We Go To The Dump Seagulls, my brain announced, as I stared out the window of my little old Toyota pickup, waiting behind another truck at the entrance to the dump. Seagulls, at the dump? I asked myself, and then when the truck in front of me moved, I pulled ahead to check in with the lady at the entrance building. At the drive-up window, they weigh your vehicle, and you have to tell them what you have in your truck. This time, it was some old plywood, some chunks of foamboard insulation,...
1 day ago • 6 min read
Friday Inspiration 539 I haven’t watched that many TED talks recently, but the title of this one pulled me in and I have to say it did not disappoint: The Accidental Brilliance of Makeshift Signs (video) So basically this guy posed a question about highway design on Threads, and almost no one even attempted to give him a legitimate answer, but the comments just keep delivering more and more jokes, which are I think even more rewarding (my favorite is probably the cardigan with one giant...
7 days ago • 2 min read
Friday Inspiration 538 Fred Again.. uploaded the audio from every concert on his USB002 tour (October 3 2025-February 27 2026), and at 108 hours, it is probably the longest YouTube “video” in history (there’s no real video, just a static image). I am only about five hours into it but have told more than one friend that it it my favorite live album ever. (video) My friend Anna sent me this: A website that takes the current weather conditions of where you live (or whatever city you enter in the...
14 days ago • 3 min read
How Do We Feel About Waving At Other Runners? A few weeks ago, while running on the multi-use asphalt path near our house, as another runner approached from the opposite direction, I decided to wave at them. They waved back, we both kept on running, and a few minutes after that, I decided I was going to be A Person Who Waves At Fellow Runners. Surely, there are only two types of runners in this world, right? I live in what is categorized as a Small City, population about 75,000 people. It’s...
15 days ago • 7 min read
Friday Inspiration 537 Who among us has not wondered, “Can my friends and I carry an entire spaghetti dinner into this Major League Baseball stadium in ziploc bags?” Thanks to Hannah sending me this video, I know the answer. (video) [Related: The story about this video in the Milwaukee Record.] [Also related: These people looked up the carry-in policies for every Major League Baseball stadium] [Also related: The New York Times wrote about all of this [GIFT LINK] If you watched and loved the...
21 days ago • 2 min read
Friday Inspiration 536 MY BOOK ULTRA-SOMETHING turned two years old on Thursday, so to celebrate that, I’m making the ebook $2 for two days (actually, two and a half days). You can buy it at Gumroad for $2 through 5 p.m. MST Sunday, May 17 at this link. — I don’t know how the algorithm decided to deliver this to me, but I deeply appreciate whatever equations guessed that I would like to listen to Tracy Morgan delivering a very unhinged breakdown of what goes on in The Empire Strikes Back,...
28 days ago • 2 min read
The 35 Types Of Runs I Have Gone On In The Past Year Or So I pushed the start button on my running watch with my right hand, two thick envelopes in my left hand, and jogged across the busy street when I saw an opening in traffic. I wasn’t sure where my run would take me, aside from a stop at the blue USPS box outside the grocery store seven-tenths of a mile away, where I’d pause to drop the envelopes and then run off. As I dropped the envelopes in the box, I thought: I wonder if any of those...
29 days ago • 5 min read
Friday Inspiration 535 Martin sent this to me last weekend with the subject line "Indonesian, Muslim, female, Hijab wearing, metal band" and I was pretty sure I was going to like it. I was correct. Wait for the bass solo at about 4:40. (video) You’ve probably heard some version of the oft-quoted saying, “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second-best time is now." Well, if you want to up your game a little bit, maybe the second-best time to plant a Miyawaki forest (or a...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
A Five-Year Project Nearing Near-Completion In October 2021, we found out we were going to have a baby. Naturally, I was terrified. I did what many terrified parents-to-be do, and I started reading parenting books, almost all of which were quite helpful. But I kind of wanted something besides books written by experts, or journalists who had interviewed a bunch of experts. So over the course of the next few months, I decided I would interview some people who already had the job I was going to...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
