Process Edition

8 February 2026

I have been enjoying the What Now podcast with Trevor Noah. He has thoughtful conversations with interesting people. With one guest, fellow comedian Josh Johnson, they discussed how much they enjoyed the process of making comedy, so that the outcome and how much money they might make is icing on the cake (they used a less cliché way of expressing that), although Trevor’s sidekick pointed out that this is a privileged way to look at, if they were not actually starving. I enjoy making comics and this newsletter. This might be good to you or it might not, but I don’t really worry about that. Or at least that is the attitude to which I aspire, because I do enjoy receiving comments about this newsletter, so I must be seeking attention, despite what I might like to tell myself.

Monday

My youngest brother was in town from Toronto and came by for a brief visit. I was not much of a tour guide, but he has recently taken up stand-up comedy and was telling me how he is now much more aware of his surroundings as potential joke material. I have a similar experience in looking for ideas for a daily comic. Maybe mindfulness gurus should provide a context for being mindful. I saw a little video on metacognition, on the ability to think about your thinking, and this seems to be useful and related to being able to notice thoughts and reflect on them before reacting.

Tuesday

Maybe someone has already invented a duvet that is easier to change and remains intact. If not, that seems like an opportunity waiting to be exploited. I apply a variation of the burrito method, where you roll it up and then somehow it ends up covered. Maybe it is a kind of topological puzzle. But it does seem to depend on securing the ties inside to keep it together. So I could not get away with being too lazy.

Wednesday

Making decisions with imperfect knowledge is tricky, but I suppose that many decisions fall into this category. Sometimes they work out and sometimes they do not. For the moment, the car has stopped warning us about the Assistive Braking System, so maybe that means we are okay for the moment. Meanwhile, we are trying to figure out what is wrong with the dog’s innards so I don’t have to clean the carpet so often, while deciding on whether or not to book a teeth cleaning for the dog. That one is tricky because she has to be anesthetized which whacks her out. I try to brush her teeth, but mostly she is just licking the chicken-flavoured enzyme toothpaste off the brush. I suppose I tend to be trusting, but mechanics and vets are motivated to provide advice that sounds cautious, yet also makes them a lot more money.

Thursday

I usually take my dog out a little after 7 am. In the last little while, the sky has finally been bright when I go out. Even though this time of year can be kind of depressing, the occasional pretty sky helps raise my spirits. I realize I miscounted the number of syllables in my haiku. But some people just focus on having three lines and are not so particular about syllables.

Friday

I had come across something about the Japanese 4 panel comic, which is usually arranged vertically. I don’t know if this will improve my comics or not, but I did this sort of as a note to remind me of the approach, even though I tend to prefer keep the last panel for a surprise, if there is one. But because I tend to limit how much time I spend working on these, I don’t always figure out something clever.

Saturday

A good thing about the Olympics is that it is helping with my geography lessons. I had never heard of Milano Cortina, but now that I look it up, I have heard of Milan, but not the other place. As a couch potato, it is humbling to watch the astonishing abilities of these athletes. I am still adjusting to watching TV through an app, which means it is usually showing recordings of live action.

Sunday

A moment in my graphic memoir in progress Not Made in Japan about my experiences as a graduate student in southern Japan during the late 1980s. I just got a book called Making Nonfiction Comics by Eleri Harris and Shay Mirk. So maybe I will get better at doing these, or maybe not. Anyway, I don’t exactly remember how the outside of this little restaurant looked, so I took a little artistic license there. It was run by a quiet couple and I remember the set menu always included a little yogurt drink. Though I usually cooked and ate at home, I never got very good at cooking. I was living a kind of Spartan existence and did not splurge that often, so this was a treat.

So that was my week. I hope you had a good one with a better one to come.