It’s an Open Thread #2
Hey folks. The site is going to be very light this week and early next week — I’m spending some time with my family and accompanying my daughter on some spring break college visits. I’ll be back to full force mid-next week.
In the meantime, I thought the open thread we did a couple of weeks ago was so lovely that it should be a regular thing. So, what’s going on in your world? What are you working on? Reading or watching or listening to anything good these days? How can we help you with something that’s been weighing you down?
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I have gotten into native landscaping recently (well, over the past 5 years) and have been slowly redoing my entire yard by ripping out invasives and a million awful pavers. I am finally to the adding new plants part and I planted a native plum tree last year. We're getting the first blossoms and it makes me so happy every time I see it. The tree is super tiny right now - comes up about chest high on me - but I can just imagine it when it gets taller and is a big mass of white in the spring. There is so much heavy in my life, both personally and otherwise, and seeing this vision of spring has been lightening the vibes around here.
We just dethatched the lawn and spread native grasses and clovers— I’m so excited to have a mow less pollinator haven as it takes over!!
I have lots I want to do in our yard as soon as winter really eases. Are you planning on letting the native grasses and clover slowly take over your lawn over several years? I have some interest in removing the traditional lawn in our backyard.
Yep, Scott— we just mowed down really low, raked a ton to get exposed dirt, and then laid it right over the top. The seed people say it’ll pretty much choke out the grass over the next couple of years depending on growth rates and weather 🤞
Northwest gardener here. I haven't been able to effectively control the aphids on our young plum tree. If you have encountered the same thing and found something that stops aphids (and their resulting leaf curl) while being kind to the good insects, I'm all ears. In the meantime, I salute your new plum tree and hope you have beautiful blooms and fruit soon!
So, its been a rough start to the new year. I quit my job due to a toxic manager pushing me out and the company gave me a generous severance. Now I feel a bit listless because I'm drowning in a sea of AI snake oil on LinkedIn and less design opportunities along with the fact no jobs were created in 2025. I'm looking to pivot into something creative still but haven't found the right career advisor who knows what AI is and isn't forcing it down my throat as its inevitability. Has anyone successfully guided themselves into something their equally passionate about and don't feel like a fraud?
It sounds like a tricky time. I have no beautiful words that slice through all the snake oil and this distorted labor market (and you naturally shouldn't trust anyone who claims to have that one weird trick that will!). But I will say that I've found - during a period following a large lay-off in tech - volunteering for a few orgs that have deep personal meaning for me has been a lifeline. Meeting good people, doing meaningful work, and learning new skills along the way have all been grounding. I hope things start to smooth out for you soon!
I REALLY wish "Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die" were less violent so I could share it with my kids. It's an important message for the next generation, but too bloody to show to them.
It's been a long winter for me. And a long last year, too, now that I think about it. Work is uncertain these days, and the rest of it? Not so great.
But I'm trying to put time back into some things that bring me joy- planting trees and garden work, building a new fence for the back yard, riding bikes more again. Just kinda hoping I can jostle myself out of this funk and get my head in the game for the next round, you know?
I started my tomato seedlings from seed last week, and half of the tray has sprouted. There is nothing more full of hope and optimism than a tray of beefsteak tomato seedlings.
This reminds me of a wonderful essay by Ross Gay about the delight of tomato seedlings that aired on This American Life: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/692/the-show-of-delights/act-one-33
This has me thinking of the great Greg Brown song / story, 'Canned Goods' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VJUmf9EW7g
My family and I are headed to London and Paris for Spring Break with our kiddo. Please send any hidden gems or weird recomendations my way :) Thanks Kottke fam!
So much great (free!) stuff in London! Among its many amazing museums I’d rank the weird collection of Sir John Soane as a great day out— paintings hidden behind paintings, secret passages, etc (also, have all the European cheese, Neal’s Yard Dairy in the 7 Dials is always a good bet)
You can take a tour of the Paris Catacombs! I waited in line for about an hour and as closing time approached they cut off the line about 5 people in front of me so I never got to go. I guess this isn't a recommendation so much as asking someone to pick-up the torch and finish the job!
We stayed near the Eiffel Tower and everything was very expensive there. We spent a fortune on food at all those cute cafés and open restaurants. Seriously, I think I spent $20 on every mug of beer I bought (and I'm from Wisconsin, so that was many many mugs of beer) and that was in 2010!
Always and forever: Atlas Obscura. We typically ID a handful of things that interest us, and stitch them together into a walk. The serendipity and delight that comes from that approach, for me, is unmatched. Like the time we set out to see a cannonball from the French Revolution that is still stuck in a wall in a building in Paris, and later stumbled across a boulangerie that made award-winning baguettes. Of course we visit more common sites, too, based on interest, but Atlas Obscura is my wandering guide for the world.
