No excuses, I’ve been pretty bad at updating over the last few months. Here’s an Autumn Edition of the Weekly Bump, and maybe it should be call Seasonal Bump but I’m stubborn.

I continue to mend from the spinal surgery I had in May. I’ve now been cleared to do whatever I want, but some days, it still hurts. I’m slowly adding things like rowing and pushups to my routine.

I voted Monday. Please vote. 🇺🇸

Some things I’ve been enjoying.

Loving my new iPhone 16 Pro. I went down a size from the Max to the regular sized pro phone this year, and so far I like it. I was using the Apple Silicon case but now have settled on this Native Union case. This case has a nice tactile feel, and the angle of the cutouts for the Camera Control is pleasing and very usable.

This autumnal candle is both inexpensive and enjoyable. I have burned it so much that it’s almost gone.

This Lake Como video is a place of peace playing over my desk here in Decatur. I do mute the music, sometimes.

We attended Landlocked this weekend, I think our third year in a row. Tickets sold out in less than an hour. Oysters were eaten, a spicy tostada from Gene’s was spicy, and many boat drinks and beers were enjoyed. Great to be able to support Oyster South while having so much fun.

Like so many others, I have been using (and paid for) Croissant. It allows me to post to all three of the post-Twitter platforms I have been using. Very easy to setup, use, and well designed. I do hope for, and request, iPad support.

I am still doing some work to QA some of the older posts, and this template will be changing, but I am fully migrated over to micro.blog and off WPEngine.

It was all pretty easy, I did get some help from Manton from Micro.blog with my import. (Thanks Manton!)

Week 30 felt like it went by way too fast. My kids' last week of Summer, as they go back to school tomorrow. All four of us went to the Atlanta United Leagues' Cup game Friday night, which they lost on Penalty Kicks. While it was a good time because all four of us were there, it's been a rough season to be an Atlanta United fan. After seven years, since their first season, of having season tickets, I think I might be canceling for next season, because they raised the price again. We haven't been having as much fun at the games as we used to. I'm still waffling though.

This week's media consumption has been Olympics, Olympics, Olympics. I really enjoyed watching the Opening Ceremony live, and am really glad I have nothing to do with LA 2028 because that thing would be a hard act to follow. There are currently three TV's in our house streaming different sports. I am, of course, watching the surfing from Tahiti, which is once of the coolest venues on our tour. My older son has been fencing for years, and this is one of the very few opportunities to watch that sport at its highest level. The whole family has been watching those events.

Watching the USA basketball teams is, for me, just so much fun. I'm excited for another week of this. The huge smile on Kevin Durant's face during their game against Serbia brought a smile to mine, too.

I really enjoyed this Atlanta Michelin Eats Video from a YouTuber who I wasn't previously familiar with, Mike Chen. A few of my favorite spots were featured in this video, like Fred's Meat & Bread, Arepa Mia and Food Terminal. It still had some that I haven't tried, and those have been added to me to do list. There's something fun about watching travel and food videos about the town you live in.

I finished four books this week.

After really enjoying my read of Moonbound last week, I managed to find Sourdough by Robin Sloan on Libby and it was available! This one was a quick read, delightful as well, and I will read his other book as soon as the queue comes up. This book made me want colder weather so I could enjoy a nice bowl of soup and a piece of sourdough.

I continue to plow through all of Erik Larson's books, this week it was The Demon of Unrest. This one is mostly about the start of the Civil War and Fort Sumnter. It provides a real lot of details about the transition from the Buchanan administration to the Lincoln administration and the origins of secession. It's not one I would recommend unless you are really interested in that amount of information on that topic, but I really got a lot out of it.

Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang had been on my Libby queue for a really long time, I think since last Summer. This book about a chef working for a billionaire in a timeline where planet's food supply has been disrupted is well crafted and worth your time, especially if you're really into food. It actually paired well in a weird way with Sourdough above, without any intention to pair them on my part.

Bushido: The Soul of Japan by Niobe Inazō reads like a guide to the chivalric traditions of Japan. I mainly read this looking for parallels to Stoic thought, and they were there. It is a very old book, and felt old.

