Tag: writing

Posted on

Old Things Still Work

My laptop is downstairs. It is an M1 Apple MacBook Air. The first generation, purchased new in 2020. I am too lazy to go downstairs to get it.

It is not the old thing.

The old thing is the Mac I’m using upstairs in my home office: a Mac Mini (Late 2014) with an Intel Core i5 processor and 4 GB of RAM. It is somehow running macOS Monterey. We bought this in the first incarnation of my law practice for my wife to use. It sat in storage for years until I resurrected it last year with an external SSD to use with the 3D printer.

So far today I have been able to write some work emails (Outlook web), log a conversation with a client (Clio), start work on 3D printing my next oversized Lego wreath, and work on my Pennsylvania Custody book (Watch for a preview chapter in the next week or so!). I am also streaming music from my iPhone to the home office speakers via the Mac Mini with the help of Rogue Amoeba’s AirFoil Satellite which just works. I am writing this update using MarsEdit, which also just works.

I marvel that I am able to do real, practical, and creative work on a twelve year old computer.

111931 SP710-mac mini.

Posted on

Writing Challenge

I am in the middle of week two of a month-long writing challenge, being hosted by the sister of one of my best friends from college. You commit to writing at least 400 words per day, five days per week. By the end of the month, you have at least 8,000 words of (hopefully) useable writing. A few of us are doing creative writing. Others are doing more academic work.

Just knowing other people out there are struggling and striving to carve out the time for 400 words each day is inspiration enough to get me to put butt in chair and type.

Now to stop procrastinating, set the timer for 15 minutes, and see what I can accomplish today.

Posted on

Winter is a time for creativity

The winter holidays bring out the creativity in people. I don’t know why exactly, but my current theory is that time of year is steeped in myth. Modern myths. Old myths. Truly ancient myths. The birth of the Christians’ Messiah being only one of the more recent entrants.


The Russians have Snegurka (“Snow Maiden”) and Dedushka Moroz (“Old Man (or Father) Frost”). The English, Old Man Winter and Jack Frost. The Norse had Vetr (Old Norse, “Winter”).1

There are older myths, too. For some, we have only fragments.2

In spring and summer we can ignore our own mortality. But winter suffers no fools. The elements can truly kill you if you aren’t careful – and even if you are. As the days get shorter and shorter, leading up to the Winter Solstice, even we secular humanists start looking for meaning in the world. Once it is officially “winter,” we know we have made it half way to the warmth, life, and rebirth of Spring.

What I most enjoy about this time of year – other than the food – are the retellings of myths. A number of authors I know have done some interesting things around Santa Claus in particular. In no particular order:

Charles Stross: “Overtime”

Jim Hines: “Frosty”

Nerd Rage: “Frost-Born”

Penny Arcade: “The Last Christmas”

There are many more. These are just a few of my more recent favorites.

_____

1. If you trace these things back far enough, some of them converge. [return]
2. Presumably their adherents have long since frozen to death. [return]