Required viewing

Required viewing
Thursday, January 30, 2025 β
Eleven miles later, I stopped my watch β satisfied, yet aware that my run was a castle constructed out of lies. I never intended to stop early, but I told myself that I would. I think I believed myself in the moment. As a moral philosopher, this gives me pause.
Thursday, January 30, 2025 β
We had a great two-day family ski trip to Blue Mountain. After a few years off skis, great to be back.
π The "near abroad" comes home // Paul Wells // paulwells.substack.com
Iβve believed for many years that Canadaβs national bird was a chicken coming home to roost, except this one looks like an eagle.
π Outline of a short story, starring a Star Trek fan:
Yoga with George
Finished reading: Faith, Hope and Carnage by Nick Cave by SeΓ‘n OβHagan is a remarkable conversation about creativity, grief, and religionπ
Wednesday, January 15, 2025 β
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
Wednesday, January 15, 2025 β
π§ 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
π 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 π
Wednesday, January 1, 2025 β
π₯ΆπββοΈ Shortest and coldest swim of the year
Tuesday, December 31, 2024 β
George wishes everyone a happy new year! And, requests more liver treats
Finished reading: Translation State by Ann Leckie is another great book in the Imperial Radch series. Iβve enjoyed each oneπ
Finished reading: I enjoyed the satirical futility of The Posthumous Memoirs of BrΓ‘s Cubas by Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis π
Wednesday, December 25, 2024 β
πMy family knows me well!
πΆ George meets snow
Saturday, December 14, 2024 β
Finished reading: A Gathering of Shadows by V. E. Schwab is a fun second book of a great series. Iβm looking forward to the next oneπ
Saturday, December 14, 2024 β
π
Careful what you wish for. Five minutes ago everyone was calling for a βTeam Canadaβ approach to dealing with Donald Trump. Unfortunately our team would make the Bad News Bears look like Navy SEALs.
Good observations on Canadaβs responses, so far, to Trumpβs tariff threats
Wednesday, December 11, 2024 β
π Apple Intelligence in iOS 18.2: A Deep Dive into Working with Siri and ChatGPT, Together
I’m aligned with Viticci here:
I think empowering LLMs to be βcreativeβ with the goal of displacing artists is a mistake, and also a distraction β a glossy facade largely amounting to a party trick that gets boring fast and misses the bigger picture of how these AI tools may practically help us in the workplace, healthcare, biology, and other industries.
I could use the help with reducing busywork and letting me focus on the creative part. That’s what I’m looking forward to
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.
Wednesday, December 4, 2024 β
π΄ Iβve been having fun on Zwift
Wednesday, December 4, 2024 β
The most productive thing Iβll 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
Finished reading: I really enjoyed The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin. The Earthsea series is very good π
πββοΈ Simultaneously ridiculous, inspiring, and intriguing
Saturday, November 30, 2024 β
π The Problem with Sci-Fi Body Armor // Bret Devereaux
I want to focus on rigid science fiction armors because they offer an interesting lens to consider their design: how to armor a human body in a rigid substance is anΒ exceedinglyΒ solved problem: quite a few cultures have tackled this particular problem with a lot of energy and ingenuity, attempting to balance protection, mobility and weight. And the βproblem with sci-fi body armorβ begins with the fact that most of these futuristic βhardsuitsβ utilize little of any of the design language of those efforts.
Saturday, November 30, 2024 β
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 authorβs suggestion and read a chapter a day to help the ideas percolate π