Chris Brooks Newsletter 033
Happy 2025! A bit late with this newsletter. I shared some Tops from 2024 over on the blog.
1. 🚘 Where I've Been Traveling
Julie and I had a great family visit weekend trip to Las Vegas in mid December. Stayed at the in-laws and brothers Dave and Mike came along for some pre-Christmas fun. It was the 30th anniversary of Dave, Mike, and I discovering Magic: the Gathering so we had to celebrate with some play.
Christmas holiday was amazing - our Napa extended family (Kaitlin's family) is so welcoming.
2. 📖 What I've Been Reading
Articles:
- I spend a lot of time talking to my students about the power and importance of usable, consistent, and ideally permanent links (URLs / URIs) for "stuff". The Linking Manifesto is an excellent capture of that mindset.
- Palantir has a reputation as a bit of a black-box company, and maybe a bit evil (I don't think they are). I've enjoyed reading more about how they work, especially these reflections on Palantir that reflect a software product development process about exactly the opposite of everything we've been classically taught.
- At least one of my readers might be an expert on this - this is an educational take on why don’t we do more prescribed burning? An explainer. I'd love notes / corrections if any of you have them!
Books:
- Finished The Scholomance by Naomi Novik. Weird but fun. Definitely in the older-young-adult category.
- Skimmed and took some notes on Keynes Hayek: The Clash that Defined Modern Economics. It was fine; I'm no expert but I'm not sure I agree with some of the conclusions.
3. 🍿 What I've Been Watching
TV Shows:
- Still enjoying season 2 of Silo; final episodes are a big improvement over the first 3.
- Julie and I re-watched season 1 of Severance in prep for season 2. Shocked at how many details I forgot! The Music Dance Experience (MDE) was some of the best TV I've seen in ages.
Movies:
So much!
- Hairspray (2007) because brother-in-law Mike is about to star in a Kansas City production of the musical. I think I like the original John Waters movie more.
- Our obligatory Hallmark Christmas movie this season was The Santa Class. Not bad!
- Criterion Channel had the Bob Dylan documentary Don't Look Back on for free in December, so I watched it. Twice.
- Love Actually, of course.
- Finally watched The Boy and the Heron with high expectations but this is maybe Miyazaki's worst movie that I've seen? So hard to follow.
- Of course Julie I went to see A Complete Unknown in the theater as a New Years treat for both of us. I was inclined to like it and certainly did. Timothée Chalamet was so good.
- I'm using the local library to get DVDs of some movies to watch in my backlog, and found Licorice Pizza in the catalog. If you are my age or older, go and watch this; you'll love the nostalgia trip. Just a really fun movie for anyone though.
- Another one from library was Immediate Family, a music documentary about the LA-based session players that backed folks like James Taylor, Jackson Browne, Carole King, Phil Collins, and so many more. Fun if you are into music and back stories.
- We all love a "Liam Neeson uses his very particular set of skills" violent film (released about annually), amiright? In the Land of Saints and Sinners is actually pretty decent; helped by the setting in Donegal and the great supporting cast.
- Very much enjoyed Air, the story of Nike landing Michael Jordan.
4. 🎶 What I've Been Listening To
Music:
- Lots of plays of Tracy Chapman for my exclusive album club.
- Jim and I are now onto Highway 61 Revisited, one of my all-time favorites.
- There's a new Lumineers song out (and new album coming) (music video).
Podcast:
- I usually skip Song Exploders for songs and artists I don't know, but I'm glad I listened to this one about Sabrina Carpenter's "Please Please Please".
- While you're at it, watch the brilliant old-school music video
5. 🎮 What I've Been Playing
- Jacob and I are playing Dien Bien Phu - The Final Gamble. It might take us another month or two.
- Still playing... Balatro!
- Julie and I picked up a few games over the holidays, all good: Forest Shuffle, Mistborn: the Deckbuilding Game, and The Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle-earth.
6. 🥂 Theme for 2025
2024 was a bust (theme-wise, otherwise and amazingly good year) and I'm expecting a better one in 2025. Read about my coming Year of Strength.
Thanks for being here - I'm grateful that you read this! Hope you have a great 2025.
-Chris
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