I know these kinds of posts about internal apps may be less interesting since you can’t actually use any of the mentioned software, but on the off chance that some of the ideas somehow prove useful in some small way to someone, here we go.
Jason on analog maximalism. I’m trying to move more in this direction, primarily through writing and drawing with pen on paper in my Field Notes much more often, though I hope to move analogward in other areas too. Neal Stephenson’s advice
Under the Greenwood Tree: A Rural Painting of the Dutch School, by Thomas Hardy, published 1872, fiction, 220 pages. Delightful and occasionally funny. (From what I’ve heard of later Hardy, that may not last.) Enjoyed the carolers, and the
This time I have a handful of links all about AI, so if you need a break from that right now (and I wouldn’t blame you), might want to skip this one. After this we’ll return to our regular — by which I mean irregular — bundles of non-AI lin…
A Passionate Pilgrim, by Henry James, published 1871, fiction, 104 pages. A little weird, a little haunted. I really enjoyed the descriptions and characterizations, especially past the beginning. The America vs. England bit took on more mea…
The Once and Future Sex: Going Medieval on Women’s Roles in Society, by Eleanor Janega, published 2023, history, 286 pages. An interesting book. Among other things, it makes a point which hadn’t occurred to me before, that what a society co…
Bryan Macomber’s teardown illustrations/animations of how things like mechanical pencils and retractable pens work. Very cool, love the style. Reminds of the explainers Bartosz Ciechanowski used to do. HellMood’s 16-byte Sierpinski triangle…
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, by William Shakespeare, published 1600, play, 64 pages. A bit bonkers. Once again, Ovid shows up everywhere. (I had no idea to what degree until after I read the Metamorphoses and started recognizing the allusions…
I am so behind on these! Road to Disaster: A New History of America’s Descent into Vietnam, by Brian VanDeMark, published 2018, history, 763 pages. Really liked it. It’s a history of Vietnam up until LBJ leaves office, including a bit at th…
Misha Glouberman on how worried we should be about climate change, based on what the studies actually say. This was hopeful. While we still ought to do everything we reasonably can to avoid making things worse, it’s good to know that curren…
Unimportant administrative note: I’ve imported the posts from my original blog back in 2001–2005, when the site was called the slate and, later, Blank Slate. (The posts were in a handful of PHP files I left behind and forgot about when I mo…
Twelve Years a Slave, by Solomon Northup (edited by David Wilson), published 1853, memoir, 292 pages. So. Good. With the thick sense of dread in the first part — knowing what’s coming — and the drive to escape later on, it felt a bit like a…