Macro Blog?
I’ve had a hard time finding a blog platform that I really enjoy. I tired a long time ago of the WordPress ecosystem. It is a big and vibrant space, but it’s too clunky and now the new Gutenberg changes are causing a huge uproar. A couple of years ago I moved all my content into Markdown and setup Jekyll. I first used GitHub Pages to host it, but then moved it to Netlify so I could have solid SSL. I value the benefits of static sites. But, authoring content in them takes significantly more effort. I miss simply opening up my browser and typing! Having to do git commands and such is just enough friction to cause me to publish much less.
I’ve been very happy with the continued development of micro.blog though, and a bit inspired by Manton Reece’s site where he has brought all of his blog content into one place. Why not use micro.blog for longer content? 🤷
Book: When Breath Becomes Air
I’ve had “When Breath Becomes Air” sitting at our cabin for a while, but decided to pick it up and read it on winter break. The book is a memoir by Paul Kalanithi told in two parts. The first part is his path through medical school and becoming a neurosurgeon, being close to serious illnesses, and dealing with death as a Doctor. The second part is after his cancer diagnosis with stage IV lung cancer, which causes his death within 18 months.
There were two things that struck a chord in me while reading this.
I kept thinking back to Being Mortal by Atul Gawande. I’m sure it was in part because Kalanithi, like Gawande, is a Doctor. The first part of the book had many references to the Doctor’s perspective when diagnosing a patient with a terminal illness. This book did too. Being Mortal is a very different book, and one that I highly recommend reading, but this touched on similar topics with a more personal perspective.
The other thing about this book was more personal. It reminded me in so many ways of the path of my friend David Hussman, who passed away earlier this year. He had the same diagnosis, stage IV lung cancer. I’m pretty sure he even had the same EGFR mutation and received similar treatments. Similar to Kalanithi, he did remarkably well for a long while after getting treatment. Enough that you could kind of forget a bit. But the cancer is just held back a bit. I was wishing I would have read this book when I got it, as it would have given me some deeper perspective when talking with David.
We all watched Kiki’s Delivery Service yesterday. Another in our Studio Ghibli “festival”. Not as good as Totoro or Ponyo, but the kids enjoyed it a lot.
We all really enjoyed My Neighbor Totoro on Christmas. Great Studio Ghibli film. 🎬
We played Photosynthesis for the first time and had a great time. Recommended game with a lot of strategy, but still playable by younger kids. 👍🏻
Time for traditional Christmas Eve dinner off the grill! First, have to “bottom start” the Big Green Egg to unfreeze the lid! ❄️🔥 Always leave charcoal in your Egg in the winter!
Home Free Christmas at Treasure Island
Surprised the kids with a Home Free concert tonight, the last show on their Christmas Tour, at Treasure Island. 🎤🎼👨👩👧👦
Went to King’s Bar in Miesville. Burger Flight: Homerun (Ham, Swiss Cheese, Lettuce, Tomato, Mayo), Dugout (Peanut Butter, Lettuce, Mayo), Slider (Fried Egg, American Cheese, Bacon), and Bases Loaded (Bacon, Cheddar Cheese, Swiss Cheese, Pepper Jack, Jalapeños, Sour Cream, Salsa)
Tyler’s teaching me to play Pokémon and we figured poker chips work to track damage.
One of my favorite places to be.
We watched The Christmas Chronicles tonight and really enjoyed it. It would be a great movie for Christmas Eve! 🎅
We saw Instant Family last night. Fun, family-focused movie. 🍿
I’m going to give Agenda a solid workout to see if it’s a better solution for tracking work related notes and activities. Keep looking for something that works with the way I work, and this might be it.
Great #TeamSPS dinner tonight at Salut St. Paul – what an awesome group! Good food, company and best of all great laughs! 🤣🙌
Had a great time competing in the Spies v Spies rooms at Trapped Puzzle rooms with #TeamSPS tech leaders! Orange team FTW! 👍🙌
My daughter taught me a new typography fact tonight! Uppercase letters are called that because they were kept in an “upper case”, above the “lower case”, that had the lowercase letters in it! 🤩 Wikipedia backs it up – Fun!
Early Christmas today – Weekly Thing pen! 👍🏻
Family selfie from our new house. We don’t move until January, but are exploring today!
