Recently
Wednesday September 21, 2022 — Brooklyn, New York
![Photo of a large burning cube structure at night, with people surrounding it and watching.](/img/post/2022-09-recently/oregon_burn.jpg)
Hello. It’s been a while. Six months, give or take.
![Photo of me, Wesley Aptekar-Cassels, wearing a backpacking backpack, making a peace sign, and holding a energy bar.](/img/post/2022-09-recently/norway_wesley_aptekar_cassels_selfie.jpg)
![Photo of a old, knocked over metal silo of some sort, in a very green rural background.](/img/post/2022-09-recently/norway_farm_decay.jpg)
A lot’s happened. I put my stuff in Taipei in storage, and went a lot of places:
- To a regional burn in Oregon
- To Electromagnetic Field
- To Lisbon, with Laurel, Elliott, and Michelle
- To Norway, where I backpacked through something like 350km of beautiful nature
- To May Contain Hackers, where I helped set up and had a really excellent time overall
- To Brooklyn, where I spent about a month being quite depressed, and have been more recently digging myself out of that little pit of depression
![Photo of a beautiful waterfall.](/img/post/2022-09-recently/norway_waterfall.jpg)
![Photo of the sky, showing some pink clouds and a contrail, a building featuring a large clock, and foliage.](/img/post/2022-09-recently/brooklyn_clouds.jpg)
I don’t really know how to write an update after this long. I fear I may have forgotten how to write in general, or perhaps how to communicate entirely. I suppose bulleted lists are a non-threatening place to start — here are some things I’ve been doing recently:
![Photo of a dog sitting in a window grating.](/img/post/2022-09-recently/brooklyn_dog.jpg)
![Photo of two figures standing on a cliff overlooking a beach, from behind.](/img/post/2022-09-recently/lisbon_beach.jpg)
Notable books I read (all recommended): The Dispossessed, Nevada, The Secret Life of Groceries, Figuring, On Immunity, Solitude, Exhalation
Notable TV that I watched (all recommended): How To with John Wilson, The Rehearsal
![Photo of a green landscape, with many trees, fog in the background, and slightly cloudy skies.](/img/post/2022-09-recently/norway_landscape.jpg)
I will close off with a list of memorable moments:
- Hanging out in the teahouse until late at night, talking about sci-fi and life, sharing conversation and laughter and cuddles with strangers
- Walking until 1am in Norway, still twilight outside, and simply collapsing to sleep on a bed of moss when I was too weary to keep going
- Walking through the rain to get to a cabin with a sign reading “WALKERS ON THE PILGRIM ROAD ARE WELCOME TO USE THIS HOUSE”, making a fire inside, waking up the next morning to the bells of a flock of sheep passing by
- Visiting the anarchist squat in Hamburg
- Operating a scanning electron microscope while tripping
- Walking into a 42 meter long ship, and being transported into a near-magical makerspace and art gallery full of possibility
- Going to a party in DUMBO, and by happenstance running into two people I knew only from the internet, one of whom I’d been unrelatedly trying to meet up with earlier that day
- Collecting and processing black walnuts and acorns with Avery and her friends
I’m not really sure what I’m doing now, or where I’m going next. I’ve just been sort of floating along, for the moment. I’m sorry that I’ve been so absent, here and elsewhere. Here’s to figuring it out.