Hiatuses

Trilliums at Wild Iris Ridge park last week

I think I was emotionally ready to abandon this blog. But of course that's not gonna happen. Long hiatus. And perhaps this is a lone entry between two hiatuses. I just looked up hiati and the internet told me that was incorrect. Semi-related: it's trilliums, not trillia.

The thing is: I don't really have anything I want to write about. I'll have to sneak my way in. Tomorrow will be eight months since we started living in our new house. It's gradually feeling more normal! It's our first spring here. Mrs. Random has been documenting the flowers and plants that are springing into action around the house. That's definitely her department. I admire but she seeks knowledge.

I just peeked at my last blog entry, which was in early February—Groundhog Day actually. I stopped keeping track of books I've been reading, but I don't think I've read very many. Just finished what I believe is the third reading of Simon Reynolds' book about post-punk music (1978-85), Rip It Up and Start Again. Obviously it's a favorite. I'm in season 4 of my fifth binge-through of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., probably my favorite TV series, although Max Headroom and Star Trek: Voyager are up there, too. Psych as well. I've been spending time on Kanopy watching documentaries. There's some pretty interesting stuff there. If I'd known I'd be getting back to blogging, I'd have kept track, logged what I've been watching (and reading). I wish Kanopy had a watch history feature.

I started a big project a few weeks ago: dubbing my massive pile of VHS tapes to digital. I bought a second VCR and two little video recorders that save MP4 files to MicroSD cards. It's going to be a long and somewhat tedious process, but I want to save a lot of the programming that I recorded in the late 80s and 90s. With two VCRs and accompanying digital dubbers, I can get through 2-4 tapes per day. I archive the files to three hard drives and then toss out the tapes. Ultimately I'll be liberating a substantial bit of volume in the Bunker, making room for more desk space, more area to do art and music.

I was all excited about my Freewrites last year (Alpha, Traveler, Smart Typewriter), but as it often happens, the new gadgets lost their luster and started sitting for longer and longer unused. One reason I'm blogging today is to put some words onto one of those gadgets. I'm writing this on the Alpha. And I started a journal entry on the Smarty. That's good.