2026-03-16 10:37:00
Is there anything more punk than spending your snowy Sunday listening to The Rezillos, piling up a mountain of snow, and digging a big hole into it, just because it's fun and makes you happy?
Yeah, I'm really proud of this igloo, we kicked butt on it.
Next time, we'll make the roof higher and the room bigger to accommodate two adults and two kids.
2026-03-16 08:07:26
This is a great list, saving this for later.
Another item I’d add to it is this aspect ratio calculator. I’ve used it for years to help me figure out dimensions for cropping photos for use with social media.
Come to think of it… these one-off generators are incredibly trivial for coding agents to whip together. I should host a bunch of my own. 🧐
2026-03-15 12:15:00
Curation was once something we did for ourselves, a ritual that shaped our taste and gave us joy. I worry that in our rush toward convenience, algorithms, and now AI agents, we’re letting go of that agency piece by piece. Maybe what we need isn’t smarter technology to choose for us, but the space and intention to start curating again — for ourselves, on our own terms.
I’ve been aggressively curating my digital gardens lately.
I used to hit “shuffle all” on my music library and cringe at roughly half of the songs.
Lately, there’ve been consecutive days of listening on shuffle where I don’t skip a single song. And often, I pull up my phone to see who the artist is.
The more I curate, the happier I am.
Cull, weed, curate, clean... all synonyms for the same thing. Do the work, reap the benefits.
2026-03-14 21:27:00
I found Dr. Becky's definition of a boundary very helpful:
Boundaries are what we tell someone we will do, and they require the other person to do nothing.
To illustrate this point, she talks about her son getting in an elevator and pressing all the buttons.
In the first example, she says to her son before getting in the elevator: "Don't press all the elevator buttons! It's annoying and disrespectful to other people."
Her son then goes ahead and presses them all anyway.
She points out that saying "my kid doesn't respect my boundaries" here is actually wrong, because she never set a boundary. She made a request.
In the second example, she says, "When we get in the elevator, I'm going to stand between you and the buttons. And even if you lunge for them, I will stop you." Then she'd actually physically be ready to block him.
That's a real boundary: she's telling him what she will do, and it doesn't require him to do anything.
On a similar note: saying "we don't do X" actually gives away your authority. The stronger language is "I'm not going to let you do that."
When you make requests and call them boundaries, you are giving away your power. A true boundary restores your power and protects your connection because you (theoretically) end up not yelling out of frustration.
2026-03-11 22:17:00
This is a pretty fun "reasons I love the internet" game where you are presented with a textbox and a timer, and you have to list as many animals as you can before time runs out.
I played this game a few days ago by myself and got 93.
This morning, I played it with my wife and kids, and we collectively got 153.
I wonder what other categories would work with a game like this. Simpsons characters? Bands?
2026-03-08 11:54:00
Around the beginning of every month, I try to journal about the albums I've been bumping on repeat recently.
Instead of keeping that locked up in my journal, why not post about it here?
If you're looking for something new to listen to, here's what I would recommend right now1:
Probably a top 5 favorite album at the moment, been on the list for a while, it's so great. It's great British punk/new wave.
Heh, I threw this greatest hits album on as a lark, and I couldn't believe it. Turns out I'm a B-52s fan? They remind me of A Flock of Seagulls and The Rezillos; a bit new wave-y/punk-y in their early years, eventually landing on a delightful early 90s alternative rock sound. They've also got some of the weirdest lyrics and riffs I've ever heard ("Where's my umbrella? Where's my umbrella?").
I’ve been jonesing for some music to be angry at authority with, and this fits the bill.
I came across a last.fm stats website the other day and played with the race chart for a solid 15 minutes. Watching Nirvana climb the charts as it approached current time made me so happy. I love this band. It’s okay to like basic things, right?
This came across shuffle the other day and it scratched my recent itch for emo music.
Still the GOAT for helping me get into flow. Sort of lo-fi, but also sort of jazzy instrumental?
Another top 5 favorite album, slotting into the spot that at one point in my life was dominated by Rilo Kiley. It's smart and emotionally-rich indie rock.
Also a top 5 album. Whenever I'm feeling lonely, this album puts its arm around my shoulder and tells me it's gonna be alright.
More music to get into flow. A great backing track when cleaning the house.
Sometimes, you need some pop punk, man. Anthem Pt. 3 is my anthem for 2026.
Another top 5 album. I learned this week that Anais wrote Hadestown, and I also learned our local high school is performing it in the spring. I can't begin to express how pumped this makes me.
Moar good punk. Makes me so happy to hear such excellent music from the youths.
I’m not 100% sold on this one, but I do like having it come across shuffle when I'm working. If anyone has any recommendations for lo-fi artists, I’m all ears.
When we went to volunteer at Feed My Starving Children this past week, Shan threw on Mumford & Sons’ essential tracks, and both of the kids said they loved this band. That really made our week. We also got tickets to see them in the summer, which means my wife gets to see her favorite band twice in a single year!
New albums from bands I love always worry me because it takes me multiple listens to get used to them doing new stuff. I’m officially past that phase with this album; it’s incredible and perhaps even better than Expert in a Dying Field.
Within the first 15 seconds of hearing this album, I bought it on Bandcamp. Totally brings me to happy times around my college years. It’s an instant jangly indie rock classic.
Much like Straight Line Was A Lie, there was a moment this past month where this Pynch album finally clicked for me. I still prefer Howling at a Concrete Moon, but I am sold. I dig this album.
I came across this two-track release and felt like Ted Leo was speaking directly to me at the moment, so I picked this one up from Bandcamp as well. Definitely looking forward to hearing more from him in the coming year.
Still need to bump this a bit more, but there are several songs on here that the kids absolutely love, which makes me happy that we’ve got an album we all agree on that isn’t by Huntrix.
Brand new release from these dudes. You know what? They still slap.
Oh, and in case anyone's curious: I'm still working on Lunara. I tried building a custom crossfade engine to replicate how songs transition in Plexamp, and it's causing way more issues than I anticipated.
But on the plus side, I didn't write any of this damn code so I am totally on board with having multiple conversations with Claude to get it whipped into shape for me.
My favorite feature that I added since I last posted is a digital gardening assistant. From any album or artist, I can tap a "🌱" button and it pops up a new screen. On this screen, I can type in a quick description or tap a button with preset actions ("Delete", "Fix album art", etc.). This information, along with the album and artist, get sent up to an admin section that I can use to prune my library when I'm back at my laptop.
I'm not gonna link to these albums on any specific platform because they all are pretty terrible and y'all probably use a bunch of different ones. So I guess I'll say if any of these look interesting, listen to 'em first on your streaming platform of choice and if you end up liking it, look 'em up on Bandcamp and buy it. Don't feel obligated to keep paying $15/mo to rent music. ↩