Two-day work week last week, and another one coming this week. Highlights of the time off so far: reading breaks, catching up with family, coffee every morning, playing Switch again, morning runs, movies and TV, walks in the neighborhood, “study hall” to learn more coding stuff, making end-of-year charitable donations, and making gumbo for Christmas dinner.
I vibe-coded a white noise app this weekend. Functionally it’s a copy of the most-used features from my previous go-to noise website. But now I can do the same in a dedicated app outside the browser, more finely tailored for how I use it.
The coding itself was very pleasant and absorbing, just me and Codex in the terminal ripping for a couple hours, testing ideas, whittling things down, circling back for a bit of polish. Reached ~1000 lines of good-enough-for-me code, called it a day, started thinking about other problems to solve. Nothing like home cooking.
I like this idea of “Ins and Outs” to set the tone for the new year. Now pondering what my 2026 should hold, after the examples from Chris Martin and Carl Barenbrug. I think I’ll keep these weekly posts on the “In” list.
Art
Really cool online exhibition of Tom Lloyd’s work at the Studio Museum in Harlem.
Books
War and Peace. So it begins. I’m 150 or so pages into it and while nothing monumental has happened so far, it’s been a ton of fun. I think I misconceived the book based on 1) the title and 2) Russian setting and 3) the author, and assumed it would be something more heavy and dour and serious. But it’s has a lightness and liveliness that’s been really fun to read so far.
Running
Challenging but fun weather this last week: running in sleet one morning, and in a few inches of snow yesterday, with random skids and slides and postholes demanding extra effort and attention. So fun. A great time to insist on regularity, to the extent that I can.
Around the Web
“Capitalism (and now AI) increases the number of trade-offs we face, and therefore increases the importance of meta-preferences—the stories we choose to live inside.”
“A book is, we know, an unrivaled technology for living more life.”
Does it help to know history? “The real sin that the absence of a historical sense encourages is presentism, in the sense of exaggerating our present problems out of all proportion to those that have previously existed.”
“All art galleries are a bit weird eh. Each time you visit, there are a hundred paintings scattered in rooms and you walk through like uh-huh, uh-huh, ok, that’s nice, uh-huh, ok. Then at random one of them skewers you through your soul and you’re transfixed by the image for life.”
“So many want the fruit without the root. The glow without the gutting. The revelation without the reverence.”
It was only a matter of time: HighAgency.com.
Stimulation Clicker is, sadly, very amusing.
The Story Behind Isamu Noguchi’s Playscapes in Atlanta and Why So Many Control Rooms Were Seafoam Green. (Thanks, Jara.)
How the White Savior Became This Year’s Cinematic Punchline.
Music
J.S. Bach: The Art of Fugue, perf. Cuarteto Casals. I’ve never clicked with this work, but yet I persist. String quartet version is novel, at least.
Bach: Sonatas and Partitas, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, perf. Chris Thile. Mandolin transcriptions are very nice.
Bach: Weihnachtsoratorium / Christmas Oratorio (BWV 248), Thomanerchor Leipzig, Gewandhausorchester cond. George Christoph Biller.
Bach: there’s no one better!
Movies
Superman (2025). It’s fine. The dog is annoying.
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Extended Edition. Better than I remembered. I think the extra footage helped stitch things together better, a bit more heft where we previously skimmed along.
Little Women (1994). Heart: warmed! Loved this movie.
TV
The X-Files, s5e12 “Bad Blood“. Vampire shenanigans! Great to see them locked into a silly register, and in a Rashomon-like multiple-perspectives narrative.
Line of Duty, s5e5–6. What a great series. Each is only a handful of episodes each, but hard to think of many that hold the quality bar this high through multiple seasons.
Hannibal, s2e1–2.
Mark Larson 