GRIZZLY PEAR

written snapshots

Category: Notes

  • Inktober ‘26.1-5 (five pack 29 + Amusing Ourselves to Death + Cookbooks)

    I wasn’t going to Inktober this year, but then I thought it might be fun to use the sumi ink I bought three years ago. So I had my gimmick—real ink.

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    This concept came easily, with the “a” in the shape of an apple. Brush cursive is always an old standby as a reasonable default.

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    I tried using a rustic roman hand for Relic but it didn’t look good at all, so I came back to brush cursive for this piece as well.

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    I not happy with my metal nib cursive, but stretching out the distance between the letters gave miniature some room to breathe. Even so, I appreciate the nice comments on the Gettysburg Address a couple of months ago.

    Pointed nib cursive is on the list for a long term practice effort, along with black letter.

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    Cramming letters together is another go-to move, as with this Cactus.

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    Same here, but in this case, I “zoomed out” to make the smack feel small.

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    By the way, I’m also back on Instagram this year. I stopped using IG because I was appalled by some of Meta’s general suckitude. But that’s where the Inktober energy is, so I’ve made a deal with the devil, with a slight justification that I’ve included a link to my blog with each post.

    Cya next time!

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    PS—Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman, 1985

    Whoo! Neil Postman takes a flamethrower to popular culture of the mid 80’s, before things really went downhill! It highlights how we got to there and discusses the trainwreck of that time.

    That era now seems like a golden age as the devolution of our society has accelerated and his critiques have turned out to be prophetic.

    I can quibble that he professes an idyllic vision of a rational past (American has always been a rowdy place), but his main thesis is undeniable. Our form of communication frames our body politic.

    Unfortunately, we’ve gone from the logical structure of books, to the short cuts of television, to the completely spasmatic flail of the internet. Postman traces the transition from the age of typography to the age of showmanship, as we have settled into Aldus Huxley’s self distracted Brave New World.

    Postman marveled that a former actor (by way of the governorship of California) became president. 2016 gave us a reality TV star (without any pit stop of public service) as our chief executive. The trajectory isn’t good.

    Postman is light on concrete suggestions, but the final chapter suggests the main thing is to go meta. A medium always affects the message so one needs to actively press against its framing of our mental state.

    As with many things in life, structural problems are indeed a dire issue, but the only actionable advice is to work on yourself.

    Hopefully an aggregate of mindful persons will ultimately make a difference in our democracy.

    —November 2021

    or maybe not.

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    PPS—Cookbooks and curation

    A newsletter by Chris Boutte asked why people still use cookbooks.

    I agree that cookbooks are unnecessary in the age of the ubiquitous internet. I can find multiple versions of any recipe faster than it takes to pull a cookbook of the shelf, flip through the index, and dig through to the correct page.

    So why are they still popular?

    I don’t buy a cookbook, but an author. Instead of KissTheChef04 on allrecipies, this is a human who has staked their reputation on this recipe. That’s why I keep Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything—I trust him to give me a simple, reliable recipe for everything I might cook.

    Curation also comes focused around specific subject such as Sandor Ellix Katz’s magisterial The Art of Fermentation or Chad Robertson’s Tartine 3. Note the “three”, the first Tartine is a fine explanation for baking bread, but they is a dozen such books. This third volume explores many ways to use whole grains in bread making; it encapsulates Chad’s unique voice.

    I have to also admit that these books are picture books for adults. Instead of eating better, just buy a totem of healthy food. And travel to other lands to taste exotic cuisines with your eyes.

    Unfortunately, the aspirational aspect of cookbooks is the vast majority of my purchases. As someone whose great weakness is buying cheap used books, I’ve got maybe thirty or so volumes (such as Salt Fat Acid Heat) that line my bookshelf.

    They collect dust, but they make me feel warm and fuzzy. I think that’s a win, even if it’s not gustable.

    —January 2022

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    PPPS—Practice

    —November 2025

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  • more gothicized italics! (five pack 28+comfy car and tent)

    After inktober last year, I dove into gothicized italics with watercolor and gouache. I still have a pile of construction paper to scan and share.

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    A light grey on black paper got pushed into a gold villain with curves and hue-saturation adjustments.

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    A little capricorn—the discovery of using R’s as ligatures still sparks joy each time I see it.

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    A sunset to go with the sunrise that started Inktober 52 in 2025.

