Archive

Hi!

1. This episode of 99% invisible about the cassette tape culture around the Grateful Dead was pretty neat. It also reminded me of all the GoGo tapes that I used to be able to get my hands on as a kid growing up in the suburbs just outside DC. I started thinking; if a little white kid from the burbs could get tapes, the DC Gogo tape culture must have been strong! Google confirmed my hypothesis. I wonder if there were any other hyper local tape cultures in the 80s/90s?

2. radiooooo.com lets you listen to radio from any decade and any country.

3. Create your own garden for the pollinators in your hood.

4. 4,000+ animated GIF buttons from the 90s/00s.

5. An old school blogroll.

6. Skating on completely clear ice window and riding bikes on a seemingly never ending salt flats.

7. Somewhere in West Virginia.

8. An updated serenity prayer.

I hope you have a most excellent weekend!

~ Guy

⬆ I dig these reading cubbies in the Vennesla Library.

Hello! Long time, no links. I hope these distractions guide you peacefully into weekend mode:

1. The word of the day is apricity. " ... meaning the warmth of the winter sun - is a wonder in itself, and not a poor substitute for ‘true’ sunbathing. On sunny winter days, I seek out direct sunlight, something I’d never do in summer. The winter sun is gentle and sparkling, capable of warming your cheeks even if the rest of you is encased in a coat, scarf and hat." Source: How to light the dark months.

2. "I’ve come to recognize that I am far more productive, happy, kind, and patient, when I supplant that sense of aloneness. When my life has passive, meaningful connections spilling out into my days. This is not to say I am avoiding solitude or alone time. No — as a card-carrying introvert, I live for appropriately doled out solitude." Source: Craig Mod on Aloneness.

3. "Digital information literacy must include the competence of critical ignoring—choosing what to ignore and where to invest one’s limited attentional capacities."

4. Related: "When I take ownership over my own joy, I found that joy is always waiting for us if we choose to make it. And I’m glad I finally figure out how to make it." Source: How I Read 40 Books and Extinguished the World on Fire.

5. Probably not in line with the last two items: Trending Topics " ... uses Wikipedia traffic data to surface topics that are trending, or have been trending recently."

6. Rogule " ... is a minimalist online Roguelike game you play in your web browser. Everyone gets the same dungeon each day. You get one chance to beat each day's dungeon. It is free to play."

7. If you want more distractions visit Joshua Blankenship's Akintrest.

8. Somewhere in Upstate NY.

⬆ From the Screw Project

Hi, I have some links for your Friday.

1. 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."

2. "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.

3. 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.

4. What it's like travelling cross country by train.

5. Somewhere in Pennsylvania.

6. "Cultivate small, sturdy networks of affinity and interest. Connect them to each other. Keep them lit." From Robin Sloane by way of Russell Davies.

⬆ “Blue”, oil on wood panel by Seth Armstrong.

Hi. It's been a long time. Let's ease our way back into this.

1. How I Became a Better Morning Person, it's all about the sunlight

2. Librarians name their book carts, example: "Shelf Defense"

3. Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

4. Lost Animals, a ghost story of sorts

5. Little Simz - Gorilla, for your ears

6. Somewhere in Norway

I wonder, if in my lifetime, I'll ever own a cool futuristic truck.

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."

Hello everyone,

I hope these links bring some minor distractions to your day:

1. 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!"

2. 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.

3. It's that time of year for gift guides: Ugmonk's shop small list, Rands' 10 things I love and why, and Robin Sloan's gift guide.

4. It's also that time of year for Tom Whitwell's annual 52 things I learned post.

5. Also, The Sounds of Christmas, a playlist. Lots of new (to me) holiday/winter tunes.

6. Two shallow rabbit holes I travelled this week:

   • Three-legged crows as a result of Japan's national football team logo.

   • Mysterious booms called Seneca Guns.

7. Somewhere in Ontario

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.

It's "Friday" here in the US so that means some links flying your way.

1. Spend the 5 minutes to watch these "wild" guinea pigs waddle around their garden.

2. "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

3. Orions Belte is nice music to work to. "The sound of wood, the sound of the cold autumn air. [...] the perfect hangover album."

4. Filing Aegir under "sites I like." Just neat how the site colors shift based on the media used.

5. Grass under a microscope looks so happy.

6. Somewhere in Virginia.

Until next time, stay safe!

