Status Post: 24 August, 2019

Another week draws to a close and the next week is being planned, which means it’s time to break out another Status Post as I survey the state of things here in Brain Jar Headquarters.

BIG THINGS ACHIEVED THIS WEEK: Some weeks the achievements are the big list of things you did above-and-beyond the list of things you set out to do. Some weeks the achievements are the things you kept on track despite the drawbacks. This week is one of the latter, with my fiction writer suffering but my PhD word count and a lot of goals on the non-writing side of writing were all met.

And I did sneak in shiny new website redesign during the week, when it was clear creative work wasn’t going to stay on track. That lets me tick a task of the “one day’ list, and opens up a bunch of opportunities that weren’t there under the old layout.

Also, there was this:

YES! This is what I've been saying for years, and why I was so disappointed with what was done to my script for #Sharknado 4. @petermball hits the nail squarely on the head.

Sharkandos, Zombie Tidal Waves, and Verisimilitude https://t.co/pZgKMrXFF2 via

— Thunder Levin (@ThunderLevin) August 22, 2019

CHALLENGES, MET & UNMET: I’ve had a pretty good run of getting stuff done of late, but got caught in a someone-is-wrong-on-the-internet discussion earlier this week that derailed me midweek. I also ran into the dark side of productivity–the part were anxiety sinks its teeth in and starts coaxing me into trying to do even more, which is usually a sign that it might be a good idea to scale back and do slightly less.

CURRENT EARWORM: Fuck knows where it came from, as I’m not a fan of the band, but I’ve spent the morning singing the same four lines from the Doors Touch Me that my brain has managed to dredge up from somewhere.

Brains are fucking weird, man.

CURRENT READING: Shades of Milk and Honey, the first book in Mary Robinette Kowal’s Glamourist Histories. I gave my partner a copy of Kowal’s The Calculating Stars as a birthday gift, and the level of enthusiasm as she read through was a good reminder that i’ve been reading to read Milk and Honey for years.

BEST SCREEN MEDIA OF THE WEEK: Wu Assassins stole our hearts this week, and likely will retain its hold until we run out of episodes and scroll through Netflix in a forlorn daze wishing we could find something just as good. some really nice action scenes, great use of cinematography and colour, and just really nice attention to detail in every part.

INBOX STATUS: 8 Emails awaiting my attention, but I just glanced over and at least half of that is either newsletters that will be quickly processed or random emails about cars that are probably meant for a different Peter M. Ball who lives in the UK.

WHAT I’M LOOKING FORWARD TO RIGHT NOW: I saw the Mandalorian Trailer and instantly found myself wanting to see by a project that I was dimly aware of, but not that interested in. I mean, look at this thing:

So, yeah. Bring on November, even if I have to subscribe to a new streaming service to get it. I’m fucking sold.