PicoBlog

For the past few months, I’ve been experiencing the oh-so-inspiring process of writing a 300-word query letter to literary agents about a 70,000-word novel that started as a 150,000 word novel and has taken me eight years to finish. It’s called The Requisitions. That’s about all I’ll say for now. The querying is going well, which in query-letter parlance means the sound of crickets for the most part, with the occasional one-line rejection letter … all hail the interminable slush pile!

The Chosen Season 3: Finale is in theatres now, so here are a few brief random notes. First, a bit of box-office reportage: The Chosen earned $1.67mil yesterday and was the top-grossing movie at the box office—ahead of the $1.45mil in previews that M. Night Shyamalan’s Knock at the Cabin made (Thursday-night “preview” money usually gets rolled into the Friday box-office reports), and ahead of the $1mil that Avatar: The Way of Water made.

Running through Notting Hill Gate tube station, already ten minutes late for an appointment to sell my engagement ring, from the moment I opened my eyes, I knew the day was gonna be up-shit-creek bad. Reaching across the bedside table, my hand searches for a phone.  Due to start a new job in a few hours, I didn’t have enough money for the tube fair. A startled mole, my face scrunched in unimaginable ways, microscopic eyes blinded by a harsh light blaring from the small object known as my iPhone, “Morning darling”, I tap.

Hola my friends,  I am so excited to share with you that my new cookbook,ZAYTINYA: Delicious Mediterranean Dishes from Greece, Turkey, and Lebanon is now available for pre-order! Its official publication date is March 19th, 2024, but you are the first people to see the cover! What do you think? Isn’t it beautiful? It’s one of the first dishes we put on the menu in DC, the Horta Salata, an amazing salad of greens tossed in ladolemono—a lemony, garlicky Greek salad dressing—on a bed of golden saffron-pea puree and topped with smoked olives and toasted pistachios.

Upon the announcement of Apple’s Journal app at WWDC 23, I found myself torn. Given the comparable functionality available within the Shortcuts app for mood tracking journals, the introduction of a dedicated Journal app by Apple felt intriguing, and questions lingered. The Journal app boasts integration with photos, location data, music, workouts, and Apple Podcasts, offering a multifaceted approach to journaling. However, initial impressions left me wondering whether it merely represents Apple's foray into prompt-driven writing minus the social features, or if it caters specifically to niche audiences like travel bloggers (notably, one of the initial prompts encouraged me to reflect on my recent trip to Vietnam).

John and Debbie Lindell are the lead pastors of James River Church, which has two campuses in Springfield and one each in Springfield and Joplin as well as an online presence. James River, an Assemblies of God Church, had an attendance last year of 11,500 to 12,000 every weekend, according to information on the website of the Assemblies of God Headquarters in Springfield. I got to attend a small pastor’s lunch in 2021 where John Lindell spoke, and I loved his heart, style, and approachability.

Today, OpenAI released a new version of ChatGPT — ChatGPT 4-o — that is free to everyone. It’s a new, multimodal (“omni”) version of ChatGPT that can engage in live conversation using reasoning across 50 languages by effortlessly integrating and processing text, audio, and visual data in real time. They are also rolling out a desktop app to make it easier to use. All of these changes will be available to everyone over the next few weeks.

I trust that your holiday weekend is well underway and I apologize that I’m sending along this final recipe of 2023 later than expected. It’s crunch time writing my book, and then there’s been all the usual (delightful) interruptions that happen with the holidays. Whipping a salad up for dinner earlier this week, I eyed a tub of button mushrooms in the fridge and remembered how much I used to enjoy putting sliced, raw button mushrooms on my salads growing up — like at the salad bar at Pizza Hut.

Hi guys! By now you probably know I’m not a big “Magnificent Jewels” person. I know they’re the big flagship auction events with all the important gobstopper-sized gems, but I think they’re boring. They’re fun to view in person for the sparkle factor, but woooof: scrolling through the lots gets TEDIOUS. Row after row of white metal, white diamonds, boring ass Retro designs. It’s just not my thing. But if it’s your thing, have at it!