The rain is falling outside as I write this; there's something odd about
witnessing a rainstorm in a desert. It's supposed to happen every once and a
while, but I never expect to be around to witness it. I don't live here, and it
feels like a fairly intimate and rare thing to see for someone who's just
passing through. Anyway, I'm in Scottdale with my parents and my sister for
Christmas, and it's pouring.

Two days ago, I put up the latest issue of New Session on telnet. I'm really
happy with the stories and poems in it, and the reception has been good, but
it does seem a bit tame compared to the first issue. Maybe just less novelty?
Hope to share some more excerpts on twitter to build a bit more excitement
around it. I'm not sure what I expect, really, what do other editors of literary
magazines expect when publishing issues? But I'm excited for the reading in
January and maybe there's room to build others' excitement for it too.

Doubling the amount of RAM on the server that's hosting it was a _wonderful_
idea as well; it's just so snappy now! I can't wait till I'm home and can
play around with it on my Commodore 128.

I'm thinking about the new Matrix movie after seeing it last night; the focus-
group scene and brainstorming the film itself was the most interesting part. It
worked for this film (meta, self-referential, of course, it's the Matrix), but
when this becomes a trope, or a norm for the array of reboots we're seeing given
a creatively-bankrupt Hollywood, we'll look back on it and see it as deeply
tedious. Twin Peaks is doing similar things more artfully in its Return (which
I'm about 1/3 of the way through currently), and it's the obvious play as we all
get bored with the same IP getting rotated through its paces. Thankful for David
Lynch and Lana Wachowski taking the time to do it artfully, but we'll all be
sick of it soon, I'm sure.

Still two days in Scottsdale, then up to the desert for three days of camping.
Mojave National Preserve, then Death Valley. Trying to scout out some hot
springs too, it's going to be wonderful to disconnect for a bit. Will try and
keep writing for this little journal while I'm out there.