Finished reading: The Stranger in the Lifeboat by Mitch Albom is a compelling, brief story about faith and redemption 📚
Microposts
Finished reading: This seems to be the consensus, so I won’t belabour the point: Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman is a powerful book. If you feel overwhelmed by busyness or slightly adrift, it is well worth a read. There are some tough messages in it, though, that require contemplation 📚
Lucy has resolved that 2022 will be the year of more food
Wednesday, December 29, 2021 →
As an update to my earlier post about using MindNode for task management, I’ve refreshed my areas of focus and projects for work. I still find MindNode really helpful for this, especially for seeing the balance of projects across the areas of focus. In this case, I can see that I have many Process Improvement projects, which makes sense, given my company has a big push on Lean at the moment.
Now I can fill in next actions for each project and then sync with Reminders.
Wednesday, December 29, 2021 →
The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin is a really interesting story about two different worlds and a physicist that tries to bring them back together. As with most good science fiction, the story is about the people, rather than the science, but the sci-fi setting accentuates the morals of the story 📚
I sincerely hope this will not become a new Christmas tradition
A good time to reread the classic A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens 🎄
Breaking in my new shoes with some hill sprints 🏃♂️
Wednesday, December 22, 2021 →
A Christmas classic
Wednesday, December 22, 2021 →
Although a time and concentration commitment, I enjoyed this 3Blue1Brown video. Showing how to approach a problem from a computational or generalizable direction is interesting and provides a good lesson on the importance of diverse approaches.
After 2.5 years of faithful service (which, honestly, is far too long), I’ve updated my trusty Sauconys with a new pair. The red is a bit flashier than my usual style, but they’re comfortable 🏃♂️
Post COVID-booster recovery run 🏃♂️ 🦠💉
Getting our COVID boosters
How to fix the disaster of human roads to benefit wildlife | Aeon Essays
Unbelieveable:
…about a million individuals of all species are killed every day on the roads of the US. In North America overall, the cumulative scale of all this roadkill now surpasses hunting as the main cause of death in larger species
As bad as that is, the impact roads have on dissecting land up into small islands is even worse for species’ habitats. The article goes on to describe some of the initiatives underway to reduce the impacts of this “sprawling web”.
I’m slowly making my way through Pragmatism, and Other Essays by William James and was amused to see:
I offered this as a conciliatory olive-branch to my enemies. But they, as is only too common with such offerings, trampled the gift under foot and turned and rent the giver. I had counted too much on their good will.
Some things haven’t changed since 1909 📚
A long run with fresh snow is a great start to a Sunday 🏃♂️❄️
Looks like someone went for an inadvertent swim 🥶
I listened to each song on Pitchfork’s 100 Best Songs of 2021. Although I downloaded a dozen or so songs, the vast majority of them didn’t appeal. Hopefully I’m not just getting old! 🎵
I really like the idea of Screen Time and want to use it to manage my behaviour. And then I get something like this: apparently I stared at aeon.co (a great website) every minute from midnight to 6. I’m certain I was actually sound asleep then
After likely too much deliberation, I’ve registered for the Ironman 70.3 in Tremblant. Although “only” half an Ironman, it is still daunting enough to make me both nervous and excited (nervouscited, as my daughter often says) 🏊♂️ 🚴♂️ 🏃♂️
A good, long article on the James Webb Space Telescope that includes both details on the telescope and explains the science that makes it so exciting
Classic, having finally settled on Apple Notes, Craft has announced an eXtensions Developer Platform that is tempting me back. I’m glad Micro.blog is here as a support group for those of us that can’t stop fiddling with our tools 😀
Bowl of Heaven by Gregory Benford and Larry Niven is quite expansive in scope and imagination. A fun, easy read with some big ideas 📚
First snowstorm run of the season ❄️ 🏃♂️
Urban trail run 🏃♂️
I really enjoyed season 1 of Foundation. Definitely a departure from the books, which was totally necessary. The companion podcast was interesting too 📺
The moon trying to break through the clouds
Wednesday, November 17, 2021 →
The Strong Songs Year Three, In Review episode is a good summary of a fun season 🎧🎶
I picked up Artifact by Gregory Benford at my local used bookstore on a whim. I’m glad I did. It is a fun mix of archaeology, theoretical physics, and espionage 📚
I’m enjoying the redesigned Waking Up app. The new design is much cleaner and easier to use. The original design was interesting when the app debuted. A couple of years later, with all the additional content, it had become rather complicated to navigate. After 941 “mindful days”, I’m still finding the app really helpful.