I've been meaning for a few weeks to find one of these entries to talk about the pair of Ray-Ban | Meta Glasses that I bought and have been using. First, I don't particularly trust Facebook/Meta, and I have turned off anything even remotely creepy with these. No location services especially. I mainly use them when I go for walks, which have been much more frequent since my surgery in May. For this purpose, these things are an amazing combination of sunglasses/headphones/camera. The pictures they take are actually pretty good, the headphones are serviceable. I'm getting a fair amount of use from them. Again, not wearing these anywhere where taking pictures would be creepy.

This post spans two weeks, partly because one of those weeks was a very busy work trip, and the second of those weeks was a vacation. Here we are in the 30th week of the year, wow.

I had the fun, and stress, of taking my first work trip, to Los Angeles, since my spinal surgery in May.  One day in our new office in El Segundo, and two days in Santa Monica. Some pretty intensive meetings, and lots of interesting conversation. Overall, it went well, but I learned that I do have some physical limitations, and sitting in a hard chair for 6-8 hours a day in a meeting ended up causing some soreness. The flights, at least, went by without any issues.

I landed back in Atlanta, via a red-eye, to drive with my family from Atlanta to a beach house we rented for the week down in 30A in Florida.  I then had a week that was mostly off, going to the beach with my family each day. Reading on the beach while listening to music is one of my happiest places.  The beaches down there are some of the nicest in the US. We also always make time to head to Seaside for a day of walking around in the shops, and browsing the stacks at Sun Dog one of my absolute favorite book stores. We also send some postcards from the cute post office there.

I finished Moonbound by Robin Sloan. I’ve always been a sucker for Aurthurian fiction and this inventive and interesting science fiction take on that classic tale was no exception. I hadn't previously read anything by Robin Sloan. I am going to read his other two books, I added them to my Libby queue as soon as I finished this one.  Recommended.

I also finished Novelist as a Vocation by Haruki Murakami, who is one of my favorite authors. This one reads like a career autobiography, with many interesting notes on his perception of his progression as an author. I found a lot to be inspired by while reading this one on the beach and away from work.

I also finished The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal. This "Lady Astronaut" novel is an alternate history of the US where a major disaster has altered the course of history and space exploration. Lots of social commentary, as the book happens in the 50's and 60's, and I really enjoyed it.

I read using my Boox Palma the entire week I was on the road for work and at the beach. It's a great device for both travel and at the beach. My daily carry beach bag for the Palma, my iPhone 15 Pro Max, wallet etc. is the Channel Sacoche in Black from Makr. It is the perfect size for everything without being too big. They don't have any made right now, but said they would be making more soon. They aren't cheap, but are really high quality.

One very recommended gadget that we use at the beach is our Ultimate Ears - WONDERBOOM 2 Portable Bluetooth Speaker (I'm linking to the 4 because they don't have a page on their site with the 2 any longer.) I bought this speaker on clearance from Best Buy in 2020, and we use it all the time, it has held up really well and sounds great. I have it attached to a HeroClip to make it easy to hang from the umbrella or chairs.

With the holiday, and how overwhelmed I have been returning to work during our busiest season, I decided to combine two weeks of updates into a single post. For those in the States, hope you have a great 4th of July weekend.

I've had a pretty great, but stressful, couple of weeks. I continue to be able to do more and more post-surgery, and went to the gym a couple of times this week. I'm mostly still just walking, but am starting to work on my mobility and doing some band and body weight strength stuff. Some really sore days.

Last Saturday, we went to an Atlanta United game (We have season tickets.) for the first time since before my spinal surgery. Unlike pre-surgery, I was able to stand for the whole game. The game ended in a pretty amazing play that's worth watching if you haven't seen it. I've never seen anything like it.

I finished "There Is No Antimemetics Division" by qntm. I found this science fiction book to be quite a mind expander, very inventive, has a certain modern-Lovecraft vibe to it too. Highly recommend. You can find more information on qntm's site. I'm going to be reading everything else by him.

I also finished "Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania" by Erik Larsen, the second book of his I've read in a few weeks. This one was great, a lot about the time period, German U-boats, the beginning of WWI and the US's entrance into the conflict. I really didn't know much about the Lusitania going in, so I soaked up a lot of new information. This won't be the last Erik Larsen book I will be reading this year.

I watched this Salt Hank video about making Anthony Bourdain's favorite sandwich, which led me to make this sandwich, and now it's one of my favorites, too. I've made it a couple of times, and I have to say that it will be a permanent part of my lunch rotation moving forward. I wish I had known to go and try it where he discovered it in São Paulo. I was there two years ago.

