Category — Uncategorized

Along with people who cannot visualize an apple, I find it bizarre that there are people who enjoy other people coming over without warning.

(These are probably the same people who are thrilled by phone calls they didn’t expect to have.)

364 comments later…

This one cracked me up:

“This is such a modern question. I wonder what today’s introverts would have done 100+ years ago before telephones! The only way to talk to people then was to go and see them. I imagine introverts back then hiding behind the door, pretending not to be home.”

Where do you fall on the spectrum? I’m a hard no.

Do you ever feel like the universe keeps bubbling up the same post for you to read because there’s a message in there that you didn’t retain the first few reads? Every so often, the universe bubbles up this amazing essay that appeared in the Guardian a few years ago. It happened again this week.

The author died the day the Guardian published his essay about lessons learned, knowing that he wouldn’t reach middle age.

“Knowing that my life was going to be cut short has also changed my perspective on ageing. Most people assume they will live into old age. I have come to see growing old as a privilege. Nobody should lament getting one year older, another grey hair or a wrinkle. Instead, be pleased that you’ve made it. If you feel like you haven’t made the most of your last year, try to use your next one better.”

Every time I read it, I try to remember it. Maybe putting it here, I will stumble over it more and more often until it becomes rote.

At the risk of sounding not that bright, I’ve never truly understood inflation. I mean, yes, I get the idea that the price goes up; therefore, if you have the same amount of money, you can buy less. But, I found a great visualization via Kottke that shows the cost in eight categories over time.

So, let’s pretend your groceries cost $1 in 1999. They would now cost $1.84 today. But groceries never cost $1. Let’s make it a more realistic $189.36. To buy the same bag of groceries today, you would pay $348.42. That is a huge difference, especially because it’s unlikely that your salary will increase by the same percentage.

Only the cost of clothing has remained the same or decreased in price.

Mind blown by this visual explanation of how far your money goes changes over time.

I feel like this article needs to be prefaced with a warning. The Guardian ran a first-person piece about stillbirth from a father’s perspective. If you missed it, I found it a moving and important read, and I appreciated that they gave space for the father’s voice.

He writes: “Losing a child in this way is a horrifying experience, and for women there are online support groups, podcasts, books and baby loss influencers. For men: next to nothing.”

If you feel up to reading this difficult but important piece, please read the whole thing. If you don’t feel up to the entire thing, this was the most perfect way I ever heard loss described:

“I’ve learned a lot of horrible things in the last year, but mostly I’ve learned to think in a different tense: the future lost. If this hadn’t happened, then we’d be doing that; if this happens for us eventually, then we’ll do this.”

Future lost.

Last week, I hit my yearly reading goal on Goodreads, and it gave me virtual confetti. I set a goal I knew I could read — 48 — which isn’t really the spirit of a challenge. But I like my challenges to be not that challenging.

Most of the books I read are in the mid-300-page range. Last year, my average was 363 pages, and I assume it will be around that this year, too. I don’t like short stories. I feel like it’s a lot of work to get to know a character, and if I’m investing the time, I want to spend a few days with them. I don’t like long books. I feel like some characters overstay their welcome, and long books feel like a guest who never leaves. Books in the 350-ish page range are just long enough that the characters feel familiar, and I can imagine my way through their world, but not so long that the interactions on the page begin to feel tedious.

Do you like short stories or long books?