Friday Inspiration 425



Friday Inspiration 425

After 45-ish seconds of this, I was kind of thinking, “Is this just a video of a guy running to my favorite The War on Drugs song?” and then at exactly the 1:44 mark, which I have been long convinced is the greatest “woo!” in the history of recorded music, I was like Yeah, this is a video of a guy running to my favorite The War on Drugs song, and that’s why it’s so great. It’s very simple, but captures the feeling of running in a city, and I think that’s why I like it so much. (video)

ANNOUNCEMENT: There’s a longer story about this on the DFTBA store page, but we are putting my “Periodic Table of the Elements of Adventure” on a LIMITED EDITION Nalgene bottle. You can order one from right now until midnight Mountain Time on April 5th (next Friday), and that’s it. Order now or live a life of regret. (Here’s a short video of the whole bottle so you can see the whole design)

If you own more than one mug, and you click on one thing in this list today, let it be this brilliant piece about the worst mug in your cupboard. I was going to include a quote from it, but I couldn’t decide on one. And for the record, my current favorite mug in our cupboard is actually Hilary’s, and the worst mug in the cupboard is probably one I brought to the relationship.

I love many things about this story, including but not limited to the fact that it’s about the guy who picks up dog poop on our local trail up Mt. Jumbo here in Missoula and leaves passive-aggressive (or maybe just aggressive?) notes for people calling them out, but also that it’s 6,000-plus words, which, given the average reader’s attention span nowadays, is really going for it when you’re writing a story about a guy who picks up dog poop on a trail in a town of 75,000 people. To be fair, there’s a lot there.

Payson High School, where Footloose was filmed in 1983, is scheduled to be demolished after the end of the 2023-3024 school year. Students wanted Kevin Bacon to come back to the high school for prom, and he told them he would, via a video call into a school assembly (that was broadcast on the Today Show).

Sure, this is a map of the internet in 1973, but how does it make you feel? Because I have feelings about it. Like nostalgia, but not?

This is a super-fun idea, and I think needed for a lot of people who enjoy creating things: A free (or pay what you want) zine, How to Keep Your Hobby From Becoming A Job.

This short blurb of a blog post is kind of all over the place, references a Slate article from 2014, and also the Emily Dickinson poem “That Love is all there is,” all to say: We’ve only been roasting vegetables since 1980? How is this invention younger than I am?
[RELATED: I have made this Brussels Sprouts Roasted with Kimchi and Scallions recipe at least 15 times since I found it in November 2022, and I can all but guarantee it help you win friends and influence people]

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Semi-Rad

Writer, artist, filmmaker, columnist for Outside Magazine. My newsletter about creativity, adventure, and enthusiasm goes out to 15,000+ subscribers every week.

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Friday Inspiration 548 In the early 1980s, a shipping container carrying between 15,000 and 20,000 Garfield phones was lost at sea near the western tip of Brittany, and ever since, remnants of the phones have been washing up on the beaches. (video) Please permit me a proud husband moment here: After growing and birthing an entire human in 2022, Hilary bravely dove into the first months of postpartum, with a new baby to take care of, and a new identity: Mom. As she struggled to keep her head...

And that's just the actual typing of the first draft. [Timeline showing life events: Birth, Took First Steps, Learned To Ride A Bike, First Kiss, First Job, First Breakup, Said Something Dumb At A Party, Moved Away From Home, Graduated, Took A Road Trip,

Do It 14,000 Times Slower With This One Trick -- If you enjoyed this piece, please consider supporting my work.

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Friday Inspiration 547 This is such a simple construct for a video: Make an extremely difficult obstacle course and challenge a couple of the world’s best bike handlers to try to ride it. But it was still so compelling and fun. (video) An unlikely, but possible scenario you might find yourself in this upcoming weekend: You’re at a barbecue or other gathering, chatting with someone you just met, and you’ve covered the basics (your job, family, where you live, et cetera) and there’s a pause in...