iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

R.Eastman @reastman.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I sometimes feel like this as a writer. “People were piling out of the subway, and it occurred to me to wonder what all these people had in their lives. Did they have what I had? I had the book and the problems of the book...” Interview with Donald Antrim, The Art of Fiction, Paris Review, Fall 2026

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R.Eastman @reastman.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

“A 2022 survey by the Craftsman tool division of Stanley Black & Decker found that more than a third of the country's residential garages were so full of overflow possessions that their owners were unable to park cars in them.” David Owen, @newyorker.com “To Have and To Hold” about self storage

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R.Eastman @reastman.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

The Missing Ingredient of Modern Life / Why we need wonder Ian Bogost www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202... [W]onder feels scarce because contemporary life has depleted the value of the moment….[W]e have taught ourselves to treat the present primarily as a waiting room [for] the future.

theatlantic.com

The Missing Ingredient of Modern Life

Why we need wonder

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R.Eastman @reastman.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

The Missing Ingredient of Modern Life / Why we need wonder www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202... Optimization is … terrible for being where you actually are right now. When goals overcome experience, you lose the freedom to encounter you life as it happens.

theatlantic.com

The Missing Ingredient of Modern Life

Why we need wonder

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R.Eastman @reastman.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

I am 20% of the way through Georgia O’Keefe: A Life, but not with the greatest of enthusiasm. “By July, his [Stiegltz’s] tone begins to take on an exalted emotional plangency.” This book would have been better without the thesaurus. Roxana Robinson’s exaggerated wordcraft detracts from the story.

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R.Eastman @reastman.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

The CEO of Anthropic, Dario Amodei’s 3,800-word piece on the need to pace the development of AI in order to control the risks inherent in the technology. darioamodei.com/post/we-must...

darioamodei.com

Dario Amodei — We Must Pace the Frontier

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R.Eastman @reastman.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

For a few moments we discover that nothing can be taken for granted…. our journey here on earth, able to see and touch and hear in the midst of tangible and mysterious things-in-themselves, is the most strange and daring of all adventures. Desert Solitaire Cliffrose and Bayonets Edward Abbey 1968

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R.Eastman @reastman.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Train at night in the desert. Georgia O’Keefe. 1916 I would like to know more about her train travel.

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R.Eastman @reastman.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Watched a great Cape Cod Baseball League championship game last night. Harwich beat Bourne 4-2. Great way to watch baseball.

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R.Eastman @reastman.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

A must read for me sometime today: Loud Desperation The existential search for significance in contemporary society. www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/auth...

psychologytoday.com

Loud Desperation

The existential fear of insignificance has caused a generation of people to try to remain relevant by continuously posting on social media.

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R.Eastman @reastman.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Shameful. The constant issue with metrics is that far from being guideposts, they become targets that only encourages The Measured to try to find ways to game the system. This defeats the purpose of metrics. And then there are the ‘Miles’ of the world.

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R.Eastman @reastman.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

Just back from a roadtrip west. One enjoyable stop: My Brothers Bar, in Denver. It was called Paul’s Place when, on October 23, 1944, Neal Cassady wrote from prison to friend Justin Brierly, asking him to pay his tab at the bar. The photos of Kerouac & Cassady are hard to find, worth the search.

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R.Eastman @reastman.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

Preparing for a trip to Wyoming, Ian Frazier’s The Great Plains, Annie Proulx’ Close Range: Wyoming Stories, and Gretel Ehrlich’s The Solace of Open Spaces are proving to be the most interesting and useful. Caveat: I am early into the Proulx and Ehrlich books.

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R.Eastman @reastman.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

I am so sorry to hear that Tennis Hall of Famer Chris Evert is suffering a return of her ovarian cancer. Thoughts and prayers.

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R.Eastman @reastman.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

“Trump’s Face Takes Over Washington” (National Review) Of course it does.

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R.Eastman @reastman.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

You can't have a fence with only one post. The Mud Below Annie Proulx Close Range:Wyoming Stories 1999 (Scribner)

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R.Eastman @reastman.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

“When the old man came back to his chair, the Everclear like sweet oil in his glass, glances resharpened and inflections of voice again carried complex messages.” The Half-Skinned Steer Close Range:Wyoming Stories Annie Proulx 1999 (Scribner)

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R.Eastman @reastman.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

This is the plane they were skydiving from?

