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My master’s degree's a senior’s cruise - most of the other students are thirty and even forty-somethings. Good for them, for making the (75K) investment, it’s hard, and they all look very serious. I am too, of course.

It’s busy and constant - but it’s business analysis - it's not hard, like chemistry (see retrosynthetic analysis) and I’m lucky, I’m fresh off uni - used to working problem-sets and reading a couple of hundred pages a night.

That said, last week was wearying. I look forward to Fridays (like everyone), as the light at the end of the tunnel. Then my Grandmère FaceTimed me asking if I could go through an ‘investor deck’ and give her advice. “Look at it and give it to me.. unsweetened,” she said
(“Regarde-le et donne-le-moi... non sucré”).
‘Sure,’ I thought, ‘maybe I can tell van Gogh how to paint or Taylor Swift how to influence as well.

Surely, asking someone to do something late on a Friday afternoon is a minute refinement of cruelty, but I couldn’t say 'no'. That didn’t mean I was happy - I’m very jealous of my time. It’s too easy to toss the sauce on my routines.

I took an hour and looked it over, then gave her a poetic answer,
“It’s an options fog, masquerading as opportunity.”
“That’s what I thought,” she said. I know that old bird, she’s nuanced. Was that a test? There was a smile in her voice.
Part of me longed to say, “Sometimes, like on a Friday night, one head’s better than two,” but I didn’t - because what night would be good for a surprise assignment?

Two hours later, Chella and I had some students over for cocktails. Four of them (2 guys 2 girls) were Japanese. Their English wasn’t great, but we had fun. They brought a bottle of nihonshu (sake), that stuff is like water - seriously.

So I made them martinis. Their eyes bugged out with their first sips, but first martini sips always taste like gasoline. It’s the second martini that starts to taste like mother’s-milk. Before long, they were smashed and then they started singing.

That was when the real fun started. They had karaoke songs on their phones. We sang, we danced. They taught us some songs and we did the same.

“At this point in our lives,” Chella said, “It’s important to bop so hard,” everyone cheered. What a slay - she was so real, so feral for that.
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Songs for this:
Something Every Day (Little Wizard Mix) by Swing Out Sister
Yoru ni kakeru by YOASOBI
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Our cast:
Chella - A tall, lithe black girl, from Liberty City (Miami) Florida with a ‘Bachelor of Science in Global Affairs’ from Yale and currently a Harvard Master's candidate.  She had it rough growing up - she was buying skin-care at Trader Joes! I'm showing her some things.
Your author, a simple trust-fund baby from Athens, Georgia with a Bachelor of Science in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale, currently a Harvard Master's candidate.
Grandmère, my very French Grandmother. Tiny, frail looking and privately very funny - but don’t underestimate her or ever try and bull$hit her - she's a Mogul.
BLT Merriam Webster word of the day challenge 07/14/25:
Nuance = a fine difference in tone, color or meaning.
Anais Vionet Jul 12
(a series of micro vignettes)

Chella and I are reading our analysis assignments together because that’s how we link and build.
We read out loud too, because how else can you judge the flow?
When my phone, lying on the table, jiggled. The caller ID read, “Tommy’s girlfriend.”
Chella gave me a little look. “I never change anyone’s ID,” I confessed. “Neither do I.” Cellia agreed.
“She broke up with him years ago..”

I feel sorry for panhandlers, I don’t see them often but I saw one yesterday. Who carries cash any more (Noone)?
Along the same line, Chella and I are wired, it-girls - we’re noise cancelled. Were you talkin’ to us?
We’re hard to engage, not because we’ve got attitude - we just can’t hear you. It’s irritating when I have to tap-out of some stream to hear people.
Even if it’s the waiter from the bistro downstairs delivering their exemplary frozen-strawberry-smoothies and burgers.

