Life
Daily Reminders from Notebook LM
I am enjoying learning how to utilize Notebook LM, Google’s relatively new app that allows users to create their own knowledge bases that they can query or use for learning. One way I have started using it has to do with the fact that I enjoy and need daily reminders. Not only do frequent reminders help me internalize a concept, but it also acts as motivation. Some people likely scoff at such habits, but I find a lot of benefit in them.
Below are two screenshots of one of these reminders. I put together a ‘notebook’ with documents that cover 1. Stoicicsm 2. Buddhism and 3. Toaism 4. The teachings of the one and only David Goggins. Hey, anyone who wants to get better should have Goggins chirping at them in their head!
I throw the same question in every morning (I do this in the morning while I am having my first cup of joe and going through my morning routine). It give me a theme and three quick detailed notes that I should keep in mind. The footnotes is a nice Notebook LM feature that allows you to find where the answer is coming from within your notebook. If I click on one of those footnotes, I am taken to where that idea originates.
Another example of how I use Notebook LM has to do with my diet. I upload documents (and websites and videos) that describe the type of diet and health goals I am shooting for. I also ask it to give me a score (and I provide the rubric I want it to use). Then I upload my daily food and beverage intake and ask it to score me. Again, this is way too much for a lot of folks. However, for a QS nerd like me who wants data and frequent encouragement, this is solid gold.
A Quick Hit on the Availability of THC Drinks at the United Center in Chicago
Well, the times they are a-changing. Just a quick note here about the news out of Chicago this week that the United Center, home of the Chicago Bulls (NBA) and Chicago Blackhawks (NHL), is going to start selling beverages with THC. Apparently, they won’t be sold at the those games, though. Hearing this, I’m not sure what I think. Is it better than alcohol? Yes, probably; though I’ve never had a THC beverage so I have no idea how drinking it plays out in someone’s head. I assume they’d be a bit buzzed heading to the parking lot, especially if they have more than one. I saw that one of the arguments in favor of the move is that Americans are much more likely to properly dose themselves with a beverage, than say with a gummy. That makes sense to me. Americans have been self dosing alcohol by imbibing for our entire history. We’re used medicating ourselves that way. What I wonder is how long it takes for the beverage to have an effect. The longer it takes, the more likely for mayhem on the roads. Then again, concerts take place every night all over America with stoned drivers heading home and that doesn’t seem to be much of an issue. Indeed, since they aren’t selling the beverages at the games (yet), I imagine concert will be the type of event that they will be available at.
Another thought I have about this is that it is a positive step away from alcohol and towards a more benign, though still powerful drug. Combine this with the related fact that Americans are consuming less and less alcohol and I can see why the United Center is making the decision (they are capitalists reacting to what the market wants) and why consumers might be looking for an alternative to $14 Bud Lights (ugh).
I am also curious to see if this catches on in freedom loving blue states where cannabis is legal (as it should be) and where grown ups get to decide for themselves how to relax at a sporting event or concert. Also, how long before they are available at the Bulls and Blackhawks games? Will those leauges, who are so averse to ticking off a part of their fan base, eventually come around. My guess is they big sports leagues will continue to resist, while the idea catches at arenas elsewhere.
Comcast CEO Brian Roberts is Overpaid and the Leader of a Shitty Company
Comcast was so unpopular they had rebrand as Xfinity 15 years ago. Well, Xfinity sucks just as bad Comcast. They are essentially a monopoly, and they act like it (with high prices, shitty customer service, because what are you going do about it??). Yesterday our internet was down for a good 9 hours. They said they were going to improve service. Once it was turned back on, it was slower than before. Today it went out again, and we got no heads up via text. Then, when I went to the app to deal with it, it wouldn’t let me sign in. I knew my password, but it still wouldn’t let me in. Then, of course, I tried to call them to get some help. Did I get a chance to talk to someone? Nope….No humans available.
