Category — Uncategorized

I felt so many feelings reading this New York Times article on hanging out with friends as an adult. That used to be the activity — the request. “Do you want to come over and hang out?” But now it’s going to dinner or seeing a show or going on a walk.

When you’re a kid with limited funds and modes of transport, hanging out with friends feels natural. But adults are often used to doing scheduled activities with one another … “Often, we don’t think something is beneficial unless it’s productive.”

I also like the idea suggested in the article of meeting on a park bench, creating a neutral third space where people can arrive and leave whenever they need.

I miss long afternoons on someone’s sofa, doing our homework, talking, and just… well… hanging out.

After celebrating my birthday for the past three weekends, it felt selfish not to set aside a single weekend for Josh. I am not a man, and I am not in his head, but it seems like there are many fewer complicated feelings about Father’s Day than there are about Mother’s Day, which is lovely if it’s true. I’d like him to have an uncomplicated, relaxing day of appreciation because I really appreciate Josh and told him so in a card.

We are a card family. Cards are the highest form of gift you can give, and they must be homemade. The front is a picture — either a visual depiction of an inside joke or a heartfelt reminder of something important to the receiver — and the inside is a long message stating in no uncertain terms how much you mean to the other person.

I keep all of mine.

And sometimes re-read them when I need them.

That’s what we’re doing today.

I always save the latest Anthony Horowitz until his next book comes out, and then I read the saved one when I need a fantastic book. I save books from a few authors: Anthony Horowitz, Janice Hallett, and Richard Osman. I read most other authors right when their books come out. But those authors are consistently fantastic, so I often save them.

I just started the fourth Hawthorne and Horowitz book on my birthday because I bought the fifth a few weeks ago.

I’m a book saver.

ChickieNob told me she could not stand the idea of a book by one of her favourite writers being out in the world and waiting to read it. It makes sense: You can always re-read a book if you enjoy it. But what if you never end up getting to the saved book? Then you missed out on that story for no good reason.

She’s a book savour.

Because I want to be like ChickieNob when I grow up (she is younger but much wiser), I’m thinking of switching to savour mode or holding only one book in reserve at a time.

Which one are you?

Ron Charles has the most brilliant weekly book newsletter – if you don’t already read it, you may want to sign up. Not only do you get book recommendations, but he also dives deep into certain books/ideas.

His newsletter from a week or two ago blew my mind with the concept of the informational corpses we leave behind.

“When we encounter the dead through their left-behind data,” Öhman writes, “we are not merely facing a symbolic mask but a lifetime of data, an informational corpse.” More than 2 billion people are expected to die in the next 30 years. Eventually, the deceased will outnumber the living on Facebook.

Whoa. Isn’t that a thought that gives you pause? I don’t unfriend people after they die, so I have accounts in my feed for people who are no longer here, and no one has done anything with their accounts. I still get reminders to wish them a happy birthday or memories to look back on.

But this writing — this blog — will one day become part of my informational corpse. Everything I leave behind digitally will be part of me because it’s part of my mind and personality; someone will have to decide whether to preserve it or allow it to fade away.

Ron Charles always makes me think.

I’m in a travel-related Facebook group, and someone posted that their child noted the location of webcams trained on a street or inside a building before they left, told their parent when they would be at that location, and then went and “checked in” by waving at the webcam. So, if their parent went on the webcam at the same time, they got to see them and know they were okay. It’s how they’re traveling with limited data and still able to communicate that they’ve reached their next location. In the post I saw, the boy stood, waving at the camera in front of Abbey Road in London.

I thought it was a fun idea for anyone to do with people back home. You can use Earth Cam to find webcams in your location. Aren’t humans clever?