I meant to start microblogging for May yesterday but forgot. I’ve switched over to bullet journaling on the iPad instead of physically and also Saturday is my work Friday so when the day’s over, I don’t really want to think. Or consult my bullet journal. So I missed microblogging yesterday, but all of a sudden it seems like a good idea to do a post now.

I had hoped a month away from daily microblogging would make the heart grow fonder, but it did not. Not having to write a microblog post almost immediately stopped being a thought, once I’d stopped the practice. Maybe I was playing too much Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla. Outside actual writing school, I’ve tried the daily writing practice and the daily writing practice has always been bad. Maybe it’d work if writing weren’t the inevitable plus one to my day, the last thing dot I need to ex. My brain hasn’t got the space.

Even now I’m thinking I can check off tomorrow’s microblog to do item because I’m doing this post today. Even now I’ve lost the train on the writing I wanted to do in this post. Some of it is because it’s the not book. The not book continues to loom, I can sit imagining it literally hidden away in the closet—I made curtains so I wouldn’t occasionally see the box of not book stuff out of the corner of my eye–Lovecraftian tentacles reaching out in the seventh dimension to slither into my ears and brain and… do whatever they’d do.

I really wish I could draw. Even if I could do comic strip style. If I could draw—or didn’t loathe the sound of my voice—sky’s the limit (also figuring in I’m a white guy in his early forties, I lived through the prime mediocre white male media creator ascent eras; hell, I even wrote a novel about it).

I ordered a new iMac the other day—by other day I mean I very casually ordered it as soon as humanly possible, refreshing and refreshing until the order would go through and so on. I think I’m convincing myself somehow this new iMac will lead to a renewed creativity, facilitating some new spark, not just being a literal portal to the PS4 and the “kill the Nazi zombies” game I’m playing while listening to John Carpenter’s Lost Themes when I’d otherwise be… well, probably doing laundry.

I’m planning new videos for sure. How could I not with Neural Mix Pro being a thing (it uses machine learning to separate vocal and music elements from audio tracks, something my best friend lied to me about being possible back in 1989 and has plagued my mind since). But I also heard a rumor Final Cut Pro is going subscription, which would make a lot more sense than trying to justify the $200. Or is it $300. For zero return. At least with Vellum (an eBook maker app), I’m 1% on my way to recouping the investment. I made seventeen eBook collections last month, rolling that project into the Stop Button refresh. It’s been way too full a year; I finally got my desk cleaned up from all the projects I’d started and stopped with it. Everything electronic is in a good place. Save the wires. The wires still need work.

I also cat-proofed the area Gregory loves to go play and fuck around with wires and NASes and switches and power cords and whatever else he can chew. I made it cat friendly, with a temperate pet mat and a fluffy shark cave; he avoids it like the plague.

Rhyming unintentional. Too much Valhalla.

I’ve also decided I’m not writing about sitcoms the first time through. It’s way too much work. I took solid notes on the first three or four “Ted Lasso” episodes, only to realize worrying about writing about it would just distract from the experience so I stopped taking notes. I didn’t even try with “Rutherford Falls,” which is good because I can’t not see Ed Helms as a Jason Sudeikis knock-off who doesn’t get it.

I’m concerned I may need to give Sudeikis another chance—I was able to easily dismiss him after Horrible Bosses was horrible—but given I’m finally on track to rewatch Desert of the Tartars some seventeen years after I meant to see it again….

It’ll be a while.

I’ve had the double shot, the weather’s not fogging my glasses when I wear a mask, it’s not cold out all the time—I’m ready for some kind of cocoon emergence (we’ve instituted a daily walk, I’ve started running—no more races ever, well, maybe a triple dash)—but I can’t shake feeling like it’s still just lockdown, it’s still just work from home. I hate going outside too, so it’s clearly getting bad now.

I miss air, it turns out. And smells.

I do not miss driving. Hate driving. But air and smells? They’re all right.

Last one of these posts for a month. I’m way too thrilled about it. And not just because we got through Godzilla vs. Kong tonight instead of waiting for the weekend and having that two hours bled out then. I’d like to think of the micro blogging as a season. As something I can separate and restart, but I’m not sure I think it’s a seasonal thing. Certainly not when I’m writing it at ten o’clock at night or later.…

Early micro blogging because I’m trying to be productive today. I mistyped “Abe” in that sentence and I’m missing Kobe Abe. That feeling of the hospital in Secret Rendezvous. When I do get back to reading, I’m going to start with Lanark. Not sure when I’m going to have that time. Anyway. But trying to be productive. I got through Year of the Dragon, which was nowhere near as good as I thought it was when I last saw it and actually somewhat more unpleasant of a Michael Cimino experience than The Sicilian.…

Okay, I got ahead of myself yesterday because I forgot about posting 2021 posts immediately. I’d fallen behind on it–I was waiting for a second comic (Ginseng Roots #8 is sitting here unread because I want to concentrate)—but got through it all this morning. Three posts. Some of the problem is—well, problem is a stretch—but Stop Button runs on GMT because I thought it was a good idea back in 2004 or whatever and it’d break too many links to change.…

