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​Friday Inspiration 449​

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This is kind of a rapid-fire of short video stories about pizza, and maybe you won’t watch all of them (the whole video is a bit over 8 minutes), but if you watch the first one, you will have seen, maybe for the first time, the World Pizza Games pizza acrobatics competition, a sport I just found out existed yesterday. (video)

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I don’t often eat ice cream at McDonald’s, but I love that someone made a website (in 2020!) that tells you which McDonald’s ice cream machines are broken, which is quite useful, as apparently many of them are broken. (thanks, Kate)

The reason Oliver Burkeman’s writing (and books) are so good at what we might call “self-help” is that he never promises to change your life, or help you optimize your morning routine or whatever—he just kind of brilliantly says, “what if you thought about it differently?” As he does in this essay about how we turn creative projects into big things so we can put them off (and maybe never do them).

Maybe it’s just because I’ve been spending a lot of time with Richard Scarry’s books lately, and been trying really hard to get Jay to say “shark car,” but I love this cartoon about the cars of the future. (via Kottke.org)

I found this essay while browsing Substacks, and I think there are some really interesting thoughts about how increasingly dependent we are on technology to remove friction from our lives and homes, and how maybe that's not really that great. I loved this line: “We only need to fear being replaced by robots, if we live like robots.”

This is a bit last-minute, and quite specific, but if you’re interested in running the Twin Cities Marathon (or 10-Mile Run) in Minneapolis in October, you can get a charity bib through Unite2Fight Paralysis, an organization working to advance research into spinal cord injuries. Here’s the link to the charity bib info.

My friend Nick Triolo (formerly an editor at Orion Magazine and Outside/Trail Runner) is teaching a writing workshop in Todos Santos this February, and he has written a lovely piece about his long relationship with the town, which will either make you want to sign up to attend his workshop, or just google flights and lodging in Todos Santos.

In early 2023, I switched my shop over to DFTBA, a merchandise company started by the famous writer/YouTuber/creative brothers Hank and John Green. The DFTBA headquarters just happens to be in Missoula, and they’re fantastic. DFTBA is always evolving (and growing), and they’ve recently re-launched their Good Store, which gives 100% of its profits to charity. The products they’re selling now are coffee (which I’ve tried and can confirm is great) and tea, soap made by local Missoula company Botanie (which I’ve tried and can confirm is also great), and socks (which I declined because I have 400 pairs of running socks that will last me until I die, but I assume are great too). If you’d like to check them out, this link will get you 25% off your entire order: https://good.store/SEMIRAD​

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