For the last week, I’ve been obsessed with my new CO₂ monitor. It’s been so fun to keep tabs on it throughout the day. I notice how it spikes when I get trapped in a meeting room, or after cooking; and how it gradually trends upward over the course of the day indoors; and how quickly it drops when I throw a window open.
I didn’t have much reason to get it other than curiosity. I’ve seen snippets about how high levels of CO₂ affect cognition, drowsiness, etc., but wasn’t sure I was actively suffering in that way. But I suppose it’s like that business idea that you can manage what you can measure, but translating more to a personal skill. I remember learning how to use a ruler as a kid, and a thermometer, and counting heartbeats, and then running around and using them on stuff and seeing different numbers. Eventually you can guess how tall that building is, what the temperature is right now, what 25°F will feel like, or that your heart rate is oddly high for what you’re doing.
Maybe I’ll be able to do the same for CO₂ and humidity at some point? Anyway, another way to learn more about the world! I’ll probably do more purchases like this this year.
Art
Velório da noiva (Bride’s Wake) and Colheita de flores (Flower Picking), paintings Maria Auxiliadora Silva.
Winter Scene in Brooklyn, oil on canvas by Francis Guy. (Dumbo used to look like this?!)
A textile fragment from the Paracas culture of Peru. “Composite beings celebrate the importance of the agricultural cycle. Both figures carry strings of lima beans in one hand while chili peppers emanate from a staff in the other and tubers float above their heads.”
Running
I’ve now run every street in Park Slope. And that makes 5 additional neighborhoods where I’ve run every street, since finishing up my local Crown Heights stomping grounds. Sunday morning runs in fresh powder, highly recommended.
Books
Middlemarch! So fun. More quotes:
- “‘The theatre of all my actions is fallen,’ said an antique personage when his chief friend was dead; and they are fortunate who get a theatre where the audience demands their best.”
- “It is an uneasy lot at best, to be what we call highly taught and yet not to enjoy: to be present at this great spectacle of life and never to be liberated from a small hungry shivering self – never to be fully possessed by the glory we behold, never to have our unconsciousness rapturously transformed into the vividness of a thought, the ardor of a passion, the energy of an action.”
- “There are answers which, in turning away wrath, only send it to the other end of the room, and to have a discussion cooly waived when you feel that justice is all on your own side is even more exasperating in marriage than in philosophy.”
- “As the sore palate findeth grit, so an uneasy consciousness heareth innuendoes.”
- “In all failures, the beginning is certainly the half of the whole.”
- “She felt that her tears had risen, and it was no use to try to do anything else than let them stay like water on a blue flower or let them fall over her cheeks.”
- “The right word is always a power, and communicates its definiteness to our action.”
- “The troublesome ones in a family are usually either the wits or the idiots.”
Articles & Episodes & Twoots
Craig Mod reflects on 6 years of the membership program. There is wisdom here: “The program exists for the goals, not the members”.
The 1997 Nike/Penny Hardaway Super Bowl commercial had an insane number of stars!
Norm Macdonald tells a long story about a pig.
“Those who write for children have the chance to point them towards beauty that they do not yet know exists: towards versions of joy that they have not yet imagined possible.”
“Horizon of uncertainty” is a really neat phrase.
“Employees are at an established company because they made a decision in life for stability. Embrace that, continue to provide stability (currency for employees) in these uncertain times as it will be key to steadying the ship and retaining talent. […] If your company employee age is trending younger (ie. folks have only just started pushing out babies) then you’ll need create space for them to be able to grow on the job.” The management politics of implementing AI will be interesting to watch.
How far you can get from London by train in 12 hours.
Movies
Crime of Passion. A driven newspaper journalist rejects the roles that society wants for her, plots a way to power. What should we make of Rivera’s “Cargador de Flores (Flower Carrier)” framed in the main couple’s bedroom?
Tampopo. A stranger rides into town and helps a woman with her struggling noodle shop. The feeling may fade a bit with time, but right now I’m in love with this movie. Such a big heart. And expansive enough that the main plot is interspersed with vignettes with unrelated characters, snapshots of a world beyond, full of concerns and worries and dreams just like our own.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2. Franchise complete. I don’t remember the different movies/plots in this franchise all that well, but I’ll put this one pretty high on the list. I like the wartime/battle scenes, and Ron really redeems himself from the previous, making himself useful again. Appreciate how many people get to contribute throughout the series (e.g. destroying horcruxes). It’s not just the Harry show.
Music
AYRTBH, Bust Fossil. Electronic textures, I suppose? Not sure what to make of it all, but I like “bicycle” and “beverage“.
Mdpri & Git Busy Trio, BA*. Jazz/funk/hiphop. “又鸟鸡鸡鸡鸡” is sampling/homaging something but I can’t put my finger on it…
Sestetto Dino Piana & Oscar Valdambrini, 10 Situazioni. Some of it sounds like ’70s TV show themes (complimentary!). “Placido” is v. nice.
Kibrom Birhane, Here and There. Ethiopian jazz with a lil’ bit of butt-shakin’. Check out “Maleda“.
Marshall Allen, the New Dawn single for his upcoming album. I like “African Sunset“.
Triosence, Giulia, crisp piano jazz trio.
Voision Xi, Queen and Elf. Soft ballads, lounge singer stuff.
Various Artists, Guruguru Brain Wash 2.
TV
The X-Files, s4e7 “Musings of a Cigarette-Smoking Man“. I had a strong negative reaction after I first watched it, but then I did some reading around, and now I rank it pretty high? Regardless of the literal truth of the story we see, appreciate the reflection on CSM’s loneliness, and an opportunity to ponder the character beyond the plot purpose to foil investigations.
Severance, s2e2. Interesting to see more adventurous camerawork here. Milchick is the creepiest person in town and I don’t understand why people keep inviting him inside their homes!
Mark Larson 