Category: Open Notes

Notes on: Tools

You probably won’t own the means of production, but it doesn’t hurt to have a decent toolkit on hand. We are in an age of repair instead of replace. Tools are anything that allow you to extend the ability of your brain/ hand connection. The mechanical advantage of human capability. Code is just as valuable…
Notes on: Hanging Out

Hanging out is tough when you’re 40. Even more so when you’re at a loss of the “third space.” When you’re younger, in the 20s, hanging out at someone else’s house or apartment made sense because everything was cheaper and usually the party had no where to go. Also, you didn’t care so much about…
Riffs on: Floods

Another day, another sheaf of headlines about flooding throughout the American Southeast.
Riffs On: Shadow Libraries

Last year I read Syria’s Secret Library, and then dug into the reporting behind the book (permalink), a project of love in a time when Darayya – just outside Damascus – was under siege. “In many cases we get books from bomb or shell-damaged homes. The majority of these places are near the front line,…
Hibernation for Humans

Via Katherine May’s Substack: https://katherinemay.substack.com/p/the-art-of-hibernation May is also the mind behind the great book, Wintering Humans, of course, do not actually hibernate; the only primate to do that is the fat-tailed dwarf lemur, which lives in Madagascar. But we do know that our bodies respond to colder weather and darker conditions in a variety of…
Riffs on: Reading Well

The current reality: reading isn’t a priority. When newspapers were still a stalwart of our cultural hegemony, even they were written at a 7th grade reading level. After all, everyone needs to know the news. I far the average reading level is far less than that. There is the story about the woman suing because…
Idea: Techocalypse – the reason this is all getting so much worse.

This is a working post, it will update and get more bells and whistles as I continue to expand on the idea. Without hyperbole, this is all Facebook’s fault. Over the past year I have felt a rise of something I’m calling Techocalypse (apocalypse via technology). Last night, as the election results rolled in, I…
Riffs on Paper

It’s like when you buy clothes: if you find something you like that fits well, buy it in every color. But here, if I find a paper that really sings I’ll stock up however I can.
Riffs on Grammar

Thoughts on grammar. Why a preposition can end things. And other collected notes.
Riffs on: Naps

The collection of notes about taking naps. A work in progress.