Woohoo! Our podcast The Bone Lab is listed as "New and Noteworthy" on iTunes! Check out the first episode here. This past weekend, we also went to Mission Science Workshop, and I interviewed some really smart and interesting people, including a 9-year-old who was unwittingly telling me about circuits. As for my creative writing projects, … Continue reading Update: The Bone Lab + forthcoming publications
I finally finished reading Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. I also finished putting together the audio for a Bone Lab episode featuring our interview with a bioarchaeologist. Together, these things are giving me a less despairing lens with which to view this strange and tragic era. And can't we all use a little less despair right now. Last … Continue reading The universal constant
I think my life satisfaction this week was the highest it's been in over a year. Very pleased to see that grad school hasn't totally beaten away my capacity for positive emotions. Highlights: Mon: Quiet Lightning reading. Met and read with some really talented writers and had a blast! Talked to people about race relations, yellowface, … Continue reading Highlights of the week: Poetry, race relations, and cat altars
Writer friends, all the mice in the (lab) world can't dampen my excitement today! I awoke to an email from Tim Green, the Editor of the poetry journal Rattle, telling me that my poem "Dissonance" had been accepted for publication in their "Feminist Poets" issue! I had to check my email multiple times throughout the day … Continue reading Update: Rattle acceptance!
Anyone who follows me on social media will know that I love Ask Polly, the advice column written by Heather Havrilesky for NY Mag and previously for the Awl. I was struck today by her latest response, in which she basically tells the letter writer that she needs to acknowledge that her childhood was shitty … Continue reading Grieving for the lost child
A bit late, but I am pleased to report that my poem "Writing Elegies Like Robert Hass" appears in the current issue of the Intima, a lovely journal of narrative medicine, which is sort of a running theme of this first manuscript. I've buckled down and started submitting a lot more, so hopefully I will have … Continue reading Update: publications and writing residencies
Last night, I went to a vegan Filipino pop-up dinner by Chef Coco with the grad school friend I visited last year in the Philippines. So delicious! (Note: I am not vegan or even vegetarian.) Incidentally, it's about one year after my/our trip! (click on for photos and the real point of this post) After dinner, I … Continue reading Thank you Chicano Batman
I don't often feel compelled to write about the plays I see (yes, I've become one of them bougie cultured folk in my old age), but holy smokes, that was amazing and hilarious and unexpected. Between Riverside and Crazy tells the story of a wounded former NYPD cop, Walter Washington, fighting to keep his rent … Continue reading Between Riverside and Crazy: a world-class performance at ACT SF
I read about Jennifer Pan yesterday over breakfast, how she doctored her report cards, pretended to go to college, and hired people to kill her parents when they found out about her lies. At lunch, I read some of the comments after the Toronto Life article (I know, I know, never read the comments), and I had to … Continue reading How did Jennifer Pan slip so far, and why are so many people sympathizing?
Last month, a youngish man of Asian descent got onto Muni (the SF train system) a few stops after me. He had shoulder-length hair, square thick-rimmed glasses, and wore a bright red suit. I guessed from his trendy attire that he was an art student and went back to my podcast without giving it further thought. I … Continue reading How to build empathy: musings about police training and medicine
