**Please note there is a brief bit of explicit language at the beginning of the song** “For in grief nothing ‘stays put.’ One keeps on emerging from a phase, but it always recurs. Round and round. Everything repeats. Am I going in circles, or dare I hope I am on a spiral? -C.S. Lewis A little over a decade ago, my wife had an ectopic pregnancy. For us, the pregnancy was an answer to hundreds of prayers to conceive.

We’re nearly at the end of 2021. Another deeply odd year, to put it mildly. If 2020 was a year on pause, 2021 has been a year of janky buffering, playing a few seconds before getting stuck again on the loading wheel of doom. I hope everyone reading this is getting whatever support they need to keep on going through these strange times. Today I’m writing about themes. As a young writer, back when I was still in high school, it took me a long while to figure out why my stories never really felt as engaging as I expected.

Last week, on February 8, Venezuelan security forces shot and killed Carlos Revette, better known as “El Koki”. El Koki was a prominent gang leader who controlled the Cota 905 neighborhood of Caracas, which has been under gang control since 2017. Revette was one of the most wanted individuals by the Venezuelan government, and last July the Maduro regime… ncG1vNJzZmian697tMHBrKuam5tjsLC5jqlmr52emse2scuaZJ6kXaC8rLWMpKClpJWZ

Before going to Lollapalooza, I wanted to get a pancake lens for my Fujifilm X-T5 to reduce its profile to fit into small bags so that I could bring it into the festivals and venues. I already knew the Fujifilm offerings and some of the other 3rd party offerings, but it was the first time I heard about the Voigtlander Ultron 27mm f/2.0. It was a very new lens with minimal online information, so I ordered one and tested it out.

Thinking of someone making wine in a garage may hark back to the days of people making moonshine or bathtub gin. Apparently my dad’s grandmother did this. I love picturing a squat Jewish woman from the old country brewing up a batch of hooch during Prohibition — during the same time her son, my grandfather, drove a hollowed-out car to Canada to sneak bo… ncG1vNJzZmiZop6vprrDnqmso6ljwLau0q2YnKNemLyue89orKuakaN6uLXNnqminaNitKK%2BwKCgrKyVYsSqusQ%3D