I hope unlike a fish, I was breathing
Monthly list
Hi,
Happy Friday! Here’s a list of 20 neat things.
1. Photography:
“As a photographer and artist, my work goes beyond conventional photography; it seeks to explore the depths of the human psyche. The spaces I photograph represent the conflictual relationship between civilization and nature, where opposites attract and break apart in a world built not on logic, but on irrationality. Delirium, mirage, dreams, and nightmares coexist, defying categorization as either light or dark.” - Roger Ballen
2. Art: “Should there ever be a history of the color blue then Miro's triptychs would undoubtedly form part of it” - Rilke
3. Architecture: 75.9 house, designed by Omer Arbel, got it’s name from being the 9th iteration of the 75th idea. Omer’s design plays with the concept of creating future ancient structures using concrete in a soft, fluid way, letting the material dictate it’s form.
4. Music:
Literally translated, 'Je t'aime... moi non plus' means "I love you… me neither". It's a play on the old gag, often attributed to Peter Cook: "I met a man at a party. He said, 'I'm writing a novel, I said 'Oh really? Neither am I'.” Serge was riffing on a more refined version of that joke from Salvador Dalí. "Picasso is Spanish, me too. Picasso is a genius, me too. Picasso is a communist, me neither."
5. Culture: “There is no other country that has bombs bursting in it’s anthem” :/
6. Culture: “The rationale for scent marketing is that memories are thought to last longer if the emotions are tied to smell” - Singapore so fancy
7. Social: Lavender marriage - a heterosexual marriage between one or two LGBTQ people, undertaken as a marriage of convenience to conceal the socially stigmatized sexual orientation of one or both partners
8. Philosophy: Read The Myth of Sisyphus, and learn about Camus
9. Business: Learn how to read body language with The Behavior Panel, one of my favorite youtube channels
10. Business: Ad libraries for Meta, LinkedIn, and TikTok
11. UX: Time Management for creative people - good tips from Jesse Showalter
12. AI: DeepSeek: Does a small AI model invalidate big models? - good article by
13. AI: Humanity's final invention? hopefully not :/
14. Tech: Silicon Valley map - a map of tech companies and start-ups
15. Audio: Earbud tips - foam or silicon? I prefer silicon - stays in, easier to clean
16. Lifestyle: Learn about Color Noise - sounds created through static. Each color has different properties and strengths within different frequencies. I like red best (sounds like a cave), then brown (traffic in Brooklyn - in a railway apartment, at night), and blue (water).
17. Spirituality: How to use a scrying mirror
18. Education: One teacher’s brilliant strategy to stop future school shootings
Every Friday afternoon, she asks her students to take out a piece of paper and write down the names of four children with whom they’d like to sit the following week. The children know that these requests may or may not be honored. She also asks the students to nominate one student who they believe has been an exceptional classroom citizen that week. All ballots are privately submitted to her.
And every single Friday afternoon, after the students go home, she takes out those slips of paper, places them in front of her, and studies them. She looks for patterns.
Who is not getting requested by anyone else?
Who can’t think of anyone to request?
Who never gets noticed enough to be nominated?
Who had a million friends last week and none this week?
19. World: Get free rocks at Gemstone beach - Aropaki Beach, Orepuki NZ
20. Cute: Leif does NOT like to party. Same Leif, same…