• All the Pretty Horses and The Crossing are beautiful western novels by Cormac McCarthy. Both are very much “a boy and his horse” kind of stories about learning to be yourself. They’re loosely related and there’s a third book that brings the boys together and concludes their stories

• The Jungle and Oil! by Upton Sinclair are novelizations of Sinclair’s investigative journalism work in the meat packing industry and the nascent workers rights movement respectively. Oil! was very loosely adapted into the film There Will Be Blood (the film covers maybe the first 3-4 chapters by greatly expanding upon the material

• Hatchet by Gary Paulsen was a very impactful book for me as a child. It’s a YA novel, but still worth a read. The main character Brian survives a plane crash in the Canadian wilderness and is forced to find a way to survive on his own

A few more recent novels that I enjoyed:

• Prophet Song by Paul Lynch. Won the 2024 Booker Prize (best English language novel) about an authoritarian government taking power in Ireland and how that unfolds from the perspective of a mother with young children. It’s a hard read, but very well written

• Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez. Translated into English. A friend described it as “sexy witches in South America deal with authoritarian rule.” And that’s pretty close…

• Same Bed Different Dreams by Ed Park. A semi-fictionalized history of the Korean Peninsula and the desire to have a unified identity. Many people come to the peninsula (same bed) with very different goals for its use (different dreams). Really fascinating book and engaging

• Tomorrow, and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. Follows a trio of friends as they explore the world of video game design. Starts in the early 80s and runs through the 2000s. Reminder me very much of the show Halt and Catch Fire.

• My Friends by Hisham Matar. Follows a Libyan immigrant living in England in the 80s through 2010s as he wrestles with his identity, his homeland, his friends and family. Khaled’s closest friends serve as foils to his own feelings, reacting to the same circumstances very differently from himself

Check out Spiritfarer. I loved it

My top ten-ish tv shows

1. The Wire
2. Bojack Horseman
3. Patriot
4. The Americans
5. Better Off Ted
6. Arrested Development
7. Pushing Daisies
8. Gravity Falls
9. The Bear

Honorable Mentions

1. Over the garden wall
2. Luther
3. Friday Night Lights
4. The Queen’s Gambit
5. GLOW
6. Mindhunter
7. Sports Night
8. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
9. Atlanta

On my fifth rewatch right now. Just started S2

Hackers 1995

Obsidian might work for you

In the 2000s and early 2010s, less of your life was lived on a cell phone or smartphone.

For kids now, it’s 100% of their lives. Post-COVID, the majority of social interaction between peers is through a social media app.

That means that close to 100% of kids are on their phones during the school day. If you aren’t, you run the risk of social isolation and FOMO.

Administrators can’t send a kid to detention for using their phone because ALL kids would be in detention every day.

Here’s one article that examines the problem

Did change trains in Geneva. So I was there for 14 minutes 🙂

Visited Geneva for a longer time in 2018.

I wanted to get into Italy but it didn’t quite work for our schedule. Hopefully next time

Just got back from a two week train trip across Europe. Overall, found it very easy and accessible to move around.

Here’s the general itinerary:

1. London to Brussels
2. Brussels to Prague (night train)
3. Prague to Vienna
4. Vienna to Zurich (night train)
5. Zurich to Bern
6. Bern to Lyon
7. Lyon to Nîmes
8. Nîmes to Barcelona

The only train problem on the trip was our night train to Prague. The carriage was 28-30° C and very uncomfortable. Especially for a 16 hour trip.

The inconsistency of scheduling, signage and trip information was a challenge. Especially when you add in the language barriers.

My ranking of the train systems:

1. Switzerland (obviously)
2. Austria
3. France
4. Spain
5. Czechia

Rent seeking 🙂

Surprised no one has mentioned The Expanse series. A ton of world building in very different kinds of environments. Space stations, small ships, big ships, generation ships, asteroids, moons, planets.

The environments are well thought out in how the residents would need to adapt

There are a ton of style guides beyond APA. In addition to APA, I’ve used MLA, Chicago and Turabian through my academic career (BA, MS, MBA).

The likelihood of using any style guide outside of academia is low. However, in some non-academic research situations, you might use a style guide. Think about research done at a tech company where you need to document your work and distribute it for review, dissemination or presentation. Or maybe a policy institute or think tank who want to effect change at a state or federal level.

That said, teaching high school students about APA or MLA is more about helping them understand how research happens and is documented. You need to understand how to A) read what other people think about a topic and B) share your thoughts in a way that builds upon the extant literature.

This process of learning research methods also teaches you to be a critical thinker. Did the Author of Study A say something that you don’t agree with? Can you find Study B that refutes that point, or does the entire community agree with it?

Apply that concept to something like the news. You might hear a Fact like 5,000 immigrants cross the southern border every day. Is that a lot? Is that good or bad?

Now you can go read some analysis.

• A conservative author might say that all immigration is bad because they deprive jobs from citizens. We need to block all border crossings.
• A progressive author might say that immigrants create jobs or provide a net benefit to the economy. We need to permit more legal immigration.

Which opinion is correct? How would you gather more information to understand the situation? How would you build upon those two ideas to form your own opinion?

Create a configuration file. https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp has the documentation

Columbus is a great little city in a not so great state. The local politics are quite progressive and the food and bar scene is quite nice. There was a decently sized queer community when I lived there a decade ago, and I’d expect it to continue to flourish as long as a major university is nearby.

Winters are cold. Summers are hot. The weather is what it is 🤷🏻‍♀️

I wonder if you’d like Sleigh Bells. Twee pop vocals over grungy guitar. A lot of fun

Gosh. I hadn’t thought about Indian in the cupboard in years

Not OP, but I almost exclusively read novels and non fiction via audiobooks. For context, I’m on pace for 70 books this year.

My main reason for audiobooks is I having a driving commute. Two hours a day round trip. Audiobooks keep me sane in a way that podcasts or music do not. I also do audiobooks when doing chores around the house.

Second, I struggle to focus on reading a book on my phone. Too many distractions and I think the reading experience is subpar. I do have an eInk reader, but I haven’t charged it in years because it’s easier to do audiobooks.

Physical books are rare in my home, but that’s a self-reinforcing cycle since I enjoy audiobooks so much.

Daddy would you like some sausages?

1. Overnight oats
2. Yogurt with frozen fruit and granola (parfait)
3. Granola/protein bar of choice
4. Hard boiled eggs
5. Peanut butter toast