Later, after the pool, we showered. As I was toweling my hair, I studied myself in the mirror.
“My skin is SO ******* up,” I moaned, “I need a ‘rescue spa’ ******.. Let’s go to New York (city)—I’m taking you there.”
“There’s a ‘Forever Young Spa’ on Beacon street.. about a mile from here,” Cellia offered.
“Ever been there?” I asked.
“No, but the ad says they have an AI-powered massage robot. I’m curious.”
“Ooo! Call ‘em up, see if it does happy-endings.” I laughed.
“We could get a home unit.” Cellia updogged.
“I think we’d need the industrial version,” I added, “that’s the sell.”
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A little playlist for this:
Nothing Can Stop Us by Saint Etienne
Goodbye by The Sundays

Our cast:
Chella, A tall, lithe black girl, from Liberty City (Miami) Florida. She's a Harvard Master's candidate with a ‘Bachelor of Science in Global Affairs’ from Yale. She had it rough growing up - she was buying skin-care at Trader Joes! I'm showing her some things.
Your author, a simple trust-fund baby from Athens, Georgia and a Harvard Master's candidate with a Bachelor of Science in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale.
BLT Merriam Webster word of the day challenge 07/08/25:
Exemplary = extremely good and deserves to be admired and copied.

Burgers = bacon cheeseburger w/tomato, sautéed onions, ketchup and fries
- hold the mayo and mustard.
Anais Vionet Jul 10
say
Say you love me
like I love you
often and always
a million times
embrace me
consume me
burn me with kisses

If you go deaf
I will stop listening
If you go blind
I will stop looking
If you die
I will stop living
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Songs for this:
From The Start by Good Kid
Habits (feat. Haley Reinhart) by Scott Bradlee's Postmodern Jukebox
Lover Girl by Laufey
In a Manner of Speaking (feat. Camille) by Nouvelle Vague
Damocles Jul 10
Oftentimes, when the humidity
Suffocates, a thick, wet shroud,
And the heat presses, an invisible oven,
I yearn to melt into the grotto's cool,
Or sink my feet knee-deep within the creek,
Where I might skip slick shale,
Track darting crawfish,
And unearth forgotten whispers of the water,
As my body drinks the cool, hydrating peace..
I'm craving going to the creek near my house, think I'm gonna do that this weekend. The pupper would love it too!
It was one of those pleasant days.
He must be waiting for my presence,
Like he does every day.

The car stopped in front of his café with a screech.
I could smell the saltiness and chocolate along the breeze.

I didn’t think my heart would race so fast and speed.
I needed some time to calm it,
Before somebody noticed and ask me—
What was that, indeed.

The bell rang as I pushed the door,
Letting him know I was already inside the store.

He must have heard me somehow.
Before I even realized,
My hands were clutching his elbow.

He took me with some caution,
And led me to the table—
Even though he knows I’m totally capable.

He pulled the chair for me to sit,
Making a squeaking sound.
I smiled, imagining him
Making an annoyed face, hearing that every day around.

He rushed to the kitchen with some excuse,
Before I could finish saying, “Yes, please.”
There he was—already on his toes—
With my favourite brownie and milkshake.
He knows just how to get a smile from me.
Now my heart is really at stake.

He entertained me with dreams and daily stories,
While nudging me to eat some savouries.

I could feel how attentive he became
Whenever I asked or said something.
It made me more than happy—
To feel like I had my own space in his life,
As someone who truly mattered.

Time ran fast—
It was already half past.
He walked me to the door,
And told me to come again, more.

Once he disappeared to resume his day,
I took out my white cane to continue the rest of my way.

He’s unaware of the words I’ve been saving since we met.
I can’t confess them in just two lines—
That the days I’ve spent with him,
I’ve felt loved,
Strong, and blessed.

So let me savour the moment,
Until I gain the strength—
To never part,
And pursue him till the end.
Damocles Jul 10
What a useless thing,
It stands there stalwart
With a child like expression.
Crudely constructed,  
Kindergarten craft like.

Hair made of straw,
Skin dry and burlap,
Eyes wide and sunken,
Smile crooked and broken.

