Friday Inspiration 529 If you watch this video, be warned that a) there are a couple verbal mentions of male anatomy and also an animation of male anatomy, b) that it won Best Nonfiction Short Film at Sundance in 2024, and c) you might cry a little bit. (video) If you had “Read a brief but wonderful poem about holding an iguana like a baby and feel a tiny bit better about everything” on your to-do list for today, go ahead and cross that off after you click here. Since I 1) am running a lot...
6 days ago • 2 min read
Friday Inspiration 528 A big thanks to Hilary for sending me this 9-minute skateboard video that’s more of a visual love letter to Paris with some skating by Andy Anderson, the most joyful part of which I believe might be the credits, among many joyful parts (video) Mike Sowden, whose Everything Is Amazing newsletter I have mentioned here many times, sent me a link to this website with the simple message “Top 100,000 Wikipedia articles of the year....as if they're skyscrapers in a city.” I...
13 days ago • 2 min read
A Week of Training: Winter I had decided to film all my runs for a week, and exactly one mile into my first run, Jay wanted to get out of the jogging stroller and play in the snow. So we did. I didn't really have a strong overall vision for the video, but 10 minutes into it, it seemed like an appropriate vibe: not so much "Run Your Fastest Race Ever With This Workout Plan"—more "OK But We Don't Take Ourselves THAT Seriously Around Here." I ran the final four blocks to Jay's preschool, dropped...
14 days ago • 1 min read
Friday Inspiration 527 I did not expect to get choked up watching this video about basketball player Audi Crooks and her family, but I am also not surprised. (video) I was not the biggest Star Trek fan but damn do I love a good set of “fictional spaceship cut in half” images, in this case the USS Enterprise D. I am once again doing what some people call “training” (for a big goal this fall) and really enjoying my time on the trails here in Missoula, which are ranging these past few weeks...
20 days ago • 2 min read
Friday Inspiration 526 My friend Ed, whose excellent Mountain & Prairie podcast you’re probably aware of if you’ve been following this newsletter for more than a few weeks, and who is also tapped into some Red Hot Chili Peppers content pipeline probably because of our shared love of Flea’s memoir, Acid for the Children, sent me this video this week, and it was a breath of fresh air. (video) If you missed yesterday’s post about screen time, I wrote a piece about getting some time back from my...
27 days ago • 3 min read
Having The Screen Time Of My Life From my aisle seat on our two-hour flight, I glanced over occasionally at the passenger across the aisle as she went from texting on her phone, to flipping down the tray table and watching a news commentary show on her ipad, to switching to playing a game on her ipad, then finally folding up the tray table and texting on her phone for the final descent, landing, and taxiing to the gate, never spending more than a few seconds without interacting with a screen....
28 days ago • 4 min read
Friday Inspiration 525 This film is about the Manhattan loft artist Jay Ells has lived in since 1967 (starting rent was $110 a month!), and he says some interesting stuff at the beginning (no hot water in the apartment for the first 35 years), but it gets even more fascinating later on. Also: That view. (video) At first I wasn’t going to include this, because I don’t know if it will resonate with anyone who doesn’t have nostalgia for the computers of the 1980s and early 1990s, but then I...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Friday Inspiration 524 I saw this film at Mountainfilm last May, and have been patiently waiting for it to show up online, as it was the most powerful thing I saw that weekend. Rob Shaver has been living with stage four cancer for 20 years, and he’s still running, with the help of his brother and his mom. I’ll just say that if you have time to watch it, it will affect you. (video) I loved this explainer of a very simple but important design concept that we probably don’t think about too...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
I Made 8 Pieces Of Fan Art For 'Meditations for Mortals' I can’t remember when or where I first read the Gandhi quote “there is more to life than increasing its speed,” but it feels like I’ve been reminding myself that for something like 15 years now. Every year, it seems like the societal pressure to do the exact opposite—to make more stuff faster, streamline your workflow, get this app/hack/course on how to maximize productivity in your work/career/life, pay a robot or someone halfway...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