~ Guy

I'm sure I linked to this before, but if not, here is a great shot of an awesome house. Photo by Hisatoshi Matsumura.

• Before Trick-or-Treating, There Was Mostly Tricks. Bonus link my ongoing collection of spooky art, podcasts episodes, and articles.
• 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.
• Listening to the 1001 albums you must hear before you die playlist.
• Slow Roads is a chill driving game. I was terrible at it.
• Remember that no one has any idea what they're doing.

I hope that your Halloween is the correct amount of spooky for you and yours!

~ Guy

↑ The art of Kyle Scott.

• Ghost, Aliens, Burritos is a podcast episode of Here Be Monsters about growing up with a father who called himself a researcher in the shadow world.

• fuzzy.town is the site of artist, Zachariah OHora. Visit for the animated logo alone.

• Why some music fans are quitting Spotify and going back to MP3s, CDs, etc..

• An online mix tape? Try DJ mode.

• Waffle house vistas.

Stay safe out there!

• It's fall around here (and the start of spooky season) so here are some Autumn based links:

  • The story behind the smiley face above.

  • A reminder to live seasonally.

  • A list of new horror books to add to your pile.

• Some great apps I've been using:

  • MyMind a super simple bookmarker, knowledge management, mood board maker thingy.

  • Hark takes snippets of podcasts to make daily mix tapes.

• An optimistic look at building the future from Kevin Kelly.

• A climate themed short story.

• A car graveyard, I thought they were matchbox cars until I spied the drone pilot.

• An interactive map of bird migrations.

• Nature themed live cams.

I hope you have a great weekend!

↑ Trevor Paglen, CLOUD #865

• "Always carry a pocket knife. You might have to open a package or avenge a loved one’s death." - Life advice from Chris Coyier.

• The story behind a perfectly maintained ghost town in the middle of the Canadian wilderness.

• Low Tech Magazine is a " ... a solar-powered website, which means it sometimes goes offline."

• A map of wolf pack movements.

• An excellent hip-hop mash-up.

• Be Drunk.

I hope all is well in your world!

Hi!

I hope you don't mind this intrusion on your Sunday morning, but I have some links for you.

1. First, a look at my browser/search history from the last week:

   • Listens to this episode of Endless Thread.

   • Learns about Eggs Tyrone and spends way too much time watching all of their fantastic videos (this one is probably my fave, so much joy).

   • Watches this one (a bit more somber) and searches for the track from the video: "Turtles All the Way Down" by Sturgill Simpson.

   • 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.

2. A small scoop of seawater contains so many squiggly monsters.

3. Buying an MP3 Player, not new, but new to me, and hilarious.

4. I'm Nobody

5. Sleepbaseball.com

A speed round of links for your clicking enjoyment:

1. 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.

2. Mini-Forests.

3. Hippo Trails.

4. Hip-hop stamps.

5. An Ol' Dirty Bastard action figure.

6. The Reddit compound pejorative dataset. Click for the matrix, it's like a create your own swear word tool.

7. Abandoned suburbia.

8. New choices appear.

I hope you're staying cool! Remember, it's only 101 days until Halloween.

~ Guy

Good morning,

• The Best Science Fiction Books You've Never Heard Of. Added some titles to my to-read pile from this list. Related, Daydreaming is better than doomscrolling, Carry a book everywhere.

• A Trail Tale is an 8-bit game? Journal? Travel guide? I don't actually know, but it's cool! Related, view sun and shade along hiking trails.

• A very low key summer checklist.

• Friendship, an are.na channel.

• Filed under destruction: atom bomb photos + an embroidered tornado.

• Somewhere in Denmark.

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.

~ Guy

Hi,

I come bearing links for your Friday morning:

1. Employers don't like the idea of a four-day week. Let's cancel the afternoon.

2. 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.”

3. Making an easy one page a day diary by Austin Kleon.

4. Urban bear photography!

5. Good news, drinking beer is good for your gut health.

6. The author of Meet Me by the Fountain was on 99% Invisible. Learn all about the American mall.

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.

Hiya,

A menagerie of links today:

1. Top 100 90's Hip Hop Samples 1990 - 1999. 20 minutes well spent if you're a hip hop head. A bonus 90s music link, probably better than the preceding link if you have to choose.

