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3,176 words

February, 2026

Feb 4

The Stoic ethic overlaps almost entirely with the Christian ethic, with the important exception of meekness, and that small gap is why one appeals to me but not the other.

There is something infinite about existence itself, no matter how brief thing's may be.

It is, perhaps counter-intuitively, myopic to think in dichotomies, to see every thing as either one thing or another. But we are, by nature, bifocal creatures. We are capable of seeing two things at once, where one is perhaps more prominent than the other, but the foreground and the background together make the scene. Thinking in dualities, seeing the world bifocally, we see two things mixing together, becoming a third thing that is their combination. To see two things at once is to see the third thing clearly, which brings us closer to the heart of reality.

Feb 6

My least favorite pice of writing advice is "Write like you talk." To understand why this is nonsense, all you have to do is: first, think of how many hours of podcasts you've listened to, and then think of how rarely (if ever) you have a read a podcast transcript. Your speaking voice must not be your writing voice, unless you want to hire your reader and give them a chore.

The most engrossing writing, whether fiction or non-, implies questions throughout the narrative without explicitly asking questions. Questions in prose are a rhetorical device (unless in dialogue), so they ought to be used sparingly and with intent. The novelist is not ever going to write: "And no one knew what would happen once the boys were deployed." That's to explicit. The novelist can imply the question by writing the scene in which the boys are drafted. (Essayists benefit from this too, even though it's tempting to state one's thesis as a question the way an academic states their research question in an abstract.)

Feb 7

"The Land of Fire and Ice" is a redundant phrase. The land is fire & ice.

Feb 8

I'm not anti-science, just anti-science-worship. Science is a tool, not a rule.

Feb 9

Springboard for the meta-essay about my DFW edit:

What makes your favorite art so great, and how could those same essays, books, paintings, albums be made even better?

Feb 11

The winter storm we had a couple weeks ago was a real anomaly. The most anomalous thing, to me, was the snow's consistency: light and dry as powder but composed of dense ice pellets; the snowfall wouldn't compact, but you could disturb its surface with a breath. The only other places I've seen snow like it is on ski runs in the East with fresh-blown artificial stuff, which is more like frozen water droplets than snowflakes. That's it! It was snow without any snowflakes. It was just these many little pellets of ice like grains of sand. And the period since that snowstorm has been the coldest stretch of winter. In the Greater NYC–area, that means that every pile of unmelted snow has become a geological record of all the grime and animal excrement that has been deposited in a place over the past few weeks. Dog piss and shit, human vomit maybe, plastic cups and the wrappers of protein bars, all preserved in glacial deposits of that paradoxical ice-snow, now bonded into boulders along sidewalks and the roadways' shoulders.

The longer the snow remains unmelted, the dirtier it becomes and the more unpleasant it is to walk anywhere at all. I've never wished for snow to melt faster; unspoiled, snow makes any landscape more divine. But a snowfall here is only pristine for a minute—maybe for a day in certain pockets, like parks—before it is desecrated by this city's omnipresent filth, and by the (omni)potent stench of dog piss.

Publishing cadence for my CO 14ers Trip-Report series for The Intronaut:

I was debating how quickly I should release the essays in this series, thinking maybe one per week for seven weeks. But that felt too long. As I was revising the first essay today, I had the idea to release them at the same cadence at which I completed these hikes, and I love that idea. So, now I need to parse out what the relative cadence is. I think I'll also match the days of the week and schedule these posts for the relative intraday start-times for each of my hikes (e.g., 7:30 a.m. MT).

