Author: Chad
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My sons’ media of the moment
A spinoff of an ongoing series Raffi. His greatest hits have been on heavy rotation as it seems to be the only music that calms down our 8 month old when he’s upset, which is often. Hamster maze videos on YouTube. The 4 year old is delighted by these. Random but could be a lot…
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Links of the moment
An ongoing series The best ingredient in The Bear is tenderness. Photographing the triple-alignment of a cathedral, a mountain, and the moon. How Google “perfected” the web. A photographer photoshopped himself into his own childhood photos.
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Before sisu, there was sisucunda
You might have heard of sisu, the Finnish concept of grittiness and perseverance in the midst of struggle. I was pleased to learn of its own etymological history: The history of the concept may help us understand its continuing resonance in Finnish culture today. The word originates from ‘sisus’, which literally means ‘guts’ or ‘the…
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Toward a simpler indie web
Giles Turnbull on the future of the indie web beyond WordPress: If we want the future web we’re all clamouring for, we need to give people more options for self-hosted independence. If we seriously, truly want the independent, non-enshittified personal web to flourish, we need to make it easier for people to join in. Terminal…
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The Indecisive GPS
Sometimes when we’re driving, our 4 year old will provide turn-by-turn directions in a robotic voice as they do in Bluey as the “sat nav” (i.e. GPS). Which is always funny because he doesn’t understand directions. But it was especially funny the last time he did it because his directions were not only wrong but…
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Recent Views
More photography here and on my Instagram. Tiles and toes: Always the bright spot on rainy walks: The puddle jumper approaches: Sunset reflections: Sunday morning clips and coffee: The backyard bubbles are back: Some dramatic lighting at a local library:
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Links of the moment
An ongoing series Typewriters in films. A cool localized night sky calendar. A collection of eggnog cartons.
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Barbenheimer: screenwriting edition
Well, not exactly, but Christopher Nolan’s recent appearance on the Scriptnotes podcast was excellent and inspired me to check out Greta Gerwig’s 2020 appearance for Little Women too. Both have really thoughtful things to say about the craft of writing and how it relates to moviemaking. Here’s Gerwig on the ache of absence in Little…
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A yellow typewriter off to greener pastures
I’m winnowing down my typewriter collection a bit in a bid to maximize our minimal storage space and send my lesser used models off to greener typing pastures. One of those deaccessioned machines is this 1962 Kmart Brother 100, whom my wife affectionately nicknamed Leonard: This was one of the early acquisitions in my initial…
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Tags, I’m it
Along with moving my photo documentary project, I’ve been doing some more pruning and weeding and landscaping work ‘round this here digital garden of mine: It’s been very satisfying to make all these changes, if only for my pedantic urge for a clean and consistent website experience—for me and its visitors.
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A new home for ‘The Wedding Singer at NCC’
Back in early 2011 I produced a photo documentary of the student-directed stage musical production of The Wedding Singer at North Central College, where I’d graduated the year before. I set up shop on Tumblr and documented the behind-the-scenes process over the 10-week period. It was fun to watch the show come together from the…
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Links of the moment
An ongoing series Finalists for the 2023 Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards. Government comic books. Words that deserve wider use.
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Podcasts of the moment
It’s been over two years since my last podcast lineup check-in, and as usual some things have changed while some things remain. Changes: Many of the shows in my last update have either stopped publishing or lost my interest, and I’ve stepped away from the political ones. I’m also thrilled I was finally able to…
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Cut the intro
Robin Rendle preaching the truth: Here’s one way to improve the thing you’re writing: cut the intro. Writing about the symbiosis between trees and mushrooms? Don’t start talking about how humanity has depended on trees since the blah blah blah. Just jump right in! Talking about new features in your app? Don’t start with the…
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Write thank-you notes to your favorite authors
Literally: find a favorite (not dead) author’s website and use their contact form to send them a message with specifics about why you like them. I’ve done this several times. The nice thing is they’re usually very accessible and responsive, maybe because they tend not to get the same kind of public praise as actors,…
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Links of the moment
An ongoing series A cool collection of manuals. Hank Williams sings “Straight Outta Compton” with some help from AI. Regular holes vs. black holes. The museum of internet artifacts.