Weblog 1 - Jan 07-22 2023
Published on: Jan 22, 2023Filed under: Scratch
I spent much of this weekend spinning up an old Mac Mini that I literally had lying around to serve as a home server - a project I'd been literally thinking about doing since I stopped using that computer.
In doing so, I decided to tackle a second long-simmering project - finally deduping and compiling my Documents and Projects folders that had amassed on external hard drives over the past decade.
There's just tons of old writing in there. Seeing that is kind of giving me the itch to write again.
Speaking of jumping back a decade - the term blog was once a shortening of "web log" which was a list of links that the author found interesting. As long as I'm taking strolls down memory lane, might as well dust that off.
Your Stuff is Actually Worse Now - Vox
I feel like I adopted a “buy fewer better things” mentality a while ago, but that definitely came with advancing in my career and increased income. Though moving into a new place – and shifting from furnishing to decorating – has had me revisiting that. The article did make me proud of some of the clothing choices I have – shirts from 10 years ago, a sweater from 20.
Should You Be Storing Coffee in a Coffee Canister? - Serious Eats
The testing here seems arduous, and the results are anti-climactic. A good, modern coffee bag works as well (perhaps even a little better) than a dedicated coffee canister. My habit of buying 5 lbs bags (the driving distance to the grocery story paired with my liter-per-day consumption habit means buying small bags is prohibitive) will keep me using a canister for the time being. But if you consume less, the canister seems unnecessary.
A bunch of stuff on steady state rowing
No points for deducing that this reading inspired my rowing post.
The science fiction and fantasy books we’re excited for in 2023 - Polygon
I’ve been reading a ton lately. Audiobooks in the morning with the dogs and while driving. My postwork unwind is now tea, two records, and a book. I’ve read three books this year and it’s only the 11th, so keeping an eye out for books to read next year.
How Useful Is Recycling, Really? - The Atlantic -> Project Drawdown - Table of Solutions
I got into a rather nihilistic discussion with a friend about a new startup that portends to reduce food waste. Approaching things systemically , I started googling to check my assumptions, which lead first to this Atlantic article and second to Project Drawdown. Project Drawdown appealed right to my Product Manager brain, finding the highest leverage means for actually reducing our climate impact. The short version is, "we need to waste less food, and we need to eat more plants." Growing up in the 80s and 90s, we were inundated with the "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" mantra, but I don't recall being taught that recycling was a last resort.