I cannot believe I haven’t seen this guy’s art before, but I love everything about his work, including the fact that he CREATED HIS OWN PAINT for these enormous, impermanent, outdoor murals. (video)
I don’t know if this is the best time of year to mention this, or the worst, but: These Friday Inspiration newsletters take me several hours every week to curate and write. I am able to have the time to do that because people like my friend Don Laub support my work through Patreon (thanks, Don!). I want to never charge anyone for this newsletter, and I have been able to keep it free because of the many people who kick in $3 a month or more on Patreon. Those people, of course, also get to read about things like how I recorded my audiobook, the 50-pound Little Free Library I built, and my 2024 book recommendations (coming in the next week or so!). Oh, and I’ll mail you some free stuff when you sign up, depending on what level of support you go for. You can choose to do an annual membership and save 5%, or a monthly membership, through this link: https://www.patreon.com/semi_rad OR: If you want to give a Patreon membership to someone, you can do that through this link: https://www.patreon.com/semi_rad/gift
I’ve been hooked on reading these “I thought about that a lot” essays, published anonymously every day from December 1 to December 24, on a variety of topics. Obviously we’re halfway through December, but you can still sign up and get them in your inbox, or just click through the site and binge on them. Here’s the first one, “In 2024, I thought a lot about saying bye to a dad I never knew.”
I wouldn’t say I agree with 100% of the 20 points on this list, “The New Rules of Media,” but there are several really interesting takes in here.
This was from Colossal’s most popular articles of 2024, and I may have shared it back in July, but I’m not 100% sure—it’s a cross-section rendering of the legendary Kowloon Walled City in Hong Kong, which was the most densely-populated city on earth during its existence (more than 100 times as densely populated than New York City, according to my math). The image is from an out-of-print book, and I recommend clicking on the link to the full-size file at the end of the article to see the whole thing, because WOW.
I do not fancy myself an intellectually advanced person who cannot experience joy in something as simple as a takeout box fitting perfectly in the center console of this person’s vehicle, or any of the other small but satisfying moments I have had through the r/Perfectfit Subreddit.
Author and runner Sabrina Little briefly sums up one of the many points of dialogue we have with our fitness watches.
Maybe nobody cares about this, but there was a Kottke.org post last week asking people for examples of something they noticed that they thought no one else noticed, and in the comment threads, there was mention of this: Dunkin’ Donuts used to make A DONUT WITH A HANDLE ON IT, so you could, you know, dunk it in your coffee. But they stopped making it in 2003 (although as of the writing of this article back in 2016, you could still get them in Singapore).
ALSO: If you are planning to gift my How To Tell One Story online writing course for someone on your list this holiday season, you still have plenty of time (I’ll put a reminder in next week’s newsletter too). All you need is the person’s first name, their email, and what date you’d like the course to start for them. And if you’ve been thinking of buying it for yourself, but don’t want to start it just yet, you can use the gift option and specify when you’d like the course to start (January 2?). Click on the photo below, or on this link for more info: https://semi-rad.com/courses/
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