What a sad thing it is,
Hay filled and overstuffed
Obese, rotund, and moldy
Old and foul smelling—
A potpourri of fungus and rot.

Allegedly scary to the crows,
Standing well within the rows
Protecting corn and other crops
Superstitious like native myths,
But a whiff, a shame
As crows land and pass their excrement.

Dirtied beaten thing
A sign of harvest and oncoming fall,
But a parody of Mythos past
As this scarecrow scares nothing at all.
Seriously, they are useless things. Just rotting in place serving no practical purpose.
Anais Vionet Jul 9
(This is not scary, short fiction and probably not fit for click-farming.)

Sometimes I’m serious, a girl can be serious. I have to write a lot of analysis papers in school (yeah, some people still waste their time and money like that). I’m leveraging that effort here. This is part* of an academic paper I’m writing on the world economy in crisis (this part covers world inflation and China/Taiwan). It’s a draft in progress and, in the spirit of brevity (my target ~1000 words) and avoiding the verbose, I’ve simplified the narratives and removed graphs, diagrams and footnotes. Here we go:

Have you noticed that the world seems less stable and that your spending power has eroded since 2009 and especially since covid? You aren’t wrong.

The Fed balance sheet had never been over a trillion dollars before 2009. However, from 2009 (the banking collapse) to 2022 (COVID) the Fed moved our balance sheet from sub-1 trillion to 9 trillion - pushing about 50% dollar inflation on the world. We ourselves experienced 8% inflation.

Everything in the world is priced in dollars. If you look at cross-world currency settlements, you might think, ‘well,  there's the dollar and the euro, the pound, the dirham and all these other currencies’ but there’s really not. There's only the dollar and the other currencies back-solve for how they pay for things in their own countries. That's the way the world works. So when we push 50% inflation (in dollar terms) to the world it affects everyone. Marginal currencies on the bottom of the financial structure collapsed. That would be Turkey, Iran (Iran controls Iraq now), Pakistan, Lebanon, and many many other currencies throughout the third world that hyper-inflated (became worthless).  

So when people say, “can we all just all calm down and go back to business as usual?” There is no easy way to go back to 2% world growth and stability. Inflation is an insidious, destabilizing force. Even China’s economy is in deep, deep trouble - they’re in the midst of a real estate crisis, a banking crisis, a youth unemployment crisis, a trade surplus decline (because of their threat to invade Taiwan), a debt to GDP crisis (much worse than ours) and now, Trump is threatening tariffs that could bring their net income to zero.

China has said many many times - too many times to doubt it - that they will attack and absorb Taiwan by 2027 - period.
Why would they do that? Aren’t our economies too linked? Knowing we will have to retaliate? We don't know what President XI Jinping’s calculus is. The CCP doesn't see the world the same way we do and, like Putin, we may not be dealing with someone rational. It’s like when Putin moved his blood banks, tankers, air force and army to the edge of Ukraine - some said it was just ‘saber rattling.’ No, when the blood banks and tankers are moved - you’re a ‘GO’ - it’s just a matter of time.

Neville Chamberlain, the British Prime Minister now vilified for appeasing ******, wasn’t an idiot. He could not get his head around why ****** would plunge the world into war. They had lived through WWI and where was the profit in it - what reasonable reason was there for a world war in 1938? Let’s not make that mistake. Let’s take a moment and think it through.

Why is China obsessed with unifying with Taiwan? (1) History,  the Chinese, who lost the revolution that brought the CCP to power fled to Taiwan (2) The democratic government in Taiwan is four times as successful as communist counterpart. Their GDP is higher, their worker productivity is four times higher, they enjoy a higher standard of living, (3) they are a success story that demonstrates what China could be if it weren't hamstrung with the communist party. (4) they want to deny us the tech, (5) Their culture and world view is different. In China there are no human rights and no truly private property. There is only what’s good for (Chinese Communist Party) CCP power - the CCP is everything.

