As I sit in my room writing this, ice and freezing rain fall from the sky, and the cold- despite my house still having power- makes my joints ache. It’s a kind of constant pain I feel, sore and pulsating, or sharp and occasionally shooting off from my knuckles and knees. The bathtub is full of water in case we lose power and still need to flush the toilet, the pantry full of shelf-stable soups, and our emergency weather kit is newly-stocked with paper bowls and spoons. My computer tells me that tomorrow’s low temps are going to be ‘near record’. I see that little ‘near record’ or simply ‘record temps’ notification pop up more often now.
I’ve been really into commonplace books, being more mindful about the content I’m consuming, and just generally wanting to learn more (and actually retain the stuff I’ve learned!). I’ve cut out most short-form content, I haven't used Instagram since 2021, same goes for twitter, and I deleted tiktok a while back. But I still experience the impulse to just pick up the phone and scroll, despite the lack of apps to actually do that with. So I think I just need guidelines. Looking into the ‘personal curriculum’ trend/movement/thing, I like the idea, but I think I need something a bit looser than that. Most of the time I tend to focus on little bits and pieces of stuff- or alternatively trying to find all the little concepts that fit into a whole picture.
And so I think I need to just learn to utilize my commonplace journal to follow the little rabbitholes I find as I’m learning about something new. Most of the time I get sidetracked before I can actually start writing stuff down, but learning how to control myself and make a note of where the rabbithole takes me before just jumping off head-first. Kinda like making a map? IDK, this is just a collection of loose thoughts around this idea. It’s part of my ‘digital garden more’ and my ‘learn in public more’ goals/experiments for 2026.
Broadly a general concept I’ve been interested in for a while is ‘Entropy’. It has 5 definitions on Miriam-Webster, but I’m mostly interested in this one:
“a process of degradation or running down or a trend to disorder”
not difficult to guess why, looking at the state of the world right now. Generative AI slop, Enshittification, the world-wide descent into fascism, infrastructure collapse, rising homelessness, job loss, I mean I could go and on. It describes so much right now.
ICE agents have murdered another Minneapolis resident. His name was Alex Jeffrey Pretti, the state executed him in the streets for the crime of defending a woman ICE agents were pushing to the ground. They claimed that he was brandishing his gun he was legally licensed to carry when video evidence shows he was simply recording with his phone.
I’ve seen ICE described as the Gestapo, Runaway slave catchers, and a lynch mob; but I believe they are an unholy amalgamation of the three, just to keep the state running under climate change. And that the crux isn’t it? Despite that the conservatives in the government say they don’t believe in climate change they absolutely do. We are in the age of climate weirding, it will always find its way to your door, and it already has under your nose.
With a warmer atmosphere, more water becomes locked in the atmosphere, creating simultaneously drier conditions and more flash floods. As more and more people flee the coast it creates strain on the interior, most of which is expected to be drier. More water is being used up for AI data centers. Billionaires and their friends in the government know what is coming in the future, and disappearing & executing immigrants, citizens of are at odds with the state, and ‘undesirables’ are a part of their plan to continue to consolidate power. I know I sound tinfoil hat-esque right now, but people have been talking about billionaires buying up water resources for years. Cut access to water, create food deserts, cut healthcare, and bring the hammer down on any who dare to disagree. People have described fascism as colonialisim turned inward, and I believe that is what is currently unfolding right now.