Study
This is where I write, about my reading and more, where I cultivate ideas. Rather than a neat list of articles, think of this as a scattered collection of notes. This is public thinking via the best medium: writing.
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Material intelligence
Hit and Miss #414
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August 2025, pt. 1
Hit and Miss #413
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Cake math
Hit and Miss #412
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Cicadas calling
Hit and Miss #411
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Communing with good souls
Hit and Miss #410
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Back to… normal? (back to links)
Hit and Miss #409
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Deeply grateful
Hit and Miss #408
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Comfort in community
Hit and Miss #407
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Fairalysis paralysis
Hit and Miss #406
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Life as good as a cat’s
Hit and Miss #405
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(🚲 > 👟) < 🍕
Hit and Miss #403
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May your week smell like beautiful flowers
Hit and Miss #402
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Got energy, got mood, got links
Hit and Miss #401
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Newsletter anniversaries are for living fully
Hit and Miss #400
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New ways to understand New Ways to Bus
Hit and Miss #399
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“Prompt Builders”
Hit and Miss #398
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National interest
Hit and Miss #397
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Having opinions!! (also government machinery, uncertainty, and modular housing)
Hit and Miss #396
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Facing backward has its charms
Hit and Miss #395
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Bring on the SPRING
Hit and Miss #394
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Oh, for a greenhouse house
Hit and Miss #393
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Reading, public service reform, diagetic theme songs
Hit and Miss #392
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Burning, 18F, and change
Hit and Miss #391
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18F worked in the open
Which, thankfully, enables its work to live on
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Try carpolling
Hit and Miss #390
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Shovelling the snowbanks
Hit and Miss #389
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Hair of the dog
Hit and Miss #388
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“Brace for impact”
Hit and Miss #387
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Paying attention
Hit and Miss #386
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Government innovation with TREES
Hit and Miss #385
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Mercurial January
Hit and Miss #384
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“Finish”
Hit and Miss #383
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Some books from 2024
Hit and Miss #382
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No tinsel for you!
Hit and Miss #381
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“Song for a Winter’s Night”
Hit and Miss #380
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Doing hard things, together
Hit and Miss #379
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Deferred maintenance
Hit and Miss #378
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Hard week, good weekend—snow’s coming
Hit and Miss #377
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November media diet
Hit and Miss #376
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Disappointed, but not surprised
Hit and Miss #375
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Highs bring lows (but more highs incoming!)
Hit and Miss #374
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Friendship’s sunshine
Hit and Miss #373
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Categorized (try) todo lists
Hit and Miss #372
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Humanity and turkey
Hit and Miss #371
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Walking LeBreton
Hit and Miss #370
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Walking, even after a while
Hit and Miss #369
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A place to think
Hit and Miss #368
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Maintenance, houses, and stuff
Hit and Miss #367
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Gloom and the antidote to worry
Hit and Miss #366
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Nearly fall vacation reading
Hit and Miss #365
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SQL, community, and cool stuff
Hit and Miss #364
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Links on anarchism, social media, and other joys
Hit and Miss #363
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Usable (legible!) for computers
Hit and Miss #362
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Good spreadsheets
Spreadsheetin’: making data usable for computers
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Fuzzy conversation feelings
Hit and Miss #361
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Cutting back to grow more
Hit and Miss #360
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Time outside, time well spent
Hit and Miss #359
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An hour writing this newsletter
Hit and Miss #358
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Eat your vegetables!
Hit and Miss #357
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Human-sized places
Hit and Miss #356
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Mostly complete
Hit and Miss #355
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Sharing in abundance
Hit and Miss #354
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Outdoor meals and Home Depot hauls
Hit and Miss #353
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Facing west
Hit and Miss #352
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Running back from Italy
Hit and Miss #351
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Eat, sleep, rest, repeat
Hit and Miss #350
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Digital reading lessgoooo
Hit and Miss #349
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“Frozen in an uncomfortable slouch”
Hit and Miss #348
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Grab bag
Hit and Miss #347
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Clean the tabs, share the links
Hit and Miss #346
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Books abound
Hit and Miss #345
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Endless Saturdays
Hit and Miss #344
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First quarter updates
Hit and Miss #343
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The usual moves
Hit and Miss #342
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Continuing themes
Hit and Miss #341
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Blackbirds are back
Hit and Miss #340
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Sure, winter, see ya later
Hit and Miss #339
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How it goes these days
Hit and Miss #338
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Love and friendship (and data and government)
Hit and Miss #337
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Wintry neighbours
Hit and Miss #332
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Benchin’, cattin’, linkin’
Hit and Miss #331
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So, we made it
Hit and Miss #330
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Another year’s books
Hit and Miss #329
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omg me too
Hit and Miss #328
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Hoorah for “blank time”
Hit and Miss #327
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Bring on the winter of (inter)dependence
Hit and Miss #326
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Independent living depends on a healthy land
Hit and Miss #325
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Responding to change (links on)
Hit and Miss #324
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Change for thee, but not for me?
