6) Darin Morgan – The guy wrote a few episodes of X-Files and Millennium and while he wasn’t prolific, just about everything he wrote simultaneously embodied the best elements of the show and skewered/undercut/recontextualized them as well. They demonstrated a deep knowledge and an irreverence that were just amazing, but a lot of the times, the guy wasn’t really putting much out. I’ve always been inspired by the sniper-type writers who laze about but when they do go off, they go off. In part because it gives me some hope that my slow output is still “okay” according to some vague, externalized authority. (There is no such authority.)
7) Kanesha Bryant’s monster designs and detailed world-building
8) Neuroscience and philosophy, in general. How much of the world can we actually understand, considering that we are forced to understand it with imperfect tools and a brain that uses shortcuts to create a living fiction just so we can navigate? Like: The optic nerve at the back of our eyes has no rods and cones, so our field of vision should have black holes in the middle. But they don’t ’cause our brains just estimate what should be there. We’re out of the loop.
9) Aphex Twin. Radiohead. I listen to a lot of music. Been making music mixes for over a decade of whatever stuff I’m finding new & interesting.
10) The moment when the pain of not-creating outweighs the pain of creation, may its orbit ever tighten.