May 20, 2025

Getting mad at cream cheese is unhealthy. Yet, there I was this morning, trying to get it on the bagels and it kept falling off the knife and onto the counter, blopping as chive-mixed mounds just to aggravate me. It made me think about my own anger management issues. It's always more a simmering rather than explosions, something that's formed by being both possibly autistic and definitely an only son. I'll probably dig deeper into this but not right now.

Sunny today but my allergies have been fucking with me for the last three days, so pumping myself full of generic Sudafed to get through it all. Almost finishing listening to Everything is Tuberculosis but not sure if I'd recommend it. It feels more focused on the story about the kid John Green met in Sierra Leone than the history of the disease, which is what I thought I was getting. This isn't any disrespect to Henry but the ad campaign for the book sold it as something it wasn't...

Also starting Stasiland (reading, not listening) since I appear to be on a Depressing Nonfiction kick this year. Just a chapter in and I'm not sure how I'm going to feel about it. I find the subject fascinating but Funder's approach and writing style might be a minor stumbling block for me. It's not horrible - she's quite concise and descriptive - but there's a dryness that might make it hard to focus without feeling like I'm slogging through it. I'll need to give it a couple more chapters until making a determination to DNF or not. - A.B. 5/20/25

P.S. Today's album is Unhalfbricking by Fairport Convention (1969), chosen for no particular reason except that it's not a commonly known album for Americans and it's also one of my favorites. Sandy Denny was an amazing singer and this is one of those places where she really shined, especially on her standard "Who Knows Where The Time Goes?"

Featured image is from Squids Z of Qiji Garden in Shanghai. I like abstract architecture and it's a picture that Unsplash keeps recommending, so I'm using it for today without any deeper meaning.