📖 The Tripods Book 1: The White Mountains
By John Christopher
Just relaxing on a birthday getaway watching professional cornhole and enjoying the end of micro.camp. 😎
📖 The Hilarious World of Depression
By John Moe
(Read in its entirety on my birthday getaway)
☑️ 📖 💭 Come, Sweet Day by Julianne Donaldson
My wife and 3yo were drawing together, and my wife drew this picture.
3yo: “What is that?”
Wife: “Well, it was going to be a frog.”
3yo: “And then what happened?”
😂
What a fun gold medal game! 🏀 🥇 🇺🇸
You can only become a better writer by becoming a better reader.
You have far more experience as a reader than you do as a writer.
You’ve read millions of words arranged by other writers.
How many sentences have you made so far?
📖 🎧 Star Wars: Thrawn Ascendancy Book II: Greater Good
By Timothy Zahn
Greenfield vs. Brownfield
I came across a fantastic article today from Austin Kleon’s weekly newsletter that he wrote called “The pirate gardener”. It’s worth reading in full.
In it, he shares that Brian Eno suggests that artists can be divided into either farmers or cowboys. Then Dave Hickey gave a different spin on the same idea, classifying people as either farmers or pirates.
Austin challenged the idea that we can define people by those categories:
This got me wondering, as I often do, about nouns and verbs. Maybe it isn’t a question of being a farmer or a pirate, but whether you’re farming or pirating. Maybe they’re two different artistic modes that we operate under.
This made me think of a corollary in software engineering. Projects can be classified as either greenfield or brownfield. Often, software engineers have a strong preference one way or the other, and shape their careers accordingly. But that is not who they are.
It is interesting to think about how much our preferences define us. We attach labels to ourselves, and to others, that we call our “identity.” I’m leery of reducing anyone to a single part of their life. People are complex beings. We need to acknowledge that in ourselves and recognize that in others.
My wife made up a color matching game which our 3yo loved.
Our 22mo girl started playing and put things wherever. My wife said, “Good job! You’re doing it.”
The 3yo got right up in her face. “No. You are not doing well.”
Then she got mad and trashed the game.
😂
What a fun game! I love that a block by Gobert won it. Go Jazz! 🏀
📖 Shadow Puppets
By Orson Scott Card
📖 🎧 Steal Like an Artist Audio Trilogy
By Austin Kleon
📖 Shadow of the Hegemon
By Orson Scott Card
📖 Ender’s Shadow
By Orson Scott Card
Verbal violence
The words we speak or the tone we use can cause damage just as physical blows.
Originally posted on my HEY World blog.
This evening I had a small altercation with my eight year old. It was nothing major. He refused to do his chores when it was clear that he wouldn’t get his turn on the Nintendo Switch since it was already bed time. He slammed the door and ran downstairs.
A few minutes later, I heard an object striking the door. Then another. I opened the door and saw him scurry away from the bottom of the stairs. Riled up, I marched down to his room and demanded that he clean up the toys he had thrown.
“There will be no turn at all tomorrow for you if you don’t clean up those toys!”
“I don’t care! I will never clean them up. I never want another turn ever!”
Thankfully, at that point I closed his door and went upstairs. A few minutes later, I heard something on the stairs again. I moved to the door and found it locked. As I unlocked it and went back down to his room, I was ready to law down the law. I planned to speak harshly and let him know what he had done was wrong.
As I entered his room, and looked at him, a distinct thought came to my mind. I realized that the tone of voice I was about to use would strike him as clearly as if I had hit him. I saw, not a disobedient troublemaker, but a young boy angry and disappointed.
Luckily, I caught myself in time. I spoke calmly to him, and told him that going up and down the stairs would keep his baby brother awake and I needed him to not do that.
I felt a great sense of relief. Hopefully next time I can remember the first time to avoid verbal violence.
📖 🎧 The War of Art
By Steven Pressfield
📖 🎧 The Dichotomy of Leadership
By Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
📖 First Meetings: In the Enderverse
By Orson Scott Card
📖 Ender’s Game
By Orson Scott Card
📖 A World Without Email
By Cal Newport
📖 James Herriot’s Dog Stories
By James Herriot
📖 Cat stories
By James Harriet
📖 🎧 Extreme Ownership
By Jocko Wilinks and Leif Babin