Ontolog's Pairing Notes:

Pairs nicely with the Obsidian or Coda apps, the ten words you can't say on TV, a half-used bullet journal, yet another csv export, strong coffee at 8:00am on a Sunday morning, and fear of Pressing Send.

On June 24th, I opened my writing app and wrote: Lists. My favorite books, movies, shows, the experiences that I enjoyed.

I write a list almost every day in my morning writing practice. Today’s prompt was “BeLeave ...” meaning: “situations or habits that I do not want to fix or change or argue with…and neither do I choose to stay in relationship with them.” I picked a number, 40, and let myself list anything that came to mind. For example:

not publishing
processed food
Texas
lies
lessons
countries (rather than Earth citizens)
tech bros
traveling elsewhere

Why don't I share my lists? I realize, typing this, that I’m not exactly ashamed. More… shy. Shy about sharing lists because they feel like a personal key—a magnifying glass offering insight into who and what I really am. In-sight. Lists are how I dig beneath my socialized, vigilant mind and discover what I actually feel, think, and even what I know but don’t want to know.

There are so many lists in my journals, in my apps, so many apps, and in spreadsheets. Then it hits me: aren’t ontologies… lists? Aren’t they the scaffolding that holds spaces for ideas? Aren't they how we shape meaning and experience?

My packing list is not just a list...it is a system. Redesigned by experience, preference, research, advice from others, and constraints like "only a carry-on bag".

Maybe lists aren’t just how we craft ontologies—they’re how we discover them. Maybe they both describe our system of ideas and they structure them into lived experience.

I started ontolog, this publishing practice, with “write 500 words” because, of course I did. Productivity! Effort as proof of… something! But then came June 24th and my compulsion to write a list: these are a few of my favorite things.

When I shared my tow-month collection of half-finished daily writings with ChatGPT, asking for themes slithering through them, she basically said: “Why don’t you focus on lists?” Duh, right? This space is about how we generate personal meaning. Or, at least, how I do. Transformation is a bottom-up affair, a little things have big impact wisdom-led advocacy. We reshape our mental models. Our meaning-making process.

Of course I have two months of backlog, random, rambling, sort-of posts. Until last night, I believed I sucked at getting to the point. I believed I failed, constantly at being "succinct" and "concrete". I let other people’s derision shame me into a basket that drops into hellish self-loathing.

The proverbial lightbulb has gone off. I don’t have a backlog waiting for me to “fix”. #41 on my BeLeave List:

an endless backlog of fixing and editing and shapeing myself in order to share my writing

I don’t have expectations to manage or Massive Writing Mountains to climb, endlessly improving my palatability. I just have the hard, often impossible work of knowing. Of knowing what I see, feel, need, and want to say.

Of knowing what I mean.

One of my precious, trustworthy tools are lists. Crafting meaning and experiences from personal ontologies rather borrowing fragmented, unexamined or ill-fitting social constructs. Like grabbing clothes strewn on the bedroom floor, remnants of the latest internet influencer’s must-have list -- or selecting from a small but well-crafted collection of options in your closet, aligned with your best colors, fit, comfort and mood. Suited to your real-life circumstances.

That collection arose using spreadsheets. Of course it did, spreadsheets are magic. They have the power to make you think about relationships, collections, shapes of information, what to leave in, what to leave out.

List, even the silly or snarky or angry ones, build our daily choices, shape our insights and help us submerge into crafted joy.

Dopamine Hits: Your Emergency Kit for Low Snark Level

I'm not going to include The Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy. If you haven't read that ... how are you even living a happy life right now?

This list goes to 11:

The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells: All of them. Do not watch the show.
1. All Systems Red
2. Artificial Condition
3. Rogue Protocol
4. Exit Strategy
5. Network Effect
6. Fugitive Telemetry
7. System Collapse
Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Or anything by him really. There are many.
John Scalzi: Personally, I recommend Starter Villain. But with Scalzi, you develop your own preferences. Just dive in. Scalzi suggests these. Most recommend starting with Old Man's War but I don't. The newest one is When the Moon Hits Your Eye (which I recommend, but not first). Alternatives:
1. Agent to the Stars
2. The Collapsing Empire
3. The Kaiju Preservation Society
4. Redshirts
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore. Moore is a silly national treasure, and I doubt he'd mind me calling him that.
Becky Chambers: Read everything by her. Start with The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (first of the Wayfarers Series.) Or A Psalm for the Wild-Built (first in the Mong & Robot series).
Stiff: The Curious Life of Human Cadavers. I want to be the Mary Roach of technology. Of science ... of life.
Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki. My husband recommended this and I pishawed. Because I think I have the better book taste. This book proves me wrong.
Legends & Lattes: A Novel of High Fantasy and Low Stakes by Travis Baldree. Legends & Lattes. Legends & Lattes. Legends & Lattes. (Might as well buy the second one too, Bookshops & Bonedust, you're gonna read it. Hurry, the next one comes out in November.)
Red, White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuinston: I gobble up Casey's books like pumpkin pie at Thankgiving. They never lasts more than a couple days. Start with this one or One Last Stop.
The Thursday Murder Club series by Richard Osman: OMG have you SEEN the CAST of the upcoming show?! Read the books first. The series includes:
1. The Thursday Murder Club
2. The Man Who Died Twice
3. The Bullet That Missed
4. The Last Devil to Die
5. The Impossible Fortune (coming in 2025)
Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone: A Novel by Benjamin Stevenson. Snarky murder mystery. Who doesn't want some of that? The series includes Everyone on This Train is a Suspect and Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret.

There are more, like Terry Pratchett, a grand master but I don't have a favorite. Or Hollow Kingdom, which I enjoyed but didn't make the cut. I find this part difficult, leaving experiences off the list. Like Chuck Wendig, my favorite snark on the internet ... but his horror genre books didn't quite fit here. Or they do, kinda, fit. Like the movie Cabin in the Woods.

But all good things must come to an end. Even lists.

Currently reading

I finished Atmosphere last night.

I skimmed through some of it, which I rarely do with her books. Not because I didn't enjoy it but because I could get the gist without missing the plot points. I appreciate her choice to write about female scientists, making real-life and profoundly unfortunate tradeoffs to be intelligent, bold and nerdy women. A good continuation of themes in Lessons in Chemistry and For All Mankind. The characters were each their own brand of neurodiversity, rich enough to be unique and unique enough to be the people who would walk these paths because the other options are ... unlivable.

Currently watching

Watched the finale of Paradise yesterday.

I liked most of the acting, especially Sterling K Brown, and the premise is unique, even as it's yet another ~~redacted spoiler alert.~~ What they did brilliantly was set up Season 2. The network would have no choice but to renew. Unlike The Bondsman with Kevin Bacon, which devolved into a serial and left too much room for disregarding.

What I really want to tell you about is The Pitt. Stay tuned.