basic design. You see it here. I wanted something bold, high contrast, visually loud, and a little bit abrasive. I'm not interested in user-friendliness, but i do want this to be legible.

Now that most of the design decisions are made and the markup is in a good place, I've transferred my notes to this format. It's a large project, I've written more than I realized.

It's hosted on github pages now.

I showed this to some friends and family. I realize that what I've made is sort of a public diary. Strange!

Godzilla

week 12

This week I'm watching Godzilla movies from across decades

Consumptive/Media

16

17

Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964)

18

19

The Return of Godzilla (1984)

20

21

Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001)

22

Godzilla Minus One (2023)

I love the rich color pallate of 50s & 60s color movies. Mothra vs. Godzilla sorta drags but there's a lot that's charming about it. The movie has the courage to make two very nasty looking giant grubs the heroes of the story.

This is barely a Godzilla movie, but that's what interesting about it. Modern, late 20th centry Toyko dwarfs the rubber monster, humanity's technology is so advanced that Godzilla's every move can be anticipated and countered. The movie is mainly about the geopolitics of the late cold war. Godzilla is threatening mainly because his appearance might trigger a nuclear attack from the USA and USSR, not because of the damage he does directly.
Cool movie. The last act kind of drags as it gets away from the above premise and lets Godzilla smash stuff.

Godzilla is a mean motherfucker in this movie and is killing people like he has a personal grudge against them. He's not a force of nature, he's a villian with malice in his heart.
I liked this the least of the Godzillas that I watched, but I could see it being someone's favorite.

This one puts the human drama up front. It's as anti-war as any Godzilla movie has ever been. The day isn't saved by the military, or by the intervention of another kaiji, but by a ragtag group of private citizens - engineers, parents, sailors, parents. They working together to defeat Godzilla and to reclaim their lives and restore their national pride in the absense of help from their government. I liked it.

health problems

week 13

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

health problems

week 14

30

31

1

2

3

4

5

linocut

week 15

I've made exactly 1 linocut stamp in my life and I enjoyed it. This week I bought some beginner supplies and made some stamps and prints.
I did less linocut making this week than I'd hoped, it was busy. This is a top candidate for a re-visit later in the year.

Creative/Arts/Crafts

Rating 6/10

6

Gifting The Frog

7

Art Store is overwhelming

8

9

The Diamond

10

11

The Bird

5

I've had a print of my Frog stamp hanging on my office wall for years. Today I gave it to a good friend of mine, who'd gifted me a painting of thier own for my birthday recently. It was the highlight of my week.

The art supplies store is overwhelming and in a basement, where there's no cell service, so I can't do the usual thing of frantically googling to figure out what I need. I got a beginner linocut kit & some little playing card-sized general purpose papers to print on. I also got a wood-backed piece of linoleum which was *much* too difficult for me to figure out, I ruined it lol.

My idea was to make a custom "treasure" token for magic the gathering, and while I'm happy with some of the design this went poorly. My printing technique was bad, so my ink bled and details were lost. My stamp was too large, I didn't size it to my paper well enough. But the diamond design I came up with is good I think I can trim the border design off and still have a usable stamp.

I found a really fun geometric bird pattern on a facebook group about quilting, which I immediately sketched & adapted to a stamp. This came together *fast* and I'm really happy with the result.

Biking To Bakeries

week 16

Bike rides to bakeries to eat good breads

Consumptive/Locomotive

Rating 7/10

13

14

L'imprimerie, Bushwick

15

16

Saraghina Bakery, Bed-Stuy

17

18

The Bird

19

A short lunchtime ride, barely 2 miles round trip. I had a decent if dry sandwich of ham, butter, and gherkins on a quite good baguette. I followed it up with an _extremely_ buttery cookie. 6/10 lunch, 9/10 cookie.

A HOT lunchtime ride, almost 90 degrees on an April day. About 3 miles round trip, so another short one. I had their take on a fellini sandwich - mortadella, mozzarella, truffle aiolo, ad baby arugula on a ciabatta roll. It was fluffy, soft, creamy, and rich. Honestly a 8/10 sandwich. The bread was so fresh.