Good morning! Hello! How are you? Happy Monday. Oof. Staring down the barrel of a five-day workweek gun today. That’s okay. I can’ handle it. I got SO MUCH SLEEP last night. We went and had dinner at the neighbor’s house and they made this delicious pasta dish and I had way too much of it, and then pie and ice cream, and I came home and I had such a food coma I basically went straight to sleep. Got almost nine hours. Feel all right today, that is nice.
I would like to wish my mother a happy birthday today. Seventy-seven years old. That is legit. Mom I hope you’re doing something fun today.
Man what a crazy weekend for cinema! Madness! Barbie raking in $155 million, the highest opening weekend by a woman director ever. An Oppenheimer bringing in another $80 million, a total weekend box office of $299 million, more than twice as much as the weekend before. Just crazy. Barbenheimer! A real thing! It was so weird to see a bunch of ladies dressed up in pink watching Oppenheimer.
Unfortunately we did not get a chance to see Barbie yet. Hopefully this week. But I did go to Oppenheimer Friday afternoon, alone. It was really good, A+, no complaints, left the theater despairing for humanity and physically ill from the ramifications of the film, just what you want in life. And man. What a cast. Really was something. Cillian Murphy didn’t look like Cillian Murphy for the first time in his acting career, really disappeared into the role, and Gary Oldman disappeared into the role for the 100th time in his career and I had no idea it was him until the credits.
The evening I saw Oppenheimer I spent a bunch of time reading the Wikipedia page about Robert Downey Jr.’s character. The guy did a lot of interesting stuff! Was partially responsible for the establishment of Finland as an independent country. Relentlessly advocated to FDR to do something about the Jews in Nazi Germany, starting from a very early date — even before Crystalnacht. Contributed to the establishment of Kodak and Polaroid as a sort of early photo VC. People are such complex creatures really is something.
Oh and I love love love that the first line of Oppenheimer teaching his students was about light and particle wave theory and how it’s impossible but also true and how that’s a complete paradox because that is something that Jane and I talk about all the time and that was very validating.
Other than that, mostly chores this weekend. Chores! God, I love chores. I had two big chores for the weekend, and I got them both done, and it nearly killed me, I swear.
I had to get the rental office ready at the other house for the tenant, she is starting to move stuff in today. And I needed to get her wifi up and running which meant running cable which was such a pain. Had to get from the crawlspace into the office and it was, like, over the cinder block foundation but then under the beams that were resting on the foundation, the whole thing stuffed with insulation. Ended up having to tear a good 2 foot square piece of drywall out to fish the cable out but I got it. And I got the network all set up. Luckily this ugly drywall hole is in the portion of the office she’s not renting, and it is hidden from her, but Im gonna have to patch it one of these days. Which is fine, I got a nice drywall patch from Lowe’s, but then I’ll have to paint the room too, which is… something we’ll think about later. Also got the place vacuumed for her. I think we’re ready.
And then Sunday I spent the day clearing out all the bushes and trees that are sitting where the greenhouse is going to go, so I can mark out where the concrete pad is going to go. Man. It was 90 degrees Sunday. What an intense task. I was gulping liquids constantly to keep from dehydrating. Wore long sleeves and pants and a hat that covered my neck to avoid sunburn. Just out there soaking, cutting branches and tree stumps with my assortment of four different brush cutting tools. Nearly killed me. But I got it done! With an hour to spare before the dinner at the neighbors so I could shower and then just sit in a chair and not move for a good long while and let my poor, sore body slowly recover. Miraculously feel okay today. And no heat stroke. Go me.
I did not get the pile of newly-cut brush moved, though, so that’s a thing I’ll still have to do, not sure where Im gonna put that, to let it dry until I can chip it. And I still need to actually mark out the pad. But the hard part of the project is done.
Out in the garden, I harvested a ton of tomatoes, and I worked them up their trellis. They’re in pretty sad shape: heat scald, mostly. But they’re producing. The cucumbers were mostly tapped out except for one magical vine, which I left in place and then cleared out the rest of the bed, refreshed the soil and planted a second wave of cucumbers for the fall. The peppers, beans, carrots, shallots, potatoes and beets all seem to be doing great. The grapes are very close to being ready which is very exciting. Of course Jane is gonna hate them because they have seeds in them, but they are so yummy!
More chores! Also got the label printer on the network for Emma, refilled my pills, took some packages to Pakmail for Emma which ended up being a giant production because Jane wanted to go and then she threw giant fits because her huge tutu wouldn't fit in the car seat and she wouldn’t let me adjust it so that was fun. Made waffles, sent the follow-up radon test in, refilled the pills, chores chores chores. Chores are just the best. What a good weekend of chores. So much productive exercise.
Welp looks like Elon decided last night to change the name of Twitter to X and my god that guy is just so…. stupid. It really is something. What is there to even say at this point. What a meglomaniac. It’s a public square mm hmm so I’m gonna buy it and pee all over it.
People keep saying Threads “engagement is down” and “it’s not Twitter” but it is mostly doing it for me. There are things missing. There are still a lot of, ironically, institutional accounts I want to follow that aren’t on Threads — especially non-profits that haven’t been paying too much attention to this drama. But it’s getting there. So far, though, for me — and to be clear I’m not happy to say this — Threads is still the current frontrunner. Should I go look at Spoutible or Post again?
I tried to use Bluesky yesterday but literally the whole site was engaged in relentlessly mocking some person who said something dumb and apparently that gave people an excuse to be endlessly mean to her for thirty-six hours straight and I don’t think that is going to be my jam. It’s sad. It’s like… it’s like people desperately trying to get their unhealthy Twitter high somewhere else, switching to Fentanyl when they can’t get the pure unadulterated Oxycontin Twitter hit anymore. Not healthy.
Last night Daddy Jane Dance Party was not actually Daddy Jane Dance Party, it was Mommy Jane Molly Anora Dance Party at the neighbor’s house and it was very, very cute, all four of them dancing in Anora’s playpen to Taylor Swift and the Linda Lindas. Just great. I should have taken more pictures. I apologize.
A shoegaze playlist for you today. All new stuff. Excited about the new Film School, one of those shoegaze bands that existed in the shoegaze dark age, after MBV broke up, Slowdive went folk and Ride went 70’s. Ender statesmen these days, that makes them.
Talk tomorrow!
a friend sent me a tweet from the designer who created the X logo for twitter. he was fired. haha.