5 Recommendations

It has been a while, so here are 5 recommendations for your consideration.

  1. This article by the YouGov folks documenting the sad dearth of reading in our society. To say it explains a lot is a large understatement. This is a deep dive loaded with easy to understand renditions of recent data.

  2. Musical Artist Miles Miller. I few years ago I came across a few of the tunes from his inaugural record and became a fan. I especially love Highway Shoes. Recently, at the Phish show I was lucky to see, his new album was played in it’s entirety pre-show. It also has some great tunes, like Stormy and Get Busy.

  3. Jeff Su’s tech YouTube channel. Su’s humor is self deprecating and his videos are both clear and helpful (assuming you use the software he teaches about). He has a newsletter as well that I subscribe to because I am deep into the Google ecosystem. His AI knowledge has also been helpful to me.

  4. The Achilles Trap by Steve Coll. This book was a Christmas gift and covers the background to the US invastion of Iraq. Probably not for everyone, but for history nerds and news junkies, it’s a great read. He does a fantastic job humanizing some of the big players, like the sadistic weirdo Saddam Hussein. (Did you know he wrote novels?) Considering the hubris we are seeing at the moment in present administration, this is relevant reading.

  5. A cool new blog with similar vibes to this one (but with better writing!). The author is a friend and I know his take on the world will be worth reading. Good luck Androsian!

Where is David Rees When You Need Him?

Back when George W. Bush was the president there was a cartoon published in Rolling Stone called Get Your War On. I absolutely loved it. It was created by a very clever, and funny guy named David Rees. The deeply sardonic cartoon used corny office clip art to sarcastically skewer Bush and his fundamentally stupid policies, including the ‘War on Terror.’ The cartoon ran from October 2001 to the end of Bush’s presidency in early 2009. I thought of it because as I recently finished Ben Burgis' book about Christopher Hitchens, it occurred to me how much we need the wit and wisdom of a guy like Hitch in these times. It then also occurred to me that I wish Mr. Rees was making a Trump era version of Get Your War On. Maybe he could call it Get Your Greed On? Or maybe Get Your Corruption On?

Anyway, here are few of Rees' brilliant cartoons.

Help on the Way

I came across this clip from CBS Sunday Morning on Youtube. It was about Metallica’s charity organization All Within My Hands, which donates money for scholarships for young people wanting to earn ‘blue collar’ certificates. As a life-long Metallica fan, it was satisfying to watch because I am proud that this NorCal metal band that I fell in love with when I was 13 was positively impacting many, many people in America. I was also happy about what I was hearing because as a high school teacher, it is clear to me that the push to pressure all students towards college, while well-meaning, is terribly misguided.

Seeing the video recently coincided with Trey Anastastio’s charity run at the Beacon Theater in New York City. The shows marked the five year anniversary since the legendary and top-shelf gigs he put on during the fall of 2020, during the pandemic. At that time, he played in the Beacon to an empty house, actually facing away from the seats. Phans streamed the shows and the musical magic was palpable. Those shows, and the ones this past week, were vehicles for raising money for Trey’s project, the Divided Sky Residential Recovery Program in rural Vermont. Trey is in recovery so the project is near and dear to him. Phish’s Waterwheel Foundation is also out in the world (and visible at Phish shows) doing good.

Of course, one of my other favorite bands, Widespread Panic, has been raising food for local food banks for years. Their efforts actually started as a fan organized movement called Panic Fans for Food. According to their website, they have raised over $279k and 43,000 pounds of food. Pretty cool!

The Grateful Dead, the OGs, created the Rex Foundation back in 1983. Since then they have written more than $10 million worth of grants.

All these examples make me proud to be a part of these fanbases. It goes to show the power of music and the power of community.

Universal Consciousness as Foundational Field?

I came across this very interesting study that attempts to help explain consciousness and bridge the gap between quantum physics, concsiousness research, and non-dual wisdom traditions. I can’t pretend to understand the math, but I understand the argument as articulated below and find it very interesting and seemingly inline with my understanding of Buddhism.

It also reminds me of Ken Wilber’s thought provoking AQAL ‘theory of everything.’ For instance, the study’s depiction of a “Pre-Big Bang” era aligns remarkably well with Wilber’s concept of Involution, where Spirit “descends” or involves itself to create the manifest world. Just as Wilber describes the formless Ground giving rise to form, the study proposes a mathematical “collapse mechanism” initiated by Universal Thought that transitions ‘undifferentiated potential’ into specific physical states. Crucially, both frameworks agree that space and time are not fundamental containers, but emergent properties that arise only after this initial descent occurs. Consequently, the study offers a potential physics-based model for Wilber’s philosophical claim that the spatial-temporal universe is a secondary creation of a deeper, non-spatial consciousness.

