Officially, I’m on vacation in August. Once again, thanks to the pandemic, I’m not going anywhere except on my new & improved balcony. Third year in a row, Japan’s still highly restrictive entry regulations make it impossible for me to visit my friends there, bummer. And even though I finished the major revision for my textbook’s second edition last week, the challenge is on now to do different things in the next four weeks than I would do if I were not on vacation, particularly to avoid the “finally I’ve got time to work!” trap. It’s work related to my own creative projects, for sure, but it’s still work—and even if I restricted myself to fulfilling only some handpicked tasks, these might necessitate other tasks that necessitate other tasks all of which will keep me working forever. Probably the only thing I could do is to create and keep a strict entertainment schedule, which is totally how humans generally organize their free time and relax. Wish me luck.

Last week, I wrote a post for my Voidpunk blog on Etherstrands. Then there’s a new album on Flickr with ten images from churches and temples in Pingyao, China, and two re-edited shots on Glass, also from China, one inside the former military factory District 798 and one cat encounter in Ritan Park. And there are the usual posts at my betweendrafts and voidpunkverse Instagram accounts.
 
Instead of Sunday funnies, it’s triple Creature Feature time! How to wind up in a paranormality magazine; a Safety PSA that gave children nightmares; and an animated Mandelbulb in the wild.

J.