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​Friday Inspiration 531​
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IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A SIGN that you should say, “oh, what the hell, I’ll sign up for Brendan’s trail running and writing workshop in June,” this is it: We are re-opening our application until April 13 at midnight MST to fill two more spots. I can guarantee we’re going to have fun regardless, so you might as well join us for six days of digging into writing and storytelling, punctuated with mellow trail runs every day before lunch. Here’s the link to check it out.​

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I am pretty sure this video “Why did this pro skater become a mailman?” popped up in my feed because one or more devices is listening to my thoughts in the many career crisis moments I have when I wonder if being a freelance creative is really worth it and I wonder if I should just get a “real job,” and the first real job that comes to mind is postal carrier, specifically one of the postal carriers in my neighborhood, who seem to do most of their job on foot, and seem to not be having too bad of a time most of the days I see them out there. (video)

This is fun: A couple photos of the people from the NASA team on the ground reacting to the Artemis II launch.

Tom Chitty, who is one of my favorite cartoonists (I have two of his prints hanging in my house, including one of dung beetles playing poker), is crowdfunding a new book called “Nooks and Crannies of New York,” which will no doubt be hilarious, and has 11 days remaining until its deadline.

Every time Taffy Brodesser-Akner writes a profile piece for the New York Times, I try to read it, because it’s always so damn good and original and thoughtful. My friend Alex pretty much agrees, and we send each other links to her stories when they come out. I hadn’t seen this one she wrote, which was not a profile, but an assignment to “take a vacation” and write about it, until Alex sent it to me. And of course I read it, and as a person who has taken many trips but hardly any “vacations” in my adult life, I found myself nodding, a lot. But it’s also a story about parenting, and her reflecting on how her son is leaving for college, and all her feelings about that, which I assume will resonate with people who have raised children that have eventually moved out of their parents’ house. [GIFT LINK]

Terry Godier wrote + designed this thought-provoking piece using his Casio watch (a “dumb watch,” or what was called up until a few years ago “a watch”) to explain how almost nothing we own nowadays is ever finished. I actually read this the weekend I got a notification that my iCloud storage was almost full, and was spending a chunk of my evenings trying to move files out of the cloud and onto a hard drive (aka doing my job as IT guy for my business and home), so it felt quite appropriate.

Belgian photographer Barbara Iweins spent four years photographing everything in her house—yes, everything, which added up to 12,795 items. And the entire collection of photos is online, indexed multiple ways (I recommend clicking “What I would save in a fire”). (Via Kottke) (P.S. Also click on the installation of the photographs here to see them on some big walls and buildings—might be the best part?)

Michael Estrin announced in December that he was pausing his newsletter, Situation Normal, and this was terrible news for me, because I just love all the wild situations and conversations he ambles into during his regular life in L.A. Well, good news for me, as he apparently is back, and although I missed the first couple posts, he did just publish this one titled “A chat with my vigilante neighbor,” in which he more or less attempts to ask his neighbor Jon the question, “Would you, Jon, die to protect the property of your neighbor, Michael? Really? Why?”

Just in time for the Boston Marathon (April 20!), newsletter sponsor Precision Fuel & Hydration put together this article, A history of marathon fueling, and it’s kind of hilarious looking back at all the not-so-good ideas people have had about what to put in our bodies while attempting to run 26.2 miles as fast as possible. For example you might find it surprising (or maybe not surprising?) to hear how much champagne runners consumed during the early days of competitive marathon running, and if you don’t find that suprising, maybe you will find surprising (appalling?) the amount of rat poison people consumed. [reminder that clicking the above link will give you 15% off your first 2026 purchase of Precision Fuel & Hydration stuff, including this sample pack of my favorite PFH stuff)

Finally: I made this series of slides about the process of making the “You’re Doing Great” shirts, and how the idea came about:

You can buy a shirt in my DFTBA shop here:

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