Category — Uncategorized

I get that this was (1) a joke that turned into a TikTok thing, and (2) is likely over by this point, and (3) led to many pineapples being damaged, but it’s kind of a brilliant way to get people into the store AND help them find one another in a no-pressure way.

If I ran the store, I would have a ribbon you could pick up as you entered the store, and you could tie it to your cart. And different colours would symbolize different things. Like blue would mean you’re looking for friendship, and it would let people know to strike up a conversation with you. Or red could mean you’re looking for a date, so if they see it on your cart, you’re available to be asked out. At the very least, you get your shopping accomplished. And at most, you walk away with someone’s number or a fun conversation.

So who is going to start this for real without damaging pineapples?

Remember how I had an entry for an upcoming Janice Hallett book called The Killer Question in my TBR spreadsheet, but I couldn’t find a mention for it anywhere on the internet?

Well…

I’ve been checking weekly, and last week, it popped up again on Goodreads. It now states it will be published August 1, 2025 by Viper Books. I can’t find it on Viper’s site or any book site (e.g. Blackwell’s) yet, but I feel vindicated that I obviously didn’t dream it up.

And I can’t wait to read it next summer.

When I taught, I always knew when I was done for the day. When I left campus, I usually left work back on campus with few exceptions. Therefore, when I left campus, I was done for the day. The work was there for me to restart again in the morning.

But I’ve been working remotely now for 19 years. 19 years! And it’s much harder to know when I am done for the day. If I’ve ticked everything off the to-do list, and it’s beyond a certain hour, am I done for the day? If I have to stop so I can make dinner, am I done? I’ve been trying to move to a different room to work on personal projects and delineate between work and home.

But if I had nothing to do after work, there is a chance I would just keep working. So I make myself things I need to do.

Oliver Burkeman recently wrote about the concept of being done for the day. He explains: “When you end the day feeling like there’s vastly more you ought to have done, you’re telling your nervous system it can’t take a break; and you’re reinforcing an idea of your work as an oppressive and insatiable force.” So he encourages you to set a point in the morning when you will know you are done for the day and stick to that endpoint. It’s more about “feeling done” than actually “being done.”

It’s an interesting read if you also struggle with this.

I like Nathan Bransford’s blog, mostly because he asks interesting questions and then sometimes re-asks them, year after year, charting the answers. A recent question: “Where are you spending time online these days? Have you noticed your habits shifting?”

It made me realize how the internet has gone the way of television. You know how it used to be that large groups of people watched the same shows at the same time? Many many many people watched, for example, Friends on Thursday nights. Cable fractured that, and streaming services fractured it more, so there is rarely a television event we’re collectively tuned into at the same time on the same day.

Communities used to go to the same sites, making it easy to find your group. For instance, Babycenter, IVFC, or the Resolve boards. But now that we’ve fractured into so many spaces on the internet, it feels harder than ever to make connections. As the internet grows and gives us more options to gather, we gather in smaller groups and make looser connections.

How do you find new people and connections when there are so many places to go?

A few weeks ago, the Washington Post ran an article about a seemingly idyllic social network that sounded like the Internet pre-blog-hate sites. I don’t need to name them — you clearly know them and how people piled on certain bloggers. But before Facebook and Twitter and before those sites, blogging felt like sitting on the front porch, talking. Everyone in the ALI community was my neighbour. I went from blog to blog, collecting wisdom, nodding, and generally feeling like I had a community of smart people to ask questions and gain support.

So, I was thrilled to read about the site and a little jealous that it wasn’t in my state. But when I went to Google the site, I saw a very different reaction from users online who complained about how the site was just as tense as my own neighbourhood listserv despite the dek promising “unkindness is strictly prohibited.”

Are humans doomed to ruin every community we create to connect with one another? It sort of feels that way sometimes.