• All the Pretty Horses and The Crossing are beautiful western novels by Cormac McCarthy. Both are very much “a boy and his horse” kind of stories about learning to be yourself. They’re loosely related and there’s a third book that brings the boys together and concludes their stories

• The Jungle and Oil! by Upton Sinclair are novelizations of Sinclair’s investigative journalism work in the meat packing industry and the nascent workers rights movement respectively. Oil! was very loosely adapted into the film There Will Be Blood (the film covers maybe the first 3-4 chapters by greatly expanding upon the material

• Hatchet by Gary Paulsen was a very impactful book for me as a child. It’s a YA novel, but still worth a read. The main character Brian survives a plane crash in the Canadian wilderness and is forced to find a way to survive on his own

A few more recent novels that I enjoyed:

• Prophet Song by Paul Lynch. Won the 2024 Booker Prize (best English language novel) about an authoritarian government taking power in Ireland and how that unfolds from the perspective of a mother with young children. It’s a hard read, but very well written

• Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez. Translated into English. A friend described it as “sexy witches in South America deal with authoritarian rule.” And that’s pretty close…

• Same Bed Different Dreams by Ed Park. A semi-fictionalized history of the Korean Peninsula and the desire to have a unified identity. Many people come to the peninsula (same bed) with very different goals for its use (different dreams). Really fascinating book and engaging

• Tomorrow, and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. Follows a trio of friends as they explore the world of video game design. Starts in the early 80s and runs through the 2000s. Reminder me very much of the show Halt and Catch Fire.

• My Friends by Hisham Matar. Follows a Libyan immigrant living in England in the 80s through 2010s as he wrestles with his identity, his homeland, his friends and family. Khaled’s closest friends serve as foils to his own feelings, reacting to the same circumstances very differently from himself

Jamming the Z button to make the GameCube screen squeak during the animation 👨🏻‍🍳🤌🏻

Futurama is a hot mess of a show because of how Fox butchered the original broadcast order.

This [latest] season has alternatively been titled the ninth season (production) and the twelfth season (broadcast). This list follows the previous season box sets, which feature the episodes in the original, intended production season order, ignoring the order of broadcast.

I would recommend picking a convention (production or broadcast) and sticking with it. It looks like tvdb prefers the former (hence only 9 seasons)

Check out Spiritfarer. I loved it

My top ten-ish tv shows

1. The Wire
2. Bojack Horseman
3. Patriot
4. The Americans
5. Better Off Ted
6. Arrested Development
7. Pushing Daisies
8. Gravity Falls
9. The Bear

Honorable Mentions

1. Over the garden wall
2. Luther
3. Friday Night Lights
4. The Queen’s Gambit
5. GLOW
6. Mindhunter
7. Sports Night
8. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
9. Atlanta

On my fifth rewatch right now. Just started S2

Hackers 1995

Obsidian might work for you

John Hinckley Jr. attempted to kill Ronald Reagan to impress actress Jodie Foster.

Sirhan Sirhan assassinated Robert Kennedy as he was running for president. Sirhan was born in Jerusalem prior to the establishment of state of Israel. He is a citizen of Jordan. He was motivated to assassinate Bobby over the latter’s support for Israel.

I recently took a trip with two children (4, 18 months). We did a sleeper train from Brussels to Prague (EuroSleeper) and from Vienna to Zurich (NightJet operated by OBB)

The OBB trip was phenomenal. Great amenities, and we were on their older model. So I can’t imagine how great the newer carriages are.

The EuroSleeper was awful. Bad amenities, never received our (prepaid) breakfast, temperature was stifling (85° F, 29° C) and the ride was not very smooth.

I would gladly do a sleeper train again, but maybe not with kids so young. Probably not until the kids are 10+

In the 2000s and early 2010s, less of your life was lived on a cell phone or smartphone.

For kids now, it’s 100% of their lives. Post-COVID, the majority of social interaction between peers is through a social media app.

That means that close to 100% of kids are on their phones during the school day. If you aren’t, you run the risk of social isolation and FOMO.

Administrators can’t send a kid to detention for using their phone because ALL kids would be in detention every day.

Here’s one article that examines the problem

Archived version