I think I’m doing a posting schedule in April. I have two days to decide. Three days. Right now—besides the micro blog, which will be on a hiatus, potentially for a month—the only day I don’t post is on Fridays. The goal being to work up enough catalog I’ll inevitably eek out some money from Wordpress ads. When I started the site, I had this whole “long tail” idea. Because I’d been reading about “long tail” and didn’t understand how it could or could not apply to a blog.…

This post is my attempt to get my micro blogging done before 11:59 pm every night. I need to be going to bed earlier. Unfortunately it also means I have no topic in mind. I had a three-day work week and after writing about The Green Mile–1998/1999 were a couple really good years—there’s nothing particularly boiling over. I’m kind of unsure about not really addressing the required projected privilege for Mile but just going all in on it being a Christian movie, actually, did the work.…

I suppose I ought to get this post done. I’m thinking through a Green Mile post, which still kicks down all the doors (is that a phrase). But then I also realized I haven’t gotten my posts done for “Resident Alien” and “Falcon/Winter Soldier” either. For some reason I thought starting a three hour movie at 7:30 was going to have me done at ten instead of eleven. And then it’s almost midnight and I haven’t done the kitty litter yet either.…

11:36 and I thought I’d be writing a post about how I’m bummed I don’t get to write about the last episode of “Superstore” because I never got around to writing through the series. I had to rewatch. A friend recommended it, I put off the recommendation ages, started watching the show, knew I had to let the wife know about it versus going alone (a la “IT Crowd,” hashtag fuck Graham L), was going to work out how to write about sitcoms with it at my lunch… didn’t do it.…

It’s the wife’s spring break so we’ve got more time to watch movie movies (so of course we wasted a night on Justice League), but we’ve done a couple recent ones—Knives Out and Three Billboards. During an ice cream run, I was texting with a friend about Billboards and happy to hear all my observations of its obvious problems were on point. I don’t read much if any film criticism right now.…

I’m trying to figure out Stop Button stuff, which is a change. Usually I’m trying to revise it—the blog not the content—but now I’m trying to think of new things to do. While possibly even revisiting old content; I’m just not there yet. Thinking about it at length long enough to do some tests. Maybe next week; I’ve got another long weekend, though only a three-day not a four. I didn’t plan it around Godzilla vs.…

Earlier start time for this post than usual, but more exhausted. I’m trying to beat one of the demon things in “Assassin’s Creed Valhalla” but I’m also about to pass out. I’ve hit the “snacking to stay conscious” phase in the nightly fight against sleep. Today was not a particularly productive day. Actually, outside taking in some plastic bags for recycling—hopefully, we watched “John Oliver” tonight—I didn’t really do much. Watched Knives Out.…

I’m doing a little better with tonight’s post. Well, I was doing a little better when I was starting this post a half hour ago. I’m doing less better now it’s eleven o’clock and and not even a quarter done with the post. I got my first shot today and was really impressed at the efficiency of it all. Amazing what “We” can do when we put our minds to it.…

One of my great ideas to get myself more invested in serious blogging was “Sum Up” posts on The Stop Button. Basically long annotated filmographies, which would undoubtedly drive up readership of related posts. I got a lot of hits on some of the “Sum Up” posts. I never saw anyone click through to the related posts; or, if they did, I didn’t see it based on my monitoring of the stats.…

Not a great sign when I realize I forgot to post yesterday and my first impulse is just to stop with the micro blogging. There’s a definite free write feeling to it—remember free write days? We didn’t do them in MFA, but in undergrad there were the occasional days when you could just tell the instructor did not want to instruct and it’d be a free write. I don’t think it happened often.…

I really need to do these posts when I see them on my to do list in the bullet journal and not just assume I’ll get around to them at some point later. They are not meant to be daily “summing up” posts, which I sort of tried before but it didn’t survive January 20, 2017. Now I’m just trying to stay conscious for them. I’ve had a decent week of writing.…

I’m to an annoyed level of tired I’ve reached in a while. Maybe for most of the lockdown. Apparently less than six hours and I can’t hack it at sixteen hours and counting. It also wasn’t a great day. I guess it’ll be another vague autobiographical post because I don’t have the energy for anything else. It was an emotionally exhausting day too—it’s almost like I’m not ready for this level of despondence at the state of the U.…

The soft reboot turned out to be a little softer than planned. But it’s working out. The day was more full than usual. Since work-from-home, there’s not a lot of activity to my day. Physically. It’s sitting in front of a computer and typing. The skill of the twenty-first century; sitting and typing for work is a “getting my MFA”-era reference. It was the goal. So sitting and typing all day.…

I thought about doing a post earlier but then fell off. Possibly because of all the shoveling. I don’t remember the last time I shoveled three times in one day. Given all the momentum I’m currently enjoying—I’ve even come up with a system for updating the old Stop Button posts (system not schedule)—I figure it was time for a soft reboot. Though I’m not really committed to it yet. I’ve found with all the projects lately they need to be in motion before I can see their value.…

