This set is (as usual) all over the map. I learned that charisma is not something you have, it’s something you do. AI might be the worst thing in the world, or it might just be a transformative technology like recorded music. And, some thoughts on rethinking the desktop paradigm for organizing our digital life….
What I’m reading Sept 2026
Currently finishing Becky Chamber’s Record of a Spaceborn Few (affiliate link). I didn’t really know cozy, positive sci-fi was a thing. No phony utopia, nor grimdark dystopia either. I already read the first in this series, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (affiliate link) which was decidedly more space-opera-y, but still had that…
What I’m reading, 2026 June
Meditations for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman. I’ve not yet read his 4,000 Weeks yet, but this work is a better match for the time frames I can carve out for reading, that is, snippets of 10 or so minutes for each “chapter.” So far, its pithy bits of “productivity for finite beings” is at once…
Memex post 2026 April
I have quite a bit of video content this month. Mostly because I’ve been listening to a lot of audiobooks and it’s not a medium conducive to notetaking, so my notetaking has been done when I’m chilling in the evening and watching YouTube. The only gripe I have about listening to books instead of reading…
Inaugural Memex post
Inspired by those that have been inspired by Cory Doctorow’s Memex method. Some of these links have been gathering dust in my digital bucket for so long, I forgot what they were about. Many are video content, very loosely categorized and in no particular order. A few are blog posts. This isn’t meant to have…
I’ve begun to face the facts about AI
Tech caution I always approach new tech cautiously. It took me years to get a smartphone. I don’t have VR, or a hand-held gaming system, or any smart devices in my home. It takes money to be on the bleeding edge of tech, which is one reason. The other reason is that I like to…
Give yourself permission to make terrible things
Your first steps on a creative journey will be shaky, maybe even embarrassing. But the only way to get better is to allow yourself to get better. I have a problem with creativity. It seems that I don’t want to “waste” anything. Sometimes that means my precious free time. Whatever I do with that time…
Energy & creativity
I was reading this blog post about the writer tracking their energy level in their journal, and then noticing that there were not only daily and weekly but even seasonal ups and downs that directly correlated to their creative output. Thinking about that brought to my mind the view that the winter season is “hibernation”…
Summer break or summer slump?
I didn’t really intend to take a summer break from this blog. It just sort of happened. I didn’t even go anywhere or do anything extraordinary. Just working, gardening, and… well, not writing. Let’s not kid myself: I wasn’t taking a break, I was moribund. I think I lost my muse for a time. I…
Above, Below, and Within: this week’s links
This week’s link post is about exploration. Exploring the human mind, the distant reaches of the Solar System, and the surprise that lay beneath the floor of an ice cream shop. Boost your brain with peppermint tea. Too bad it’s my least favorite kind of tea. https://www.psypost.org/peppermint-tea-boosts-memory-and-attention-but-why/ An object (designated as 3I/ATLAS, or C/2025 N1),…