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    A sharp bloody cruel. I’ve really pushed for thin hairlines wherever I can amp up the contrast.

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    In early spring, we added a new member to our division. The ruling pen lets you emphasize the contrast between thick and thin. Each had has its difficult letters, in this case, with the W.

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    This post was almost ready to publish before I got sick at the end of September. The next few 5 packs be fresh collections from Inktober 2026, before I dive into the backlog again.

    Cya next time!

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    PS—Comfy Car (舒适车)

    Our kids have been arranging the blankets and pillows in an oblong shape on the bed. They throw the stuffies into this comfy car for a road trip.

    It’s certainly comfy. So much that I’ll take a nap while playing with them on the bed.

    Yesterday evening, we added a round laundry basket as a steering wheel.

    As it got fully dark, I pulled out a flashlight, and the ceiling had a lovely grid pattern from the light inside our new steering wheel.

    This afternoon, we played Vince Guaraldi’s Charlie Brown Christmas as we drove out to New York and checked out the Statue of Liberty.

    It’s weird playing Christmas music before Thanksgiving, but Sunny 106.5 has already switched over to holiday fare, so the road trip must follow.

    —November 2021

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    PPS—Tent

    What can you make with a king sized sheet, a couple of chairs, and a few big rolls of architectural printouts?

    We spent much of summer making tents. Sometimes in middle of a room, sometimes connected to a closet, sometimes off a sofa.

    Wherever they found a corner, they would make a little tent.

    They’d get me to join them in their structures. Normally, I’d poke my head in, get claustrophobic and back out, but occasionally I would fit in one.

    I even took a nap.

    Not being outdoorsy, further stifled by the relentless desert heat, this indoor suburban glamping is the best we’ll do.

    Even in crazy times, each today is still mundane. The limitations may be extraordinary, but life is not.

    Let’s make a tent.

    —January 2022

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    PPPS—Practice

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  • spiral (five pack 27+Mia+Ne Zha(x2)+Penguins)

    Gothicized italics took over 2025.

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    I saw how to do a spiral on youtube and had to try it!

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    I spent some time playing with watercolors, in this case adding some shading to sneaker.

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    This Thanksgiving came out really nice. I often wonder if I could ever repeat a nice piece. As a hobbyist, you never cross the same river twice.

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    Trying a squished script with Sagittarius

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    Watercolor led to gouache, and the opacity let me play with this Gator on construction paper. Unfortunately, the wrinkles on construction paper can’t be hidden like a black or white background with a curves adjustment.

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    Now that I’m a year away from these pieces, it feels like a different person scripted them. For most of 2026, I’ve been focused on scribing books. Then again, I just wrapped up my pieces for Inktober.

    Who knows where this calligraphy kick will go.

    Cya next time!

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    PS—Mia and the Migoo, Jacques-Rémy Girerd, 2008

    It’s a simple story where a daughter braves an uncaring world to find her father far away. The characters aren’t complex, neither is the the plot or world building. The villain is cartoonish and the universe a bit strange.

    Then again stories don’t need to all be deep. This movie works because the story is cute and the backgrounds are gorgeous.

    Sometimes, that’s what counts. Make it beautiful and the rest falls in place. I haven’t revisited it since, but I remember it fondly for the impressionistic landscapes.

    There’s a Studio Ghibli vibe with a young brave girl as a primary protagonist. It also reminds me of the diversity that we are blessed with in popular culture.

    In my childhood, representation wasn’t really discussed because Asian Americans didn’t count. Of course this became a big deal over the past couple decades, and more agitated portions of social media still feel strongly about it.

    But in this fragmented landscape of entertainment from all around the world, this a lack of representation feels less pressing.

    Twenty years ago, I would have been more concerned about a lack of strong female non-princess protagonists, but that’s the majority of our fare nowadays. Of course, the good old boys club will not be as inviting. Hopefully, our animated universes is a harbinger of a more equitable world.

    —November 2021

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    PPS—Ne Zha, Yu Yang, 2019 and Ne Zha Reborn, Ji Zhao, 2021

    I went on a Netflix spree and watched both animated Nezha films.

    The first one was set in a historical fantasy where a young brat grows up into a god. The second one is set in a diesel-punk Shanghai where a young punk grows up into a god. In both cases they beat up dragons and get hot and flamey.

    They’re decent examples of a maturing Chinese animation industry, but I came away quite meh on both.

