Disquiet

It’s several months away, but I’m excited to have not just a mini-essay but the closing entry coming out in a 25-part series by as many writers at [hilobrow.com](https://www.hilobrow.com/2021/10/01/nerd-enthusiasm-intro/). The collection, “Nerd Your Enthusiasm,” is edited by Peggy Nelson, who wrote in the [introductory post](https://www.hilobrow.com/2021/10/01/nerd-enthusiasm-intro/):

>The word “nerd” has gotten a bad rap over the years. Deployed in any number of movie, meme, and IRL recess situations, it has connotations of poor social skills, and a perceived too-intense focus on (variously) math, computers, chess, historical factoids, how-to manuals … let’s just generalize as a perceived too-intense focus. And despite the term’s partial rehabilitation by our current tech overlords and the world they have wrought (and the incredible wealth they have amassed), there’s still something that hesitates before application of the term, either to others, or to one’s self.
>
>When I chose “nerd” as the theme of this Hilobrow “Enthusiasm” series, however, I intended something different, definitionally — an upgrade, if you will. I wanted to cast as wide a net as possible, and hear about what people were just very, very interested in and excited about in all its glorious detail — their passion, their hobby, their self-claimed area of official or ad hoc expertise.

It’s an incredible roster that Nelson has collected. Before my piece (“celebrating nets of nerd communities,” in Nelson’s description) pops up on December 28, there will be ones from, among others, Josh Glenn, Miranda Mellis, Annie Nocenti, Vijay Parthasarathy, Luc Sante, and Jessamyn West. Whether or not you share their particular nerd fixations, you’ll enjoy the enthusiasm and insight they bring to their self-explorations.

I do this manually each Saturday, collating most of the tweets I made the past week at [twitter.com/disquiet](https://twitter.com/disquiet), which I think of as my public notebook. Some [tweets](https://disquiet.com/2021/10/01/lets-go-to-the-video-tape/) pop [up](https://disquiet.com/2021/10/01/speed-test/) in expanded form or otherwise on Disquiet.com sooner. It’s personally informative to revisit the previous week of thinking out loud.

▰ I just typed “Tell me more” in a text message and I fear I’ve become an AI.

▰ The state of track metadata on Bandcamp downloads could really use some attention. So much effort on recording, mastering, physical releases, art, photography, design, liner notes, promotion, etc. Then you download something and find that maybe one or two fields are filled in.

▰ Among the benefits of living in California is the io9 Morning Spoilers ([gizmodo.com/io9](https://gizmodo.com/io9/television/morning-spoilers)) being posted before my day begins. Having to wait for it while visiting the East Coast is always a surprise somehow.

▰ Yeah, I made iOS shortcuts to turn on and off those background sounds under accessibility. Gonna sample and hold this ocean track and suss out its secrets.

▰ The Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) announcements on the train are clearer than they used to be, but no less mumbled, and at this low volume are akin to infrastructure ASMR.

▰ Seconds after posting that previous tweet I realize that “infrastructure ASMR” is my optimal listening experience. Hours later, as I sit in a hotel room listening to a readymade duet for building construction and autumnal HVAC, I am all the more certain. *Autumnal HVAC* will be the title of my first poetry collection.

▰ A customer support call menu is both the simplest and most frustrating text adventure.

▰ Pro trip: You don’t need to set an alarm when there’s an enormous construction site next to your hotel.

▰ It’s likely just the echo effect of the skyscraper canyons, but I’d swear that car horns in Manhattan linger longer before fully fading.

▰ I walk a lot in San Francisco, but yow do I walk a lot in Manhattan. At least eight miles yesterday, not counting pacing ruminatively around my hotel room. (I don’t have a tracker. I just roughed out the path in Google Maps after the fact.)

▰ It’s not every week I plumb the works of Piero della Francesca for a Disquiet Junto image, but for [this week’s project](https://disquiet.com/2021/09/30/disquiet-junto-project-0509-the-long-detail/) it seemed appropriate.

▰ After three mornings in this hotel, I may just change my alarm sound to a recording of construction noise.

▰ Headed to JFK. Been in New York two and a half weeks and never (over)heard Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, or Bon Jovi once. Unusual. I have, however, heard Metallica and Journey numerous times. That’s the Bay Area calling me back. … And as we’re boarding, “Tell Her About It” comes over the JetBlue terminal speaker system.