#Field Notes

Once upon a time, I was a news …

Once upon a time, I was a news junkie. Devouring multiple newspapers and magazines. I wanted to know what was happening in the world. Partly because of my job — I was an infantry officer — and partly …

I like this Kurt Vonnegut quote: “We are …

I like this Kurt Vonnegut quote: "We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be." Who are you pretending to be? That's an honest question. Approach the answer with br…

going to church

A mountain communion.

Falling in Love with Pittsburgh

A friend and I took a long weekend and visited one of America's great cities.

From the Field: Spring 2026

view from the treehouse

A perspective on the Anthropocene – and the beauty that persists in spite of us.

Weekend in Packwood, Washington

We spent a weekend in Packwood, Washington, meeting one of my wife’s longtime friends from Asheville and finally bringing our families together after years of living across the country from each other…

[notes] Trying a New Approach to Note-Taking on Books

a stoep of one's own

Voluntary, temporary, beguiling creative exile.

those shawarmas tho

The Syrian Rose and other Johannesburg highlights.

John Day Fossil Beds, Painted Hills

We took advantage of the long weekend and did something we’ve been wanting to do since moving to Oregon over a decade ago: visit the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument .  First, a little bit of b…

The President's birthday

One year on. Four editions later. What comes next?

Special Days: Apr 23 double-header (Birthday + World Book Day)

It’s my birthday (and World Book Day, and Shakespeare’s birthday too). I grew up loving books in the most literal way: in libraries, with a librarian mom. I also worked at Barnes & Noble for about two…

Field Notes: Do I get the MacBook Neo?

I want to be honest about what this is: part practical upgrade, part new era temptation. The dream is an orange desktop setup (or that orange iMac), but my real-life needs a laptop I can carry to libr…

Welcome to The Studio

Studio is my Notion home base. It holds my week (priorities, trackers, and the links I always need) and gives me a starting line when my week feels slippery. In this post, I’m giving you the tour — wh…

Start Here

Hey, I’m Atila. I’m a writer and creator. I’m Black, femme, queer, from New York, and now live in Philly. Most days, that looks like writing with too many tabs open, a Notion scratch page that will ge…

Learning to Ski on Mt. Hood

I finally went skiing on Mt. Hood after living in Oregon for over a decade! In the worst year for snow in a generation! I switched from snowboarding to skiing to same if I'd enjoy it more and I'm glad…

Returning to the Dolomites

This is a retrospective and one of a series of journal entries recapping our trip to Italy in 2024. We continued our journey from Venice to the Cadore region where my great grandparents emigrated from…

Seeing Venice as an Italian Citizen

In 2020, I was officially recognized as an Italian citizen, a moment that felt like unlocking a part of myself I had only known through stories and photographs. Four years later, I set out to see it f…