shut-in

 after posting i lay back on the couch for twenty minutes, then was jolted awake by a call from the plumber, who was on his way. he completely replaced the pipes under the sink, and he did it at no additional cost, which was generous even though he had left it in a worse state than he found it yesterday.

overall, i was very happy to give him a solid rating; what a pleasure it is working with a professional.

what followed was a few hours - i exaggerate not - burning through tokens and becoming more and more infuriated by the fact that i couldn't get the table in my game to render with depth. it was only after a number of times giving up and then coming back to it that i eventually understood that the whole time, the camera had been at the precise angle that would never see the side of it 🤦‍♂️

during that time, gd and mr smear had some followup drama to the lice - gd had to give him a proper haircut today, and the two of them were not vibing...

with everything else that's been happening, i'd completely forgotten that we were going south with nystire for some camping/stargazing! between all the goings-on and the outbreak since the night before, it just wasn't happening and we're still bummed out about it :(

instead, this afternoon took an uncomfortably quiet turn. after taking a little break, mr smear and i finally got to work on his game idea, which has led to some interesting arguments and some architectural decisions that are as exciting to me as the actual game is to him. i realized, while we were talking, that blue prince has provided great inspiration for his horror hotel and also, unconsciously, the level system for my tarot game!

now i've kneaded the challah-peño and mr smear and i are going to do some quick, last-minute shopping as an excuse to say we got some exercise today :P

saturday morning eye of the storm

 i just sent scrapper an overshare response to "how are things on your end" and i feel it's worth recording for myself:

from my side, i guess these are the times the chinese always threatened us with (“may you live in interesting times”)…

mr smear managed to close out his first year in the arts school without getting kicked out (though he managed to come close on a number of occasions), and in general he’s been maturing in front of our eyes and he’s doing infinitely better than this time last year. he just started learning to rollerblade this past couple of months, and he’s enjoying our rides much more than he was on a bike which is awesome. also, he’s joined one of his friends at a keitana which turned out to be a survivalist school-themed LARP where they learn how to construct and use weapons and have lectures on pyrotechnics 😛 

gd’s been having a rough time, we discovered recently that she’s either been celiac or has had a really intense reactions to gluten* for a long time and it just got much worse the past year or so. the good news is that a couple of months gluten free and her mind and body are in a much better place than they’ve been in years.

* this is obvious karma for us describing ourselves as “allergic to gluten free” for most of the last decade 😅

as for me, 2026 so far has been pretty wild. i’ve been getting deeper and deeper into AI both at work and in my side projects, and i can tell you that the entire industry has completely lost its mind. the tools are at the same time amazing and utter garbage, everything is hype and we’re watching tech leaders making the most ridiculously foolish plays right in front of our eyes. it’s mass psychosis and it’s disturbing as all hell. 

aside from that, i’ve been struggling on and off to figure out how to print my comics and i'm becoming more and more frustrated that none of the indie comic creators in israel seem to be interested in banding together and making it easier for everyone…

otherwise, the financial strain of living hand-to-mouth in tel aviv is “business as usual” stress, and so far the summer weather has been relatively kind, and i’m sitting on a balcony in a cool breeze and life is, somehow, pretty damned good.

...

last night was rough. emotionally and psychologically, gd and i had an argument about how we each see the world (when it comes to defining "normal" behavior in other people after the very upsetting start to season 3 of infinity train) which resulted in the always-uncomfortable "agree to disagree". that was followed by a particularly rough night, first with the hip flexors and then with indigestion that forced me upright when i desperately needed to be horizontal and took about two hours to calm down enough to let me get back to sleep. then it was morning, and after about half an hour trying to sleep in i gave up and got up to make myself coffee and sit on the balcony and make peace with my life.

...

rough night or no, rough times or no, in this moment right here and now i feel particularly blessed. the weather is beautiful and calm, the birds are singing, and our highway intersection and its surroundings are full of greens (and bright yellows), and interesting tall glass architecture (which i love because it almost makes the buildings camouflaged against the sky), and in spite of all my anxieties i seem to doing okay right now.