This is a NOW page, a neat idea cooked up by the rather clever Derek Sivers.
It's a way to get an overview of what I'm slogging through focused on at the moment.
After years without contact, I was informed that someone I had a really complicated relationship with has passed. I'm only just getting past the numb shock that comes from receiving any bad news, and I'm slowly unpacking my feelings.
In continuing a recent theme of connecting with complete strangers on the internet, I've had a few lovely chats with new friends who I found by way of the FediRoulette bot.
Someone described my constantly shifting sleep schedule as "Timezone Parkour". The fact that long covid has messed up so many of my rhythms is a constant point of frustration, and this adds a little delight to thinking about it.
I have played many games of Jenga in the past. Recently I played my first ever remote version of the game, using photos in Delta Chat and a wooden set of blocks which were on the opposite side of the world from my location. It was ridiculous and fun.
I've been thinking a lot about doomscrolling and otherwise unhappy/unproductive time I waste staring at my phone. I used to have really strict habits in place about keeping this to a minimum, and I'm starting to lean back into them. There's been immediate improvements to my overall mood and desire to actually do things.
We thrive on music here in This Old Clown House. I'm currently improving that experience by setting up a "radio station" using MusicPD. While we already have some music solutions in place, one of the goals is to remove our phones from the theater entirely when we are making dedicated time to explore and playfully move our bones. I'm delighted to discover that my partners have enthusiastically supported this, and we've been taking turns curating music for each other.
I've cobbled together a distraction-free "jukebox player" for the theater using an old chromebook. This was "liberated" so it could run a less awful operating system, and configured to boot directly into a minimal player interface. A great deal of inspiration was drawn from my friend Tinker's writerdeckOS project.
For years I've made jokes about one of my characters, Rhino, being a radio DJ. We've named the stream after him, and I'll likely record some silly station identification announcements once I get everything dialed in.
As part of testing, we randomized a large portion of our collection into a playlist and have it spinning 24x7. We tune in to enjoy it, and periodically one of us shouts, "WTF Rhino‽" when something particularly odd plays.
This has recently evolved into a bit of knowledge sharing as everyone in This Old Clown House is learning to use some basic command line tools to make playlists because it's easier and more fun than poking at frustrating GUIs.
I've set up an RSS reader called miniflux for my fellow clowns. I finally started playing with it a few days later, and I really see the appeal. It's also got me thinking about adding an RSS feed to this site, though I'm not sure how I want to go about doing so.
I recently dug out my accordion, which I've not touched in years. It's like reconnecting with an old friend, and I'm slowly learning how to "type" on its many buttons again. One of my fellow clowns in incredibly musical, and they've joined me in making weird noises in the theater.
A fedi friend challenged me to record the Valse des Idiotes. Some of the weird noises I've been making have technically been practice for this.
The workbenches are currently covered in bits of household repair, unicycle lights, and bits of trim for the Delrita Reading Room. As soon as they are clear, I plan to get back to some more creative making.
I have a sketch for a new mask, and I hope to sit down with it and some clay soon.
I've also had an idea for a puppet! I've long associated puppetry with circus performers who have gotten injured, and as a result I've foolishly stayed away from a form of expression I adore. I think I'll be prodding at this false idea (gently) soon, and using it as an excuse to try the paper mache clay that's been itching at my brain.
While doing some initial work on this puppet I realized some really gnarly things about my creative process. I'm now gently poking at both some clay and my own mind.
We've released a new episode of our podcast!
After chatting with Robert Kingett, who granted me permission to create a 'zine from of his incredible short story, The Colonization of Confidence. It's one of the most powerful things I've read in a while, and it seems fitting for it to exist in some sort of edition crafted by human hands. Currently it's halfway converted into Typst's markup, and I'm slowly making decisions about how the final booklet might look.
I've set up a page to link to various creative experiments we're exploring. I didn't like the term "projects" or "portfolio" for exploring these sorts of things.
Doing this has made me really think about how much of what I do is slow moving and iterative in nature.
The never-ending adventure of transforming a hundred-and-someodd year old hotel into a clown school, artists residency, and theatrical playspace.
We've made big progress on the library (aka the Delrita Reading Room) recently.
There are shelves now, and they have books on them! I've been more or less living out of cardboard boxes for the last two years, so this has provided a massive morale boost.
There's still a lot left to do in there, but it feels a room more than a construction area now. The next step will be to nail in all of the skirting/baseboards and trim which I recently painted. There will be many nails in our future.
The temporary front panels of the library bench have been removed in preparation for making some new covers.
We've pulled some truly lovely fabric out of storage for this. The rich velvet was originally used on a human-sized jack in the box prop in the show PlayThings. We'll make the covers from this material, which will both look fantastic and continue our reinventing bits of history in this new place.
This project now has its own page.
We've recently finished the last of the 233 prints needed for building the collage the size of a bathroom door. There's still a bit more repear to do on the door itself, and then work on the main project can begin!
After a bit of discussion, we decided to scan all of the prints before shredding them for the collage. While it will take a bit of extra time, the result will be both a record of the process and a nice set of human-made textures we can give away under an open license. We're mulling over the idea of writing our own license as a protest against the damage ai slop is doing to human creativity.
One of my clown partners made some breakthroughs on juggling recently. I've been excited to wear the coach hat and encourage them to keep throwing things at me, themselves, and the floor.
My battle with trauma and Handstands is still a focus at the moment. I've recently made some progress, and I'm excited about it.
I've also been itching to dig through some boxes to find my juggling hats.
I was interviewed about my work as a clown teacher: BoldJourney.com
After unpacking our velocipedes, we added some lights to a 20" unicycle. Video here.
I've updated my Recommended Reading List For Clowns.
Things I've either eaten, or am in the process of eating:
sounds: Weird corners of our music collection streamed at random via Rhino Radio!
words: The Mask Handbook - A Practical Guide by Toby Wilsher
words: Useful Not True by Derek Sivers
words: The Colonization of Confidence by Robert Kingett
words: The Slow Death of the Power User
experiences: Karen Montanaro's show about her life with Tony Montanaro.
food: The first from-scratch gluten-free vegan pie crust I've ever made.
It has become a tradition to watch some of the media which has entered the public domain each year. I recently enjoyed the Marx Brothers film Animal Crackers, and have plans to watch a few other things when I have a moment.
Last Updated: 2026-02-26