My personal bias has me rooting for studies like this. If core Buddhist concepts can be validated with math, that’s a win. Also, if consciousness is unified, then it is true that our feeling of separateness is indeed an illusion. It also reinforces the Buddhist conclusion that we should have compassion for all living beings, animals included, because we are literally cut from the same cloth. All in all, very interesting. I hope more related inquiries follow.

Using Notebook LM in Class

I have been experimenting as a teacher with Notebook LM. One of the cool things we can do is create our own ‘notebook’ with our own hand selected resources, and then share them with our students. Student can then use the ‘notebook’ to study. For instance, they can have the tool quiz them based on the content in the ‘notebook.’ They can also make a concept web and then click around to review details. Another cool feature, which has been out for a while now, is being able to make a podcast that reviews all the content in the ‘notebook’.

My APUSH students will be taking an exam soon on the period 1800 through 1848. I compiled a ‘notebook’ that included hand-selected YouTube videos, websites, and even my own lecture notes. It took the software about 2 minutes to make a 14 minute podcast conversation reviewing all the content in the ‘notebook.’ Pretty damn cool! The podcast is here if you want to check it out.

My same students are also having a seminar on an essay about Nat Turner’s rebellion in 1831. Because I have a pdf of the essay, I was able to turn that into a podcast, as well. My plan is to share that with the kids after their seminar, as I don’t want to discourage them from doing the reading.

A new feature that hasn’t quite rolled out to schools yet is infographics. All together, this is an amazing new tool for high school students, and for lifelong learners.

Nano Banana Pro Revisited

Yesterday I wrote about my disappointment with the latest version of Google’s image generator, Nano Banana Pro. I decided to ask Gemini what I was missing and lo and behold, it explained to me what I was doing wrong. I also realized that the best way to make infographics, which I’ll want to do for my students, is to use Notebook LM, not Nano Banana.

Here are a couple of pics I created for my next lessons in AP Gov and APUSH. We are looking at the New Deal and Great Society in AP Gov and Nat Turner’s Rebellion in APUSH.

Pretty cool.

Playing Around with Nano Banana Pro

I am interested in the latest tech and decided today to play around with Google’s new Nano Banana Pro, which is the top of the shelf (for now) AI image generator. Since it landed a few days ago, there are a lot of YouTubers showing off the potential use cases.

The first image I worked on was a simple, but custom infographic comparing the New Deal and the Great Society for my AP Gov class. Students are working in pairs to conduct the initial reasearch, but I wanted a visual for our review. I’m pleased with the results, but not blown away.

I then decided to see if I could get a picture of FDR and LBJ in the front of my classroom so I could include it on our next daily agenda. I uploaded a photo of the front of my room. Unfortunately, it couldn’t handle my request. For one, it couldn’t use the photo I uploaded. Instead the image it created used a made up, generic classroom. Secondly, it wouldn’t make images of FDR or LBJ since they are ‘public figures.’ Disappointing, but understandable.

Finally, I asked Nano Banana Pro to make a timeline infographic of 10 major uprisings in American History (we are about to have a Socratic seminar on an essay about Nat Turner). It did an alright job, but included two of the events twice. I asked it again to remake the infographic without the duplications and it duplicated _all _the events. Very disappointing. It makes me wonder how much the YouTube influencers are getting paid by Google to promote a product that isn’t quite as good as advertised. Even if they aren’t paying them, surely they are boosting the algorithm (since they own both YouTube and Nano Banana). Needless to say, I don’t imagine using this tool much in the near future.

Organic Purple Yams FTW

The latest habit I’ve adopted is a bit of a weird one. For the past few weeks, I’ve eaten one organic purple sweet potato just about every day. I heard a doctor mention it on a podcast and it was the one ‘superfood’ I haven’t heard much about. I figured I’d give it a shot. Now, I don’t really cook. I’m not very good at it and I don’t enjoy spending time doing it. However, cooking up a purple yam is pretty simple. Poke some holes in it with a knife or fork, throw ‘em into the toaster oven at 400 (I usually cook 3 or 4 at time) and 40 minutes later you’re ready to eat. I keep it simple and add two tablespoons of organic extra virgin olive oil and a little salt and I’m good to go. I mash it up and chow down. I’ve been extremely satisfied and don’t anticipate stopping this new diet habit. I’m already seeing a bit of a reduction in weight, which I chalk up to the fact that the potato fills me up (I’ve usually just had my daily smoothie) and I don’t eat anything else with it. For someone who wants to eat and doesn’t like cooking, this has been a nice win.

