Quick bits:

• Still not doing so hot. I wonder whether the icky weather is making me feel under the weather. [Stop confusing people with your words —  Ed.]

• Speaking of weather: first snow in Berlin!

• A revelation I’ve had while reading books: every time I want to play a “narrative game,” I really want to read a book instead.

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[Dedicated note: Referencing a tag means using it.]

In organizing my personal notes, I’ve stumbled into a problem with tags (like #week­notes). It seems impossible to reference a tag without also using it at the same time.

To illustrate this, imagine I were to mention the tag #fiction in these week­notes because I want to link out to the overview of all notes with that tag. If I do so, then that tag is also applied to these week­notes themselves, which means they’ll show up in the list of notes tagged with #fiction, and that is not what I want.

In Bear, my note-taking app of choice, I work around this problem by using specific URLs that open tags, like bear://x-callback-url/open-tag?name=week­notes. This works, but it feels like a workaround than a proper solution.

This is an issue on social media as well: if, for example, I were to post “the #asstodon and #bloomscrolling hashtags are so wholesome” (with the sole intention of linking out to these tags) then that very tweet or toot will be unintentionally tagged with #asstodon and #bloomscrolling as well.

I have no idea what a solution could be.

This might be a manifestation of the use–mention distinction.

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I finally wrote another piece of fiction. Go read it: Closed In. It’s a read of a few minutes.

It is just under 900 words, which is a little under my ideal word count: I’d love to write stories that are 1000–1500 words. I am nonetheless happy, especially because I hadn’t written anything decent in months.

It’s also not the greatest bit of writing I’ve put out there, but I am happy to have written about… erm… checking my notes… ahh yes: scaffolding-induced writer’s block. That’s a spoiler for the story, sorry. But if I can write about something as ridiculous as that, I think I can write about anything.

I wrote it on a single evening, in about an hour and a half. Afterwards, I was so exhausted I went to bed — and it wasn’t even 10 PM at that point.

This is the third entry in my Alphabet Superset project. I’m way behind schedule: the plan was to publish one short story per week, which has proven to be too large of a challenge. The new plan is to continue with my own rules: I will go at my own pace, and I’ll allow myself to write short stories that can be of any fiction genre (not just macabre).

Initially, I had planned to write a different story. That story had been on my desk, being half written and rewritten repeatedly, and I wasn’t get anywhere with it. I think I had internalized that giving up on a story means admitting defeat, but sometimes you’ve got to drop an idea and move on the next.

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I switched my writing tool from Byword to iWriter Pro. They’re both good pieces of software, but iWriter Pro is a little prettier and more customizable. It has better control over line height and better themes, too.

In general, I subscribe to the philosophy of “tools don’t matter,” but sometimes, trying out new tools can help you make progress.

iWriter Pro also has a correctly functioning typewriter mode, which I very much appreciate.

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I signed up for more acting classes: three consecutive weekends, both days filled, which will probably make it rather intense, but that is what I have been looking for.

I’m not approaching it systematically; I’m fine with taking random acting classes. That’s fine: learning from other people is never bad, and I’ll get new perspectives, new insights, new techniques. I’ll build connections too.

My attention has been shifting from acting to writing lately. In part, this is because there is a considerable amount of bad (screen)plays out there — Sturgeon’s law, perhaps — and I feel that my priority is to create good material. Perhaps so I can act in it later, or perhaps not.

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Stephen King’s The Institute¹¹¹ Stephen King, The Institute (Scribner, 2019).  is an odd novel. I’m about one quarter into the novel, and I’ve got thoughts.

In On Writing,²²² Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft (Scribner, 2000).  Stephen King says “I believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs” — but there’s a remarkable number of adverbs in The Institute. (I’ve been highlighting them in my ebook reader, because I can.) Perhaps I’m paying too much attention to them, and they stand out to me because King wrote about how much he dislikes adverbs.

King’s fascination with young adolescents is a little uncomfortable. He writes about boys paying attention to girls’ butts and boobs, and about making out. Perhaps it’ll turn out to be relevant to the story, but I doubt it.

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Entertainment:

• I replayed Control³³³ Control (Remedy Entertainment, 2019), published by 505 Games.  and its expansions. That was enjoyable, though some of the boss fights are nasty, and not in a good way. There’s more stuff left in the game, but I’m tired. Games have too much content.

• I watched Free Guy,⁴⁴⁴ Free Guy, directed by Shawn Levy, written by Matt Lieberman and Zak Penn (20th Century Studios, Berlanti Productions, 21 Laps Entertainment, 2021).  and ugh it was not good. Or at least absolutely not my thing.

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Links:

• Secret Mechanisms of CSS (Josh Comeau): This taught me a bunch of stuff about CSS that I thought I knew, but didn’t!

• Circles: Better connections, made easier (Daniel G. Siegler): Address books, even the fanciest digital ones, never worked for me, and never felt right. Circles looks like a big step in the right direction.

• Interviewing Tips: Before You Apply, CV, Cover Letter & Screening Interview (Tobias Pfeiffer): Good advice!

• The mysterious case of the “lost positive” (RobWords)