The CEO of Comcast is a guy named Brian Roberts. He made approximately $34 million in 2024. That was a step down from 2023, when his total compenstaion was $35.5 million. He’s a billionaire, so these earnings are a mere pittance. Guess how he came to the CEO of Comcast? Yep, he’s a nepo baby. His daddy was the founder. He apparently owns ‘only’ 1% of the company via ownership stock, but he owns approximately 33% of the B shares (i.e., the voting shares). The top 3 Shareholders (by equity) are The Vanguard Group (~10%), BlackRock, Inc. (~8.8%), and State Street Corporation (~5%).
Oh, and Comcast also owns a controlling stake in NBC Universal. That means that a nepo baby who didn’t earn shit owns one of the biggest media companies in America, as well as the means of providing the media to your home or computer.
This is another example of someone with too much power, making tremendous amounts of money he merely has the privilege to be earning. Roberts inherited his company, and therefore his disgusting salary. And to be clear, the service they provide, especially their customer service, is shitty.
Funny side note: I just asked Google’s Nano Banana Pro to generate an image of people with pitchforks marching up to a castle named Comcast for my tiny little blog. It wouldn’t do it. Said it was a violation of their guidelines. I read the guidelines and think their explanation is a stretch. Anyway, Google’s got the back of their fellow corporoate overlords covered. Checks out.
OK, rant over.
On Being Sick
Being sick is no fun. I am lucky that I don’t get sick all that often. Unfortunately, today is one of those rare times. I woke up in the middle of the night and knew my body was fighting something. My Oura ring data confirmed things in the morning (not that I needed confirmation, though it is somewhat comforting to know the ring is able to pick up on important changes in my biometrics).
My illness is complicated a bit by the fact that I need to spend a good part of tomorrow afternoon and evening flying across the country. Normally that would throw me for an additional mental loop, perhaps worsening my condition. That situation has me leaning in hard to developing a positive mindset. I am lucky I can take today off and just relax. However, I am also actively working in my mind to convince my body that I am healing and that my trip tomorrow will arise without incident. We shall see.
Being under the weather brings up a few other thoughts about mental framing. For me, I can easily get down on myself for not being as ‘productive’ as I should be. I’ve put off grading for most the past couple weeks and I had hoped to get more done today. I am reframing this as a forced pause that was needed. I am hoping that feeling better, along with the start of the new year, will give me a ‘fresh start effect’ as I dive back into teaching.
It is also a reminder that the body must be respected. I’ve been out of my own bed for almost two weeks now. I spent the night in the Charlotte airport recently, and stayed up late seeing Phish in the Big Apple. My diet, being away from home, has also been off kilter. I respect that my body is sending me a message.
Ultimately, illness interrupts the story we tell about ourselves as capable and in control. It demands less striving and more listening, at least for a while. If there’s wisdom here, it’s not in enduring sickness, but in noticing how quickly we forget the gift of feeling well again.
A Warning System at End of the Year
Ideopunk is right. We need to learn how to course correct on our own. I suppose, our spouses and close friends can provide warning signals. but then again, sometimes confronting someone about the need to rethink something can feel icky.
So how can we create or our own warning signals?
For me, one way is to use events like the start of a new year to reflect. Sure, the timing is arbritary, but it works. For one, the new year always comes in the middle of stretch of time off from work. The winter solstice has also recently occurred, giving me the sense of a new beginning.
My reflection consists of two parts. One, I give myself time for a major brain dump of everything that is on my mind. Secondly, I like the Stop/Start/Continue exercise and apply it to my life. This process usually drips out over several days, allowing my ‘system 2’ thinking to go to work. Do I catch all the warning signs in life that I need to catch? I’m not sure I’m batting 100%, but as a personal warning system, period reflecting helps tremendously.
In Praise of Barnes and Noble
When I travel I love visiting the bookstores in town. Since Covid, because they are ubiquitous, I have had the pleasure of checking out many Barnes & Noble stores. In the past, when big chain bookstores ruled before Amazon, I was always more of a fan of Borders than B&N. However, the visits to various B&Ns around the country over the last several years have led me to change my views about the chain.
