Good Things Friday (306) and Link Love
January 3, 2025
1. I’ve made one small dent in each of the three messes: my office, JB’s room, and Smol Acrobat’s room. Work in progress.
Challenges this week: we need to figure out our home and auto insurance. They are EXPENSIVE.
Not good: net neutrality was struck down by the federal court. (I mistyped feral and honestly, how wrong is that, really?) Watching Celeste Pewter for more news.
This is good life advice, not just for dog sledding and the Iditarod: If things aren’t going as smoothly as you’d like and the team seems a bit low energy, you don’t let things deteriorate. You can reset from a negative spiral to a positive one with short runs and good camps. It sounds simple, and maybe it is.
TIL about Prince Rupert’s drops: Scientists solve 400-year-old mystery of Prince Rupert’s drops
Also TIL about Glenn Miller’s mysterious unsolved disappearance.
Every time I think about how much would be a “safe” amount of money to retire, I read articles like this and think there is no safe amount because any serious health condition could become devastating if health insurers decide to refuse care: ‘Would he have lived?’ When insurance companies deny cancer care to patients
Evan Sutton noted: Ah yes, I see it’s the time of year when the Philanthropy Industrial Complex (Big P for short) seeds negative stories about Mackenzie Scott because everything about the way she gives money undercuts their entire model…
Sounds like she’s doing it right. This thread from Alejandra Caraballo supports that. I know I couldn’t do my work with the Lakota families if I had to do more than put out a call on email, Bsky, and Mastodon now and again to call for funds to supply families. I have too much actual work to do to help them.
I’m tackling some things too! I went through my filing cabinet (not as bad as I feared, I think I aggressively recycle and get less stuff in general that could be file-worthy) and a lot of my clothing. Still to go: more clothing, figuring out garage storage solution, sorting through garage stuff, making room in guest bedroom for the ridiculously voluminous mattress topper that doesn’t fit in the Murphy bed when it’s in the away position .. whew, exhausting.
Fascinating and depressing articles on Glen Campbell and the drops!
Good job! The chaos keeps coming in even when we try to stay on top of gatekeeping!
It’s almost time for me to set up another donation box for shipping too. I’ve designated a specific bin for those things so they don’t pile up in corners like junk stalagmites.
I refuse to acknowledge the piles of stuff in my kids’ rooms. If I close the door it will all go away on its own, right?
I keep trying this method but they keep not disappearing! What am I doing wrong?