- “lika is still waiting (and we are still watching)” is a wonderful short story by b.e. stack and I think you should read it right now.
- When I quit smoking four years ago, I had to rethink all of my routines. Two in particular – going outside to sit on the deck after having breakfast, and smoking in the car – I knew would be the hardest. What I did was back up a few steps in what I thought was my habit and break the steps leading up to smoking. I stopped going on the patio, for months I never stepped foot on it. And in the car, I always had something to drink and half-straws (just in case) as replacements. While I won’t downplay using a low-dose nicotine patch to help with the physical withdrawal, breaking the routine (actually, more like ritual) was key to permanence. I can only use willpower in small bursts, everything else has to be habitual.
- [TW: Spiders] I am entranced by the video at the top of this article, “Do Spiders Dream of Eight-Legged Sheep?” It’s an overview of a recently published paper, so take it with a critical grain of salt, but anything that informs us of how non-humans process the world around them is terribly interesting to me. I originally wanted to link this because of the smug satisfaction that copy editor is probably walking around town with right now after writing that headline, but the Dick reference (heh) is actually the least interesting part. Sleep tight little spidey.
- Spoiler warning if you haven’t watched The Sandman on Netflix… I can square a character accepting that she’s a dream vortex, but I cannot accept the utterly chill way she is going about finding her long-lost brother, especially after his foster home turns out to be a crime scene and a strange adult male says her 12-year-old brother is with him at a hotel three hours away, you can bet your ass I’m on the phone to the FBI, dream vortex or not. I am struggling to get to the end of these ten episodes.