The main health benefits from eating purpple sweet potatoes comes from the anthocyanins, which are what make the potato purple. They are also found in cabbage and blueberries and are powerful antioxidants. Purple sweet potatoes are also apparently loaded with fiber, vitamins (especially A and C), potassium, and manganese. Finally, they’re not that expensive.

#winning

5 Recommendations

Sam Harris is one of my intellectual heroes. He ticks off the right people on both sides of the political spectrum imho. However, his work on getting secular Buddhist wisdom out into the world is why I love him the most. The app is not cheap, but the quality of teachings and tools there are elite.

I wasn’t a Dylan fan growing up, but JGB introduced to me to this song and I wound up seeing them play it many times. Strings is a wunderkind and national treasure and his version is just the right amount of bluegrass.

I first came across Young on Youtube about 10 years ago. He documented many amazing self-learning challenges and I found his videos very interesting. He eventually became a blogger and author, though he still makes interesting videos. I found this list to be filled with useful wisdom and food for thought.

Got to hit ‘em where it hurts. I deleeted Waze from my phone once I perused this site.

Tons of great free lectures, ebooks, music, and other interesting tidbits. And did I mention, free?

The Sky Does Amazing Things

I’ve had the same commute for about 28 years. It takes me across Portland, from the SW part of town to NE 122nd, just off I-84. The best thing about my drive is coming up over the Marquam Bridge. At the apex of the bridge, when you are heading north on I-5, Mt. Hood is off at about 1 o’clock to the east. Depending on the time of year, I get to pass over the top of the bridge with the sun just coming up. The last couple days have provided some wonderful views of Hood silhouetted against a splash of persimmon, peach, and amber stretched along the horizon. Over the course of my career, I’d say I’ve witnessed about a hundred wonderful moments like these. It happens just rarely enough to feel special, but often enough so that I look forward to the next one. When this commute is no more, I’ll have to seek out these moments elsewhere.

Four New Books

The month is coming to an end and I treated myself again to some new books to add to my To Be Read collection. The Jill LePore book is very new and since I teach AP Gov it seemed like a must read. Her book These Truths is one of the best American history books I have ever read and I recommend it highly. On Bullshit always capatured my attention when browsing, but I never read it. This is the 20th anniversary edition so I suppose it is time to give it a go. At present, one’s bullshit detector needs to be a precise mental machine. The Ryan Holiday book is the last in his book series on the Stoic Virtues. Cannot wait to read it. Holiday’s writing is taut, packed with great stories, and full of wisdom. Morgan Housel’s book is also of very recent vintage. He does a great job of explaining the timeless truths about money and human psychology.

Dead Ducks

This Saturday three things I love will collide in Eugene at Autzen Stadium; my chosen home state Oregon, college football, and the Grateful Dead. When the Ducks take the field against the Wisconsin Badgers they will be sporting special uniforms that honor the historic connection between the Eugene area and the good old Grateful Dead. Here is the Ducks video introducing the unis. This video explains the connection.

My first ever trip to Oregon was to see the Dead in August 1993 when I was still in college. It was back when they allowed camping at Dead shows and the shows themselves were epic. I remember the blazing sun, the bleachers on the west side of the stadium bouncing during Help>Slip>Franklin’s and getting tripped over at all hours of the night as people wandered around. I also have seared into my mindstream the second set of the first show. Peak post-Brent Grateful Dead for sure.

I normally root for both Oregon and Oregon State (unless they are playing Stanford), but I will be rooting extra hard for the Ducks this weekend. It is too bad Bill Walton isn’t around to enjoy this collab.

5 Recommendations

This is a beautiful translation of the Buddha’s timeless wisdom. The introduction is sublime.

Came across this blog post recently and agreed wholeheartedly. Thought the message should be shared.

  • Goose - State Of The Art (A.E.I.O.U) [feat. Jim James] - 9/24/25

Goose does a lot of great covers. They’ve been coving this song by My Morning Jacket for a while. Indeed, I saw them do it at my first show. Thing is, I didn’t really dig Goose’s version. This recent version has MMJ lead singer Jim James doing the singing. Much better!

This is probably for hardcore Deadheads only. A raw, honest look at the band in the fall of 1973. Primary source Grateful Dead historiography!