We finished watching The Bear: Season Three. I wish there was more that I hadn't watched yet, but that's all there is for now. I couldn't be more enthusiastic about this show. The music selection and how the music is folded into the episodes is just so good. Here's an unofficial Spotify Playlist. Finally, watching episode six, the "Napkins" episode, I was struck by how it is, in part, an homage to Groundhog Day, one of my all time favorite movies. (If you're familiar with Groundhog Day, and you watch this episode, you'll get it.)

Having this device has made me realize how frustrated I am with the lack of any kind of innovation with the Kindles in recent years. I do love my Paperwhite, but there's so much more that Amazon could be doing. More competition in this market is great, and I hope the press that the Palma is getting turns into more readers.

All around, a pretty great week for me. I went back to see my spinal surgeon, and got some x-rays. Everything looked good, and he lifted the majority of the restrictions that I have been living with. Couldn't have gone better, and I am so happy.

I can now drive, and work out beyond just walking. I am allowed to go swimming. I can now bend, lift and twist. I was very excited, and took full advantage, went swimming a couple of times, and went out and got a burrito from my favorite local burrito shop. I joined a gym, as I am not allowed to get on my rowing machine here at home quite yet.

I've watched an absolute ton of UEFA Euro 2024 over the last week. Fox has made some peculiar decisions about where they put some of the games. The level of play is excellent.

We also finished Mr. & Mrs. Smith Season 1. Really enjoyable, and I hope we get Donald Glover and Maya Erskine back for at least some part of season 2, which is confirmed.

I finished Right Thing, Right Now by Ryan Holiday, the next book in his virtue series, and really got a lot out of it. I will say, though, that if you want to get started with his writing, I would suggest starting with The Obstacle is The Way. He turns Stoic philosophy into something accessible and applicable to one's daily life by linking ideas to anecdotes from history. As I work on myself, forever, these ideas have been helpful and inspiring.

If you're looking for something refreshing to cook this Summer, may I suggest this really nice, lemony, Black Rice Salad recipe from Bon Appetit. We've been making this salad for years, and I always enjoy it.

I got this Belkin BoostCharge Pro for my desk and I really like it. (It's not on Belkin's site anywhere that I could find, so I am linking directly to Amazon, no referral.) It converts from a stand that supports MagSafe charging and Standby for my iPhone to a small pad that I can rest my AirPods Pro on. I haven't seen something quite like this anywhere else, and I really like having both options, and being able to fold it down flat.

Finally, this episode of the Smartless podcast, with John Williams as their guest, was the best one in quite a while. He's a legend, and he doesn't do many things like this. They were uniquely qualified to have the conversation with him, and it made for a really good listen. (Give it a few minutes though, it starts kind of slow.)

This week has been a lot, trying to balance my health restrictions due to my spinal surgery recovery with a ramping up work schedule and still also digesting as much WWDC content, both from Apple and from third parties, as I can. I've struggled with my energy level, but generally feel good. I go back for some x-rays and to see my surgeon this week, hoping for a good progress report, and some lifted restrictions.

This week, I finished Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu. Many of you will have heard this title because of the Netflix show. I will admit that I have not finished the Netflix show, but I had started it before deciding to read the book. The book holds much of the same plot arc, but largely occurs in China with Chinese characters. I really enjoyed the book, and will definitely now finish the show. I also plan on reading the second book.

I also finished The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival by John Vaillant this week. I found this book via Ryan Holiday's excellent Reading List email newsletter. I highly recommend that one, it's helped me find some really incredible books. I adored this book, which is about a true story of a Siberian Tiger attack in 1997. The book is part history, part detective story, part biology, and all captivating. I learned so much about tigers, the Russian Far East, the relationship between primates and big cats, and the on-the-ground outcomes of perestroika. Add this one to your list. It also led me to this excellent YouTube documentary.

A reminder that you can find me on goodreads. I am trying to read a little less this year, with my goal being around 75 books by year's end.

On to WWDC, I watched the Keynote and State of the Union live. I think Apple knocked it out of the (pardon the pun) park this year. My less technical friends and family seemed less excited about this keynote than others from years past, but I think the focus that Apple chose, and what they are releasing, are the perhaps the best possible options for the good of the company. Having said that, I want more foundational iPadOS improvements.