One of their strategies, I have learned, is to allow the managers at each location to have leeway to stock the stores based on their knowledge of the local community of book buyers. That way, each store ends of being somewhat unique with a different mix of titles. This is noticeable in Portland when visiting the various B&N locations.
Today I visited the one in North Haven, Connecticut and it was awesome. Something I noticed there, which seems to be a common practice now at their stores, is that they have a wide selection of books. They do this by filing many, many of their books sideways instead of face out. In these parts of their shelves they only have one copy of each book, but the selection of new books is impressive. Rather than the top 10 biggest sellers set up 8 deep, it was hundreds of new books per section filed sideways. I was able to spend about 80 minutes just browsing the non-fiction today.
We are visiting NYC soon and instead of Barnes and Noble I am looking forward to visiting The Strand. Will report on that visit soon.
Adult Merit Badges
It would be cool if we collected weird merit badges as adults. Imagine, finding the right Tupperware top for the container on the first try. That would earn you the Tupperware Matchmaker badge. Or, you successfully remember to cancel the trial subscription the day before they start charging you? You win a Free Trial Sniper badge. Other badges might include the Ikea Master badge for putting a piece of IKEA furniture together alone and without error (I’m still working on that one) or Social Battery Preserver badge for dipping from a party early wihout being rude.
That brings me to my recent travel experience. Travel, of course, has it’s perks–but also it’s dangers. I’m usually willing to take the risk. However, traveling to the east coast over the winter holidays is always quite risky. Recently we caught a connecting flight out of Dallas on our way to Connecticut. About 80% of the way there the pilot came on the intercom and announced we were being diverted to North Carolina, ETA 11:30 pm. The TL;DR is that we ended up sleeping in the B gate at the Charlotte airport and made it up north early the next morning. This was the third airport I’ve managed to be spend the night at and the first with the whole family. We survived…and I earned myself another Slept in Airport badge.
Starting Over Again
I am a believer in habits and streaks. I agree with the Ryan Holiday quote below that they say something important about what we value. However, the fact is that if you try to maintain a lot of habits every day and you keep track of them, you’re bound to break a few. Yesterday, my streak of days with a blog post ended. I was up around 120 days straight, but with travel and visiting family taking priority, my streak went kaput yesterday.
I know some people get easily bent out of shape when an important streak is broken. I get it. The impact reminds me of what some say about tracking things like sleep; that the stress of the numbers ends up making one’s sleep even worse. And again, I can see how that would work for a lot people.
Luckily, that isn’t how my mind works. I strive to continue my streaks, but once they’re over I try to get back on the horse and start a new one without feeling bad about it. Despite my blogging streak ending, I have so far managed to keep two other important streaks alive so far–my daily journal entry and my daily meditation.
So, here I am: On the road, with my days a bit topsy turvy, trying to start a new streak (and keep other ones going). I’ll do my best to beat my last blogging streak but won’t be discouraged if I can’t on this new round. We shall see.
Winter Has Begun
The winter solstice is a big day on my calendar. So much of what Christmas has become is really a celebration of the fact that the darkest day of the year has been reached, and that more light is coming, despite the days continuing to grow colder. The evergreens in our homes, the lights on the trees, and the candles and their atmospheric wonder help us cope with the mugging by the dark and the cold. I love it and I love that the days slowly get longer. Indeed, it is an element of the winter and spring that I most appreciate.
Here are some beautiful poems about winter.
Wendell Berry’s To Know The Dark
And some music…
My Most Recently Added Tunes and Top 25 Most Played Tunes (in Apple Music)
As we get closer to the end of the year, the QS nerd in me kicks into gear. Apple Music makes it easy to capture a few stats, including what has recently been added and All Time Most Played. Screenshots below shine a light on my musical tastes. I’ve been using Apple Music for about 20 years, so the All Time list goes pretty far back. Another detail to note is that the pop music in the recently added pic are songs downloaded by my daughter, who uses an iPad that is signed in to my Apple ID. Oh well. I’m glad she is developing her own taste in music, though. She definitely knows what she likes and what she doesn’t.