This is a cool AI tool. I use it personally but am increasingly using it for teaching, as it is now embedded in Google Classroom. If you are a high school teacher, you need to check this out.

Modern Reminders

I love getting reminders. I need reminders. Productivity guru David Allen famously said, “your brain is for having ideas, not holding them.” I agree 100%. Luckily, I learned a few decades ago that my life ran better when I got things out of my head and onto paper. Back twenty years ago that meant that I still had to open up my planner to see the reminder I had made for myself. Thankfully, life is easier now.

For instance, many people are familiar with and use products such as Apple’s Reminders app to help them offload important details and keep their schedules from falling apart. For whatever reason, that particular option never worked for me, even though I am all in on the Apple ecosystem. It goes to show that we are unique and that what works for several million others, might not work for us.

Appointments and due dates aren’t the only things I want to be reminded of, though. I also want to be reminded of my values, my long term goals, and, as an educator, my philosophy of teaching and learning and what best practices are. Indeed, this is why religious people attend services regularly (or, are supposed to anyway); the spaced repetition helps us remember more deeply what is important. It works for teenagers in high school and it works for adults, too.

One thing I always thought would work for me would be to have a card deck with important reminders on them. I imagine I could keep them at my desk, or in my car, or in my bag, and every day I could shuffle up the deck and be reminded of a bespoke idea that would be great to review again. Being a nerd, I came up with a list of 60 reminders to help me be true to myself. I also came up with 60 reminders about teaching that I wanted to remind myself about on a regular basis. However, instead of manufacturing two physical card decks, I have discovered I can use the new Daily Pulse email option for ChatGPT Plus subscribers to have Chat go into my two lists in Notion and randomly remind me of two ideas via a morning email. Pretty cool. Now, every morning at 6 I get an email from ChatGPT that is tailored specifically to me and what I want to be reminded about before I start my day. I realize some people are wary of AI, but this sort of use case is exciting to me.

5 Recommendations

An open source, native ambient sounds app for Mac that features high-quality audio for 14 carefully curated ambient sounds, ability to save your own presets, and more.

I am interested in how people do what they do, especially people that work with their minds. That means I have a weird interest in people’s desk spaces. This newsletter satisfies.

My fellow Gen Xers and I were lucky to grow up with Ozzy and his music. Recently, in the wake of Ozzy’s death, the amazing Brass Against folks offered up this killer rendition of No More Tears. Michael Palmisano’s reaction is awesome too. His enthusiasm is genuine and easy to connect with.

Arnold’s Pump Club newsletter is great because the info is solid and the vibe is super positive. The world needs more Arnold energy.

IYKYN. ‘Panic’ delivers a beautiful, mellow album that has strong fall vibes for me. An oldie but a goodie.

Three Ways I Use Notion

For years, I used Evernote as my digital brain, but now I am a devoted Notion user. I use other tools like the Google Suite and Apple Notes, but my day-to-day life admin happens in Notion. Many people don’t need tools like this, but I find powerful apps like Notion both immensely helpful and, dare I say, fun to use. I thought I’d share a few examples of how I use Notion.

One way I use Notion is for keeping a Daily Note, a productivity idea popularized initially by Roam Research. There are a ton of things I try to do every day, such as meditating, taking my vitamins, reading an entry from The Daily Stoic, and having my daughter share something with me that she is grateful for. For minds like mine, lists are helpful. I use a Daily Note template in Notion that I can reproduce each morning that contains a list of all the things I want to get done every single day. Obviously, as the day goes on I check ‘em off the list. I’m near a computer all day so this isn’t hard. At the end of the day, the Daily Note is a record of what I accomplished. I have other things in the Daily Note as well, including the top three To Dos that are unique to that day. I also have links to other heavily used Notion pages, like my ‘second brain’ note collection or my miscellaneous brainstorms. Notion makes their pages heavily customizable so I have dialed in my Daily Note to suit my personality.

Another way I use Notion is to save all my brainstorms. Like most people, every once in a while I need to do a braindump and get everything out of my head. With Notion I can save all these brainstorms and attach them to my Daily Note and add tags so they are visible in other parts of my Notion. Again, do you need this to be productive? A lot of people would say no; but it definitely helps me.

A third way I use Notion is for keeping trip notes. When I have a trip planned, I open a new trip template (on my Travel page in my Personal Dashboard) and I’m ready to drop in screenshots of hotel and plane reservations, along with my packing lists and other important notes. Having a system helps minimize the damage my natural forgetfulness can do.

There are a ton of other ways I use Notion and I’ll likely share more in the future. There are other apps that do what Notion does, like Capacities and Craft, but Notion continues to work well for me.

