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Permaculture has three main ethics: care of people, care of the earth, and ‘fair share’, or re-investing surplus back into the first two.
We do a lot of caring for the earth, and what the interns have taught me is how we can actually care for people. And through doing that: find ways of re-investing in ourselves.
Yeah, I know... February's almost over. But I finally sat down and wrote this out this weekend, so good enough, eh?
Family
My boy is crushing it at swimming lessons.
The other night during dinner, I unconsciously started drumming on the table. I was startled when my son started singing Imagine Dragon's "Believer," and then my daughter joined in on the drums and vocals as well. It was supremely dope.
Following an unbelievable burst of motivation, I cleaned out the crawl space in my basement. It honestly didn't take that long (maybe a total of 10 hours), and it is so much more usable now! I'm trying to figure out a way that I can wire up some outlets in there so I can turn it into a little cave for jamming and 3D printing lol
I get so mad when I'm in flow and my kids come up and interrupt me. I think it's because achieving flow is painfully Sisyphean; it takes so much effort these days to get into that state, and when I'm suddenly yanked from it, the ball rolls to the bottom of the hill and I have to start all over again. It's probably how my kids feel when I make them stop playing Minecraft.
I was trying to explain the concept of money to my son, and after I stopped talking, he looks at me with the most confused look and says, "Dad, you keep expanding my thinking bubble, and I don't like that." I hear ya, bud.
Recommendations
I thoroughly enjoyed watching It's In The Game, a documentary about the history of the Madden NFL video game franchise. In one scene, they bring a full body capture setup to the NFL combine and scan every player. As they go in and out of the rig, you can tell how honored these guys are to be included in the game. It reminds me of seeing people use my apps out in the real world. Saying "I see you" is one of the dopest honors we can bestow on our fellow human.
I highly recommend Puttshack. I was geeking out over the use of technology, it's brilliant.
The bourbon wings at the Minnesota Burger Company in Apple Valley instantly landed in the top 3 wings I've ever had.1
Work
SEO is the digital equivalent of snake oil. I've held this position for more than two decades, and I'm waiting for someone to convince me otherwise.
You can hit a nail into a board with a hammer, or you can use a nail gun to go faster. But you still need to combine two boards. No tool is going to take that assembly step away, that's simply part of the deal. Similarly, AI isn't going to take my job away; AI is simply a(n extremely powerful) nail gun. It takes the sting out of the parts of my job I find arduous and makes them go faster so I can get back to doing what I enjoy doing: building cool things.
The new car
30% of me still feels like a tool for buying a brand new 2024 Toyota Prius. The other 70% is loving it.
The car is one of my only outlets for anger, and that's not something I'm proud of. It's weird that it took buying a new car to evaluate that, but I guess it's better than continuing to take my anger out while wielding a 10,000 pound death machine.
Self-improvement
For the first time in my life, I looked up at the stars and noticed that one looked a little different. Turned out to be Mars! For the last several nights, when we get a clear sky, I look up and see if I can find it. That might be the thing I'm the most proud of from this past month.
A couple years ago, I decided to get back into broomball. I ended up joining a rec league and played every Friday this month. I'm certainly not as fast as I was 20 years ago, but man, the feeling of running on the ice is as exhilarating as ever.2
I've been walking up to the library near my house to get work done during the week. During one of those walks, it started snowing, and the flakes were huge and fluffy. I stopped and caught a few on my tongue, and it reminded me of when I used to do that during football games.
Lately, when I go on walks around my block, I've felt like I'm walking with some loved ones who have passed away. I can't explain it, and it could totally be a hallucination... but at the same time, who am I to keep denying my feelings? If there's one thing I've learned over the past couple of years, it's that I need to lean more into my feelings and trust them.
I wrote this down during a meeting at work: "You listen to the very first thing someone says and then your mind runs wild." Is this normal?
"I looked in the mirror while showering today and I saw a 37 year old. And I was really proud of him. The dude is happy. He’s out still playing broomball. He plays with computers all day. He listens to a ton of good music, watches interesting/compelling movies, has a sense of purpose and direction, knows what he wants his house to feel like... And I saw the whites in my beard, and I thought it looked pretty damn good. I’m here! I’m aging, and I’m successful, and I’m comfortable, and I will try my hardest to feel this content every day for the rest of my life."
I saw a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup commercial that said, "We live in a time that you can get into a vehicle and go to a place where you give someone a piece of plastic and they will give you a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup." I think about that all the time.
This line from Anh's blog feels ironic to post here given how long these posts become, but for future reference: "not every thought needs to be immortalized on my website."
My only resolution for this year: find more ways to open my heart.
100 sit-ups a day for 100 days Project
At day 50, I don't feel too terribly different. It still sucks to knock out the first one, and it still rules when I hit the hundredth one.
