I was sincerely surprised to find out it’s only the fourth day of this new year. A lot has happened already. It feels like at least the third week of January.

The article that was accepted for publication was an intellectual challenge type of project. I went into a time period that’s not mine (and is far removed from neoliberalism), choose an unknown writer completely at random, and set out to analyze that writer from a perspective I never tried before.

OK, yes, I did slip in a tiny bit of neoliberalism because I want to be able to enjoy life in any situation but everything else was completely from scratch. I proved to myself that I can do something completely nuts and it still works.

I’m now going to do another project that’s outside of my regular interests. In this one, there will be zero neoliberalism, zero nation-state, and zero from the other counterintuitive article.

This year I submitted two articles for publication and got one – a different one, obviously – accepted. I also completed three translation orders and found a new client who wants me to transcribe a Ukrainian TV show.

The work on improving my focus is going well.

Forget Ukraine. China had a jump on everybody with COVID and where are they right now? In the midst of a huge COVID disaster long after everybody else moved on.

India, too, hasn’t led the way on anything ever.

We’d all love to see them wake up but it’s clearly not happening.

There’s an occupied town called Makiivka. My mother is from close around there. Russians really liked the school building in Makiivka. It’s new and comfortable. They put an artillery depot and a regiment of recruits there. Yes, in the same building. So smart. They were counting on their aerial defenses to protect the spot.

Of course, Ukrainians wanted to hit the depot but what to do about the aerial defense? So they spread a rumor that Ukraine was going to hit Moscow and St Petersburg with an air strike on New Year’s Day. Made some cute memes with Moscow burning. Russians believed it because if it’s on social media it’s got to be true, right? They moved the air defense system away from Makiivka and into Russia.

“Good doggie,” said Ukrainians and hit the depot in Makiivka on New Year’s. The depot blew up. Over 600 Russian soldiers are dead or wounded.

Moral of the story: memes are not reality.

I wanted to watch a cute, endearing Christmas cartoon with my kid and somehow ended up with a show where stupid, brainwashed bears from a very cold country invade a beautiful, florid land because they believe the lies their dictator told them.

It’s called Ice Princess Lily in case you think I’m inventing it. Those marching bear troops with their Yakut-like faces were not something I needed at this point in life.

I remember when I was a kid adults were discussing why a relative went back to a horrible, mean, ugly, cheating and STD-ridden boyfriend for the millionth time.

Finally, one more experienced adult said, “Oh, enough with the whys. She loves him, got it? She loves the bastard, that’s why.”

You can’t argue with love but we definitely should stop financing a project that is in love with our mortal enemy.

And we were also recently informed that if students get Fs or even Ds, it means professors are bigoted. It’s easier to just give everybody a C than to be publicly humiliated as a bigot.

No, this is not my bedroom. It’s a bedroom designed by Henry Davis Sleeper. But it makes me happy to look at it, so I wanted to share.

Summertime arrived, we are in short sleeves outside, and I had to veto Klara’s idea for a rainbow-themed birthday party. I don’t want other parents to think it’s something inappropriate.