Destination: I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Atelier des Lumieres in Paris. Simply magical. https://www.atelier-lumieres.com/fr
Food: If any of you are fans of cheese at all, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention "Pain, Vin, Fromages" in Paris. https://painvinfromages.com/en/
Bon voyage, and know that at least one person stateside is deeply and unashamedly jealous of your travels. You'll make such great memories!
"Bombay-style comfort food" — I was in London last year and a meal at Dishoom (many locations, we went to Kensington) has lingered in my memory ever since. I bought their cookbook in hopes of recreating some of the flavors, but the ingredient list on most every dish is daunting.
Don't be afraid to jump on a regular (not special tourist/sightseeing) red London bus to get around. Often more direct than the Tube and a great way to see more of the city if you sit up top!
If you're into modern art and in Paris: go visit the Exposition Générale exhibition at the Fondation Cartier. A well-curated yet eclectic combination of works from all over the world. Also: walk a stretch of La Petite Ceinture, an abandoned railroad through the less touristic arrondissements turned into city hike. Or the Coulée Verte René-Dumont: an elevated railroad turned into a park. Eat at a Bouillon. Have breakfast at the boulangerie next to your hotel. Step into any random bistro for lunch and be surprised.
Spent the last week hiking in the Harper' Ferry area getting my history nerd requirements met. It was quite nice to unplug - if it wasn't on a sign or brochure i didn't read it.
I've had great luck that has led to a very frustrating realization. My wife and I have saved enough money to retire early. That's the "great luck" part.
Now the frustration, the cost of healthcare will prevent us from actually doing it unless we move out of the country (at least until we are 65). Or maybe I should say, we've realized how affordable good healthcare is in other countries and it makes our system look like a terrible joke. Even countries that are not significantly cheaper in other ways (Panama for example) has healthcare that is about one 10th the price of US healthcare. We would be retired TODAY if our healthcare system wasn't so broken. Really makes me feel so disappointed in our political system.
Anybody here living the expat life in Panama, Mexico, Portugal, Thailand, Vietnam, etc.? Anybody have a cheat-code for affordable insurance (
My wife and I are in a similar position and it always comes down to the cost of healthcare. She retired from her job with the State of WI at the end of 2022 and I’m still hopeful to be choosing to leave my job in maybe3 years or so. The thing that will help is for a handful of years is time she banked over her career that we can use to cover healthcare costs for maybe 4 years.
As much as our current administration makes relocation a more common topic and for all the healthcare benefits, I truthfully don’t see it in the cards for us.
Speaking of a cheat-code... My wife and I took a mid-career break & joined the Peace Corps. We served in Romania from 2011-13. If you don't have kids at home and you're fairly healthy, it's an amazing way to immerse yourself in the life, language, and culture of another country (and hopefully do some good at the same time). It's one of the best and most rewarding decisions we've ever made.
It doesn't pay well compared to any US job, but you get paid enough for food, lodging, and a little spending money. My wife and I lived on our local salary unless we were traveling internationally. If you've got the money to retire early, you can let that money sit and grow in some investment. But a big bonus is free health care while you're serving.
The typical stint is 27 months, but you can always quit early, and most of the time you can extend if you aren't ready to leave your country.
Spent way too much of my Sunday trying to get the 20yr old lawnmower started. New oil, air filter, new gas (after drain and refill), new spark plug, manually manipulating automatic throttle....nada.
Finally decided to just buy a new carburetor for it (barely more than a can of carb cleaner) and see what that gets me. Arrives Wednesday. Stay tuned. :)
I swapped the carb on my snowblower this winter and it went from a barely-running mess that was super annoying to get started to a snow eating machine. And it cost me $35.
If you want a little pick-me-up that will make you feel better about humanity, can I recommend Frederick Wiseman's documentary about the New York Public Library, Ex Libris? Three and a half glorious hours of people helping other people, people talking about books they wrote or love, people performing or listening to music, people reading, researching, and resting in the library. As a bonus, you probably can stream this for free from your public library's digital video collection.
I wrote a novel called CHOKEVILLE and last week put it out as an ebook and audiobook. It’s about two sisters working low-level crime jobs in a port city and getting in trouble. There’s some noir, some fantasy, some pirate-adjacent stuff. It’s mostly fun. It’s on a bunch of different platforms but if you don’t like any of them, just get in touch and we can work something out. All the info is at fireland dot com!
Congratulations! Is it on Libro.FM? I have some credits building up there, I'd be interested in giving it a listen. I'll look for it later. How'd you record the audiobook?
Congrats on that! I can only begin to imagine what it's like to release a book into the world!
I used Amazon’s ACX service to find an audiobook narrator, then worked directly with her for a couple months. It was great! But that means the audio version is only available via Amazon/Apple (for now).