Hit and Miss #323
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Home from Japan
Hit and Miss #316
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Living the principles
Hit and Miss #300
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Links on data, exploitation, and hunkering down
Hit and Miss #285
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Holding on
Hit and Miss #284
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Existing in melancholy
Hit and Miss #283
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Snowy brain
Hit and Miss #282
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Links on recordkeeping and more
Hit and Miss #281
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Living by the clock, by the light
Hit and Miss #280
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More rest
Hit and Miss #279
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2022 to 2023
Hit and Miss #278
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2022 reads
Hit and Miss #277
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Passing the baton
Hit and Miss #276
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Assurance
Hit and Miss #275
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See also
Hit and Miss #274
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Transcripting
Hit and Miss #273
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Extremely online
Hit and Miss #272
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Promises to self
Hit and Miss #271
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Constitutional unconstitutionalism
Hit and Miss #270
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Crises abound
Hit and Miss #269
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Convo dump
Hit and Miss #268
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Serious links™ on work
Hit and Miss #267
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Public delivery
Hit and Miss #266
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Calls continue
Hit and Miss #265
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Work, birds, tech, munipoli
Hit and Miss #264
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Technicalities
Hit and Miss #263
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Five years!? A thank you
Hit and Miss #262
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Hit and Miss fifth anniversary data analysis
Because aside from writing a weekly newsletter, my hobbies include analysing data, especially my own
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Holding pattern
Hit and Miss #261
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Learning in crisis
Hit and Miss #260
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Just the links
Hit and Miss #259
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A shout to the wind
Hit and Miss #258
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Hot brain links
Hit and Miss #257
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Toward an indie web(site)
Roadmap (ish—I’m not a PM) of changes to make this site more IndieWeb
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Malleable words
Hit and Miss #256
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Welcome to the party, pal
Hit and Miss #255
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Slow links
Hit and Miss #254
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Systems
Hit and Miss #253
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Broken social scene—wait, I mean, contract
Hit and Miss #252
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Internalized stress
Hit and Miss #251
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Decommissioned
Hit and Miss #250
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Half caff
Hit and Miss #249
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Financialized nesting dolls
Hit and Miss #248
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Busy rest
Hit and Miss #247
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Climate unpredictability
Hit and Miss #246
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L’aride follie del viver mio
Hit and Miss #245
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Sunny springtime links
Hit and Miss #244
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Anniversary treat
Hit and Miss #243
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Forces for good
Hit and Miss #242
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Abundant, virtuous futures
Hit and Miss #241
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April again
Hit and Miss #240
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Spring (tab) cleaning
Hit and Miss #239
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Links on ambition, resilient building, and more
Hit and Miss #238
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Doing our parts
Hit and Miss #237
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Seeking beautiful moments
Hit and Miss #236
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Chase the sun (redux)
Hit and Miss #235
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War in real-time, in all its ugliness
Hit and Miss #234
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Goodbye (?) to the occupiers
Hit and Miss #233
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Savouring silence
Hit and Miss #232
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Acoustic assaults
Hit and Miss #231
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Ursula Franklin on silence
Excerpts from “Silence and the Notion of the Commons”
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Occupied
Hit and Miss #230
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Playing for team public
Hit and Miss #229
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Where have the snow days gone
Hit and Miss #228
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Melancholy and drama, but peace
Hit and Miss #227
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Digging roots
Hit and Miss #226
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A few books feed us well
Hit and Miss #225
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Staring down the barrel, at least the memes are good
Hit and Miss #224
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Fragments
Hit and Miss #223
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What we lose
Hit and Miss #222
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Outrunning the food coma
Hit and Miss #221
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Stories within stories
Hit and Miss #220
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Silent commemoration
Hit and Miss #219
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One week down
Hit and Miss #218
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Surviving November
Hit and Miss #217
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Pandemic movie weekends
Feel-good movies (mostly) to get through a pandemic
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Registering intent
Hit and Miss #216
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Leaves pass to soil
Hit and Miss #215
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A brief rom-com review
Hit and Miss #214
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Truer histories
Hit and Miss #213
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Star Trek days
Hit and Miss #212
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Paths (not) taken
Hit and Miss #211
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Little reading
Hit and Miss #210
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September, you’re finally here
