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The big news this week was, of course, the New Jersey earthquake that shook the region. I learned two things:

  1. I didn’t know what to do in the moment. I resorted to looking at my coworker in bewilderment. Now I know to dive under my desk–and be prepared to move with it.
  2. “I survived the insert event here of 20XX” t-shirts can be marketed before the event is over–no matter how short said event may be.

Now for some nostalgia. Remember Coin? No, not Coinbase or Bitcoin, but the all-in-one, electronic credit card. I found mine in a drawer, surprisingly it still turns on. However, all the cards in it are expired. Coin shut down in 2017. It was a cool idea, but not quite as cool or convenient as paying with a phone, which has become commonplace now.

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We spent some time in Florida this week. That may have something to do with the anti-car theme of this week’s links.

Also this week: Tax time. Taxes shouldn’t be so difficult as to require the services of a professional or a piece of software. I was reminded of this report about who’s lobbying for tax complexity in this country, which I linked to in February. I also think many American’s desire to “get a deal”–or, at least feel like they are getting one–makes us complacent with our current, very convoluted tax code.

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A couple weeks ago, a blog roll returned to the pages of this fine publication. After adding it, I wondered if there is any etiquette/best practice regarding which pages should include the blog roll. At first, I just went with the default and it was included on every page. However, it seems spammy to include 50+ outgoing links on every page of the site. I’ve since scaled it back to the home and about pages, which seems about right, for this site anyway.

OK Jazz Podcast #170 includes a great “memory lane” mix. The tracks he chose remind me of two periods in my life. The 80s pop/rock tracks take me back to my childhood while the earlier R&B/Disco songs remind me of my move to New York City. When I arrived in 1999, Jammin 105 (home of “New York’s Jammin Oldies”) was on the air. Hear a sample of Jammin 105 from that very year on Youtube.

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Caught up on the One a Day pictures this week. I had neglected them for more than a week, which meant there were several missing pictures. With less than a month left in this project, I’ll try to finish strong and take a picture every day.

After a long pause, I started listening to the Evil Genius Chronicles podcast again. I caught up on the last few month’s episodes. Dave says I’m now a reformed “I used to listen to your show” person. I stopped listening to Evil Genius Chronicles when my podcast consumption went to zero. I’m not sure what the trigger was. I think my commute shortened to the point where I stopped listening to anything, and I tend to listen to music if I’m at home or working.

Anyway, I’m glad to have added Evil Genius Chronicles to my very short list of podcasts which includes OK Jazz, Tokyo Jazz Joints and The War On Cars. The last one might be on the cusp of “I used to listen to your show”. Their last live show was pretty good, so I’ll see how the next couple episodes are.

Back to Evil Genius Chronicles. He mentioned a couple things in the batch of episodes I caught up on this week that I could really relate to:

  • The procrastination spiral: Basically, when someone is avoiding one task but rather than doing another, they don’t do anything remotely productive. I’ve got that and he describes the feelings around this so well in his November 3, 2024 episode.
  • Note taking/journaling, paper vs. electronic: He is absolutely right that nothing is faster than jotting down a note on paper. Over the years, I’ve switched between paper and electronic a couple times. Currently, I’m in electronic mode. I prefer the searchability, and my handwriting is atrocious. My pen and paper days have also left me with a collection of never-referenced moleskines that currently occupy valuable New York City real estate and I’m not sure what to do with them.

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