7 days left to deal with the Metro Red Line shutdown // 45 days until vacation! But who’s counting? 😉
Kate McKinnon at the DC Book Festival! Luis and I went to the DC Book Festival last Sunday with one goal. We went straight to Kate McKinnon’s meet-and-greet line and stood there for over an hour. We bought her book, Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science: Secrets of the Purple Pearl, which served as a ticket for the meet-and-greet, and we met her! She shook each of our hands and asked for each of our names, and then she posed for a few photos with us. She was really polite and smiley. She looked the same in person as she does on camera; she’s so pretty. I was a little worried that I’d look into her beautiful blue eyes and forget how to form words, but I didn’t. Also I wasn’t able to say much to her, because the line was moving quickly. But still! Ahhh!
So now I can finally say I’ve met a former SNL cast member. And also a Ghostbuster.
She was the only person we wanted to see at the Book Fest this year, so we went and got Chinese food afterward, and saw Spider-Man again (at long last!) in 4D this time, which was kind of insane. Every time we took a drink of soda or ate some popcorn, it felt risky because the action scenes made our seats move a lot.
My (albeit biased) thoughts on Hank Green. There was a livestream last week for the donors to the Dear Hank & John podcast, which is hosted by John and Hank Green. (Makes sense.) A lot of it felt like an intervention for Hank, because he has been struggling with an addiction to using LLMs to help him do research for his videos and projects. Emphasis on his videos, for his YouTube channel, not for his videos with John and not for Complexly’s content. He does his own research and writing for Vlogbrothers, and he doesn’t really write for SciShow, etc at all. There’s a big team at Complexly and it is important that people don’t assume all of those good people are using AI, because they are not.
Anyway, all of us in the livestream, which is pretty much exclusively made up of Nerdfighters, feel for Hank because we have been following him for years and we’ve seen him putting more and more pressure on himself to create things. He has so many ideas and he feels like he alone can make them happen. I commented, “Hank, let other people do things.” And John read it back to him, and said it was good advice. I understand the feeling of having a lot of ideas and excitement for said ideas, but it’s important to take a step back and realize the burden of every new thing doesn’t and shouldn’t fall on one person’s shoulders.
John pointed out that Hank should stop trying to make so many things for the greater Internet, where people can be mean and unsupportive, and he should focus on creating things for the Nerdfighter community instead. Because we are kinder, and we know him well enough that we can be gently honest when he’s made something we don’t like. It’s a little bit like when The Fault in Our Stars came out and suddenly everyone had a mountain of opinions about this little author in Indiana named John Green. Not everything is for everyone, and that’s also okay.
No books til John Green. Please tell me you read that in the rhythm of “No Sleep Til Brooklyn” by the Beastie Boys. Speaking of John Green, I’ve given myself a quasi-rule not to start reading any other books because I’m going to have John’s new book next month! I’m currently reading three books: Death at Bishop’s Keep by Robin Paige, As You Wish by Cary Elwes, and House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. They’re all sort of neck-and-neck in terms of how far into them I am, because two of them are short and one of them is House of Leaves.
It’s been difficult to read a lot lately, because I’ve been extra tired from the longer commute. I was literally falling asleep while holding As You Wish the other night. (It’s my before bed book*.) But I’m determined to finish all three of them by September 24th, when I get John’s new novel!
I may bend this rule slightly and read Kate McKinnon’s book while I wait, too, but only if I’ve finished one of the other ones first!
Stuck in the past. As I write my novel, I’m noticing how nostalgic it makes me. I’ve been looking back and remembering all sorts of things from my life, and using them as gentle inspiration. It’s been cool to go back through my memories and my old emails and try to piece together what happened and what was going on in my life. I randomly remembered the name of one of my professors, but not quite how to spell it, and then Facebook brought her up as someone I might know. That was jarring. Does Facebook have access to my literal memories in my brain?
Writing this story has been cathartic and fun. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.
* I usually have a purse book for my commutes, a living room book for evening/weekend reads, and a before bed book that lives on my nightstand
Sara Mazariegos 