I, of course, had FOMO about not being able to attend, but my health comes first. I miss the in person format, especially with the sessions. I've watched about 15 sessions, and these pre-recorded ones just aren't as effective for me. I have the iPadOS beta installed on my iPad mini, and haven't found many rough edges so far. (The more interesting stuff that was announced isn't in the betas yet.) I did play with the new Calculator app and Math Notes with my Apple Pencil. It's really well done, but not something I can see myself using on a regular basis.

These Macintosh Wallpapers that Basic Apple Guy captured have a really nice retro touch for us old timers.

Some other stuff I watched and enjoyed this week:

I loved Marques Brownlee's visit to the iPhone testing labs.

This NYT Cooking "A Day in the Life as a Candy Factory Worker" video about the Smarties factory in New Jersey was cute, as it's part love story.

I'm in my SaveAFox Phase.

C.R.E.A.M. by OMA

My wife and I started Mr. and Mrs. Smith this week. So far, two episodes in, I am hooked and really enjoying it.

Want to say, at the end here, R.I.P. Jerry West. A man who I looked up to.

I've decided I am going to try to do something roughly in the vein of The Installer Newsletter, which I look forward to every Saturday. Many browser tabs are opened.

I've been recovering from having lumbar spinal fusion surgery over the last few weeks, and have been limited in terms of what I'm able to do. I returned to work this week, but my energy level is nowhere near as robust as it normally is, yet.

This week, I finished On Photography by Susan Sontag. She passed away 20 years ago, but many of the thoughts about the art of photography in this book endure. With the emergence of digital photography and now ai applied to photography, someone could easily write a thoughtful sequel to this book.

I also finished In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larsen. This non-fiction book about William E. Dodd, who was the US Ambassador to Hitler's Germany in 1933, was actually a pretty quick read. I am going to read more Erik Larsen in the short future. Lots of really interesting pre-war context in this book. Shout out to Libby for making it easy to borrow these Kindle books from our Public Library.

I watched Godzilla Minus One the moment it was up on Netflix, and have been re-consuming it in bits and pieces in my home office while doing glamorous CTO tasks like my expense report. It's excellent, not just the best Godzilla movie, but a really good movie in it's on right.

I've also been watching a lot of music on YouTube while spending my doctor mandated times on the couch here at home. Lots and lots of OMA, who do instrumental covers of hip-hop songs, this video is a good jumping off point for them, but you can't go wrong with anything on their channel. Perfect background music for your day. If you want something a tad more aggressive, this live performance by DJ Z-Trip is a classic.

I've been enjoying the new multi-column layout that Threads has released on the web. It works pretty well on iPad as well. I do wish they had lists, like vintage Twitter did, that's how I consumed so much of my Twitter content over the years.

I'm (still) playing a ton of World of Warcraft Remix: Mists of Pandaria. I'm enjoying it so much that I didn't even start playing the new Destiny 2 expansion as planned this week. My gaming time is limited as I am only allowed to sit up for 30-45 minutes at a time. Still also doing Wordle and Spelling Bee almost every day too.

Super excited that SDW updated his site this week, he's one of the more inspiring folks on my radar. I subscribed.

I listened to a lot of podcasts this week, catching up on the ones I missed. The State of the Hardware 2024 Episode of Cortex is the one that had me buying a new microphone for future audio pursuits. Really enjoy all the "State of the" episodes of Cortex.

Seems like enough for this week. Hope you have a great weekend. Really looking forward to WWDC on Monday. Wish I was allowed to travel for it.

I'm wearing one of my favorite t-shirts today, a collaboration between Obey Giant and Invader that I picked up a couple of years ago. I really enjoyed seeing a bunch of Invader's work around Paris when we went there many years ago.

One of my co-workers recently saw me wearing the shirt when we were onsite in Hawaii, and we ended up talking for a while about Invaders work. She told me about the Flash Invaders game and apps. I had no idea, but have since downloaded it.

Finally, today, there are rumors that Invader will be doing something special for the Olympic Games in Paris, which makes a lot of sense.

My job is very time zone intensive, we run events in many parts of the world. We also have regional offices in various locations, and my team is largely remote and scattered throughout the globe.

On my Mac, I utilize Clocker to keep track of the time across all these places. It runs as a menu bar item, is highly configurable (You can see my setup) and can also live in its own window on my desktop. In addition to the display of the various times, you're able to see your next meeting or two.