Today turned out to be the day for the Twitter stuff. While it has vaguely been in my mind for actual years, the impetus was listening to too much Stratechery and Dithering and all the renewed hubbub over Twitter lately. I locked it down last year—or earlier maybe even—but definitely once the election season started and I really didn’t want to be held accountable for the (accurately) hateful things I was going to say about vile people.…

It’s another exhausted, late night post, though at least not on the phone. I don’t know why, but I feel like the potential to actually type on an iPhone has decreased with the skeuomorphism going out the window. The keyboard just isn’t big enough, not even on the Max. Maybe I’m just too used to the mechanical keyboard. I needed it because I was going to be writing at length; only not.…

I’m trying this post on the phone. I’ve got some comments about the Ulysses iPhone app. I won’t be making them but I do have them. We’re supposed to be having a snowmageddon but I’m unconvinced. The weather forecasters never seem to get it right here. You’d think if somehow have remembered this post—what with the otherwise successful bullet journal—but I spent the train ride home playing on the phone. The train attendant apologized when I had to pause to show my ticket and I felt like an ass.…

So I’m on my eleventh micro blog post; one a day for nine days, two one day to make up. In that time I’ve become needlessly preoccupied with reopening my Twitter, start bullet journaling again, gotten a pet chest carrier to torment my cat with (I mean, I do think he’ll like it, but his pissed off face in the picture is glorious and pure Get Fuzzy), started mulling some active writing, installed the Honey plugin (didn’t work because of course it didn’t), and got going on a work thing.…

I just ordered a bullet journal. Specifically a dot journal so I can use it as a bullet journal. Like a chump. I distinctly remember being able to get into it with the iPad at some point but all attempts to return to note journaling on the iPad during lockdown have been complete failures. I’m not going to do a full bullet journal, probably not even full day pages. Just something to get going again.…

It feels like there’s a spring thaw going on. Wasn’t it about a year ago the lockdowns started. Not yet… I’m sure there will be lots of bad editorials when the actual anniversaries start hitting. But there’s definite forward motion, even if it’s grinding the motor. Or something. I tried my timeout before writing today; three posts, did the timeout with one. I guess it worked all right. The second one I didn’t have time for a timeout and sort of picked at it until it was finished.…

I had an embarrassing epiphany today. I need to take a few minutes to let my thoughts congeal before I start a post. Even if I’ve got extensive notes. Just a few minutes to think about it. It’s a problem because it’s exactly what I don’t want. Sure, it’s nice to be able to take a few minutes to think—I need to try it out on a day where I’m doing other things and not just thinking about the best way to think about blogging—but the goal is being able to sit down and barf out the post.…

Some of this Twitter re-opening deliberation is about TV. Just realized. I’m watching more current, weekly TV than usual. “WandaVision,” “Resident Alien,” even “Equalizer.” But usually it’s just “Superstore” and I’m not talking about it because I don’t want to spoil it for a friend. I’m also very much on the edge of my seat because I want it to go a certain way and wish-casting or whatever wouldn’t be good tweeting.…

There was a book. There is a book. There never was a problem there wasn’t a book. Maybe it wasn’t the right book, or the best book, but there was a book. There was a book, there could be a comic book, there could be a book about the book, there could be a comic book about the book. Should there be any of those things is the question. Should there be maybe always should… be the question.…

Funny thing about forgetting to write a post yesterday and then needing to make one up today? Spent the ride home playing the new Apple Arcade release, not writing a micro blog post. Instead I’m doing it so tired I didn’t want to write up the “Resident Alien” post because I already wrote the “WandaVision” post tired and one tired post is… well, let us avoid that route. When I started writing The Stop Button it was hard to get to 100 words, much less 250.…

One of the other things I didn’t think about with this daily microblogging practice was missed days. I’m thinking it’s going to be make-up posts, but missing a post—partially because I got too wrapped up in complaining about a movie in a post, mostly because I haven’t figure out a good time to write these ones—allows for the option of a mistrial. I can give up the microblog practice with the simple excuse I didn’t make my goals.…

It was another fail on getting this post done before the last possible moment. I forgot about it even more today than I did yesterday, with one less post to write. So I’m not sure how I’m going to turn this part of blogging into a practice. I did spend a bunch of time trying to set a cool typewriter font for the blog, but it didn’t work. CSS for at least two hours and no result.…

I mean to write this post at lunch, but instead finished up a “Frasier” one, which was my second post of the day. This one’s my fourth. I’m not sure there should be a word count goal for media blogging. No matter what you’re writing about, there are only so many adjectives good and bad. But the nice thing about not going too long in the word count target here is it’s a quick blog entry.…

I meant to write this post while reeling from the first episode of “Michael Hayes” but instead I’m a little in shock over the 1931 Jekyll and Hyde so you’ll have to bear with me. Based on two anecdotes, I’ve decided we’re starting to see a post-Trump thaw in some creatives. With the luxury of apocalypse behind us, it’s time for renewed energies. If you’re privileged and comfortable enough to have them.…