First, let me list the schedule of my hikes in August, 2025:

1. Quandary: Saturday, Aug 09 | ~7:30–12:00 p.m.
2. Sherman: Sunday, Aug 10 | ~9:15–1:15 p.m.
3. Bierstadt: Tuesday, Aug 12 | ~8:00–1:30 p.m.
4. Decalibron: Saturday, Aug 16 | ~5:45–11:30 a.m.
5. Elbert: Sunday, Aug 17 | ~6:30–12:30
6. Sunshine: Friday, Aug 22 | ~5:25–12:45

Now, let's figure out the corresponding publishing cadence if I post the first one this coming Saturday:

1. Quandary: Saturday, Mar 07, at 9:30 a.m. ET
2. Sherman: Sunday, Mar 08, at 11:15 a.m. ET
3. Bierstadt: Tuesday, Mar 10, at 10 a.m. ET
4. Decalibron: Saturday, Mar 14, at 7:45 a.m. ET
5. Elbert: Sunday, Mar 15, at 8:30 a.m. ET
6. Sunshine: Friday, Mar 20, at 7:30 a.m. ET

Okay, this sounds fun! It's going to work. I just need to be sure of a couple things:

• This will benefit the book, because it will break the current multi-month silence I have with my readers. But it must not distract me from the book. Within the next two weeks, I also need to revise Chapter 7 and the Epilogue.
• This is a busy time with the move, so if I can't keep this cadence for whatever reason, I should just publish the next one when I can and resume the cadence thereafter.

If I do it right, this mini-series will be an example of Shiny Object Strategy, rather than Shiny Object Syndrome. Given that I have extensive reference notes for each hike and the narrow scope of these being vignettes, I see them being easier to write than normal, full-scale essays. The whole series should be roughly the equivalent time/effort of my Horseshoe crab essay.

Language does so much to manipulate our perceptions of one another. A ten-year-old could listen to his mom answer all his questions and, mistakenly, think she knows everything. The same American ten-year-old could hear an Asian–American veteran struggle to form simple English sentences and, mistakenly, think his elder knows nothing.

Feb 12

Questions/Topics to Cover with David Kadavy in Our Self-Publishing Consultation

Distribution

• Should I run a KP select eBook promotion at launch?
• Would I be crazy to only publish my e-book on Amazon directly and otherwise sell my hardcover copies through Ingram Spark's Global Distribution?
• What are the downsides of Lulu Direct?
• Am I correct that Lulu only offers to trim size is listed in their drop-down on their website? (No 5" x 7")

Typesetting

• Are there any glaring issues with my paperback margins?
• I'm teaching myself Adobe InDesign to do my own type setting for the paperback. I'm planning to design the e-book's interior and the paperback interior and then hire someone to do the hardcover.

Launch/Marketing

• When should I open pre-orders? I'm thinking once I have a mock up cover and have finished the edit, besides the final proofread.

Here's a not-P.C. statement that is certainly true: Men and women are different creatures of the same species. To ignore the differences across sex is to deny and repress the virtues of both sexes.

Feb 13

Up with the Matriarchy!

Patriarchy is not a ruling class of men but a ruling class of masculine values. Thus, to create an egalitarian, harmonious society, we must nurture a class of feminine values that have been overlooked without warring against the masculine, to propose a marriage of this kingdom to a queendom.

In the language of my binary star model for healthy relationships, it's important to note that the relationship itself, the center of mass between the two stars, has no mass on its own. The relationship is not made of matter or material; it emerges from how the two stars are with one another. The only way to change the relationship, the center of mass and the stars' orbits, is for one star or the other to change itself (to mature).

I think it's safe to say that we all agree the female body is perfect just as it is. What I'd like to suggest is that maybe the male body is too. Maybe, just maybe, we don't need to circumcise newborn male babies for "cleaner" cocks, because the natural male body is perfect already.

There is an undeniable yet unexamined parallel between the modern ritual of male circumcision and the ancient ritual of baptism; both are an effort to cleans man of his birth-blight. But the blight on man, the original hereditary sin, is a delusion. Thus, there is nothing in need of cleansing by either ritual.

Men need to be productive/creative to feel secure. Women need to be connected to feel safe. In romantic relationships, sex is where those two needs meet, serving as an opportunity to (re)produce/(pro)create and as a way to connect.

(Inspired by Allison Armstrong's appearance on the* Know Thyself *podcast, by her definitions of security and safety)

Dreams may be the most phenomenologically accessible mystery in life.