2. I like the idea of a whatever journal.

3. A foggy sunrise in my town.

4. Creepy English countryside: a real photo and a short story told in miniatures.

5. We Are In A "FOURTH TURNING" breaks this newsletter's rule of no doom, but it's interesting. If you're not feeling that this fine Friday morning then check out this AMC Amitron from 1967.

I hope you have the best day!

Some tiny things this week:

1. My Hero performed by the Foo Fighters and a whole lot of other people. Pretty amazing.

2. Drone photos of polar bears feeding on a whale carcass. Gruesome, but amazing in that nature doing nature things kind of way.

3. Art created by AI via text prompts (e.g. A portrait of an avocado made of yarn). Not awful.

4. Thunk Notes is yet another notes app, but maybe it's the little fox mascot that has me giving the free trial a spin.

5. Better Computer Grants is a " ... microgrants program focused on people working on projects that make computers better."

6. Upward lightning!

I hope you have a most excellent weekend!

Mornin'

I hope these links bring you some distractions today.

1. First some things for your eyes:

   1. storm (illustration),

   2. landscape with clouds and rainbows (computer generated wool art?),

   3. Loryn Engelsman (portfolio),

   4. booms (comic book art),

   5. "Knobby terrain" on one of Jupiter's moon (space photos)

   6. and some new paintings by Oliver Jeffers.

2. Next some shopping recs (I get no kickbacks from these links, just great things I want to share):

   1. Dan Cederholm's SimpleBits shop is having a garage sale, 50% off everything. I can confirm the t-shirts are top notch.

   2. 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.

   3. I finished up Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel and I really liked it. A tight little time travel story. If you read it and liked it (or if you like time travelly stuff) check out The Electric Kingdom by David Arnold.

3. And lastly, how about a song about work since it's a Friday.

As always, I hope you and yours are safe, happy, and well.

It's been awhile. I hope you've all been well. Here are links for your Friday morning enjoyment:

1. The Art of Telling Campfire Tales, just in time for summer nights by the fire.

2. Readlists allows you to cobble together articles into a bookish like thing to read in one go.

3. The final dance in Dirty Dancing, but they’re dancing to The Muppet Show theme tune. This works better than expected.

4. Fantasy Mapping: Drawing Worlds. I haven't purchased this book, but I'm happy it exists.

5. The Asshole Test.

Have a great weekend!

↑ From Freeze frames: the epic wilderness of Greenland – in pictures

1. 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.

2. Macklemore's Next Year (which is now this year), linking to this mostly for the marching band energy.

3. Watch how a 3D-Printed home is made, new to me, pretty rad.

4. Modern for Wikipedia, a Chrome plugin that gives Wikipedia a new look.

5. Watch a volcano blow from space, terrifying.

"Grant me the courage of someone who is willing to share their entire desktop on Zoom in this day and age…"

↑ From Tecznts

Ok, I lied, one more quick email this year. As you peer at your very long shadows on this Winter Solstice here are some end of the year lists that I enjoyed:

↑ By Chris Burkard

1. 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!

2. Now let's do some travelling for this last message of this year:

3. Sail through streamers of the Sun's plasma.

4. Talk to a robot in Estonia.

5. Take a nighttime train ride in Japan.

6. Float in space with one of Saturn's icy moons.

7. Fly above some winter boats in my town.

8. Check out some Mammoths made of lights.

↑ The Road to Braemore by Fred Ingrams

Lots of little bits this week:

1. What is the podcast episode you think everyone should listen to? A Reddit thread to fill up your play next queue.

2. Speaking of podcast episodes, The Ballad of Mount Doogie Dowler from Seth Rogen's Storytime podcast is banana pants. Not for the feint of heart.

3. The catastrophic effect of the the Telecommunication Act of 1996 on Gen X and the Xennial's music. Nostalgia aside, I feel like music (and radio) used to be so weird, in a good way.

4. Rare Red Sprites are like nature's fireworks.

5. Stack some pebbles on the beach.

6. Sad Lunch Break, a friend for your lonely lunch.

7. A Showcase Of Lovely Little Websites.

8. Cold and Desperate.

9. A "tree" house.

10. Slugs.

↑ The heavy frost and autumn colors of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin By Adam Senatori.

1. Largehearted Boy's annual list of best annual best book lists (not a typo).

2. An Esty shop of old paperback books, I think each page contains a book I used to own (still have some classic CYOA books).

