I acknowledge the absence of the sun

Just heard on the radio that it’s the cloudiest January on record here. I believe it. It’s required attention, that’s for sure. I take my Vitamin D supplement (a gummy, of course — treat yourself). I have a clinical-looking daylight lamp that kicks on automatically when sunrise is supposed to be. I try to stick … Read more

Tomato paste provenance

It’s disorienting, sometimes, the way objects slip in and out of our lives — what ever happened to that red shirt? Don’t I own more coffee mugs? Where on Earth did this book come from? I used to be very focused on momentos — my teenage bedroom had a meticulously arranged display of every chotchke … Read more

Greetings from Minneapolis

Photograph of a foggy, snowy scene over downtown Minneapolis buildings.

I can see this postcard-style mural from my office window. When the weather is nice, it makes for good people-watching: groups of friends trying to time a jump with the countdown timer on their camera phone propped up against a soda bottle; traveling teen athletes posing with a trophy they just won. Some days, like … Read more

A good little start

Gratitude journals seem to work wonders for folks. It’s not quite my bag but I am always trying to notice, to at least tell myself in the moment: this is good. Today? Now? My day is off to a good little start, and I am grateful. It’s above zero and the sun is shining, which … Read more

Things that aren’t money anymore

I’ve had a truck for a couple weeks now. (Long story.) So I’ve been taking care of niggling errands around town, and visiting places I haven’t been to since I was dating someone with a car who took me to them. Today’s errand was cashing in my change at a Coinstar machine. The places that … Read more

Conference diary: Confab 2018

Holy shit. So was that a conference or was that a conference? I’m still reeling from the end of Confab 2018, a (the) content strategy conference held annually here in Minneapolis, Minnesota. My employer, Brain Traffic, produces the event. My primary contribution leading up to Confab is to interject unasked-for advice into conversations I overhear … Read more

Letterpress printing at MCBA

Took a one-night class on letterpress at MCBA recently. There were about 10 people in the group. Ruby, the instructor, had us start by making exquisite corpse poems based on the loose theme of “circus”. We picked the best two, divided into teams, and got assigned words to pick out letters for from the trays. … Read more

Dear User at Prime Academy

My friend Ange invited me back to share my talk about designing friendlier interfaces with the UX and engineering cohorts at Prime Academy last week. Their new space downtown is really cool. I meant to take pictures, but despite arriving 25 minutes early I got lost in the building itself and spilled in out of … Read more

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