Well, here we are: January 20. Inauguration Day. I will mostly avoid the Internet today -- writing this blog post and posting it to my website without actually looking at anything else online. But I can’t spend the next four years avoiding the Internet, sadly; I make my living writing on and about digital technologies after all. But damn, for today at least, there’s no need to soak in the sadness.

That online writing is going pretty well, all things considered. I published two pieces -- one on Friday and one this morning -- that I’m fairly pleased with. I feel like I have a pretty good rhythm of reading and writing going (although the next few weeks are very busy with speaking engagements -- more work to slot into an already full schedule, which is good, but daunting.).

I do worry about how I can sustain this, not just financially which is no doubt a huge huge concern. And not just politically as things balance on the brink of fascism here in the US. I worry about my physical and mostly my mental well-being in re-entering the fray, which as violently aggressive as technologists and the defenders of technofascism clearly are.

I'm fast, I guess. I can probably out-run them.

Speaking of embracing corporeality, this past week was an excellent week of eating. The Burger League took us to Lord’s on Monday to eat what had been, before this latest intensive burger exploration, my favorite burger in the city: one covered with Welsh rarebit. It was very very good, but now I think my second favorite -- Virginia’s is still on top. The fries -- thick wedges of potato fried in duck fat -- remain unbeaten.

We also ate at Danji, which has reopened in the neighborhood having been closed several years ago following a fire. Danji was the first Korean restaurant in the city to earn a Michelin star, and it was probably one of my favorite meals we’ve eaten here. We had the “chef’s choice,” which gave us a little bit of the most popular things on the menu. The dishes were stellar -- and if I hadn’t just had a delicious burger on Monday, I’d say the bulgogi sliders were the best bite of beef I’ve eaten in a while. So was the soft tofu. So was the bassam pork. Service was a bit clunky, and dessert wasn’t great, but I don’t hand out Michelin stars, only Yelp stars. I’d definitely go again, if only to try the kimchi fried rice (but probably to eat those sliders again).

We ordered bagels from Ess-a-Bagel for delivery on Saturday, and man, they’re fine, but we really do miss Absolute Bagel, even knowing that the place was infested with rats and roaches. The lox was better at Ess-a-Bagel, Kin admitted -- no surprise, truly, with the lack of cleanliness at Absolute -- but the bagels are just a little too big. I’ve been craving a cinnamon roll for a while -- not the laminated pastry kind you often see here, but the big fluffy yeasty Midwest ones, smothered in cream cheese frosting. Ess-a-Bagel said they had cinnamon rolls, so I gambled and ordered one, but what came was coffee cake. It was great, but the original craving remains.

I ordered far too many Girl Scout cookies, which were delivered this week. It’s normally not something I buy, but I saw a list of trans Girl Scouts, and decided that I’d support them. Everybody wins, right?

On the home-cooking front, I made chicken pot pie (one of Kin’s favoites) and shepherd’s pie (one of mine). There are leftovers of both today for lunch and dinner, which is glorious.

I had lunch on Friday with my friend José -- and while the food was good (I had fried chicken and tostones) it was the conversation that was most nourishing: advice and commiseration on navigating the politics of the NYC school system, on graduate school, on speaking and writing about education, about community literacy and community activism, and so on.

I finished reading The Promise of Access by Daniel Greene, a book that Tressie recommended. It was super helpful in formulating a timeline of “how we got into this mess in the first place” -- where “this mess” is ed-tech neoliberalism. Sociological research is so helpful that way (and now Dr. José is grounded in that field too) -- so is history of course, and it’s the latter department that I might apply to. If I do apply to grad school. If I do apply to TC. Then again, I’m thinking CUNY. I'm thinking psychology, which you gotta admit, is crazy.