America’s not doing so great. The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, as it was long-predicted they would, and it sets America back 50 years. At the same time, the war in Ukraine still wages on. Everywhere I turn my head are people dying for no reason at all.

I came back to Germany last weekend and had only a day in the country before having to pack my things and head to Stuttgart. The Ukrainian refugees I had taken in had been sent there by the Landesamt für Fluchtlingsangelegenheiten. (There’s your German word for the day.) They had left suddenly, and their bags were still at my place. I packed them up and with help, took the long train across Germany to deliver their goods. Thankfully, they’re doing alright, as alright as they could be doing under the circumstances. I’m furious with Germany’s nonsensical system for managing the refugee situation. I have plenty of space for them to stay, but the government won’t allow it. At any rate, I’m happy I could help, I just wish I could have done more. The war’s not over and it will take years for them to be able to return, if they ever can. We have to prepare for the long haul.

Speaking of the long haul, the abortion fight in America had a huge setback, one that’s going to take years to recover from. I haven’t said much and won’t say much, because this isn’t really my lane, and also because I’m simply just tired of it. We’re once again doing better at fighting each other than fighting the system that put us here. I want no part of that. I’m not in a position to help; I just throw money at abortion funds. It’s not enough, but I’m not going to add my shout to the cacophony of shouting. Instead, I’m looking more to history. How do people fight? Let’s abstract it away a bit. Are we really using our full skillsets? I can engage with the theory. More to come.

I reactivated Twitter to use it as a syndication engine this weekend. I spent some time setting up some automation: my blog posts should be automatically posted, and I built some clever integrations with Zapier to make sharing long-form content on other sites easier. This way, I don’t have to be logged in, but I can still drive content and use my Twitter to syndicate it. I’ll see how it works out. In any case, my life’s too busy these days, and I’m needing to have more automation in my digital space, so I can spend more time touching grass.

On a more whimsical note, I’ve decided to power through the Marvel Cinematic Universe, now that I have Disney+ access, starting in the order the movies were released. I have to say, 2008 doesn’t seem that far away but after watching these movies again my god was it a lifetime ago. The movies are really rough. The CGI is shockingly bad; absolutely curious decisions were made for what scenes to include and what cuts to make. Thor and Loki look like actual babies. It was so long ago. Anyhow, I’m doing one film a night. It’s a good way to shut my brain off after working, German learning, and watching the world fall apart.

What I’m reading

I finished My Monticello. I’ll write a book report on it tomorrow. What a fantastic and heavy book.

• My Monticello, Jocelyn Nicole Johnson (Progress: 100%)
• Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie (Progress: 12%)

What I’m writing

• I brought back the tweets machine and wrote about how it’s a strange website where your identity is whatever someone else wants it to be.

The week ahead

I have to, incredibly, head back to Stuttgart this week for a work event. And I might take a weekend trip afterwards, as it will be the last time I can leave Germany for a few months. I’m planning on doing a lot of writing this week, and long train rides are pretty well suited for that.