Dusking is a " ...verb stemming from a time when people preferred to leave the lights off as long as possible and wait for darkness in the early evening. It was a way to save energy but also, most importantly, a communal end to the day. A tiny rite of passage in which work was released and rest began."
"Turns out there’s actually data that suggests being an age that ends in nine—29, 39, 49, 59, etc. — may lead us to do things we are less likely to do at other ages." Quote from here, but I learned about the concept from Hidden Brain.
Filing the website for the JUDD library under sites I like. Click a shelf in the diagram and see a photo of the books on that shelf.
Or take a ride in a luxury space balloon. "No rockets. No g-forces. Experience a gentle, meticulously crafted spaceflight in our one-of-a-kind Space Lounge during your six-hour journey, complete with meal and cocktails."
I hope these links bring some minor distractions to your day:
ooh.directory is a collection of 900+ blogs. From the creator: "For years I’ve seen people moan that “nobody blogs any more”, all while my feed reader was overflowing with new blogposts I never had time to read. I want to demonstrate that there are lots and lots of people blogging, about all kinds of subjects!"
I'll also take this opportunity to plug 1feed, my favorite feed reader. It's pretty chill as feed readers go. Note: you can also subscribe to this newsletter via RSS if you want.
It's getting cold and dark here. If winter is coming to your neck of the woods I hope it comes peacefully, bearing warm drinks, and some time to relax.
"I had only met him in passing; but his paper notebooks held a kind of self-portrait, touchable records of what was on his mind. Like a piece of clothing or jewelry from someone you love, those physical objects created a fragile bridge beyond death for his family." From A Life in Pocket Notebooks
Orions Belte is nice music to work to. "The sound of wood, the sound of the cold autumn air. [...] the perfect hangover album."
Filing Aegir under "sites I like." Just neat how the site colors shift based on the media used.
I recently finished reading Ragged by Christopher Irvin. Woodland noir may be my new go to genre. You can get it from Book Depository if you're interested.
Realizes it's not your typical alt country song and searches for lyrics (There's a gateway in our minds / That leads somewhere out there, far beyond this plane / Where reptile aliens made of light / Cut you open and pull out all your pain).
Searches for the meaning of Turtles All the Way Down and finds this Wikipedia article about the expression of the problem of infinite regress.
From podcast to philosophy, it's links all the way down.
A speed round of links for your clicking enjoyment:
Bonfire's website is just great. Even if you have no interest in "federated tools and communities for the post-capitalist world" just click the link for the illustrations of woodland animals sitting around campfires.
The signal from this newsletter may become spotty as I head into the depths of summer. If we don't talk soon I hope you and yours stay safe, healthy, and are able to carve out some time to relax or do something you really enjoy.
The word of the day is "alloception" — the perception of another, the detection of other. It’s an alloception event when a person working with an AI says, “I see someone in there.”
If it's summer where you live I hope you take a moment to get some sun on your face, or pause to watch fireflies emerge at dusk, or go get a cold treat with some people you care about, or whatever makes summer special for you.
Welly bandages work great and they look cool too. I've been using them to patch up many a skinned knee for the last couple months and I just restocked with their Camping Bravery Badges.
Moth Minds is " ... a platform that makes it extremely easy for anyone to start their own grants program." Which is a great idea, but even if you aren't ready to start a grant program, check out the site for an alternative to the typical product page.
Macklemore's Next Year (which is now this year), linking to this mostly for the marching band energy.
Leon Kass on friendships based upon character: "The best of those friendships — and this, I think, over a lifetime, I’ve come to endorse — the deepest and richest and most permanent friendship, he says, is the friendship not of doing deeds in common, but the friendship of sharing speeches and thoughts, a friendship of seeking understanding, a friendship that is in some way philosophical. There’s no topic’s off limits. And you can spend a lifetime and never get to the end of the conversation." From David Brooks Interviews Leon Kass for The Ezra Klein Show. I have some of these friendships and they have buoyed me through these tough times. My holiday wish for you is to have/find/cultivate relationships like this!
Now let's do some travelling for this last message of this year:
A 58-foot-long map of a postman's route, drawn over 17 years. It includes "... drawings of birds, fishermen –and their names, local landmarks and placenames."
Pat Armstrong's personal site is fun, pick up a brick and throw it around.
The Mountain, photos and words by Chris Glass (his new site is nice!)
"I can't help but feel like gamified work is a bag of sand we’ve been left in place of the idol." - Jack Cheng
If the above is interesting to you, you may dig Ezra Klein's recentepisodes on AI.
On to booze: "Compared with people who were served nonalcoholic drinks, the drinkers appeared significantly happier, according to a range of objective measures. Maybe more important, they vibed with one another in distinctive ways. They experienced what Sayette calls “golden moments,” smiling genuinely and simultaneously at one another. Their conversations flowed more easily, and their happiness appeared infectious. Alcohol, in other words, helped them enjoy one another more."
Earth Rise “…taken by Richard Gordon, alone aboard the Command Module while the others were down on the lunar surface.” From the Apollo 12 mission by way of .
"‘A map is not the territory’ is a helpful phrase to remember whenever you’re confronted with studies, articles or... maps. Abstractions are useful but can also be misleading because there are always hidden details and nuances. And should map and terrain differ, always follow the terrain." Good advice from Johannes Klingebiel by way of Dense Discovery.
"It feels like the entire world (or at least my corner of) is consumed by the “how” of note-taking. Tools, workflows, processes, backlinks, and on and on. Obsidian? Roam? Paper? I read it all. It’s fun and interesting and there’s no end of things to distract myself with. A distraction is all it is." I think I'm with Jack on this one. Though I always liked Austin Kleon's super simple approach to a logbook.
Please Don't Say Just Hello In Chat, chat etiquette is underrated. I used to have a boss who would chat me the word Calling, right before calling me.
Lucy Bellwood writing about Twitter: "I’d been engaging in an ecosystem that hadn’t wounded me directly, but still came paired with a constant threat of attack. On a platform of that scale and volatility, every passing thought carries within it the potential for mass distribution, misunderstanding, and destruction."
A childless adult on parents: " ...they claim to be much happier and more fulfilled than ever before, even though they live in conditions of appalling filth and degradation, deprived of the most basic freedoms and dignity, and owe unquestioning obedience to a capricious and demented master." 🤣
⬆ From the 
⬆ “Blue”, oil on wood panel by 