Highly recommend this software if you manage a lot of time zones.

I've been to three XOXO's, and I loved each of them in its own way.

I'm very excited that they are bringing it back one last time this year. I hope I can financially afford it, as well as make the time for it. I made and renewed meaningful people connections at all of them. Also, the Field Notes have been spectacular.

https://2024.xoxofest.com

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My home office is just completely crammed full of, well, stuff.

I work from home, and have a well defined workspace at a large desk, but my office contains three desks at the moment, and I want to turn it into a room that's useful for more.

Step one has to be getting stuff out of this room, so I have begun that task. One desk will go and be replaced by either a reading chair or a two person couch. As they say though, the only way to get this done is like eating an elephant, one bite at a time.

One of the challenging things is that, as I work through, the closet for instance, I discover projects that I should and could do. I keep having to tell myself that "now is not that time" and it seems to be working.

Probably the most challenging thing is trying to figure out homes for the things I don't want but that are perfectly useful. I want less stuff.

I have been using a Fujifilm X100F for a few years, I loved the camera before the X100V became an internet phenomena. I didn't buy a X100V because they were hard to get, but also, I was pretty happy with the 100F, and I have other cameras that I also use.

I did order a Fujifilm X100VI from Moment on the day they started taking preorders. I'm really looking forward to getting this camera. We're taking a trip to Mexico later in March, but I'm now doubtful that I will have this camera by that trip, which is a bummer.

To Moment's credit, they have done an excellent job of communicating with those who have preordered. They have a dedicated page on their site that details status. I've also gotten an email letting me know what to expect. They are at the mercy of Fujifilm's ability to ship them cameras.

I do wish that I had realized they were going to charge me the moment I completed the transaction, not when the camera shipped. Given that I am in line, it might be a while. Doesn't seem very sporting to have my money, I'd rather be earning interest off of it..

Hope you all had a great weekend. I was doing a lot of thinking about this site, and decided that I am going to post more, and be less precious about what I post.

My weekend included a trip to our local Kinokuniya, and my haul included some Yamamoto Ro-Biki Notebooks, stickers, washi tape and a softcover Zequenz A7 notebook that I wanted to try. I have no idea what I will end up using it for, but it's a cool form factor.

I didn't manage to find the time to see Dune 2 yet, I need to prioritize that this week.

I've moved this site from the host where it's been for years to a, hopefully, more reliable and secure host.

I, in the process, managed to mess up the DNS entries, so this site may not have been responsive in the last 24 hours at times.

Hopefully, we're clear of changes now, and I can focus on making posts.

After discovering it via Colossal a couple of days ago, I have become completely enchanted by Alphaputt, which is a quirky mini-golf game for iOS that is superbly designed. You can find it, of course, on the App Store.

Just a quick post to start the new year.

I made some updates to the bio/about page on this site, removed the twitter link there, as I am not actively posting to Twitter at this point. I am on Mastadon here.

Bending Spoons acquires Evernote, marking the end of an era - I was all in on Evernote, and don't pay for it any longer. I hope for the product and user base that this next chapter ends up being a productive transition.

It always makes me a little sad when a startup whose work I really liked spirals down.

Hard to believe that this little, under-updated, site is 25 years old today.

It would be hard for me to sift through my feelings about this, the world, and the web are very different places than they were in 1997. What I can do is express some gratitude for are the people and places that this little blog was a doorway to. Meeting the other bloggers at that very first SXSW has led to years and years of inspiration and a career path that I couldn't have even imagined the day I made that very first post.

I can only hope that I can become a better steward of this site in the coming years, and update it more in what is really starting to look like a post-Twitter world.

This post is mainly a test of some new hosting that was put in place this week to make sure that things are still configured and working correctly. Still WordPress, these updates were mainly due to my hosting provider phasing out some of the gear that I was hosted on. I continue to want to migrate to some kind of static publishing system.

It's been a very busy year for me, with a lot of work travel. I'm hoping to post more here this Fall as my work schedule gets a bit more manageable.

I wear a lot of black t-shirts. My family makes fun of me for the fact that I pretty much wear a black t-shirt and gray shorts/khakis almost every day. I’m not sure how it started, probably about twenty years ago, but I think a black tshirt and jeans/khakis are the perfect clothing base layer.

