Back to basics
Monday, June 8th, 2026
Perfect Girl is deep in post, and I’ve been deep in learning for my next venture — directing my own feature film.
I’ve taken a directing actors workshop, I’ve attended industry cinematography events, and I’m actively exploring the technical side of production (cameras! lenses! terrible chairs!).
It feels disorienting to be a newbie in an industry I’ve spent a decade in. My career thus far has been completely focused on writing, and now that I find myself a beginner all over again, I feel frequently befuddled by how little I know.
In some ways, this latest foray feels like a natural evolution into the next phase of my career, in other ways it feels like having a moment of re-set (I have decided that my mid-life crisis venture will be a chair company designing an ergonomic, portable set chair, because the standard director’s chair is AWFUL for one’s back). But it’s also thrilling to be LEARNING constantly.
I saw a quote recently in James Clear’s newsletter about a mindset to have in hand:
“Always striving. Already enough.”
A critical, lovely blend that will be my theme for the rest of the year.
Speaking of learning lessons …
Adventures in Claude screech to a halt
At the beginning of the year, much to the controversy of YOK readers, I used Claude AI to help build a YOK web app to play current events quizzes on.
It took me about eight hours of vibe-coding to put it together.
Since then, what I feared would happen has happened.
Eventually, the web app started glitching, and having no coding knowledge, I turned to Claude to try and figure out how to fix it. It took me about 90 minutes to resolve what should have been a relatively simple issue (for some reason, answers I had graded before were popping up as “ungraded”). Claude led me in circles, before finally finding the solution by “ungrading” 583 answers from all my previous quizzes, forcing me to re-grade everything from the beginning. I tried prompting Claude to undo its mistake, but it insisted that I re-grade all the answers. This did indeed resolve the problem, although boy was it tedious.
Then, this morning, I discovered the same glitch was back, and decided the time sink of trying to solve it again wasn’t worth it.
Some people who may have frowned upon my initial use of Claude are possibly thinking “Ha, that’s what you get,” and I wouldn’t disagree with that sentiment. Everyone who has claimed “oh Claude is so easy to use and anyone can build apps now” is both correct and incorrect. Yes, you can build something using a coding agent even if you have no technical knowledge. But no, it’s not going to be a quality product that holds up in the long run without extensive time investment.
As with any project — starting is exciting, but maintenance is tedious.
Nevertheless, I have posted a NEW CURRENT EVENTS QUIZ pulled from my most recent O’Brien’s pub quiz.
This is probably the last quiz I’ll post on the short-lived web app for the foreseeable future. Even if I’m struggling to grade on the back end, you should still be able to play the quiz with no problem. But in the long run, the hassle of upkeep is simply not worth it.
My top culture picks halfway through the year.
Due to my extreme focus on Perfect Girl, I’ve been out of it with current events and pop culture. Perfect Girl post-production has momentarily ruined my ability to enjoy movies without my brain going into overdrive, and as a result, I haven’t been to a movie theater in months.
It’s also been a weirdly lackluster year for pop culture in general … everyone has hated the “Euphoria” final season, BTS’s comeback album Arirang drew tepid reactions, and the highest-grossing movie of the year so far is … The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.
Oh, and there’s the bloated 48-country World Cup that starts later this week … despite LA being one of the host cities, I STILL have LA friends who are shocked to discover that the World Cup is happening at SoFi stadium, which clues you in to how little hype the event has generated.
Of course, once the World Cup begins, I’ll be duly enthused, and you might even see a World Cup-themed Buzzword quiz from me and NAQT later this summer.
Since we’re at the halfway point of the year, I thought I’d nonetheless list some of my favorite picks thus far:
“A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” (HBO) — set in the “Game of Thrones” universe, but with a strangely comedic tone applied. “A Knight’s Tale,” but dark and funny. Also, these GOT casting directors keep finding the most insanely talented child actors in the UK.
“Widow’s Bay” (Apple TV) — I’m nervous this show isn’t going to stick the landing, but I’ve been enjoying the mix of awkward comedy and horror set in a small New England fishing town.
This Music May Contain Hope, RAYE — RAYE is one of the exciting talents coming out of the UK, and she could recently be seen in the Grammy Best New Artist category. Her latest album is a brilliant defiance of the rules of conventional pop music, a lyrically dazzling display that mixes literary references with heavy beat productions (check out: “The WhatsApp Shakespeare”).
“drop dead”, Olivia Rodrigo — I don’t love whatever pajamas that Olivia Rodrigo is being styled in for this upcoming album, but “drop dead” is a great single that shows Rodrigo in top form. Her latest album, due out this summer, is going to be a big event for us pop girlies.
The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton — This is not a new release, but I recently read this novel for one of my book clubs, and wow, what an absolute romp of a book. Wharton was writing the original “Gossip Girl” back in the early 20th century. As one of my Gen Z friends summed up during our book club discussion: “Lily was gagging them so hard for a decade, she was still on the marriage mart at the age of 29 … her face card must have been INSANE.”
What have been some of your favorites of the year so far?
Let me know in the comments below!
And in the meantime, stay curious. Always striving, already enough.
I am definitely going to pick up that Raye album. "Nightingale Lane" and "Click Clack Symphony" are Amazing. She should win all the Grammys next year.
I love the phrase “beginner’s mindset” which is approaching everything you do with the openness and humility of a beginner versus an expert. Seems like you’re in that phase now with directing.
And yeah I’m not that into soccer but it’s funny how little it is being advertised around LA….you’d think they would buy up and replace some of the accident lawyer signs around here with World Cup ads. I only know it’s happening because I drink too much Diet Coke and they have had these special World Cup themed cans floating around for the past month.
There have been some high-grossing non franchise movies that I’ve enjoyed tyear like Backrooms or Hoppers but yeah they haven’t really generated cultural discourse. It’s been a weak year for cultural moments.