Coffeeshop.
I become aware of cello sounds over the speakers. My breathing slows, brow un-furrows, & I gradually realize it is @zoecello
How to Write — The Awl
Incredibly accurate description of the writing life by Heather Havrilevsky. Today, I woke up at 4 a.m. because one of my dogs was making a strange gulping sound. I sat for several minutes listening closely, wide awake, wondering if she wasn’t developing esophageal cancer or some other gruesome ailme
Laurie Anderson: Advice to the Young
Laurie Anderson is my hero. “I became an artist because I want to be free,” she says in this short video. “I hate it when people tell me what to do.” Also: “The branding thing is something to really avoid. The Facebook stamping of who you are … resist that pressure. Because that pressure is […]
1 min read
Suburban bliss.
Not to complain, but the children have been obnoxious, I’m not sleeping enough, car alarms keep going off in the neighborhood, the track workers have been jackhammering all morning, and the house is its usual mess. Sometimes it’s not all sunshine and roses here in the suburbs. from Facebook via IFTT
Bay Parade Swim Report
Today’s Bay Parade swim went super well. It was a beautiful day on the Bay, the water wasn’t too cold (maybe 58 degrees near the Gate, 62-plus in McCovey Cove), and we had a fun bunch of swimmers aboard our boat, comprising two teams: “Flood Tide” (my team) and “Frijoles Frios.” There was some initi
1 min read
How Technology Hijacks People’s Minds — from a Magician and Google’s Design Ethicist
“The problem is, maximizing interruptions in the name of business creates a tragedy of the commons, ruining global attention spans and causing billions of unnecessary interruptions each day.” —Tristan Harris, in an illuminating essay on how the techniques of attentional misdirection deployed by tech
Help me keep the SF Bay clean.
I’m doing a swim on Sunday, May 22, as part of the annual Bay Parade. I’m part of a relay team, and we’ll be swimming about 6 miles from the Golden Gate Bridge to AT&T park. Click here to support my swim for a cleaner SF Bay. It’s a fundraiser for Baykeeper, a nonprofit that fights to […]
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When a clickbait headline leads to national outrage.
So Gizmodo publishes a story whose headline reads “Former Facebook Workers: We Routinely Suppressed Conservative News,” and the Internet goes predictably apeshit. There’s just one problem: The story doesn’t deliver what the headline promises.
2 min read
Master class on prosody.
Vox just dropped a 12-minute master class on prosody featuring some amazing rap lyrics. Rhyme, beats, metrical motives … this really covers some ground. Super cool.
Breaststroke.
The breaststroke has a faint sense of femininity attached to it these days. There’s the name, of course: Anything beginning with “breast” seems inevitably female, at least a little bit. But it’s also a slower stroke than the crawl, otherwise known as freestyle. You could use the breaststroke in a fr
3 min read
As a horse when he has run
As a horse when he has run, a dog when he has tracked the game, a bee when it has made the honey, so a man when he has done a good act, does not call out for others to come and see, but he goes on to another act, as a vine goes on […]
Wild geese
Few men have souls so dead that they will not bother to look up when they hear the barking of wild Geese. –Roger Tory Peterson (for “men,” modern readers may wish to substitute “people”)