Hit and Miss #209
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Reading and movies
Hit and Miss #208
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August free fall
Hit and Miss #207
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Democratic event(s)
Hit and Miss #206
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Let’s get nerdy
Hit and Miss #205
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Cool sunsets
Hit and Miss #204
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Parables
Hit and Miss #203
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Boredom, boiling frogs, and miscellany
Hit and Miss #202
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Summer dreaming
Hit and Miss #201
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“You give me life”
Hit and Miss #200
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Loading
Hit and Miss #199
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Cooking, staying hungry
Hit and Miss #198
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Responding to violence
Hit and Miss #197
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Doors Open (online)
Hit and Miss #196
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215 children
Hit and Miss #195
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What’s on the mind
Hit and Miss #194
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Lilacs
Hit and Miss #193
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The world is cool
Hit and Miss #192
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Anniversaries
Hit and Miss #191
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To what grounds us
Hit and Miss #190
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Furious, heartbroken—but not surprised
Hit and Miss #189
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Daydream believer
Hit and Miss #188
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Sunshine escape
Hit and Miss #187
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Rainy day people
Hit and Miss #186
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Spring—change, or not
Hit and Miss #185
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On we go
Hit and Miss #184
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Reporting thoughtfully
Hit and Miss #183
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Keeping it light
Hit and Miss #182
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Close to home
Hit and Miss #181
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Another day older, closer to the grave
Hit and Miss #180
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Chase the sun
Hit and Miss #179
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Coding by any other name
Hit and Miss #178
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Gettin’ sauced
Hit and Miss #177
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Working (again)
Hit and Miss #176
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This week in anti-democracy…
Hit and Miss #175
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Zoom zoom
Hit and Miss #174
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Revisiting
Hit and Miss #173
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Five books for the year
Hit and Miss #172
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Ugh, algorithms
Hit and Miss #171
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PolySeSouvient
Hit and Miss #170
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Waiting
Hit and Miss #169
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Adventuring
Hit and Miss #168
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For the love of knowledge
Hit and Miss #167
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Trivial links
Hit and Miss #166
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Blowing hot air
Hit and Miss #165
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Argh
Hit and Miss #164
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On Mi’kmaw waters
Hit and Miss #163
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A sense of perspective
Hit and Miss #162
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Leafing through
Hit and Miss #161
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Books at hand
Hit and Miss #160
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COVID crime
Hit and Miss #159
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Rainy morning adventures
Hit and Miss #158
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Maintenance, care, attention
Hit and Miss #157
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Week in review
Hit and Miss #156
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TV time and world-building
Hit and Miss #155
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Remembering (how) to relax
Hit and Miss #154
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Roads
Hit and Miss #153
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Rain day thoughts
Hit and Miss #152
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Some links
Hit and Miss #151
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Virtual community
Hit and Miss #150
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Snapshots of the week
Hit and Miss #149
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Halfway through 2020
Hit and Miss #148
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One link to listen
Hit and Miss #147
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Heat, work, history
Hit and Miss #146
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Who’s watching?
Hit and Miss #145
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What to say
Hit and Miss #144
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A difficult week
Hit and Miss #143
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To your taste
Hit and Miss #142
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New shelves
Hit and Miss #141
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In memoriam
Hit and Miss #140
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Beautiful words
Hit and Miss #139
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Wordy cookbooks
Hit and Miss #138
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Day off reading
Hit and Miss #137
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Parliament carries on
Hit and Miss #136
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Personal websites
Hit and Miss #135
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Do nothing struggles
Hit and Miss #134
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Sims
Hit and Miss #133
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Now so fast, history so slow
Hit and Miss #132
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Finding focus
Hit and Miss #131
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2x3 links (misc, archives) and a phrase
Hit and Miss #130
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Spring, feelings, readings
Hit and Miss #129
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Family time
Hit and Miss #128
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Collected links
Hit and Miss #127
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Mining my messages
Hit and Miss #126
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Facilitating access
Hit and Miss #125
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Snow slow
Hit and Miss #124
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Retreat to the wholesome
Hit and Miss #123
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Archives and walking and links
Hit and Miss #122
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Engage!
