Some things I liked this week:

These chair friends

This bit on finishing things, I added it to my collection of endings

This cute video: Beastie Boys through the years

This site: LOADMORE that “collects distinctive mobile experiences” worth the click just for the little mascot

“There seems to be a certain essence in us that we must allow to guide us through life. If we defy this compass, we can end up in places we don’t belong. But if we trust it, follow it, we might do something as grand as fulfilling our purpose.”

vague, inchoate feeling

Read: I’m Pretty Sure I Would Remember That

Read: This is the story of Possibly Chaos and Text Goblin. I have no idea if it’s true, but it’s nice.

“We’re getting to the point where ghosts are real. The future is here, valuing magic and mystery over reality. Not only are we aware of the difference, but we’re at peace with it.”

Louis Rosenfeld in reference to this.

“Covey’s take was “an abundance mentality springs from internal security, not from external rankings, comparisons, opinion, possessions, or associations.” In my experience, that internal security overflows into their inner circle and wider community, believing that more for the people around them doesn’t equal less for them personally, but precisely the opposite — the more people succeed, the greater chance I will as well. Which fuels my desire to go on the offensive, helping my peers and strangers alike.”

Abundance in a Time of Scarcity

“I often wonder about the costs of the “digital echo.” What is the psychological cost of knowing that your actions aren’t just your own, but create information that can be observed and analyzed by others? As more aspects of our lives generate digital echoes, they force an ambient awareness of being perpetually witnessed rather than simply existing.”

Digital Echoes and Unquiet Minds

Homeownership is a lifelong commitment to discovering what it takes to modernize a legacy system and the lengths to which and compromises you will make in doing so.

Dan Hon

“When I was 7 I threw a ring I loved out of a car window as we searched for my dog who had run away, as an act of sacrifice to get her back. Well, guess what? She came back. And I’m still doing little spells to this day.”

Casting Little Spells.

Watch: Little Joys (2 minutes)

The individual preference for solitude, scaled up across society and exercised repeatedly over time, is rewiring America’s civic and psychic identity. And the consequences are far-reaching—for our happiness, our communities, our politics, and even our understanding of reality.

From The Anti-Social Century. Emphasis mine.

In my humdrum life, the daily battle hasn’t been good versus evil. It’s hardly so epic. Most days, my real battle is doing good versus doing nothing.

Always Go To The Funeral /via SwissMiss

the best defense, the most meaningful work, the best preparation you can do at the level of an individual life is to boost your local resilience. To become a person of place. To connect with the people and land where you live. This is what we’re built to do.

How I became ‘collapse aware’. This is not a depressing read (or listen, the author read option was great)! /via Dense Discovery

• An illustrated guide to science-backed mood boosters.
• A zine about reclaiming your life from digital technology.
• A tool for searching independent websites.
• A collection of the “best” marketing headlines on the internet.
• Over the Garden Wall’s 10th anniversary stop motion short.
• Max Vogel Gonzalez’s illustrations.
• An experiment with giving out potatoes to trick or treaters.
• A concept to break procrastination.
• Some objects I covet: Nike C1TY “Surplus” shoes, El Oso Bear Tee, the Kobo Clara Colour, and the book Assembling Tomorrow.

Every place I’m from is gone because it’s not just a place, it’s a place at a certain time. It would take a time machine to go back.

— Should I move back to France? - Mike Monteiro

No joke, loveless grilled cheese sandwiches suck.

Little Nuggets of Pride

“It’s the fact that you recognized the thing that is important, not the thing itself. It’s your radar.”

We can engage with people outside the rule-bound linear progression of offline relationships, and discover information about another person, miles and years from the person they were when they were posted it. Try responding to a post on a message board dated a while ago, maybe 10 years or more. That person might have lived in five cities between then and now, and fallen in and out of love three times, but the person they once were remains a notational snapshot trace, as if it were yesterday, offering thoughts on gardens, allergies, movies, or recipe ingredients.

From Lurking: How a Person Became a User by Joanne McNeil. I’m only through the Introduction of this book and I’m already all 👀!

Kinder To Do Lists. I like this idea of using a different phrasing for your to do lists. Example: “When checking off an item that begins with “You promised to email Maria…” I feel as though I’m being a person who follows up on her promises. When checking off “Email Maria,” I feel as though I’ve just won another round of whack-a-mole.”

Effectively, the time costs of doing things over a weekend have diminished considerably for those who don’t have to commute.

Source: How remote work is boosting the U.S. economy

The quiet power of introverts. A nice animated short via the always great Converge Newsletter.

I love that my Grandpa Norm told me to put a $10 in my coat pocket when I put it away for the season: ‘You’ll give yourself a surprise treat when it gets cold again!’ He’s been gone for over five years, but I still think of him when swapping coats.

Source: Have a Restorative Weekend - Cup of Jo

When my dad was sick, I started Googling grief. Then I couldn’t escape it. “There’s an assumption the industry makes that personalization is a positive thing.”

Keeping a personal changelog ⤤

Winnie Lim on looking back at her journals: “I see all these archives of my thoughts and psyche as keeping a personal changelog. They document what has changed in me since.” /via Scott Nesbitt

I, too, see a crisis brewing, among not only people my age but among the peers of my teenage children and the college students I teach. Pushed further into isolation by the pandemic, we’re all losing the ability to engage in what I view as the pinnacle of human interaction: sitting around with friends and talking shit.

From Hanging out: Americans report fewer friends. Could the cure be simple?