What's got my attention these days - December 2025
Things I’ve been thinking about in 2025
We’re going to do this in a countdown style list.
In November, I had what should have been a very low-risk, low-impact surgery on my wrist. After telling everyone who would listen to me that I have a severe allergic reaction to adhesives, I unfortunately woke up with a cast on my arm and, under that cast, tape over my stitches. Since then I’ve been in a health flare, my 2025-diagnosed MCAS (Mast Cell Activation Syndrome) acting up in new, fun, unexpected ways. I’ve been reading up on serum concentrations of various compounds and their dampening effect on Mast Cells, because there’s only so much Benadryl I can take before I fall asleep.
Digital Gardening as been a topic on my mind of late - namely, how do we hold onto information and research, and how do we catalogue things? To that end, I’ve recently started using Readwise Reader to highlight things from my blog feed (they can catalogue RSS feeds from Substack, too!). The reading experience is more pleasant than using my email app, and I appreciate that I can put pretty much any content source in there as something to read.
Along the Digital Gardening lines, I’m back to using Notion as my primary place to keep track of #allthethings. What I haven’t loved, in the past, is how difficult it can get to find information over time. Enter: Sublime. It’s basically a way to bookmark information across the web, categorize it, and come back to it. I import my Readwise Reader highlights into Sublime, which saves their source in a link which I can come back to. If you want to see everything I’ve saved, you can do so here. And if you want an invite to sign up, reply to this email and let me know.
Other articles in digital gardening from Podge Thomas and this podcast episode from Anna Howard on Wild Geese, if you’re not familiar with the concept. I’m still trying to determine how my digital garden itself will shape up, and where I do my note-taking. Although, for now, Notion seems to be the winner.
I’ve been thinking a lot about brain rot these days. At the beginning of this year, I stopped using social media cold turkey. No more Threads. No more Instagram. And as Substack become more “socially” inclined with Notes, I decided to move off of it, too. And yet, that didn’t really solve the feeling I had that my brain was becoming mush. This article by Joan Westenberg caught my attention, as well as several posts by Eleanor Kang (Postcards by Elle). Some of the “brain mush” feeling has been chronic illness and the brain fog that comes with MCAS, EDS and POTS (the trifecta - I should win a prize). When I came across these posts, they perfectly summarized what I’ve felt. This is also a reason why I am staunchly against using AI for things my brain can do with some effort. When you stop thinking…you…stop thinking. (Also this article on AI and it’s impact on the brain.
This song by Moda Spira. Also, my most played song in 2025.
Zine and analog subscriptions. I might be addicted, but here are several recommendations.
Prompts (very excited for this one to kick off in 2026)
What’s got your attention these days? Let me know!
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