Hit and Miss #121
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This year’s books
Hit and Miss #120
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Top shelf (think books, not booze)
Hit and Miss #119
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Thirty years later
Hit and Miss #118
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Principles of parliamentary practice
Hit and Miss #117
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Web links
Hit and Miss #116
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P-p-p-policy!! (Or, what Lucas does at work)
Hit and Miss #115
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Positions and the people in them
A model of organizational change
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A parliamentary (precinct) tour
Hit and Miss #114
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Stories beyond the data
Hit and Miss #113
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Public service
Hit and Miss #112
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Functions of a living situation
Hit and Miss #111
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The sites I visit
Hit and Miss #110
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The slump
Hit and Miss #109
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Models for decision and action
Hit and Miss #108
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Production and growth
Models of action from Ursula Franklin
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A drop-in space
Hit and Miss #107
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Bookmark finds
Hit and Miss #106
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Travelling in place
Hit and Miss #105
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Through the eyes of another
Hit and Miss #104
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Structure
Hit and Miss #103
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A geography of intentional sound
Hit and Miss #102
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Happy days
Hit and Miss #101
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Living principles
Hit and Miss #100
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Levels of critical digital work
Hit and Miss #99
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Questions for learning
Hit and Miss #98
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Digital government and civic tech
Hit and Miss #97
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Opera
Hit and Miss #96
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Let’s take a walk
Hit and Miss #95
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Words and links
Hit and Miss #94
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Accessible public spaces
Hit and Miss #93
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A working carrying capacity
Hit and Miss #92
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Doors Open
Hit and Miss #91
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Walking toward a social summer
Hit and Miss #90
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Three blobs of words
Hit and Miss #89
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Grounding history
Hit and Miss #88
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A day off
Hit and Miss #87
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Look up
Hit and Miss #86
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Valuing openness
Hit and Miss #85
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Thinking frames
Hit and Miss #84
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Boomer empowerment
Hit and Miss #83
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Framing conversation
Distinguishing “praising/blaming” from “looking/puzzling”
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Ursula Franklin on inclusion
Growing ourselves by recognizing the other in us
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Making time for music, for silence
Hit and Miss #82
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A family day
Hit and Miss #81
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Communicating depth
Hit and Miss #80
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The signs
Hit and Miss #79
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I, you, we (maybe?)
Hit and Miss #78
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Words I avoid
Hit and Miss #77
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The 80s and links
Hit and Miss #76
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Standing in place
Hit and Miss #75
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Jiro Dreams of Sushi
Interviewing myself about a good movie
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When you want to get out and read
Hit and Miss #74
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The wholesome social network
Hit and Miss #73
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Libraries, physical and digital, visible and invisible
Hit and Miss #72
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Rockeuses, and leaders as facilitators
Hit and Miss #71
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Pacifist principles
Ursula M. Franklin defines key terms
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What we remember, and why
Hit and Miss #70
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Springsteen on Broadway
The Boss, on the importance of stories
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Returning home and time’s triptych
Hit and Miss #69
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Solitude
Michael Harris on facing our own thoughts, alone
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Solitude connections
For personal reference, reactions to Harris’s book
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Spotify wishlist
Two musical concepts absent from Spotify’s features
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Reading (and writing) heals
Hit and Miss #68
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What my library’s for
A communications tool, with two audiences
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Speeches from the throne, thinking tools
Hit and Miss #67
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Meanwhile the world goes on
When nature and a poem strike you
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The certainty of the present moment, the certainty of change
Why I appreciate Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels
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Scattered
Hit and Miss #66
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When to stop writing
Hemingway advises
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Working and rest
Hit and Miss #65
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No choice
Hit and Miss #64
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Competing priorities at Laurel Creek Conservation Area
Hit and Miss #63
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Blogroll
Hit and Miss #62
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Justifying the status quo
If its context changes, a decision is no longer valid
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Misquoting Virgil
Why context matters
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Thinky thinky
Hit and Miss #61
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Thinking geographically
Hit and Miss #60
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Three pairs of links
Hit and Miss #59
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Digital history and digital humanities
Hit and Miss #58
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Thanksgiving break
Hit and Miss #57
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Dropping in
Hit and Miss #56
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Communities of care
Hit and Miss #55
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Growing up
What learning looks like
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Repeated experiences
Hit and Miss #54
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Writing in books, a personal history
Hit and Miss #53
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A year in (review)
Hit and Miss #52
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Learning and escaping through simulation
Hit and Miss #51
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We shape the land
Hit and Miss #50
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Learning languages, loving words
Hit and Miss #49
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Cool recipes for a hot day
Hit and Miss #48
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Turn to the local
Hit and Miss #47
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“He was how old??”