    I accidentally watched the Ne Zha a few weeks after seeing a review by Accented Cinema about the Ne Zha Reborn. The unfulfilled expectation of a bucolic ancient China morphing into a diesel-punk Shanghai did not help my enjoyment of the film. Then again, I wouldn’t have watched Ne Zha through without that misplaced expectation.

    A month later I finally got around to watching Ne Zha Reborn. It was enjoyable, not bad but not great. Given how rarely I watch films, I want them to be great or weird. Neither was either.

    Now that I’ve stuck my nose into both camps, maybe I’ll follow up their sequels, since both of them were clearly set up for wider universes.

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    Almost five years later, I avoided this sunk cost pitfall for both franchises.

    —January 2022

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    PPPPS—Penguins of Madagascar, Eric Darnell and Simon J. Smith, 2014

    I came across this movie due to a podcast episode of the Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green. Like most commercial dreck, it entered and exited my memory.

    It was a fun movie, likely worth a watch to kill some brain cells. My 7 year old daughter thought the movie was a little too thrilling, so she told me to finish it on my own.

    It’s not that scary, but she’s a little sensitive, and that fine. The big bad world will be there soon enough. No need to use something like this to harden her soul.

    Then again, I would have had no objections if she wanted to finish this silly action film with me. One can do worse with children’s films.

    But if this note leads you to John Green’s excellent podcast, then it was well worth it.

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    Three years later, the kids discovered animation. Compared to other films, this was a standout. So was Surf’s Up (surprisingly!).

    —January 2022, August 2025

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    PPPPPS—Practice

    —November 2025

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  • mike

    I was hesitant about returning to pencil so soon after kilo, but mike wanted to be sharp.

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    Two months ago, a family of Hawaiians moved into the neighborhood—dad, mom, two sisters, six and three, and the little brother.

    They quickly joined the kids playing in our cul-de-sac.

    After school ended, mom and the kids went home for three weeks. The day before they left, the three year old girl started calling me “Uncle Mike”.

    The neighborhood kids tried to correct her, “It’s Mister Justus!” but she persisted.

    Soon after, we went on our own vacation and got home yesterday. That afternoon, we came out to play on the street. The dad was sitting in his garage.

    “Where’s the little ones?”

    “They’re not coming back.”

    —June 2026

  • ruling pens (five pack 25+four on writing)

    Raw was done with a wide hake brush on 12×18 sulfite paper. I used a light grey muddy wash and pushed the color to blue in the computer.

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    I love how the rough ruling pen meets the sharp flat brush on Libra.

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    Jumping with Roman Capitals and popups

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    I often have trouble with the letter “S”. But the rest of Squeeze came out ok.

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    This Dragonfly was done on the big sheets (like “Raw” above). They’re a pain to scan!

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    Cya next time!

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    PS—The Writing Life, Annie Dillard, 1989

    I listened to The Writing Life, after Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird. It was a fortuitous mistake from conflating the authors’ names.

    Dillard discusses the struggle of writing as a profession, “splitting wood by aiming for the chopping block”.

    She doesn’t digress into the darkness of her soul, nor the mundane tasks of her profession, aside from the admonition to love a sentence.

    It’s a great book on honing the craft. Focus on the work. Ignore the metrics. Do the art.

    Her prose a breathtaking display of skill. Dillard is vivid while avoiding the sentimental. She’s a bit aphoristic, with short quips and anecdotes. Pairs great with Lamott, for self-help writing books.

    —November 2021

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    PPS—Six Memos for the Next Millennium, Italo Calvino, 1985

    I stayed in Berkeley for a couple of years after graduating and I attended a class taught by a classmate from my creative nonfiction seminar.

    Finn is not an architect—he’s a real scholar.

    I thought I was well read but quickly realized otherwise when I had no idea what the class was discussing. That’s also why it was so hard to read this book. Calvino flies around the world of literature while crafting these five lectures.

    But after getting into the flow, I had a hard time putting it down. I’ve reread it twice in a row and listened to the audiobook as well.

    He unearths aspirations in how to write and think. He explores subjects and their anti-subjects. It’s a curated cross section of a great writer’s worldview. So much to dig into. His ideas have not gone stale in the four decades after his death.

    —February 2022 (If nothing else it spurred my play with 1 sentence stories for a few weeks.)

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    PPPS—Several Short Sentences About Writing, Verlyn Klinkenborg, 2013

    This is now my favorite book on writing.

    Strunk and White is overly prescriptive and a bit dated.

