Switching Frequencies: an update
Adjusting my dial. For a while, this blog was twice monthly. Then monthly. Now, quarterly, timed so-so with equinox and solstice. Even this first one runs a few weeks beyond the fall equinox. This reflects time commitments, a general unease with all things internet now, and quite simply a combination of a lack of things to say to the void paired with a prevailing annoyance at this pestering feeling to blog in the first place. Still, the Listicle remains and may even endure. I will always love lists but I also fucking hate formatting on wix.com so here's a subversive unnumbered list.
New fiction out! Have to toot my own horn for a second. At the start of August, a short spec fic piece of mine came out in the delightful Spank the Carp publication, see issue Pond 94 and "So Your Cat Went Through a Wormhole." It is based on a true story.
How's the reading going? Good, thanks. At the end of the summer, I finished the new Yellow Pine by Claire Vaye Watkins. I didn't like it. And yet it made me think about some things differently, made me aware of some things, and takes place in a location I love and was just in: the Mojave Desert. Here's to the town of Pahrump, NV, and places like the Crowbar in Shoshone, CA, and all the weirdness in between. I want to make a zine of this book and send it to a friend who also read it.
Down with clankers. Like a lot of folks, all this talk of artificial intelligence and its taking over the world and the billionaires who are driving it all and don't give a shit is really getting me down. Just finished reading Jill Lepore's book The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State and while it did not give me hope (and I don't think it's meant to do that), it did give me a historical perspective that at least gave me some needed context. Some snippets worth keeping in my back pocket:
concept: "the inability of public discourse automated by machines owned by corporations to support good government"
concept: "social media undermines free press. People tend to bypass general interest publications and restrict themselves to opinion and topics of their own choosing, which does worse than fragment ourselves further."
quote: "By the middle of the 2020s, vastly consequential decisions about the future of Earth and everyone and everything on it were being made by a handful of men based on their colossal accumulation of wealth."
intro to Dave Egger's novel The Circle (haven't read it yet but I will!) where he provides The Rights of Humans in a Digital Age:
we must all have the right to anonymity
not every human activity can be measured
the ceaseless pursuit of data to quantify the value of any endeavor is catastrophic to true understanding
concept: "Against social medias' claims that they help/increase democracy -- after 15 years of Twitter, smart phones, etc., there's been no increase in democracy at all."
The Sierra Nevadas, oh the Sierra Nevadas. The first time I was at the base of the Sierras was in 2015 in Yosemite. On a day hike, I saw a sign pointing up and away and it read: "High Sierras" and I wasn't ready to follow it then. I was ready in 2026. At the end of August, my hiking crew and I set off for a 5 day, 4 night backpacking trip in the Sierras. We followed the popular Rae Lakes loop and made it roughly 43 miles which included my first ever mountain pass at just under 11,000 feet as well as camping above 10,000 feet. We had perfect weather, saw bear and marmots and the clearest water and blue skies I have ever seen. I have fallen in love. I get it, John Muir, I get it. The mountains are calling, and I must go back.
And my favorite place on earth. Also this summer, I finally accomplished a rim to rim hike of the Grand Canyon, my most dearest and treasured place on earth. Every time I go, it brings me to tears. The sheer size and deep time open like a book to read. But only a month after I spent a night in the famous Phantom Ranch at the bottom of the canyon, a flash flood destroyed much of it and killed three people. The major water line to the South rim has been severely damaged and trails washed away. I don't know when things will be back in order, it's devastating, and yet the canyon still remains so there is hope. Nature will outlast us all, thank goodness for that.
Snake! We live near the county watershed which is open to recreation so I ride Maple the pony there frequently. It is quiet and green and peaceful. And there are timber rattlesnakes. Maple and I came across a testy one right across the path in September. It was the highlight of my week.
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