Negative time

Author

Martin Boehme
September 30, 2026

Hey. No story this month, unfortunately, though I am excited about the one I'm working on for October.

I've been spending pretty much all of my energy this month attempting to close out my last chapter as I adjust to this new one.

The first piece of this new chapter, the first result of my mid-thirties cocoonathon, is that I spent a good portion of this summer stumbling onto the team behind WaniKani, and therefore the team responsible for my ability to read Japanese, which is very cool.

My previous chapter is officially closed out as of a few days ago, when I finally, finally, finally finished writing translated subtitles for a rare Japanese stage play I bought on DVD last year. I intended to finish it for October when I started, I just had no idea that I meant October 2026.

On the plus side, I did dramatically increase my Japanese listening comprehension, and I'm very happy with the project overall.

It's not really that it took me a year to translate it; what really happened was that it took me several months, then January came to Minnesota and it became very hard to think about silly little side projects, then I lost more family, as we all must inevitably do, and then I delivered a small piece of destiny to university Martin, with his language blog and his love of words.

There's a concept in design, negative space, that refers to the emptiness surrounding the obvious parts of an image. This emptiness might be just as important to the overall picture as the thing itself, and to me, it clearly is. Too much visual clutter puts me on edge—I've had moments where merely clearing off a table led to a sudden release of tension in my chest, tension I didn't even realize I was holding.

Instead of jumping directly into another big project, as I would normally do, I want to try to clear off a bit more of my timetable instead. I'd like to see what it feels like to have negative time.

More emptiness will probably just lead to more things, things borne of calm instead of pressure. More time for writing, more time for reading, more time for watching falling leaves get coaxed into one last journey by the river below.

I think I'd like to let enjoying fall be its own sort of project.

Keep blooming,

Martin

PS: Fellow Americans of the US variety, early voting is happening in many states. I'll be voting in person in November, because I like my polling location, but please keep early voting options in mind if you think you'll be busy that day. Help me do that whole democracy thing people talk about. January here was optional.

PPS: Tomorrow is the beginning of The Annual Ghost Town Pumpkin Festival. Time to start brainstorming pumpkin ideas.

Currently reading:

  • ゆうやけトリップ (Nightfall Travelers) | ともひ (Tomohi)

  • Hollywood, Ending | John Green

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