    Stephen Pinker’s Sense of Style was informative but soulless.

    Both Stephen King and Stephen Pressfield exhort an enormity of labor. Grindset!

    Klinkenborg also demands action. But it’s tiny.

    Write better sentences.

    That’s it.

    As an architect, I love this clarion call of high modernity.

    What does the sentence want to be? Make it so.

    Of course, It’s never as simple as it sounds.

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    After finishing the audiobook I immediately listened to it again, and borrowed the book from the library.

    I suspect this book will be a classic in my library. I might be wrong. We’ll see by the time this thing posts.

    —March 2022 (Four years later, I’ve soured a little bit on this book. But it’s not Klinkeborg’s fault, it’s LinkedIn—all those posts (even before the tsunami of AI sludge) are written in this style. Techbros and their algo’s ruin everything.)

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    PPPPS—Borges on Writing, 1971

    I’ve been on a run about reading (or listening) about writing.

    This was the most informal of the books.

    As a master, Borges is be self deprecating, over a series of three Q&A Seminars (on prose, poetry, and translation) with Norman Thomas di Giovanni (his editor and translator).

    It’s a masterclass in writing and holding definite opinions without taking hardline stances. Borges is charming, but there is no question who is the teacher and who is the student.

    A must-read for any Borges fan and a great example in self confidence.

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    It’s also a fine introduction to the blind librarian if you haven’t read him yet. Though I would recommend Labryinths first (I presume one should rather read the work than him talking about it).

    —April 2022

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    PPPPPS—Practice & Practice

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    —August 2025

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  • Jabberwocky

    Last month, we watched the girl play Door #2 at the middle school.
    A small bit, accentuated with clearing table of the mad tea party.
    Like all the parents in the theater, my heart was on that stage for three nights.

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    Jabberwocky

    ’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
          Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
    All mimsy were the borogoves,
          And the mome raths outgrabe.

    “Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
          The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
    Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
          The frumious Bandersnatch!”

    He took his vorpal sword in hand;
          Long time the manxome foe he sought—
    So rested he by the Tumtum tree
          And stood awhile in thought.

    And, as in uffish thought he stood,
          The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
    Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
          And burbled as it came!

    One, two! One, two! And through and through
          The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
    He left it dead, and with its head
          He went galumphing back.

    “And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
          Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
    O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
          He chortled in his joy.

    ’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
          Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
    All mimsy were the borogoves,
          And the mome raths outgrabe.

    Lewis Carroll

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    Almost thirty years ago, I bought this bottle of ink by Rotring. It traveled around across the country, architecting in Berkeley, Houston, and Vegas. This poem finally finished it off.

    After I cleaned the bottle, the boy refilled it with a random ink wash for his “science” experiment.

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  • contrasts (five pack 24+rubik’s cube+pens)

    Lately, I’ve been scribing old texts, but these posts are fun a reminder of last year’s explorations.

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    May 2025

    I really like the contrast of the bright italic hungry on the compressed Roman capital background.

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    August 2025

    The contrast between the cursive Bus and the gothicized italic Stop slammed together nicely, spiced by the ruling pen splatters.

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    May 2025

    Multiple SAD‘s went well with this pop-up design of multiple cuts.

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    July 2025

    I save the initial washes from my brushes and pens in containers, letting them slowly evaporate into a grey wash, which I used with a ruling pen here I enjoyed the cheeky contradiction of the words Slow Up against a rapid, sloppy cursive.

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    July 2025

    spun
    chaos
    thru
    woven
    silk

    This was my last 5WP of 2025, Funny how practices just slip away with a whimper, this was my last 5WP of 2025. After that, I played with big words with the ruling pen, watercolors, and gouache. Maybe I’ll come back to this format one day. Or maybe, like hard disks with spinning platters, I’ve done my last one.

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    Life and art moves fast. Cya next time!

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    PS—Rubik’s Cube

    I fell into a rathole last week, finally learning the Rubik’s Cube. Years ago, I was impressed with a table of kids effortlessly solving these cubes at the Rivera food court while lunching at a convention.

    Turns out that a learning the Rubik’s Cube is like acquiring any other skill in this modern world. Start with youtube. I could have gone shopping but I just found a short video and jumped in.

    The first couple tries took a while, an hour for the first and then forty minutes, constantly referencing the video. The next few came much faster even while referencing J Perm’s static website for edge cases.

