September 13, 2024

spencergreenhalgh.com posts digest for Sep 13 2024

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Here are long-form blog posts I published this week:

• the new Reeder is exactly the app I want right now

• 13 family conversations from before, during, and after a graveside service

Here are microblog posts that I published this week:

• Like much software, I only know as much Git as I need to get my stuff done, but I’m pleased to report that some code conflicts in class finally got me to learn .gitignore.

• Spouse bought some “chai spice” nut butter last weekend, and—tragedy of tragedies—I’m the only one in the family who likes it. It is a bit more peppery than I usually like chai stuff, but my increased toast consumption wouldn’t indicate as much.

• After a few days of griping that the library has once again misplaced one of the books we turned in, I have indeed found the book in kiddo’s room.

• “That kid spends too much time listening to audiobooks and podcasts while already doing other things,” I think to myself as I turn back to the dishes while putting my earbuds in.

• It feels weird to be giving advice to first-year faculty, because I still feel like I don’t know anything, but my spouse recently pointed out that I’m now more senior than most of the people I turned to for advice during my first year…

• Bike commuting golf: See how few times you have to put your foot to the ground while on your way to work. It’s more a game of chance than skill (lots depends on the red light gods), but I still enjoy playing.

• Being a parent sometimes means developing strong opinions about things you knew nothing about before your kids were born—like what the best optional-second-player mechanics are for platformer games.

• I wish that wearing an implicitly anti-surveillance EFF t-shirt through airport security this week had been a deliberate decision, but I just like wearing EFF shirts and it wound up being a happy coincidence.

• I am currently on a train, and I so rarely have the chance to do this (there is no passenger rail where I live, in Kentucky) that it feels extra fun.

• Les frites ne sont pas un vrai repas en soi, mais la poutine, si, et j’en serai toujours reconnaissant aux Canadiens.

Here are news articles and podcasts I commented on this week:

• 🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Second Circuit Says Libraries Disincentivize Authors To Write Books By Lending Them For Free'

• 🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'College Grades Have Become a Charade. It's Time To Abolish Them. - Slashdot'

• 🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'People are paying 'Strava mules' to do their runs for them, but why?

• 🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on '750 | What’s Brewing | Wasatch Front | Part II'

• 🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'What If Trump Wins?'

• 🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Fayette County schools leaving X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter'

• 🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Musk Threatens to Impregnate Taylor Swift'

• 🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Father of Ohio boy, 11, tells Trump and Vance to stop using son’s death for ‘political gain’'

• 🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'What Musk's Twitter takeover could tell us about a possible government appointment'

• 🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Big publishers think libraries are the enemy'

Here are my reviews of books and other media I consumed this week:

• 📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ for Attack Surface, by Cory Doctorow

• 📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️🖤🖤🖤 for After the Downfall, by Harry Turtledove

• 📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤 for Pirate Enlightenment, or the Real Libertalia, by David Graeber

• 📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤 for Extremely Hardcore: Inside Elon Musk's Twitter, by Zoë Schiffer

• 📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ for The Murderbot Diaries: All Systems Red, by Martha Wells

If you have thoughts about anything I've posted, feel free to comment directly on my website through Hypothesis or to reply to this email with what you have to say.

Thanks for reading!

Spencer