He Does Not Forget
We dropped our cat off at the kennel today and that got me thinking about cats. That led me to J.R.R. Tolkien’s poem ‘Cat’ which beautifully juxtaposes a domesticated cat with it’s wild ancestors. The poem appeared not in one of Tolkien’s most famous novels, but in The Adventures of Tom Bombadil.
but fat cat on the mat
kept as a pet
he does not forget.
Life is Aperiodic
I just came across a concept that was new to me, the concept of being aperiodic. Technically, ‘aperiodic’ describes something that does not repeat at regular intervals. More precisely, it describes a system, pattern, or process is aperiodic if it lacks a fixed cycle—there is no consistent period after which it repeats exactly. A common example that we all learn about in school is the number pi. Another example is the tiling pattern known as the Penrose tiling pattern. Mathamatically, what is cool about this is that an aperiodic thing can still have structure, order, or rules, just not repetition.
Upon reflection, it is clear that life is aperiodic. I think we crave cycles because they feel safe: routines, habits, three-year plans. But our lived experience rarely cycles neatly. Even when days look similar on the surface, our interior weather keeps changing and the details are always a bit different. The same evening stroll hits differently depending on worry, hope, hunger, or sleep. Hearing the same song lands with a new weight. There is pattern, yes; but not repetition.
This makes me realize that it is okay if an open loop doesn’t always close when or how I expected. I want to pay more attention to the variations in the pattern of my day to day. Is that not where some of the wisdom hides, in the differences?
Iranian glazed ceramic tile work, from the ceiling of the Tomb of Hafez in Shiraz, Iran. Province of Fars.
Mortality
I had never heard of the poet William Knox until I came across his name in Jon Meacham’s excellent book And There Was Light, which is about Abraham Lincoln and his spiritual beliefs. Apparently, the poem was one of Lincoln’s all time favorites. The poem is called Mortality. I looked it up and consider it a wonderful nod to memento mori; an always welcome reminder.
Ten Books I Hope My Daughter Reads Someday
I hope my daughter reads tons and tons of books. She is a pretty big reader as a middle schooler, so I think she is well on her way. There are some books of course, that I hope that she one day reads. I decided to come up with a list of 10 that I especially hope she gets to. My guess is this is the type of list that will always be changing, based on where I am at in my life. However, for the record, here are the ten I thought of today. Please note, The Lord of the Rings is not on the list because I had the distinct pleasure of reading the whole thing to her when she was younger.
- Meditations, by Marcus Aurelius
2 to 5. Ryan Holiday’s Cardinal Virtues series
-
Eknath Easwaren’s translation of The Dhamapadda
-
The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
This Time of Year
This time of year is always challenging. I was born and raised in California and grew used to a certain amount of sun in my life. Ever since moving north to Oregon, I have been challenged by the increasingly darker days in November and December. It is also a challenging time as a high school teacher because kids and their families are also going through it, often with the added stress of finances and holidays thrown in. In my case, the vibes are sometimes made worse because certain habits fall by the wayside as my personal discipline ebbs with the shorter days.
One positive that stems from this reality is my appreciation of the winter solstice. I love hitting the 21st of December (the usual date of the solstice) knowing that from then on, for the rest of the winter, the days will slowly get longer. It is worth celebrating. Indeed, I can see why the Christians co-opted the celebration.
Some Coming Challenges
I like to run experiments. Indeed, I’ve written about this before. I had some time on my hands last week due to the Thanksgiving holiday and I decided to run some personal experiments of varying lengths during the next four months. The first month-long experiment is going to be writing in my journal every day in December. I usually write 40% to 50% of the days during a typical month.
