• Expensive pillows

    I’ve kind of been indifferent about pillows up to this point. I mean, I only really notice a pillow when it’s BAD. Too soft or lumpy, or overfull and hard. But after years of replacing cheapish pillows from Target and TJ Max every year or two because they lose, well, the ability to be comfortable for her, my wife Kav decided to invest in some nice pillows. This means pillows that cost a lot of money. At least as far as pillows go and what I feel like is a typical range.

    But, as the adage goes, you get what you pay for, and this seems to apply to pillows as well.

    The ones she got are actually made by Prana (I thought they only made clothes?), and they are ADJUSTABLE.

    They are pretty plump by default, definitely too much for me, but the cool thing is that you can take out filling to suit your plumpness preferences.

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    Amazing.

    So after taking a short nap today and feeling like my neck was being pushed up too much, I took out about four full handfuls of filling, and it feels just about right now.

    I’ve never “adjusted” my pillow before today, so this felt like a moment. Kind of a ridiculously privileged and silly moment. But still.

    You spend a lot of your life sleeping, so spending a bit of money isn’t so silly when you think about the return on investment of a good night’s sleep. That’s what I’ll tell myself.

    I’m a spoiled pillow brat now I guess.

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  • Lentil-Mushroom Burgers

    I’ve tried a lot of vegetarian burger recipes, and this is one of the best. Feel free to freestyle a bit as you always should. I added some chili flakes, turmeric, and a little Franks Hot Sauce to my latest batch. (I also didn’t make homemade bread crumbs but will do sometime as I bet that would be 🔥)

    Source

    Eat & Run (pages 25–26)

    Makes

    A dozen 4-inch diameter burgers

    Ingredients

    • 1 cup dried green lentils (2 1/4 cups cooked)
    • 2 1/4 cups water
    • 1 teaspoon dried parsley
    • 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
    • 3 garlic cloves, minced
    • 1 1/4 cups finely chopped onion, divided
    • 3/4 cup finely chopped walnuts
    • 2 cups fine bread crumbs (see Note)
    • 1/2 cup ground flax seed (flax seed meal)
    • 3 cups finely chopped mushrooms
    • 1 1/2 cups destemmed, finely chopped kale, spinach, or winter greens
    • 2 tablespoons coconut oil or olive oil
    • 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
    • 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
    • 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
    • 1 teaspoon sea salt
    • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
    • 1/2 teaspoon paprika

    Directions

    1. In a small pot, bring the lentils, water, parsley, 1 garlic clove, and 1/4 cup of the onion to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, partially covered, for 35 to 40 minutes, until the water is absorbed and the lentils are soft.
    2. While the lentils are cooking, combine the walnuts, bread crumbs, and flax seed in a bowl. Add the nutritional yeast, salt, pepper, and paprika and mix well.
    3. Sauté the remaining onion, remaining garlic, the mushrooms, and greens in the oil for 8 to 10 minutes, then set aside.
    4. Remove the lentils from the heat, add the vinegar and mustard, and mash with a potato masher or wooden spoon to a thick paste.
    5. In a large mixing bowl, combine the lentils, sautéed veggies, and bread crumb mixture, and mix well. Cool in the refrigerator for 15 to 30 minutes or more.
    6. Using your hands, form burger patties to your desired size and place on waxed paper. Lightly fry in a seasoned skillet, broil, or grill until lightly browned and crisp, 3 to 5 minutes on each side.

    Storage

    Extra uncooked patties can be frozen on wax paper in plastic bags or wrapped individually in aluminum foil.

    Note (bread crumbs)

    To make the bread crumbs, you’ll need about half of a loaf of day-old bread (the book suggests Ezekiel 4:9). Slice the bread, then tear or cut into 2- to 3-inch pieces and chop in a food processor for 1 to 2 minutes, until a fine crumb results. The walnuts can also be chopped in the food processor with the bread.

    My notes

    I like to add turmeric, chili flakes, and a little Franks Hot Sauce in the mix. Also, if things are a little dry, add a beaten egg (or two) or a couple of tablespoons of aqua fava.

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    Mix of oyster, trumpet, shiitake
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    Smaller is better
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    Storing them in fours because that seems right?
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    Packed for the freezer

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  • Weird and wonderful

    Weird and wonderful

    Thought our succulent pot would make a good still life study today.

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  • Friday off

    I got the oil changed in the car and went to Costco today (exciting!!!). It’s actually one of my favorite places to shop as far as “big box” retailers or major grocery chains go. The reason? Product curation. That may sound strange considering how much stuff is in their store, but category by category, there aren’t that many options, which is GREAT. And you can bet that if they do have something in a given category, it might not be the best, but it’s pretty good. In the Amazon/Wayfair age we’ve been in with boatloads of crap, I love the simplicity of just either taking it or leaving it at Costco.

    Side note: Why don’t they carry halloumi?!?!

    There’s certainly better places I could spend my money, but sometimes I just need a break from decisions.

