Microposts

Required viewing

Two people are watching Groundhog Day, as seen from a cozy living room setting.

We had a great two-day family ski trip to Blue Mountain. After a few years off skis, great to be back.

Three people in ski gear are posing together on a snowy slope with trees in the background.Snowy street lined with trees and buildings adorned with colorful holiday lights.Long icicles hang from a rooftop with snow-covered trees and a softly lit ski slope in the background.Three people are sitting on a ski lift, dressed in winter clothing and ski gear, smiling at the camera.A family of four is smiling together at a snowy, festive outdoor location with lit-up buildings in the background.A snowy landscape overlooks a town with expansive cloudy skies above.

πŸ–– Outline of a short story, starring a Star Trek fan:

  1. New episode of Vulcan Hello podcast arrives
  2. Realizes there’s a new movie: Section 31!?
  3. Stops listening to avoid spoilers
  4. Starts watching Section 31
  5. 20 minutes in thinks: β€œuh oh, is this the only Star Trek movie I’m not going to finish?”
  6. Goes back to podcast. Is convinced to finish Section 31, eventually
  7. Has at least five other good Star Trek movies to rewatch first

Yoga with George

A golden retriever is lying on a carpet, gazing into the camera with a stick nearby.A dog rests its head on a toy next to a tablet displaying a yoga class in a living room setting.

Finished reading: Faith, Hope and Carnage by Nick Cave by SeΓ‘n O’Hagan is a remarkable conversation about creativity, grief, and religionπŸ“š

Dispatch from the Front Line: “Canada” is a question of what we can get

The ability of a population to withstand neighbourly aggression β€” “economic force,” if you will β€” depends on two things. The first is internal social cohesion and identity. The second is what the aggressor is willing to do or offer in order to secure capitulation.

The first is so important, yet so intangible and fickle

🎧 Nice to have Strombo back on Apple Music radio. The show has been a regular companion for my long basement rides and was missed over the past few months

πŸ“š Although I exceeded my goal of reading 45 books in 2024 by finishing 60 books. I’m going to keep my goal for 2025 at 45, anticipating that I’ll be reading more non-fiction this year which will slow me down – for the better.

If you’re interested in owning your own web content (and you should be), the new Micro.one is a fantastic option at a super affordable $1/month. I joined Micro.blog back in 2018 and am a very happy Premium user.

The people should own the town square

Nice to see this:

we are going to transfer ownership of key Mastodon ecosystem and platform components (including name and copyrights, among other assets) to a new non-profit organization, affirming the intent that Mastodon should not be owned or controlled by a single individual.

Mastodon continues to be our best, decentralized option and I’m glad it exists

Finished reading: The Infernal Machine is another great book by Steven Johnson. I enjoy how he integrates seemingly small technological changes with broad historical trends. Always interesting to read πŸ“š

πŸ₯ΆπŸŠβ€β™‚️ Shortest and coldest swim of the year

Two people in winter clothing stand on a beach, with an open water swim summary overlay showing a distance of 102 meters.

George wishes everyone a happy new year! And, requests more liver treats

A golden retriever is wearing a headband with colorful Christmas lights.

Finished reading: Translation State by Ann Leckie is another great book in the Imperial Radch series. I’ve enjoyed each oneπŸ“š

Finished reading: I enjoyed the satirical futility of The Posthumous Memoirs of BrΓ‘s Cubas by Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis πŸ“š

πŸŽ„My family knows me well!

A collection of books and a bottle of Cragganmore whisky are arranged around a bag of Waterbridge Mini Allsorts candies.

🐢 George meets snow

Finished reading: A Gathering of Shadows by V. E. Schwab is a fun second book of a great series. I’m looking forward to the next oneπŸ“š

George enjoys the fresh air, even at high speeds

After using the new Reeder for a couple of months I’m going to stick with it.

I like having all of my sources (RSS, Micro.blog, Mastodon, Bluesky, and podcasts) consolidated into one feed with easy gestures to tag as “read later” or open in a native app. The recent addition of folders was helpful, as I’ve created an “Attention” folder for anything I really don’t want to miss. Everything else is part of the river of updates and I don’t worry about completion.

One issue with the consolidation is that I’m following people across multiple services and seeing duplicate posts. I’ve been standardizing to their Micro.blog timelines, when available. This fragmentation across services is a common complaint and I expect I’ll be experimenting with different solutions. Now that we can so easily cross-post, we also need to manage our conversations. Recent updates to Micro.blog have been really helpful for this.

🚴 I’ve been having fun on Zwift

The most productive thing I’ll do all week: Organized the giant box of cables by taking out anything we no longer need, had no idea what is was for, or already had at least three backups. The photo is of the discard pile

A tangled pile of various electronic cables and chargers is spread out on a surface.

Finished reading: I really enjoyed The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin. The Earthsea series is very good πŸ“š

πŸƒβ€β™‚οΈ Simultaneously ridiculous, inspiring, and intriguing

Finished reading: Meditations for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman is a great companion to Four Thousand Weeks (my favourite non-fiction book of 2022). I followed the author’s suggestion and read a chapter a day to help the ideas percolate πŸ“š