The only noticeable improvement so far is that I no longer make old man groans when I get up from a prone position.
Music Clean Up Project
It's annoyingly hard to let go of things for some reason. Even if it's an MP3 of an artist you never actually liked. Am I mourning the loss of the part of me that really wanted to be into Tiesto?
The more I prune my digital garden, the more I find myself wanting to spend time in it. The more I hit shuffle on all 28,000 tracks in my library, the less frequently I run into turds.
YouTube Videos I liked that I didn't already link to
Glad I watched it? Yes. It was a lot better than I remember, probably because I have far more context for the religious hypocrisy stuff.
Will I watch it again? Probably not. I'm finding that if I actually pay attention during a movie and absorb whatever I need to absorb, I can set it aside. No need to carry all this media around with me, right?
Will I watch it again? Unlikely. It was too predictable, but I sure do love Arnold and Gerald and the crew. Makes me excited for our upcoming Nick Resort trip.
Will I watch it again? Yes. Very smart, very funny, exceptionally high-brow. Best enjoyed with a glass of wine in a fancy wine glass.
Music I enjoyed
Current Vibes in January 2025:
Artist
Album
Thoughts
The Beths
Expert In A Dying Field
Bonnie Light Horsemen
Keep Me On Your Mind / Set You Free
Doechii
Alligator Bites Never Heal
Holy crap, insanely good rap
EKKSTACY
EKKSTACY
Still enjoying this, but got rid of "Misery." Don't need that anymore.
Green Day
Dookie
HNNY
Light Shines Through
I took Kiasmos off my list, which felt weird given how hard I bumped it, but this album still gets me
The Linda Lindas
Growing Up
The Linda Lindas
No Obligation
I like Growing Up more, but I'm finding myself enjoying more of these songs as I give it more rotations
No Vacation
Intermission
I need to find more No Vacation stuff, really digging this
Phoenix
Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
God, just perfect indie rock
Presidents of the USA
Presidents of the USA
I missed this album
Pynch
Howling at a Concrete Moon
Still such amazing lyrics, really relating to them at the moment
Magdalena Bay
Imaginal Disk
Thinking about removing this, but the songs are super catchy and good, so I'll keep it around
Wishy
Triple Seven
Same as Magdalena Bay. I could see revisiting this album in a few years and see if it hits harder
deafheaven
Infinite Granite
I think I need to listen straight through this album and focus on it
fanclubwallet
Our Bodies Paint Traffic Lines
Sounds really fresh to me, I want to explore more of this band
Sabrina Carpenter
Short 'N Sweet
This completely slaps. Insanely witty lyrics, big fan.
STRFKR
Parallel Realms
This hits extremely hard, feels like listening to Cut Copy back in the day.
Wild Pink
Dulling The Horns
Another one that would benefit from a focused listen, but rather enjoying the individual songs as they pop in.
Books I read
Banal Nightmare by Halle Butler. I felt like I could identify with nearly every character's brand of "crazy." Strongly recommend.
I misspelled "bourbon", and I accidentally added the misspelling to my computer's dictionary. At some point down the road, this will 100% come back to bite me in the butt. I look forward to it. ↩
I scored five goals one game, and then one for the rest of the season, which means I got progressively worse as the season carried on. But no matter how poorly we did, I put my entire self into those games and left every single one happy. Oh, and I got to watch a fist fight break out, which I've never seen before during a recreational broomball game. ↩
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originally shared here on
Listen.
This blog doesn’t always have to share deep, thoughtful posts.
Sometimes, it pays to take a minute1 and appreciate that we live on the timeline where this moment was captured, uploaded to the internet, and then viewed 54,000,000 times. Humanity isn’t always bleak.
Also, I wish more people were this honest about what they were delivering. Because this video is 100% what you see on the tin.
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It’s easy to let ourselves get overwhelmed by the demands of our everyday lives or sometimes to become a bit obsessed with big, existential questions. But what both extremes can do is rob us of the opportunity to be present. Meaningfully present.
It’s so remarkable, and so improbable, that we’re all here together. We should probably focus on enjoying that.
Got a lot of good quotes from this one, including Kmele Foster (who hosted it) and artists Godfrey Reggio, Steve Albini, and Fred Armisen.
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originally shared here on
Really great recommendation by my wife via Hank Green.
Everything in here, by the way, is completely true. Most of the technology you use every day is intentionally designed to keep you using it as long as possible.
I like the idea of going a full day without a phone to distract me. I really gotta finish getting my iPod working1 and keeping up my book habit.
I’ve been getting a lot of pleasure from deeply listening to albums again. I know sometimes I can use an iPod as a distraction too, but honest to god, I’m gonna use it intentionally! ↩