Why protect Taiwan? Taiwan Semi is the chip manufacturer for the world. They are the only maker of 2mn chips - the most vital, powerful component for the AI and quantum computing races. The country that wins those races will control information for the next century. The loss of that capacity is an absolute, existential threat to the security of the United States. The fact that the US failed to keep current in this area is a major *****-up decades in the making.

Messages of deterrence are flying. One reason we bombed Iran - where we had to drop munitions, with precision down three tiny shafts, covered by a mountain, from whatever heights - and we did it - was a message of deterrence partially aimed at China. Proof that America still has the best and most lethal military in the world - and we aren't afraid to use it. The US admiral who commands our indo-pacific forces recently said - publicly - that “if China thinks they're going to either blockade or engage in some kinetic conflict with Taiwan, we will turn the Taiwan strait into a hellscape.” Even a limited naval engagement with China, in the Taiwan strait, could cost thousands of American casualties (think Korean War people).

What kind of leverage does China have VS the us? Recently:
China has stopped supplying the US with rare earth magnets - those are critical to making EV vehicles run.
China is denying America processed synthetic graphite - a critical component in every single EV battery.
China is withholding the lasers used in fiber-optic communications from the US (they are the single world manufacturer).
Those are single points of failure for US technologies and we must ‘Manhattan Project’ our capacity for their replacement.

Why did the Trump administration remove subsidies for EV vehicles? First, it plays to his base but secondly, removing the subsidies slows demand until we can fill those gaps ourselves. Part of the ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ earmarks billions to start addressing the failure points mentioned above.

What non-military leverage do we have VS the Chinese?
We hold the upper hand. China imports 13 million barrels of oil every day,  9 Bs of natural gas every day, 40% of their food every single day.and they need access to the American dollar system to acquire those goods. They are a closed capital account - no one will accept Yuan as payment. That is a single point of failure for them.

Conclusions: We should let the CCP know - make it very clear - that if they attack Taiwan, the first thing we’ll do is take them out of the dollar system. Pushing that button would be easy - but it will hurt us too in the short run. It may be a better deterrent than those US carrier strike forces - which are still an option if it comes to that.
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Songs for this:
Canary In a Coalmine by The Police
Invisible Sun by The Police
BLT Merriam Webster word of the day challenge 07/01/25:
Verbose = use too many words to convey their point.

*Other parts of the paper address subjects like the Russian economy (the effects of sanctions) and the Saudi & UAE turn back away from China towards the west (after Biden’s disastrous embrace of Iran and our new, harder Iran line) and ideas on steps to stabilize world currencies.
Damocles Jul 8
I'm easy to please; 
hard as that may seem to believe.
Hand me a pizza—

Tuscan pepperoni, extra cheese.

Or, if you prefer, a cocktail or daiquiri,

With some loud music and scenic views, a tropical breeze.

You could come as you are, or dress to the nines.

I'm a playful soul, attracted to a wilder kind.

Some say I'm a joker; 

I'm just trying to have a good time.

I'm easy to please,

Like a cat when pet under the chin. 

You can dazzle me with honesty or perplex me with a game.

I'll answer twenty questions, then ask forty more.

I'm happy with neon lights,

Simple delights,

Where vibrant colors dance like cotton candy wonder. 

And I wonder, wondrously—

How lips might taste, if given a kiss.

I'm easy to please.

See, I'm just a Scorpio; 

I flow with the motion— 

But I want to swim in your soul's depths, like the ocean.

Tell me your dreams, show me your favorite stars.

I want to know what makes you scream, or where you'd travel,

No matter how far. 
I want to discover your elements, 

Combine minerals to refine your shine,

Because I think we are all rough diamonds.

I'm easy to please. 

Just smile at me, subtly tease, make me chase. 

But don't be afraid to capture me,

Captivate my eyes, run wild within my mind.

Be like a celestial body and shine down upon me.

I am inviting, like an open wolf's maw— 

But I'll never chomp down unless you enjoy the biting.

I'm easy to please. It's true. You'll see.
Felt good, wanted to be playful, show off a litle bit of my personality. :P
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