Thoughts on Culture

I’m finishing up my latest trip to Poland for work. Our office is next to Spodek, which is an arena in Katowice. “Spodek” means “saucer” in English, and it’s shaped like a flying saucer. I love that it plays the musical tones from Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

I love this premise. For me, the first thing that came to mind when I thought of “a perfect finale” was the finale to The Shield. For a show that started really rough for me, it was a rare example of one that got better over the seasons. And that finale was, indeed, perfect.

It’s hard to read this and not think of it as representing what is happening to the country under this administration. “Wilting”, “weedy”, “gutted”, “purged”.

You know the saying “it’s funny because it’s true”? That should apply here, but instead, it’s a gut punch; the cynicism of the piece doesn’t just cut close to the bone, it shatters it. 😞

This week’s Decoder is probably my favorite episode so far. It is a really thoughtful conversation with Patreon CEO Jack Conte, discussing what’s changed for that company in the past five years. Click through to my blog for more thoughts on the episode.

It takes effort to keep adult friendships going, as I was reminded by a recent article. Here are a couple of thoughts and a practical tip that I’ve found to work for me.

I just went there to read a post on a topic I care about, and immediately regretted it. It’s disappointing not only for the same reasons that social media in general can be toxic, but even moreso because these people are actually my neighbors.

NASA released a gallery of “posters”, and there are some great ones in there.

NASA is uploading photos from Artemis II to Flickr. Here are some of my favorites.

That’s a pretty solid choice.