context – The Oracle of Z

Egg Eigenzeit OR Breakfast is Served

If you want to fall outside of the construct of linear time, poach eggs. Not every morning for breakfast – no the magic is too delicate for something so circadian – but at least once a month. Never put it on your calendar, it must be a surprise, something that unfolds from a lazy morningContinue reading “Egg Eigenzeit OR Breakfast is Served”

I have permission to not fix everything broken about the world with this essay

American flag in foreground with snow covered garden in the background.

When processing that first Trump victory in 2016, I sought counsel from my grandfather, who at the time I considered to be the wisest person I knew. This was before Trump had even taken office, when the damage he might do was still considered hypothetical or hyperbole by lots of people. But my grandfather, anContinue reading “I have permission to not fix everything broken about the world with this essay”

Mediations on “Process,” OR the ratchet of linear time and the clockwork universe

wooden desk with a large monitor in the foreground with a view out the window of a government building in the background

Recently, I started a new job with a vague and fancy title. I am a Process Architect, specifically a Business Process Architect. Now, as titles go, I understand how pompous and jargon-y it is. I have worked in IT and IT-adjacent fields for over 15 years, and I know that the words we use –Continue reading “Mediations on “Process,” OR the ratchet of linear time and the clockwork universe”

Jigsaw Puzzles and Common Law Marriage

To start off the new year, my significant other, EW, and I decided we would have a little screen detox. “But, Z, “you might say, “are you not currently interacting with a screen? How serious a screen detox is this anyway?” And that is a good question. It’s not that I want a blanket banContinue reading “Jigsaw Puzzles and Common Law Marriage”

Life-life balance, OR Does this meet my strategic goals?

Though I intermittently engage in New Year’s resolutions, this practice is one that I increasingly follow without holding the outcome too tightly. As an example of this fact, it’s almost March and I am just now talking about New Year’s. What is time anyway, amirite? This year, however, after having formally exited my shitty jobContinue reading “Life-life balance, OR Does this meet my strategic goals?”

Curated: conjuring demand and identity

I love beautiful things. Full stop. When things are not beautiful it hurts a little. I have been known to say to friends, usually when talking about things like interior or fashion design, “if you can make it beautiful, you should.” I live my life in the center of what one would call “refined aesthetics.” Continue reading “Curated: conjuring demand and identity“

Where were you? On memory and collective processing of September 11th, 20 years later

September 11th was about three weeks into my first year of college. I was 18 years old, living on my own for the first time with strangers in an un-airconditioned, 6 story brick oven of fellow underclass students on the southern campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I had a newContinue reading “Where were you? On memory and collective processing of September 11th, 20 years later”

On Writer’s Block, OR Being a solider in the army against the apocalypse

selfie style image of a white woman with brown hair and green eyes who has given up on plucking her eyebrows, looking to the side, with large Brussel sprout growing in the background

I write every day. I keep a journal which is part “day in the life” and part “holy shit, I was inadvertently really clever back there I should write more about that.” Writing that has not been just a re-cap of my daily life has been a total struggle for the last month and aContinue reading “On Writer’s Block, OR Being a solider in the army against the apocalypse”

Retrospective

My new year begins on my birthday and not so much New Year’s Day the federal holiday. Part of this is because my birthday is very close to the spring equinox [in the Northern Hemisphere] and spring feels more “new” than two weeks after the winter solstice when we’re all exhausted and it’s too darkContinue reading “Retrospective”

Against Performative Productivism

Last Saturday, it was the weekend, ostensibly the time I get to rest from the trials of the week also known as the time of wage labor when I am unable to fully own myself. It becomes 5pm on Friday and I once again own myself. All the time that stretches out before me untilContinue reading “Against Performative Productivism”