3. Adding Hip-Hop (and Other Things) by Shea Serrano on the to-read list. Art by Arturo Torres.

4. A thread of Northern Light photos and videos from last week's southern drift.

5. Airline reservations before computers, somehow still a relevant enterprise software mental model (it's a giant spreadsheet!).

6. This is actually fine (I was this dog for Halloween).

7. A forest portal.

↑ by Oliver Jeffers

Hi All!

Long time, not email.

I hope you and yours are doing well, staying safe, and sane.

My kids are back in school and I started a new job in August. The job is really great and challenging, but with that comes less time for other like .

1. By Luis Mendo by way of dense discovery.
2. 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."
3. Pat Armstrong's personal site is fun, pick up a brick and throw it around.
4. The Mountain, photos and words by Chris Glass (his new site is nice!)
5. A snippet from 12 years ago.
6. The Spirited Man.
7. Retro Robut.
8. Yarn Moss.
9. Dark Fish.
10. Reentry.

This was a quick one, sporadically fired from the beginning of summer. Mostly an excuse to say that I hope you are well.

1. By Owen D. Pomery as seen on Airbnb
2. "a bunch of meticulously planned three-ring-binders at NASA beats a still non-existent HAL" - Dan Hon on conversational interfaces and the like
3. "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
4. If the above is interesting to you, you may dig Ezra Klein's recent episodes on AI.
5. 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."
6. A used book store owner in my town wrote something about loss, books, travel, cicadas. I don't know why you would read it, but I know it will not show up in winning the internet's links. Take that data-driven content!
7. A tiny story about Fat Boy Slim.
8. Jobs for the City of Tomorrow.
9. Words that don't translate.
10. Missing data sets.
11. Chonky clud.

How is everyone doing? Good I hope.

1. ↑ This is the “” from Sir Goony Golf in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Part of the Library of Congress’s .

1. from Overview

1. by Harry Gruyaert

1. ↑ By

1. 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 .

1. My desired state of mind by Samantha Buttrick.
2. "‘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.
3. Speaking of maps: a map showing light pollution around the globe + a map of vaccination sites in the US + a map(ish) of satellites you can see in your sky.
4. The stories behind lost albums. For example, Beck has " ... a double album of solo Hank Williams covers recorded in 2001"
5. Two bears: a sneaky one and a swimming one.
6. A database of abandoned seafarers.
7. The Siberian unicorn.
8. Waves.

1. ↑ Good Things by Melanie Richards
2. "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.
3. Kinda related to the above: Ditch the digital notes: Handwriting is way better for memorization and speed.
4. The Rampart Trilogy, I just finished this book series, highly recommend if you dig post apocalyptic killer trees.
5. Send a Mixtape let's you build a paper mixtape with a QR code to scan and play a mix.
6. Shadows in the Sky, a video for cloud nerds (like me).
7. Pizza Toast & Coffee, an extremley chill 5 minutes.
8. A year in lockdown trends, what happened on March 29th that made ghost hunting trend?
9. An orange dinosaur
10. A barn owl

That's it. That's all. Goodbye for now, "see" you next week.

1. ↑ By

1. ↑ By Masashi Wakui
2. 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.
3. 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."
4. David Hoang's workflow for brute force iteration is 80% paper.
5. Dock Ellis & The LSD No-No, my favorite baseball story in honor of the start of the baseball season.
6. Earth … from 4 billion miles away
7. Abandoned house, lit by drone
8. "Statler & Waldorf are us"

1. Until You Wake Up by Martin Stranka
2. 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." 🤣
3. The Feed App, a simple feed reeder. Someday I'll build my version of the peaceful feed reader.
4. Speeder Bikes flying outside your window, reminds me of imagining a guy running alongside the car.
5. Spotify playlists to cook pasta to.
6. Fonts for maps.
7. Reindeer Cyclones.

1. Photo by Ragnar Axelsson, some real album cover vibes.
2. Maintenance is everything, "Bikes, physical health, mental health, roads, relationships, furniture, websites, clothing, parks, plants, sewers."
3. Same Energy, an image based search, click an image to get ones like it, refresh for a new set. May not be safe for work (at home).
4. Social Attention, a co-browsing experiment.
5. Not haunted, a good selling point for a house.
6. They fight crime.