Takes & Typos

Beloved, Use a Password Locker but Make Sure it's Not LastPass

March 26, 2023

Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash Happy Sunday T & Ters, In a recent newsletter, I wrote about online security and password lockers. Password lockers...

The Already Forgotten War

March 19, 2023

An estimated 200,000 Iraqis, 4500 US soldiers, and an additional 3000 military contractors lost their lives in Iraq Happy Sunday T&T Readers, I don’t talk...

Cormac McCarthy and SA Cosby Are Masters of their Craft

March 12, 2023

Blood Meridian is a book about the worst people possible, doing the worst things possible, along what we now call the US/Mexico border | Photo by Lisa Yount...

Demanding a Seat at the Table

March 5, 2023

You’ll never get what you don’t ask for | Photo by Kane Reinholdtsen on Unsplash When I started the newsletter, I jokingly called it Takes & Typos: A...

The Feds Were Asleep at the Switch for Crypto, AI Could Be Much Worse

February 26, 2023

Police in Dallas used a robot, armed with a brick of C4 to kill a barricaded shooter ending a standoff in 2016—the department later fought the release of...

Three Nights in the Land of Fire - A Travelogue

February 19, 2023

The Flame Towers and the Old City from Maiden Tower Happy Sunday, This week’s newsletter is another travelogue. Hope and I (joined by some friends) ventured...

The Canaries are Dead and No One Wants to Go into the Mine

February 12, 2023

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash Happy Sunday, This week I reflected on the teacher shortage in the US. It’s not really a shortage and I should probably use...

No, Michael—Your Book Actually Didn’t Need THAT Scene

February 5, 2023

Dear Reader, Just a quick note that this week’s newsletter contains a conversation about sexual assault in works of fiction. There are no descriptions of...

A Three Year Trip from Shanghai to the Netherlands

January 28, 2023

The delegates of General Assembly 3 in King Alexander Hall Hey Everyone! This week’s newsletter is a bit of a travelogue. Sunday morning, I hit the...

Another Take on that Silly Chat Bot (or Death to the High School Essay)

January 22, 2023

I’m not opposed to new technology. Hell, I love a new gadget as much as the next guy. But we need to pump the brakes and have some collective conversations...

In Defense of Gatekeepers and Screaming Loudly at Bigots

January 14, 2023

The next time someone complains to me about free speech, I’m just gonna yell “Stop!” In this week’s newsletter I’m riffing on grifting influencers, media...

Missing Home, Dreading Home

January 7, 2023

The east facing view from our flat apartment in Abu Dhabi Hey everyone, This week I am back in the desert and reflecting on a long conversation I had with a...

To the Year Ahead and Year Behind

December 31, 2022

Turning the page from December to January into 2023 Happy New Year! I hope you’re staying warm and making it through the holidays. The time between Christmas...

Back in Tacoma for the Holidays

December 25, 2022

You're a mean one, Mr. GrinchYou really are a heel,You're as cuddly as a cactus, you're as charming as an eel, Mr. Grinch. In my pre-teaching life, I spent...

It Was Capitalism All Along - #6

December 18, 2022

Photo by Andrew Ling on Unsplash Happy Sunday, Friday began my eighteenth winter break as an educator (whew!) and we’ll be flying back to the States for...

Newsletter #5 - Giving People their Flowers

December 11, 2022

Photo by Ioann-Mark Kuznietsov on Unsplash Happy Sunday, This week’s missive is an appreciation for really awesome people who have either inspired me or made...

Newsletter #4 - Dune Hits Different When You Live In Arrakis

December 4, 2022

A scorn of camels in the Liwa Desert in UAE - Photo by Yer Boi Happy Sunday, Yes, I too am mourning the US exit from the World Cup in Qatar. If the team...

Newsletter #3 - Leaning Into the Silence

November 25, 2022

Photo by Semyon Borisov on Unsplash Happy Thanksgiving, US vs England Day, and Stay Home & Chill Friday, Welcome to this week’s newsletter. Today I am...

Newsletter #2 - When Censorship Backfires And The Toll Of Opiates

November 19, 2022

Greetings and Happy Sunday Friends! This is Newsletter #2—you may have noted the migration from Tinyletter to Substack. Let’s just say I had a bad customer...

Coming soon

November 19, 2022

This is Takes & Typos: A Weekly Newsletter, a newsletter about Musings, takes, and culture from my life in UAE. Subscribe now