Inspired by Dwight, I’m headed to a work conference in Cape Town this summer but don’t have the time or bandwidth to travel far — where’s the best (chill) food in town and noncity/(ethical)wildlife options for a day trip or two?
I'm debating whether I waste time on my latest idea, a calculator app. After it does your math, it has buttons to turn the result into a factor of either 69, 420, or 80085. I'm not sure if my level of immaturity is wide enough to turn into downloads though.
Thanks all you lovely kdo people for uplifting, thoughtful, and sometimes loving posts. Well done! You've made my day and week.
I've been largely checked out of world events because I've been dealing with a three-month-long family crisis: the death of my uncle at the start of the year left me as the sole caregiver for my 98-year-old grandmother, which meant moving her to a new state, sorting out her medical issues, finding her assisted living, and selling her home to help pay for it all.
It’s been pretty stressful, but I've found a little escape in the daily joys of playing Enclose.horse and Clues by Sam each morning, and occasionally Perfect Tides: Station to Station in the evenings.
And since I've been in L.A. for months, I took the day off yesterday from caring for my grandma and went to see Project Hail Mary with our mutual buddy and past KDO guest editor Greg Knauss. It was a nice day.
Over the weekend, we watched both of the live-action short films that (in an unusual outcome) tied for the Oscar in that category. The Singers is available on Netflix and Two People Exchanging Saliva is available on the New Yorker's YouTube channel (one is 18 minutes long, the other is 37 mins).
I kind of expected them both to be of similar quality, like "I can understand why people voted for each of these" or "hm, short films are an odd art form, I guess these are ok, and I could chose one or the other." But to me, one was so clearly much better than the other, like to me one was great and one was not very good. I can see how each film would have a very different audience, but how they had same-sized different audiences among the voters I find mysterious. If anyone else has seen both, I'd love to hear your thoughts before revealing mine.
I'm a little afraid to go first, but here goes! I liked them both, but I liked The Singers more. I was familiar with the short story it's based on, only because it was dissected at length in a book about writing that I enjoyed a lot last year (but didn't finish before I had to return it to the library, unfortunately) - A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders. I thought the film did a beautiful job of capturing the spirit of the story without being totally beholden to it. And I loved that it wasn't hitting you over the head with a message.
Two People Exchanging Saliva was one of those movies I appreciated (great acting, great black & white cinematography, interesting idea) but didn't love. I was watching it from more of a distance and for some reason I couldn't fully buy into the premise of this alternate universe where (mild spoiler alert) you pay for everything by letting people slap you in the face. Like how does that actually work? It was all vibes but not enough substance, IMHO.
Portland (Oregon) was generally sunny over the weekend, and I spent weekend afternoons under the cherry blossoms at Waterfront Park, celebrating spring with a joyous throng of Portlanders. Mainly, I was there to photograph people and their smiles. It’s impossible to not be happy under sunny skies and a canopy of cherry blossoms. There was music and laughter, food and drink – and everyone camera-happy with friends, family, and themselves. It was the complete opposite of the war zone that some people in this country think Portland is experiencing.
I got some hormonal support for perimenopause and am starting to...be interested in things again? Maybe it's spring and the grow light from the seeds I just started, but I'm interested in finishing my first clumsy applique quilt, I'm about 70% done with a new skirt, and I made a little collage zine!
No joke, HRT changed the lives of soooooo many peri* women I know (gender affirming care doing it’s thing!)
At his stage in my life and various health related issues I can relate to exploring/revisiting etc. Spent last week driving (and randomly stopping at local hardware stores - thrift shops - coffee houses) in and around Anderson valley up to Mendocino CA backroads with a goal of never traveling the same road twice. Not realistic but getting lost was very therapeutic.
We leave this weekend for a road trip to three national parks: Pinnacles (2 days), Joshua Tree (3 days), and Sequoia (2 days). I’ve never been to any of these ones, despite living near enough most of my life! I’m so, so excited for the time in different kinds of nature. My kids are in 1st and 3rd grades — any hot tips for these locations if you know them? Also, audiobook recommendations for this age group would be a lovely assist. (They’re currently enjoying the third Mysteries of Cove series’s Embers of Destruction, after LOVING the Montgomery Bon-Bon detective series.)
Your trip sounds great! We loved Joshua Tree when we visited in Jan 2020. Catch a sunset in at Keys View and visit the Cholla Cactus Garden along Pinto Basin Road. It is really beautiful when the sun is low. We also had some great pizza at Sky High Pizza.
I put together some of my tennis pictures in a photo essay. I haven't quite known what to do with it, so I'm (nervously) sharing it here! https://www.arjunrihan.com/arc-of-movement
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