Analysing historical data about Members of Parliament
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Heat
Hit and Miss #46
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How we work
A manifesto for a good organization
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Humbly human
Hit and Miss #45
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Working (remotely)
Hit and Miss #44
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Centennial
Hit and Miss #43
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Creative constraints
Hit and Miss #42
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Historically minded
Hit and Miss #41
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A quantified, incentivized life
Hit and Miss #40
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Here I go again!
Hit and Miss #39
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Pacifism
Hit and Miss #38
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Working (together)
Hit and Miss #37
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Science fair!!
Hit and Miss #36
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Working
Hit and Miss #35
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Portable pasta party kit
Hit and Miss #34
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Keep going
Hit and Miss #33
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Season 2, episode 22
Hit and Miss #32
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Regularly local
Hit and Miss #31
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M*A*S*H
Hit and Miss #30
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On the environment
Hit and Miss #29
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Robots!
Hit and Miss #28
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Editing
Hit and Miss #27
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Presenting work
Hit and Miss #26
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The importance of internet access
Hit and Miss #25
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Ode to the road
Hit and Miss #24
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Some links
Hit and Miss #23
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Life is long
Hit and Miss #22
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Complex, connected problems
Hit and Miss #21
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Profiles and interviews
Hit and Miss #20
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Thinking about time
Hit and Miss #19
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Digesting ideas
Some things you don’t understand from the get-go
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“Feed”
Hit and Miss #18
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On Mark Zuckerberg’s “personal challenge”
Some things you can’t, and shouldn’t, solve alone
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Constant questions
Hit and Miss #17
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Three welcome books
Hit and Miss #16
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Small victories
Hit and Miss #15
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Notes on The Prince
Some Machiavellian lessons on life
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The Canadian Digital Service’s first show and tell
A summary and some recommendations
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Our faves are problematic
Hit and Miss #14
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The Seven Year Itch
Hit and Miss #13
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The mind as a muscle
Exercising it hurts just as much
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Readability troubles on Canada.ca
Two small ideas for improvement
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Bye Bye Birdie
Hit and Miss #12
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Walking routes
A list of (roughly described) routes that I enjoy
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Therapeutic things
Reminders of what I find relaxing
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No more (accidental) noise
Taking a social media break
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What’s a personal bio good for?
Hit and Miss #11
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Research reading
Hit and Miss #10
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Earthworming
Ursula M. Franklin’s advice for social change
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Modern monopolies
Hit and Miss #9
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Civic tech
Hit and Miss #8
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A revealing week
Hit and Miss #7
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Veritable listening
Hit and Miss #6
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Nature’s musical tastes
Wendell Berry observes nature’s “patient ear”
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Newsletter recommendations
Hit and Miss #5
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Loving libraries
Hit and Miss #4
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Ursula M. Franklin suggests some readings
Selections from The Real World of Technology’s bibliography
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Work isn’t the whole thing
Two notes from Frank Chimero on keeping life in perspective
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Manguel’s tribute to dissatisfaction
Putting into words the role of an essay
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Conversational contributions
Hit and Miss #3
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Documenting drafts: Hit and Miss #2
A peek behind the scenes of my editing process
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Questioning labels
Hit and Miss #2
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Earthworming
Hit and Miss #1
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Sunday mornings
Establishing rituals
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Reading with a pen
Observations from years of writing in my books
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Learning to code by failing safely
Thoughts on my talk at WordCamp Ottawa 2017
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Transparency theatre
Saying the thing is not doing the thing
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Quantifying reading
What Goodreads can teach us about databases and shared understanding
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“I wouldn’t” by John Vance Cheney
A perfect summertime poem
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On things left unfinished
Manguel reminds us that a book is never truly read
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Tracey Lauriault on data at Ottawa Civic Tech
Living in an age of data, we must critique the technology spread throughout our lives
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Paying for news
Dave Winer offers an interesting proposal to pay for news from multiple outlets
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Stop reading, start writing
Bayard pushes us to understand ourselves by seeing reading as the impetus for writing
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Zinsser’s thesis
Saying a true thing again and again
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Wafting Westminster
Frustration with the House reform process
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Why not design school
Michael Bierut answers the question I receive most often
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Named colours
The folly of subjective references
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Doing the real work
The illusion of work, versus the act itself
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Stop hiding links
We should celebrate the fundamental building block of the web
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Designated typist
Anne Lamott on letting your subject talk
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The Cherkewski View
A personal website manifesto