Notes from Shanandoah Caverns Feb 13, 2026 — My impromptu half-way stop-off on my way to Charlotte with the Jeep for final-walkthrough weekend

• Tour guide: Tenysha, granddaughter of Patty (38 years here, the only place she's ever worked)
• Solo tour, the only non-staff member here
• At the mouth of the Caverns, the bottom of the "74 steps," I can still hear Imagine Dragons and that EDM remix of "Tiny Dancer"—eager for Tenisha to return with her flashlight for us to start walking into the silence and darkness.
• The most staggering thing I heard all tour: the "flow stone" and stalagmites/-tites grow at a rate of 125 years per cubic inch.
• 150+ feet below the surface, temp never changes (mid-50s)
• Lowest point: 220 feet
• My solo tour was joined by three young girls, cousins, ranging in age from probably seven to eleven and one Mom/aunt. All three girls asked all kinds of questions and didn't repeat themselves; they weren't just making noise. They were learning, and each of them was too articulate for her age (roughly 6, 8, and 10). At the end, I complemented the trio, saying, "You girls asked great questions. I learned from your questions."
• White, gray, red; calcium, magnesium, iron oxide (the only minerals represented in the caverns)
• Before the tour: Becky's made-to-order Double BLT (no tomato). "Double" refers to the helping of bacon. It was delicious.
• At the beginning of the tour, they ask if you want to turn off the lights and experience what the [B___] Brothers did when they first discovered entered the caverns (really, to show how they mistook it for a small cave). That only lasted less than ten seconds, so on the way back out, I asked Tenysha if we could have some more of that total darkness. I invited the girls and the mom/aunt, saying, "What do you think about a minute? Maybe 30 seconds? Should we be silent too? It would be like a mini meditation." They agreed to 30 seconds and huddled up together in a group-hug. Tenisha flipped off the lights. All I could see was the light coming down the staircase from the gift-shop/restaurant, and all I could here was the trickling of a water-pump in the cavern layer below us and the whispers of the girls from inside their hug.
• The place is owned by a guy who built parade floats for his whole career. So, of course, the upstairs part of the gift-shop is a display room of animatronic float scenes. Lining the polished-wood stairway are two massive animatronic bears that sway their heads and talk at the push of a button. In the gallery, the scenes are motion-activated, so they tick on one by one as you walk around the cul-de-sac (as the displays in the center activate simultaneously with the ones on the edges). Those floats were creepier by degrees than any part of the caverns and any level of darkness.

An example of a hyphen clearing up ambiguity in a phrase:

My client wrote:

He's straight talking

Without a hyphen, ambiguity lies between straight and talking. Also, the first two words of the phrase is a perfectly comprehensible, complete thought on its own: "He's straight." And that meaning will flash in the reader's mind as they try to parse out the intended meaning. A hyphen and the addition of a subject-complement fix the issue without nixing the phrase (which I quite like, anyway):

My edit:

He's a straight-talking guy.

(Quick final note: The only ambiguity remaining here is about the meaning of the hyphenated adjective. Out of context, or in a different context, a reader may wonder whether "straight-talking guy" means that he talks like a straight guy. But that meaning can be stricken from association by context.)

When speaking about a piece of media, use the present tense. It makes the info more immediate (relevant to the reader) and timeless (it's not too late to read for yourself).

Example: "In 'Self-Reliance,' Emerson says, 'Speak your latent conviction.'"

Feb 17

I just did a bit of a research-binge on circumcision, and these were the two most comprehensive anti-circumcision resources (also so sane-sounding compared to the justifications for genetically mutilation of infants):

1. "Anatomy of the Penis and the Mechanics of Intercourse", Circumcision Information Resource Pages (CIRP.org)
2. This Reddit thread on r/predaddit

Important facts to note:

• The current average rate of circumcision in the U.S. is around 60%, with wide variations region to region.
• There is no medical benefit to circumcision (save reduced risks of certain ailments, but that same argument could be made for removing the appendix at infancy to remove the risk of appendicitis).
• The only way for a man to function sexually as Nature intends is for him to be uncircumcised.
• There are thousands of nerve-endings in the foreskin itself (similar to the clitoris and its hood) that are removed during circumcision, which nerve-endings are linked to a whole separate range of experience of sexual pleasure for the male.
• The foreskin makes up about half of the tissue of the penis.
• The foreskin is not ancillary. The inner layer of the foreskin is actually not skin at all but a mucosal tissue that is found nowhere else on the body (created by Nature for the purposes of sex and reproduction). In circumcision, this special tissue is entirely removed.
• In circumcised men, a layer of keratin grows over the glans, making it less sensitive to stimulation and also less lubricated. The foreskin protects the glans and improves sexual function.
• The natural sexual mechanics of the penis involve the sheath of skin that moves around the shaft, such that there is less overall friction and irritation in the female’s vagina during intercourse. Again: more stimulation for the male, less irritation for the female.
• There are no special procedures required to clean the uncircumcised penis of a baby. The foreskin is attached to the glans until it naturally separates between the ages of 3 and 6 or, sometimes, closer to puberty. With proper male hygiene habits, the foreskin poses no risks. Once the foreskin has naturally detached, the boy can retract it while bathing to clean between the glans and the foreskin, which should be a daily practice.
• The foreskin naturally retracts during erection, and it is the case for many circumcised men that they experience a sensation of tightness and skin-tugging at peak erection. With twice the amount of penile tissue, as is natural for an uncircumcised penis, there is no risk of such discomfort during erection.

Another resource to explore: YourWholeBaby.org seems like one of the current leading organizations for both circumcision information and anti-circumcision advocacy.

Feb 22

Christianity is appealing to the Western mind because it rhymes with the scientific method. There are four Gospels in the New Testament, and each of them could be described as replicated experiments with the same result: resurrection. The Bible is the only religious text that is overtly "peer-reviewed".

Feb 23

Every extra–Tri State pizzeria claims to serve New York–style pizza, and most New York pizzerias claim to serve Neapolitan or [enter other authentic-sounding Italian municipality]. There's something appealing in food marketing about the tails of the bell curve: hyper-local or exotic (brought to yo locally). The middle of the road (e.g., Olive Garden)—neither local nor exotic has the toughest competition.

Feb 24

Notes from Eric Jorgensen's Scribe Office Hours Feb 24, 2026

• Javier Meza & Nathan Daly
• Trad publishers technically lease your copyright
• Bookstore sales are "downstream from online sales," with the exception of 1–1 author relationships
• Scribe's pitch: speed, professionalism, polish (in exchange for a nice chunk of change)
• Timeline with a completed manuscript: 6–9 months
• Seems like the executive editor reads every book before publication ("reads" is probably a loose term, I imagine): Mark Chate(?). He gives an evaluation of the manuscript to determine its stage in the process (ready, needs line-edit, needs proofread, etc.), noting the strengths and weaknesses.
• Finalize all files an entire month before the launch date, since it can take up to 20 business days for the files to be completely live
• Publishing Manager is the single point of contact throughout the process
• Audio is nearly 50% of Eric's royalties (up from 30% a few years ago)
• Cool opportunity: add extra content, like an interview, to the audiobook
• It's the correct approach to do the edit in parallel with the cover, but I should not open pre-orders until I have the final manuscript
• And I shouldn't really be typesetting my words until I have finalized the manuscript
• The bar for buying a book is high enough that it needs a personal recommendations
• Good question: What is the story about this book that people will tell each other?
• Erik released a free PDF that's still live. I've considered the possibility of releasing the book serially on Substack (and on my site).
• Scribe helps with marketing by running an Amazon bestseller campaign and patterning with marketers to help
• From Eric: Garrett you'd love this dude: https://x.com/AidanFitzzz
• Nathan broke editing down into these five types: (1) developmental/ (2) structural, (3) line-edit, (4) copy-edit, (5) proofread.
• Tagline: "We will hurt your feelings before we let you publish a bad book."
• Eric's "crazy marketing idea for my book": Get Iceland's tourism (or maybe IcelandAir) to promote my book

Takeaways

• Finalize the manuscript copy ASAP so that typesetting can properly begin.
• The book description is part of the cover-design process, and it must be finalized before the cover can be finalized.

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