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R.Eastman @reastman.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

So Dr Oz has an inside track with God? I have so many questions for Dr Oz!

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R.Eastman @reastman.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

Yeah, that’s not right.

New Yorker cartoon. Man sitting on a beach reading Dostoyevsky is being addressed by a policeman. “I’m sorry, Sir, but Dostoyevsky is not considered summer reading. I’ll have to ask you to come with me.”

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R.Eastman @reastman.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

My story, A Celebration of Life, has been published in The Red Lion inn’s annual collection, The Lion’s Tales, just out. As many of you will know, The Red Lion is a lovely seasoned inn in Stockbridge, MA dating to 1773. www.redlioninn.com/the-lions-ta...?

redlioninn.com

The Lion's Tales | The Red Lion Inn

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Reposted by R.Eastman

Steven Beschloss @stevenbeschloss.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

This is our house. Donald Trump has turned these grounds to trash. He never should have been allowed anywhere near the levers of power. He should be removed from office now.

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R.Eastman @reastman.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

How does this compare with previous World Cups? Did FIFA manage the sponsorships and ticketing so differently this year from past years?

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R.Eastman @reastman.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

“Around half of human-caused climate change has occurred since the World Cup was last hosted in North America in 1994. As a result, the climate that the tournament is being played in today has fundamentally shifted in just 32 years. Joyce Kimutai, research associate in extreme weather

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R.Eastman @reastman.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

This is an interesting subtext to the World Cup games given the coincidence with this summer’s extraordinary El Niño. Perhaps climate change will get its proper attention when it becomes too hot to play sports outdoors. www.theguardian.com/news/datablo...

theguardian.com

How hot will it be at the 2026 World Cup and is it dangerous for players and fans?

Researchers warn of a ‘real risk’ of unsafe conditions, with matches in Miami most likely to be affected, but the picture is mixed across the 16 stadiums

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R.Eastman @reastman.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

In Search of Now. This looks like a good book. @newyorker.com

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R.Eastman @reastman.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

“True Color” (Kory Stamper / Knopf) looks like it would be an interesting book. Briefly Noted / New Yorker, April 13.

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R.Eastman @reastman.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

“I find that worrying about what might happen takes my mind off worrying about what has happened.”

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R.Eastman @reastman.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

Small by comparison to many other people, but nearing an Evernote milestone nevertheless: almost to 13,000 notes. What’s your note count?!

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R.Eastman @reastman.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

I am happy to admit that I need a regular dose of kitsch. Got a fix yesterday, introducing my grandsons to Massachusetts’ “cathedral of kitsch”, the Kowloon restaurant. Fun!

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R.Eastman @reastman.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

I am impressed by how much investigation has gone into whether Butch Cassidy (Robert Leroy Parker) was in fact killed in Bolivia on 7 Nov 1908 (as portrayed in the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid), or the numerous reported sightings of Butch Cassidy in later years can be believed.

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R.Eastman @reastman.bsky.social · 03/05/2026

I don’t know when I have enjoyed a book as much as Iris Murdoch’s The Sea The Sea (1978) (even with an interminably long postscript [“Life Goes On”] which came close to making me wish life wouldn’t.) This is a wonderful book that I will think about for a long time.

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R.Eastman @reastman.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

In anticipation of a trip to Wyoming, what to insert into my reading plans: - Rising from the Plains (John McPhee); - Close Range: Wyoming Stories (Annie Proulx); - Great Plains (Ian Frazier); - Butch Cassidy: The Wyoming Years (Bill Betenson). What is the best “Wyoming book” you have read?

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R.Eastman @reastman.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

I would like to see Trump’s likeness on every toilet seat.

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R.Eastman @reastman.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

I think it is a good thing when a writer’s words bring you to an absolute stop in order to try to penetrate the meaning. Iris Murdoch, The Sea The Sea (1978): “…I felt her presence as a violent diffused magnetism which somehow pervaded the whole house…”

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R.Eastman @reastman.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

“The ideology of billionaires currently has a mind-boggling degree of selfishness”, a conversation with Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Prize winner in economics english.elpais.com/economy-and-...

english.elpais.com

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