Links to Two of my Favorite Poems

I am not a huge poetry fan, but I do love Gary Snyder’s work. Snyder went to Reed College here in Portland and for many years taught at my alma mater in Northern California. His poetry blends nature mysticism, Zen Buddhism, and the vast landscapes of North America. As of this post, he is 95 years old and still kicking. Snyder’s poetry came to mind because the biography on Jerry Garcia that I am reading explains the influence of the Beats on San Francisco and Jerry. Snyder was one of the OG Beats. Indeed, he is the inspiration for the character Japhy Ryder in Jack Kerouac’s book Dharma Bums.

Below are links to two of my favorite Snyder poems. Enjoy!

Magpie’s Song

Smokey the Bear Sutra

5 Recommendations

  1. Kagi Small Web (via Hulry newsletter) This is interesting to me because I just started blogging and this is a way to see what other bloggers are doing.

  2. Still Kickin’ Rush videos Still Kickin', whoever he is, stopped making these amazing Rush videos awhile ago. However, there are several to enjoy and they are really well done. If you are a Rush fan, you really should take a look at these.

  3. The 74 Million (education website) I discovered this website recently. It is a great resource for educators.

  4. Apartmento magazine This is an eclectic magazine that includes long interviews and photos of artists and others and the spaces they live and work in. I’m interested in how people live so this magazine provides a lot of pleasure. This is the opposite of an Instagram feed; the pics are real, not curated, and the people are given the opportunity to express themselves in long form interviews.

  5. https://emalias.app/ This app, new to me, allows you to create email aliases when signing up for things online. Helps with privacy and decreasing the detritus that ends up in our inboxes.

5 Recommendations

  1. Dignify textiles

I love me some color and these beautiful Kantha blankets deliver. They are a go to gift and we have many here at home. Blankets are made by women in Bangladesh, so purchases support a great cause.

  1. Ryan Holiday’s Cardinal Virtues Series of books

Three of these books have already been published and the fourth is due out in October. Holiday’s writing is sharp, filled with great stories about contemporary and historic figures, and leaves a mark. Highly, highly recommended.

  1. The Number of the Beast by Funky Maiden

Well, with AI loose in the world, it appears people are reimagining great tunes. In this case a song I cranked up a lot as a teenager (and still love) has been given the funk treatment. I love it.

  1. Bohren and der Club of Gore album Sunset Mission

My student teacher last year introduced this outfit to me. He described it as noir jazz and the description fits. Been listening to this album (and their others) in the evening during reading time.

  1. https://www.walzr.com/papers (newspaper covers from around the world)

Hit tip to the Rahul from Hulry newsletter for this one. Cool website, especially on days with big news.

The Apps I Use for My QS Tracking

In order to fulfill my personal stat keeping, as a Quantitative Self aficionado, I use a collection of apps to do the heavy lifting.

Exist and Dayone: I’ve already shared these and talked about them. They are great.

Insight Timer: This is my meditation app. I don’t pay for it, but there are paid tiers. What I love about it is the way they gamify keeping daily streaks alive. The free version also enables users to modify the details of their sessions very easily. Of course, they also have tons of guided meditations, virtual retreats, and a variety of teachings (Buddhist and otherwise).

Dr. Greger’s Daily Dozen: Dr. Greger has written a few books that have been very popular, like How Not to Die. He has a free app that allows you to track your daily consumption of what he says are the key ingredients to a healthy (plant based) diet. There are 12 food categories and 1 supplement he recommends (B 12). I love tracking my diet with this easy to use app.

Oura Ring: Oura rings are pretty popular. Not much to say other than it does a great job of tracking sleep and recently it has been updated to allow for food tracking as well (just take a picture). Worth the money if you need any nudge you can get to stay healthy and like swimming in data.

Apple’s Fitness and Health apps: If you have an Apple Watch, I think you’d be silly not to look at the data you have access to. Otherwise, just wear a regular watch, right?

MapMyRun: This app was once owned by UnderArmor but they apparently sold it to the people who publish Outside magazine. App works the same and does a great job of tracking my (too infrequent) runs.

Google Workspace: I keep my QS stats in a Google Sheet and keep things like my daily gratitude list (3 things every day!) in a Google Doc.

Notion: Everything but my calendar is in Notion. I use it as my task manager and I keep all the other digital flotsam I want to keep a hold of.

I used to wear and use a Fitbit and when it worked, it was great. But it didn’t always work and it got worse once it was bought by Google. I am not using it anymore.