    Even though it’s tough at first, there aren’t that many patterns to memorize, so I’m now I’m solving the cubes consistently in the 4 minute range, even less if everything lines up correctly.

    Apparently the “beginner’s method” can consistently garner 2-4 minute solves, so I’ve pretty much hit max speed.

    Do I practice to get as fast as possible using this method? Or do I blow it up to memorize more advanced techniques?

    Like every other hobby on the internet, it’s a total rathole. Thankfully I’m not particularly competitive. I’ll most likely just teach my family how to solve the cube and be done with it.

    —November 2021, and yes, I just stopped and forgot it all over the past four years.

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    PPS—Christmas Pens, Twenty Twenty-three

    For Christmas, I gave myself three (six) new pens.

    I bought the Enso Pilot Parallel Set, which includes four pens at 6.0mm, 3.8mm, 2.4mm, and 1.5mm.I screwed the Pilot Parallel 6.0mm nib into a Pilot Spare Sign pen body which makes for a great barrel filled setup.

    I also got the Duke 551. with the with Guanyu inscription—”忠義仁勇信” (loyalty, righteousness, benevolence, bravery, trustworthiness). Just yesterday I thinking I own enough ink to last for ages, but not with these pens!

    And finally, I got a Jinhao 80 with a Naginata Nib. It’s “just” a cheap Lamy 2000 knockoff but the nib is epic. It’s gonna supplant the Architect nib as my favorite variable nib.

    The Parallel 6.0mm is great. Everything you’d want from a 3.8mm but more! A totally different lettering experience on the page, and my recommendation for anyone starting to learn calligraphy.

    Little wooden guy approves!

    —December 2023

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    PPPS—Practice

    —June 2025

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  • slow down, push yourself (five pack 23+kahoot+word+ai)

    I’ve been paranoid about AI slop music, but I’ve given up when it comes to other languages. I worry that this most human art has been stolen by the box, but maybe that was lost with the first recording.

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    July 2025

    slow down
    push yourself

    I was curious why Edward Johnston devoted much of his late career exploring Gothicized Italics so I started practicing it. Pretty much throughout the second half of this year. I can’t speak for the master, but for me, it’s the points, and the deep ***spring*** points. Though it makes me awfully close to graffiti. Maybe that’s where this was heading all along.

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    July 2025

    mistake
    mental
    math
    moose
    month

    More playing with Gothicized Italics, with a ruling pen.

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    September 2025

    The administration’s attempt to push out Jimmy Kimmel pushed me to finally donate to FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. We’ve been in some rough waters these past few years and I appreciate a group that focuses on one mission and practices in a way to earn bipartisan ire.

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    September 2025

    While convelescing at home after my week at the hospital in September, I powered through the 2025 Inktober prompts. AVOCADO was a warmup word from their year long Inktober 52 challenge before I started marching through the list.

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    May 2025

    I made collect in May, while practicing the pop-ups as well as Fraktur script. I have a bunch of other pop-ups that may or may not be shared. We’ll see if I ever feel like editing those photos, or if they will stay on the hard drive as I chase other pursuits.

    Cya next time!

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    PS—Kahoot

    My daughter had been using this online quiz app with her online distance education. The goal is to answer questions both correctly and fast, so she gets quite frustrated when her Chromebook is too slow to let her answer the question in the allotted time. She’s a competitive one, even though I remind her it’s only a game.

    For the past few weeks she wanted to try making a Kahoot. We finally had a moment on Halloween so we hit the website found their free personal account. We played around a little together, and then she ran off on her own, making her own Kahoots. We asked how she knew that someone could create their own quizzes.

    She didn’t know, just had a hunch.

    There are lot of negatives to growing up in this online world. But maybe she’ll come out of this zeitgeist with an open-ended perspective of possibility. Not as users but as makers.

    Long ago, we started a blog with the girl. Even though it’s been dormant for years, it showed that websites can be easily made by us. Or the time playing with Scratch, proving we can program games.

    We made this online world, let’s make sure we shape it more than it molds us.

    —November 2021

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    PPS—Wordle Algorithm

    We’ve been playing quite a bit of Wordle, going through those five letters over breakfast. After a while we’ve settled on an opening algorithm.

    Start with AUDIO

    If there is a green letter or multiple yellow letters then start deciphering ad hoc

    If only one yellow letter, then

    • SHARE
    • USHER
    • SHRED
    • SHIRE
    • SHORE

    If there are no letters, then go with SHYER

      If we have one yellow letter, we can test SHER while catching all the vowels by the second word.

