Author: Chad
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Links of the moment
An ongoing series I’ve read 13 of the New York Times’ 100 Best Books of the 21st Century. How about you? How does the Library of Congress decide what to keep? When exactly did Neil Armstrong step on the moon? Ranking 100 of the greatest READ posters. (A series that is still running and available for purchase, by the way.…
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Embrace the lightning of surrender
Don’t love once and question your heart Embrace the lightning of surrender I had fun with this Fridge Poetry page (works best on desktop) where you can play with the provided words and even add your own. I assembled the above phrase using words that were already lying there, and I like how it turned…
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Media of the moment
An ongoing series The Infernal Machine: A True Story of Dynamite, Terror, and the Rise of the Modern Detective by Steven Johnson. Another brilliant narrative nonfiction saga from Steven Johnson that weaves multiple historical threads together to tell the riveting story of how dynamite, fingerprinting, anarchism, information science and other seemingly disparate forces all conspired…
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Links of the moment
An ongoing series Turn your writing into jazz. “Always go to the footnotes.” A delight listening to The Devil in the White City author Erik Larson on Armchair Expert. Boys get everything, except the thing that’s most worth having. Super Mario Bros., typewriter edition.
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Don’t have a reading goal
If you want to enjoy reading, don’t have a reading goal. If you want to read more books by female authors or explore a new genre or something like that, go for it. But that’s not what I’m talking about. Once you say “I want to read X number of books this year,” whatever that…
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Tools of the moment
An ongoing series Not YouTube watch history. When you turn off the watch history for your YouTube account (manage it here), your homepage becomes gloriously blank rather than cluttered with garbage served up by their algorithm. Not WorkFlowy. One day I decided I was tired of splitting my personal and professional note-taking, task management, and…
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Six thoughts on ‘Titanic’
Cinema Sugar asked on Threads: “What movie do you refuse to watch?” It provoked some interesting responses, the most common by far being Titanic and Barbie. I get the Barbie backlash since it’s new and somewhat (weirdly) politically charged. Titanic, though, is nearly 30 years old and one of the most awarded and highest-grossing movies of…
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How ‘In the Heights’ explains the COVID era
Originally published at Cinema Sugar. Scheduled to be released in theaters June 2020, the film adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical In the Heights was in the first wave of movies that were delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. It got pushed back a full year to June 2021, when as part of a slate of Warner…
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Recent Views
More photography here. Shadow play: The tunnel into Brookfield Zoo: Garbage Day is appointment viewing: Barking up the front yard tree: Puddle hunting:
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Links of the moment
An ongoing series Long live the home page. The Millennial CAPTCHA is just spot-on. Some pretty great bumper stickers for your phone. A quick and entertaining primer on how not to get screwed buying a used car. The fascinating saga of a forged Apple employee badge on eBay. A camera that turns pictures into AI-generated poetry.
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Rules for Biking
I recently went on a bike ride to the library with my 5 year old. It was the first time he was on his own (training-wheeled) bike instead of riding along in the trailer and it was really fun. He was so jazzed up about it, which caused him to start monologuing his thoughts throughout…
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Recent Views, flora and fauna edition
More photography here. Lots of red admiral butterflies in our backyard: A goose family at our local park: A toad tromping through our backyard: The Great Cicadapocalypse has begun here in Illinois, and here’s one of many molting cicadas on our maple tree: Our lilac bush is so vibrant for such a short time: A…
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A birthday shadow
Today our youngest turned one year old. He and I are often outside together like in this picture because it’s what makes him feel better when he’s upset. Walking around while holding him will get tougher as he grows and begins to walk, so I’m trying my best to cherish these moments before he goes…
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How (not) to decide what movies to watch
Every time I hit Play or enter a theater is a roll of the dice, and that’s the fun of it.
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Schrödinger’s Parent, or when you can’t “cherish every moment”
One of the many clichés you hear as a parent of littles from older parents is something to the effect of: “Cherish every moment—they grow up so fast.” It’s something I’m also tempted to say to newer parents because kids do indeed grow up fast, and when you look at photos from when they were…
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Birds are the word
Well, this is me now: It started a few years ago when our firstborn got into our copy of The Little Book of Backyard Bird Songs that plays a dozen different bird calls. Then one day while on a walk through our local park, I heard a call that I recognized from the book, so…