text
Archives
Search...
Subscribe
Text forever
February 12, 2026
I recently received a bit of a jump scare when using software. The main word processor that powers my consultancy has fallen victim to platform collapse. I...
Six weeks
February 10, 2026
The goal, of course, is the infinite pack load: something you can use forever that fits into a 45L backpack. Buy on the ground to replenish things as they...
Slowly revealed
February 5, 2026
Lisbon is not terribly legible. You learn it as you go. Stores don’t operate like you expect, and some basic services are far out of town. It requires a lot...
🎣
January 29, 2026
For those who need protein in a snap, and who want it to be reliably bar-clearingly delicious, there is tinned fish, which conquered America sometime when...
The fallow period
January 27, 2026
I talk a lot about not buying stuff here, but it’s worth talking about a period that I seldom discuss, which is the two-ish month span between the beginning...
What to value
January 22, 2026
Things are rough in my jurisdiction right now, and the last time that happened I asked my close people: what do we value? And yes, it’s easy to go to the...
Scattered bits
January 20, 2026
Nothing beats the feeling you get after you search for the best cheese shops in a new city, and you find out #1 is 700 feet away from you. “Cold” is...
Figure it out elsewhere
January 8, 2026
The knives aren’t sharp, the stove is either too hot or too cold, the oven is small, there’s only one baking sheet, and there is no microwave. There are two...
J1B-GT, 2 years, washed
January 6, 2026
I promised food, and we’ll get there, but one year later we must return to the jacket. For the first time, the jacket must be washed, but before that let’s...
Change instrument roles
December 19, 2025
100 bits of text after the last one, here is 2025’s Oblique Strategies power ranking. (Previously: 2022, 2023, 2024.) See you in 2026. 10. Don’t break the...
Next text
December 17, 2025
This piece is prescient. It alludes to a few text-of-center themes: how the consumer internet mostly exists to take money now, and how it’s become hard...
Line cook text
December 11, 2025
One of the ways that I am able to cleanly fake being a good home cook is by making everything family-style. I produce some cauldron of delicious slop, throw...
Stock 2 (lots of it)
December 9, 2025
I know we’ve already discussed stock. We can always keep doing that, right? It’s the holidays, which means you might have a turkey on your hands. The answer...
You need one mug
December 4, 2025
The mug arrived on my doorstep on August 18, 2015 and I have used it practically every day since, including while I write this. It is by Snow Peak. It...
Meta-font text
December 2, 2025
Since my new yardstick for buying new technology is whether you can put fonts on it correctly, I have been thinking a lot about font management on the Mac,...
Preparation
November 25, 2025
I recently encountered a person who, due to their life decisions, eventually will be forced to cook, often and with at least feigned enthusiasm. They don’t...
Sock-not-sock text
November 20, 2025
The problem is that the sock is of one place, and it was posted to another place, and now it looks like it comes from the latter place instead of the former....
The weirdest conspiracy I've ever experienced
November 18, 2025
In the greatest Simpsons episode of all time, there is a skit where the principal’s kitchen burns down while successfully hosting the superintendent. He...
Monitor text/desk text
November 11, 2025
I started dating someone and have a spare room, so of course I evicted myself from there and gave it to them and now they work there on the days they’re...
Notes on reading & publishing
November 6, 2025
Buying means researching and researching takes time, so now that I’m doing neither I find myself with a surfeit of time. I am mostly spending that time...
Older archives