We lost power for an hour right around sunset today with 30°F weather and it highlighted just how underprepared I am for these situations. We almost had to order delivery and I almost bought a big battery.
Very much enjoying Pluribus on Apple TV. Fascinating premise. You know you’re in good hands with Vince Gilligan and Rhea Seahorn.
Bravo 404 Media, bravo.
Nancy Pelosi, one of Wall Street’s all time great investors, announced her retirement Thursday. … Pelosi’s portfolio returned an incredible 816%, according to public disclosure records. The S&P 500, meanwhile, has returned roughly 229%.
In an interview with Jon Stewart, Pelosi said that money absolutely corrupts. When Stewart asked if money corrupts Democrats she simply said no.
Regardless of what you think of Pelosi, her policies and legacy, let’s all agree there’s a some detachment from reality occurring. Of course money corrupts. You think you’re impervious?
Reversing Enshittification
I loved hearing Cory Doctorow going off on everything wrong in the tech industry on Decoder while promoting his new Enshittification book.
I want to work on projects that are part of the antidote — open source, fun, free, and built to solve problems not be gross and make billionaires richer.
My History with Frankenstein
Guillermo del Toro’s CBS interview is incredible and well worth your time if you create (or want to create). He puts everything into his projects and it’s incredibly inspiring to hear about why he loves Frankenstein so much.
You are born to sing one or two songs in your lifetime. This is my song.
And:
What is beautiful about monsters is they become patron saints of imperfection.
I saw Guillermo speak at the Roger Ebert Festival during a Q&A session after a showing of Crimson Peak at the Virginia Theater and I’ve been a huge fan ever since. His films like Nightmare Alley, Pinocchio, The Shape of Water, and Pan’s Labyrinth are incredible and so I was thrilled when I learned he was making Frankenstein.
Last Thursday night, on Halloween Eve, no less, I drove an hour to see Frankenstein in theaters (curse you Netflix for your limited theatrical runs!) and absolutely loved it. The sets, performances, costumes — it is clearly the work of an auteur who loves this story and it’s a beautiful rendition of a story so seeped into our collective minds.
I came to the movie a bit naive to the myth and story of Frankenstein. I read Mary Shelley’s 1818 book (did you know Shelley was 19 when she wrote it?) on the original 3.5” iPhone when I was 16 and I’ve seen Young Frankenstein a dozen times (and even performed in Young Frankenstein in group interpretation in high school) but somehow I had never seen a true Frankenstein movie before Guillermo’s.
I highly recommend seeing it in theaters. But if you’re not near a major city I guess just stream it on Netflix on Friday? Highly recommended.
I cannot find the quote now, but I heard Guillermo say something like:
My entire life I dreamed I could make the best Frankenstein movie. Now that I’ve made the movie — I don’t know if I achieved that goal — but it’s no longer a dream, I did it.
I say “would you like to watch a slow horse?” instead of “would you like to watch an episode of Slow Horses?” and luckily my spouse gets what I mean.
Today I bought a Kermit hand puppet (Muppet?) for my kiddo at a garage sale, trimmed a tree like an arborist (cut my finger with said blade), took a nap outside, took a walk with friends, and had wine at an art gallery.
Fall is an amazing time down in Urbana. I highly recommend it.
I released MapKeep 2 this week that adds categories, search by address, iOS 26 Liquid Glass, and more. It’s free, so check it out.
(It’s a simple utility app that saves your current location while you’re out and about with one tap. It supports iCloud sync and works on iPhone and Apple Watch.)
Bon Iver’s Day One is one of those songs that instantly fills me with happiness. This video is a delight!
During my first-listen of the new Bright Eyes album, Kids Table, (Apple Music) I was compelled to pause and listen to the original Sharp Cutting Wings by Lucinda Williams (YouTube, Apple Music). Somehow I had never heard this song before.
After lots of annoying DNS and Apple Account email shenanigans, I officially switched from Fastmail (which I loved, but couldn’t justify $4/mo for how little I use this email) to iCloud Custom Email Domain. So far so good. Fingers crossed that this seldomly-used feature actually works. 🤞
I have been meaning to write about my recent experiences using Claude Code this summer. Matt Webb’s post captures a lot of the frustrations and excitement of this new tech and what it means for the act of making software.
Coding with AI sometimes feels like asking someone to make you a PB&J sandwich but instead of grabbing the peanut butter already in the cupboard, it goes to the grocery store and comes back without the peanut butter.
We’ve entered a new phase with my kid: if my wife and I are having a glass of wine, then kiddo will demand I give my wine to my wife (cue Borat voice).
Kids really do have good intuition.
My first experience with the movie Jaws was this 30 second animated short by Angry Alien in the early days of online video. My most recent was seeing it in IMAX tonight. It might be a perfect movie. Go out and see this movie on the big screen!
Imagine starting a major social network and the domain name you procure is bksy.app? No shade on the .app — I am a proud member — but come on: Your brand is an illusion, just one big typo.
This year has been filled with shitty things Trump (and his band of goons, crackpots, and maniacally incompetent jack offs) have done. One more truly despicable stone on the pile: they just canceled tons of funding for brain cancer research. Job well done, assholes.
I’ve been thinking about Louie’s post about the value of video games. Yesterday we got 2 burritos and a kids quesadilla delivered and it was $35. Using the power of math, Mario Kart World is roughly the cost of 2 dinners and I’ll be playing that game for years and years to come.