      And if we have no letters, we can also test almost-vowel Y.

      After the second word, it’s just free play, though we tend to play on “hard mode” where we are locked in with the clues that are known. I wouldn’t enjoy playing this game by myself, but we have fun together.

      —February 2022

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      PPPS—AI Art Destabilization

      Surfing on Bandcamp, I stumbled across Mille Morceau which has a surreal, architectural album cover. As I stared at it, I suddenly felt destabilized. Is this AI? The ground fell out from under me. It was a physical reaction even though I was just lying in bed. I need to explore this further.

      —May 2023

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      PPPPS—Practice

      June 2025

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      PPPPPS—Practice

      June 2025

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    1. delta

      Just a simple attempt with foundational hand, albeit with the ascenders slightly short.

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      Reinhard Staupe designed this little, brilliant memory game, Sherlock: go around a circle of eight cards and name them before flipping them up. If you land on a card that you previously remembered, grab the card, refill the slot, and flip the other cards back down for the next player’s turn.

      As an adult with too much on my mind, my daughter absolutely destroys me. The boy can play too. He doesn’t play well, but he understands the rules.

      The joy is in watching the kids play together. They find certain cards hilarious for no obvious reason. Especially the sock, which is absolutely, gut wrenchingly funny.

      Not the drawing, it’s just a green calf-length sock. The illustrator wasn’t trying to be funny. The publisher told Oliver Freudenreich to draw a sock, which he did.

      But don’t tell that to the kids—that sock taps into the raw, mystical connection developed over four years of fighting, crying, and laughing.

      —February 2022

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    2. CNY! (five pack 21+on two seats+wedding greetings+dude)

      It’s fun to have two New Years, plus my sister is in town this year!

      As always, I must remind everyone about this series of schmalzy Petronas CNY ads. It’s the least that oil barons could do for the culture.

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      6/22/2025

      Fish and hook. As a fan of asymmetry, offset folds are exciting.

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      6/23/2025

      With my love of asymmetry, angled popups should have been an obvious progression, but I could never get them to work. At this point I also gave up on pairing the pop-up and the words as I raced through the exercises in the book.

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      6/24/2025

      Not exactly pop-ups, but I had fun exploring the splashy, bendy motif, and they played great with the big text.

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      6/26/25

      This stunt has an Art Deco feel to it.

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      6/28/25

      thank you!

      This was a thank you card for the Administrative Specialists in our division.

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      Cya next time!

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      PS—Chinese New Years

      The Lunar year is bit awkward. It’s nice to have a second calendar to enjoy, especially gastronomically, but these moments don’t fit great around the American workweek.

      It’s a more noticeable now, since my in-laws celebrate these festivities more than my parents. Before the pandemic, we would celebrate on weekends (a 2/7 chance of happening) while squeezing in eating the appropriate foods on the proper day.

      Just like celebrating birthdays!

      For a few years, work from home alleviated the complexity. We could visit the in-laws and with our laptops. I worked during the day, the girl did her distance education in the evening, and we celebrated during the breaks.

      Not ideal, as some Algerians once told me in Paris, an immigrant lives with their ass on two seats.

      —February 2022

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      PPS—Wedding Greetings

      Because of the pandemic, my mother-in-law did not return to China for her nephew’s wedding. Instead, we recorded a greeting for the event.

      Our first attempts included the kids, but that quickly proved impossible so they were shuffled into the bedroom to watch TV. We adults then tried to look happy (but not silly) in front of an iPad as my mother-in-law wished all the best for the happy couple.

      Good lord. It still took multiple takes, several of which were ruined by laughter.

      Now I know why actors earn their fortunes. Pretending is a real, difficult skill. I see why traditional cultures view frown upon this vocation. If you can fake it on stage, can you be trusted at all?

      Of course, being a great actor is well rewarded in today’s modern world, a nice problem for a star! But I wonder if the traditional had it right—a professional fake must pay a heavy psychic tax.

      —February 2022, and congrats to the happy couple who welcomed their first kiddo last year!

      ,

      PPPS—Dude

      Tom the Dancing Bug, by Ruben Bolling

      I saw this comic strip on an office door in a community college. Now that I have finally found it again, I need to put it somewhere semi-permanent.

      ,

      PPPPS—Practice

      5/6/2025

      .