My t-shirt drawer is half printed t-shirts and half black T-shirts. I have, right now, black shirts from three different brands in that “varsity” set of shirts. In a lower drawer there is another half drawer of the "junior varsity" shirts.

In my opinion, people who review black t-shirts tend to do it all wrong .

T-shirts should be reviewed like books, worn until they are worn in, and worn out, until the end. Making sure that they hold up and keep themselves and their collar in good shape.

I tend to find a brand that makes black shirts that I like, and then slowly acquire a half dresser drawer full of that brand until the end of that shirt. Like many things in life, all good black t-shirts come to an end.

At one point that preferred brand was J. Crew, and then they went and changed the shirts, and I didn’t like them anymore, no longer recommended. Next was a company called Pact, which also had the advantage of being environmentally conscious. Then, for some reason Pact stopped making black t-shirts altogether for some period of time. When they started selling them again, the new ones weren’t good, no longer recommended. (I still have about 8 of the good ones, but they are starting to wear out, so sad.)

Currently, Ugmonk and Western Rise are the two shirts that I have tested/worn for a length of time, and will buy more of, slowly, these things aren't cheap. The road behind me is littered with other brands that I didn’t like, or which didn’t weather well. Ugmonk are more like the Pact and JCrew ones of those salad days, and the Western Rise shirt is this awesome athletic fabric. If I'm going to wear the t-shirt under something, I usually pick an Ugmonk shirt.

I won’t throw shade at the other companies whose shirts I have tried and discarded, but there are a lot of those. I like the Supreme Tagless Tees Hanes shirts as a knock around, but wouldn’t put those in my varsity lineup. Got a shirt you think I should try? Throw me a line on Twitter, I’m @bump.

Here are some things I’ve been enjoying recently, in no specific order. I am not compensated in any way, even referral payments, for these links. Hope I turn someone else onto something they enjoy.

Mela

After years of being a devoted user of Paprika, I have completed converted over to Mela as my digital recipe keeper. Mela is from the same developer as Reeder, which is the RSS reader I have used, in conjunction with Feedbin, as my newsreader or choice for a long while now. Why did I switch? First, Mela just has a much cleaner user interface, feels more current and modern than Paprika, and is more in keeping with my personal taste.

Second, because this app comes from the developer of a feed reader, it has the same concept built into it. This allows me to add my favorite recipe sites to the app, and quickly be able to see the recipes that they have posted recently, then easily add them to my recipe collection in Mela. I like this workflow better.

Migration from Paprika was very fast and I haven't found any issues with my collection of recipes. Once I purchased both the Mac and iOS versions, my recipes appeared everywhere via iCloud sync without issue.

Mela is $4.99 for iOS and $9.99 for the Mac.

Sportsletter

I'm a big fan of sports. I've also worked in sports for the vast majority of my professional career now. I'm not sure where I found it, but The Sportsletter is just an absolutely great and completely free daily sports email newsletter. It hits my inbox every morning about the time I get out of bed, and they do a phenomenal job of giving a sports fan the news, notes, stories and schedules for the day. Here's an example newsletter for your perusal. I think maybe the best thing about it is that it's not junked up with ads.

The Week: 10 Things You Need to Know Today

While I am suggesting email newsletters that hit your inbox in the morning. I have to suggest this daily news email from The Week. They are a credible source of daily news headlines without a lot of bias. You can subscribe to this one here. It's exactly what the title says, ten things in your inbox, linking to credible news organizations about the stories if you want further information. If you're interested in getting a bit more information every morning, this is a good way to do it.

Notorious EDC Beer Bomb

I wouldn't consider myself a big EDC guy, but pens have been sort of a gateway drug for me into this world. The moment I saw the Notorious EDC Beer Bomb, I knew that I had to have one. (I borrowed this image from their site, sorry Tom.) It's a bottle opener, a pry tool, and just a delightful little guy to carry around. I'm finding all sorts of uses for mine, and I kind of can't wait for it to get beat up with use. Here's a great little history of the object.

Now the bad news, getting your hands on one of these isn't super easy, and it seems like it's getting harder all the time because they have gotten so popular, come in different color ways, and have attracted a bunch of avid collectors who congregate over on a private Facebook Group. Your best bet, if you want to take on the challenge of purchasing one of these, is to follow them on social media, and get into the Facebook group.

LePen

Do you remember LePen? When reading my weekly Pen Addict member newsletter a couple of weeks ago, there was a link to a blog post from The Stationer about the tools Tessa currently uses. Lurking in that list was a pen that I had totally forgotten about, LePen. I remembered how fun these skinny little pens are, and decided to order some from her shop. These pens are just as fun to have around I as remembered, and I am now using them to add color to my Bullet Journal spreads. I especially like their Olive Green color.

Well, that's enough for this post, more to come soon.

Making meetings effective is something that I think about every week. I spend a lot of my time in meetings, and it always seems like I could use more time outside of them for the rest of my job. Everyone seems to agree about this. Meetings are a necessary evil, but they don't have to be wasteful.

A key to making meetings more productive for me has been providing my meeting agenda items to the other person in advance. It does two great things for me. First, it makes me think carefully about what I want to use the time to talk about. Second it makes me organize topics either in order of priority if I think that time is a consideration, or in a flow that makes sense for the conversation. Finally, it makes me prep for the meeting and identifies any prep work that I need to do to get ready for the meeting.

I have a fairly simple system for collecting potential agenda items. I keep an agenda folder in whichever notes app I am currently using, for instance Apple Notes or Bear. I'm currently using NotePlan all day, and should probably blog about that at some point.

For each person or group who I meet with on a regular basis, I have a separate note in an "Agendas" folder, even if those meetings are sporadic. As I go through my day, as it occurs to me or comes up in a meeting that I need to discuss something with one of those people, I will command tab over to their agenda note and add the item.

Then, the day before or a few hours before I meet with the person or group, I comb through the items I have collected, and turn them into an agenda that I either email or Slack to that person. I generally try and do it well before the meeting, this allows the other person or people to think about the topics and prepare if need be. There are times, however, when I am just using that list in the moment to make sure I don't miss something.

A week later, or whenever I need to meet with that person or group again, I’m also able to see what we discussed last time, and can leverage that to follow up on any items that require more conversation.

This system is pretty simple, but it has worked really well for me.

Here are some things I've been enjoying recently, in no specific order. I am not compensated in any way, even referral payments, for these links. Hope I turn someone else onto something they enjoy.

Hydrow Rowing Machine

This is an equivalent for rowing to Peloton, and by all accounts the best interactive rower on the market. I grew up as an endurance athlete, but I just hate riding stationary bikes, and I find rowing a better workout as well. Hydrow offers great instructors, a great community of people to support you as you progress, and it has worked for me. I know, this thing is crazy expensive, and also requires a monthly subscription, but I was able to cancel my gym membership altogether. We’ve had ours for about 11 months now, and I have worked out on it 300 days. This device, and the service it comes with, which includes guided yoga, pilates and strength classes, has been a key to maintaining my sanity and improving my fitness over the last year. Since we purchased it, I have lost about 26 pounds. (I don’t care that much about weight, I care about fitness, but it’s still an encouraging metric.)

Nomad Base Station Stand

I love this little wireless charging stand that I keep on my desk. It holds/charges my iPhone 12 Pro Max in either portrait or landscape, making it great for my ten hour shifts monitoring the live streaming coverage of our events through our app. It also wirelessly charges my AirPods Pro. It’s a game changer to be able to see your phone screen while sitting at your computer.

Tip Top Cocktails

You may not be able to find these too far outside of Atlanta yet, but I'm fairly certain that you will be able to at some point. While most cocktails in a can that I have tried have been, frankly, gross, Tip Top came to the table with Old Fashioned, Negroni and Manhattan cocktails in a well designed can that are delicious, and have become a staple for me. In the last month, they added new Daiquiri and Bee's Knees cocktails to the lineup, and these two are both a welcome taste of Summer. I am not recommending their Margarita though. Start this Summer with the Daiquiri, you won't regret it. So great for a delicious cocktail on the go.

Poco Loco Burritos

This neighborhood burrito joint opened last month in Kirkwood, on the edge of the Atlanta/Decatur line. If you are local, I would recommend joining their mailing list, which gives you ordering access to their Wednesday pre-order an hour earlier than people not in the know. Most burritos are protein-rich breakfast bombs, really flavorful and very filling. Each week they change their menu, introducing a new meat burrito, a new veggie burrito and a new frozen burrito, typically all named in some theme. (This week is Steve Martin themed.) There have been weeks, since they opened, when I have consumed one of their burritos for lunch 5 out of 7 days.