During the middle of December, for ten days, I’m going to try and reach out daily to a friend of family member. This will be hard, because after a full day of interfacing with teenagers, I usually want quiet time to myself. However, as I get older I realize more and more that I need to make an effort to keep relationships going strong, or going at all. As the new year begins in January, I’m going to challenge myself to increase my daily meditation time above a certain threshold that will feel like I am stretching myself a bit.
Finally, once school is back in session after the winter break I am going to challenge myself to give a ‘Bronco Gram’ to a different one of my students for ten classes in a row, complimenting them for something very specific that they are doing well in class. That means Monday through Friday, a different student each day, two weeks in a row.
The direct impetus for challenging myself in the coming months came from author and blogger Scott Young’s ‘Foundations’ concept. Basically, Young came up with a list of what considers foundational elements of a good life and is offering classes around developing those foundations. I’m not taking his classes, but I loved the idea. I tweaked his list a bit and came up with 10 of my own that I want to keep top of mind in the coming year. My experiments around journaling and meditation stem from the foundation I am calling Spirit & Reflection. The challenge around contact with friend and family grow out my foundation of Connection. Finally, my challenge to dole out some written compliments to my students is connected to my foundation of Teaching & Work. I’ll occasionally give updates on how things are going.
Hope
I came across this quote in the recent George Packer “By the Book' segment in the New York Times. I love this sort of thing because I love seeing into the unique details of other people’s lives. It’s the same reason I love the weekly ‘Sunday Routine’ segment they do.
Randomly, I actually had the pleasure to meet Mr. Packer when he came to my school to talk about reading and writing to several classes (including mine). I think it was 2019?!? I’ve enjoyed the three books of his that I’ve read, including The Assassins' Gate, The Unwinding, and his biography of ambassador Richard Holbrooke, Our Man.
What might I add to this excellent, succinct list? Other than swapping his progeny out for mine, not much: Packer nailed it.
Gratitude
For several years now, since before the pandemic, I have been in the habit of writing down three things each day that I am grateful for. I don’t remember where I got the idea from, but it is a fairly common suggestion among those influenced by the teachings of positive psychology. I keep my list in a running Google Doc. Honestly, I don’t know if I’m happier as a result of the practice, though I do enjoy doing it every day. I’m looking forward to using Google Gemini to help analyze my list, but that’s a topic for a different post.
Considering it is Thanksgiving, I wanted to share three things I am grateful for here.
- My incredible good fortune to have been born where and when I was born, with a healthy mind and body.
- My beautiful, quirky, compassionate wife and amazing daughter, who is infinitely more amazing than I thought a daughter could be.
- My senses and mental faculties through which I am able to wonder, experience awe and the full range of human emotions.
Paying the Man
Today was one of those days when you’ve just got to pay the man. The tire light came on in one of our cars so we took it in to Les Schwab, a Northwest icon of a company, to see what was up. We ended up having to buy two new tires for almost $500. I was curious about the cost and did a little poking around.
Tire mark ups are apparently about 35%. Seems like a very healthy margin. I also learned that Les Schwab is worth approximately $7 billion. It is also no longer owned by founder and namesake Les Schwab. He sold the company in 2020. The current owners are the Meritage Group. Who owns the Meritage Group? Well, they appear to be owned by a guy named ‘Nat’ Simons, who inherited his wealth. His father Jim Simons had a net worth of approximately $31.4 billion at the time of his death in May 2024. Hmmmmmm….
I love that our need for tires helps support others who live in our community. However, considering the margins for tires and especially because of who now owns Les Schwab, I feel less good about the expenditure. Furthermore, I feel like this transaction is very indicative of our current economic reality in the United States. Specifically, you’ve got a company that appears to be local, but is actually owned by a mix of private and public equity. The real owner inherited the privilege of owning the company and has so much money (none of which he earned) he can’t even comprehend what an unexpected $500 bill feels like to a middle class family.