    Of course, a lot of stuff at Costco IS excessive in quantity, and I thought about this recent thing I read about Drano (via Gar’s Tips & Tools newsletter, which is awesome):

    Years ago, a plumber told me to never follow the directions on a bottle of Drano (where it suggests pouring as much as a half the bottle into your clog). “That’s marketing hype to get you to waste your money,” he told me. “Just use about a shot-glass worth at a time. Then a kettle of boiling water. And repeat as needed until the drain clears.”

    I’ve been doing it that way ever since. A small amount of drain cleaner. Wait 20 minutes. Then pour of a kettle of hot water. Repeat. In my experience, it has worked most every time on the usual suspects: bathroom hair, sink sludge, and kitchen grease slowdown.

    The logic, as he explained it, is simple. Most clogs aren’t epic blockages. They’re small, localized buildups. You don’t need half a bottle of caustic chemicals sitting in your drain trap. A small dose often begins the breakdown. The hot water helps move things along. Less chemical, less waste.

    Another thing that made me smile today was this blog post from a couple of years back:

    The baby bird irruption

    Those pics of Vivian and Sam are crazy.

    Finally, this is probably ironic that I’m putting this in here with the Costco reference above, but I’m doing it anyway because we have to hope, and The Wayfinders is a remarkable book.

    “Before she died, anthropologist Margaret Mead spoke of her singular fear that, as we drift toward a more homogenous world, we are laying the foundations of a blandly amorphous and singularly generic modern culture that will have no rivals. The entire imagination of humanity, she feared, might be confined within the limits of a single intellectual and spiritual modality. Her nightmare was the possibility that we might wake up one day and not even remember what had been lost.” (Wade Davis, The Wayfinders)

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  • One year of learning to play drums

    One year of learning to play drums

    It’s been a little under a year since I started playing the drums. Since then, I’ve gotten a proper drum kit, and, though I’m still firmly in the beginner camp, I can at least play a decent money beat and throw in some fills here and there. I have some rudiments I practice regularly, and I have gotten into a rhythm (get it?) for practicing that I really look forward to. Drumming has become my end-of-day zone-out and have-fun activity of choice.

    The hardest part of the whole process for me was finding the right format for getting good drum instruction. I tried (a lot of) YouTube videos, signed up for a couple of online drummer courses, and also took quite a few in-person drum lessons from no less than 3 different instructors. What has so far fit the best for me, though, is using the online video education platform Drumeo. I’ve found their newest “Drumeo method” learning path is pretty cool in terms of giving me a few lessons to do each day (around 15-20 minutes of practice), after which I’ll work on one of their song tutorials or play alongs. It’s super fun and easy to just sit down and play with some guidance that I don’t have to think about.

    Playing along with Waves of Grey in 6/8 time

    Now that I’ve gotten into my groove, I want to keep pushing myself. I’ve yet to play with other musicians, so this next year I’d like to set a goal to practice and perform a tune with Vivian (her on her saxophone and me on the drums). I’ve got to get some more hip-hop content to work with too. Beyond that, I’d also like to get some better cymbals (mine are so tinny/clangy) and set up a way to play my lessons/music both out loud (via a speaker) and in headphones while I play.

    I don’t really mind whether I make a ton of progress or not, though. Just by playing, I’ll inevitably get better, so I just want to focus on that. And since these damn things are so fun to play, that should take care of itself.

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  • Red Dead 2 and the great pyramids

    I bought Red Dead Redemption 2 last weekend because it was reduced to $17, it’s supposed to be amazing, and I loved the first one.

    I still have to finish Pragmata (loving it) and am really enjoying Forza Horizon 6, but I’m planning to play the heck out of Red Dead.

    Seeing as how Red Dead is made by Rockstar Games, it also made me think of this recent post from Matt Webb, where they likened these big games that take 200 years and billions of dollars to make to the great pyramids. In other words, soon-to-be ancient history.

    Grand Theft Auto 6 is maybe the last of them. As they put it:

    Incidentally GTA6 is coming out in November and apparently it cost $1 billion to make.

    Gonna play the heck out of it not just for the music but because of its status as a cultural artefact: the final big game built before LLMs.

    No-one will ever invest that much in a game again, no software will ever encode this quantity of hands-on human labour again. The last of the great pyramids.

    You think any studio will ever again spend years recording human-authored dialogue from human voice actors for NPCs in story branches that the player may encounter? No way. As much as I am looking forward to playing the first AAA title that does something unique and infinite with AI, we are at the end of an era.

    They’ve got a point, certainly.

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  • img 2293

    Noticed this in the bathroom of a local boba shop.

    There’s a debate raging at my work about us supporting a certain government “aliens” website, and this sign made me smile. We need more of this.

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  • Winter Warz

    One of the best Wu-Tang Clan-era verses ever is from Capadonna on Winter Warz.

    I’ve been on a Ghostface Killah kick recently and was trying to find my favorite song off of Ironman (my favorite Ghostface album), which featured the (Wu affiliate) Capadonna rapping for what seemed like forever. I couldn’t find it for a long time, though, as the track has been removed from Ironman on streaming services, but I just found out it’s on the Don’t Be a Menace soundtrack.

    I used to be able to rap the whole thing back in high school. I’m glad I finally found it again.

    Also, I found Kweli discussing the verse (it’s in his top 20 all-time).

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