Weekly Roundup: April 1, 2022

I have a big announcement. I am going to pivot away from my usual fiction and start writing romance novels. I feel like this is where the money is at and I need to control my gag reflex and write some really cheesy love scenes. What do you think?

APRIL FOOLS.

My god, I cannot imagine writing a romance novel. Kudos to those who do. I do not have it in me.

Moving on…

Quote of the week:
“Suffering happens when we expect life to be something more and different than what it is in the present moment. When we let go of all expectation, there is peace.” –Kim Eng

What I’m reading:
Per usual, I have a few books going. I have about 100 pages left in Red Comet, the Sylvia Plath biography. I’m making my way through Velocity of Being: Letters to a Young Reader. And I’m still reading Come as You Are by Emily Nagoski.

What I’m watching:
I just started Atlas of the Heart on HBO. I read the book and I love hearing Brené Brown talk.

Writing news:
I can officially say that Ways the World Could End comes out NEXT MONTH!

What I’m talking about:

• The weird Will Smith-Chris Rock incident. #toxicmasculinity
• The ongoing war in Ukraine. I feel like it’s hard to tell what’s really happening, as the West wants to portray the war as a failure for Russia, while Russia is claiming victories left and right. I’m most saddened by all the refugees fleeing (4 million and counting)
• My aching back. Seriously, I can’t stop talking about it

Interesting things I learned this week:

• Young women earn as much or more than men in 22 cities… BUT the wage gap grows as women get older (and have children in a society that offers zero support for mothers who work)
• An ice shelf collapsed in eastern Antarctica for the first time since satellites began observing the continent nearly half a century ago (read here)
• Stephen Wilhite, the inventor of the GIF died. As a side note, he was adamant that GIF be pronounced with a soft G (“jif”), though the Oxford dictionary says it can be pronounced with a hard or soft G (I’ve always used a hard G myself)
• Costco’s hotdog has been $1.50 since 1985. Founder Jim Senegal once told CEO Craig Jelinek, “If you raise the price of the effing hot dog, I will kill you”
• Death row executions by firing squad (wtf?) can now be carried out in South Carolina
• Since Russia banned Instagram last month, alternatives have started cropping up in the country. The latest is “Grustnogram,” which translates to “Sadgram” in English

Weirdest thing I googled this week:
“Empathetic vs empathic.” I was curious about the history of these words since they mean the exact same thing. I’m partial to “empathic” because I don’t like that the word “pathetic” is in “empathetic” (yes, I think about these things too much). According to grammarly.com, “empathic” is the older word, first used in 1909 (“empathetic” was first used in 1932). In scientific writing, “empathic” is more common.

What I’m grateful for:

• Reducing running mileage leading up to the Boston Marathon. I *only* ran 13 miles this morning
• Another mellow work week…except for today, when I had a bunch of work come in right as the Internet went out—FUN!
• A nice rainstorm
• Connecting with friends I adore

A few snapshots from this week: