2023-06-04: Plenty to say and share (in the coming weeks) on the incredible wine country, seafood, and natural …
2023-05-30: Charming Newberg town in Willamette Valley. This caught our eye while passing through on the search …
2023-05-23: Paris Dining Club is the Meal Delivery Service to Rule Them All We only had one opportunity to try Jamie Malone's Grand Cafe in Minneapolis, a well-regarded spot …
2023-05-23: Love this bit by Philip Mallegol-Hansen: As the ecosystem of blogs have moved between the various …
2023-05-18: There have been a flurry of great 📺 shows dropping. Controversial timing as the weather warms here …
2023-05-16: Fantastic sale on Micro.blog, an exceptional, independently-run content management system for short …
2023-05-16: Resale – On my Om Resale is shorthand for not knowing the true joy of ownership.
2023-05-10: SK Coffee in St Paul You never really stop seeking out the best a locale has to offer when it comes to coffee. Ever since …
2023-05-08: The Future of Search & Engagement Imperils the Notion of 'Websites' I spent a great deal of my early career working towards he betterment of website experiences for …
2023-05-04: The Weber Spirit E-210 Seven Years Later It's been seven years since I started grilling on this beast, and it has held up remarkably well. …
2023-05-03: “When ‘postulates’ rears its head…” — fun ‘Close Read’ in the latest Believer …
2023-05-02: Tom Leighton’s (@tomleightonart) Geomorphology photo series is stunning.
2023-05-01: All I could think about after reading Maggie Appleton’s cogent case on the ‘expanding …
2023-04-28: Via John Gruber — I’m not jazzed about where the auto industry is going, either. …
2023-04-28: If I’m reading this piece right, it appears fine dining has eroded quick serve’s and fast casual’s …
2023-04-26: Cannabis Seltzers in Minnesota & the Chill State Collective Ever since Minnesota’s accidental (or secretly intentional) legalization of hemp-derived …
2023-04-25: Using Generative AI to Summarize Articles While I am a voracious, enthusiastic reader, there are more than enough times throughout the day …
2023-04-23: Does anyone choose to use the stickers they get from various DTC brands as bookmarks? Well… I do.
2023-04-21: A fellow after my own passions – modifying zipper pulls. Love this piece by Ben Brooks. Heat …
2023-04-16: NYT rounds up recent biopic films about consumer products in lieu of a single person. I see this …
2023-04-15: Cabel Sasser finds an architecturally-derived secret at the Lotte Hotel in Seattle. Great …
2023-04-13: Really thorough design notes on the 2023 Wikipedia redesign, particularly for such an in important, …
2023-04-12: Our Fascination with Violence Our cultural fascination with violence is endless. When it comes to meeting it up close in various …
2023-04-11: Back to pleasant, evening outdoor fires. 📷
2023-04-11: Highlights on the retail resurgence from Monocle, including a bit on Montpellier’s cafe …
2023-04-10: Couldn’t agree more with @jaredwhite@indieweb.social ‘s succinct note on the Banshees of Inisherin, …
2023-04-09: Always learning composting nuance from Cass Marketos’s The Rot, like: “A compost with good fungal …
2023-04-09: Continued investment in RFID tech for supply chain tracking and management also paved a way for …
2023-04-08: Financial Times runs GPT-4 and Bard through the ringer on a few imaginary scenarios, including …
2023-04-07: First time coming across the html review, an infrequent curated literature drop designed to be read …
2023-04-07: Folks have been worried about the side of AI creative generation ripping artists without …
2023-04-06: Celeste Review While a few years late to this one, I picked up Celeste on a whim and got right into the "masocore" …
2023-04-06: You have to admire the work that went behind this Streaming Optimizer by Axios, which takes inputs …
2023-04-05: Look, it’s inevitable bars will continue to diversify their drink options and cocktail recipes to …
2023-04-04: Taking a gander at Modist brewery in Minneapolis.
2023-04-03: I’d bump Wine Thief & Ale Jail higher on this list, but a finely curated St. Paul liquor store …
2023-04-02: Winona - Small Town, College Vibes An impromptu thought earlier last week: let’s visit Winona and check out a coffee shop that is up …
2023-03-31: 🔗 Concerning piece by Fionn Pooler on “coffeewashing” practices in the industry. A Short …
2023-03-31: Metroid Prime is Still Great 21 Years Later It's been 21 years since I played the original Metroid Prime, released on the purple-clad Gamecube …
2023-03-30: Boludo Pizza - Re-Posting my Review A “short” review of the best pizza place in the Twin Cities Parked on a worthy block at …
2023-03-30: Yeah, we’ve all been wondering about this. They are terribly annoying. …
2023-03-29: Minneapolis' Paris Dining Club Delivers A short appreciation post to one of the best (well, the best) local monthly meal-delivery service …
2023-03-25: Amusing to see EDC land on A1 of the WSJ.
2023-03-24: Private Markets Shoring Up an Insurmountable Lead on AI Investment The dangers of industrial capture by the private market could spell a slow progression for …
2023-03-23: Assuming he’s actually going to do this… it’s a very thoughtful (and obvious) …
2023-03-13: Heggies, the GOAT.
2023-03-11: Dave Winer has the right read on the ChatGPT situation. Another generation of every information app …
2023-03-11: Impressive to see. “It got denied 100 percent by every county commissioner that was on the …
2023-03-10: Riveting analysis and perspective on idlewords.com (aka the Pinboard guy) as to why we shouldn’t …
2023-03-08: Quite satisfied with this post-dinner haul from Trader Joe’s for the hotel tonight. Twist-top bottle …
2023-03-07: Zipper Pulls & Usability Experience Here I go again with another post on zipper pulls. Why is it I find these things fascinating? First, …
2023-03-05: A little bit of serenity taking a break from the throes of winter back in MN.
2023-03-03: As a hot sauce madman, this incredible report of a stranded sea survivor has me brimming with new …
2023-02-27: You love to see the ambition here… surfing in the dead cold of winter on Duluth’s Lake Superior …
2023-02-24: Stepping through mirrors for short-distance transportation? Count me in. After just forty pages, I’m …
2023-02-23: Haven’t watched the show yet, but I wish there was more coverage on the production of these …
2023-02-22: Really love this piece from the lead developer of NetNewsWire: If we took money, even a little bit, …
2023-02-22: One More Time Is the third time the charm? Resuscitating this microblog one more time to meet my sincere ambition …
2022-04-12: An Attempt at Making Kimchi This is my first go at making kimchi, the beloved Korean use-everywhere fermented cabbage dish. I …
2022-03-26: The Joy of Using the Tom Bihn Zip-Top Shop Bag You have to love the Tom Bihn brand of bags and accessories. They make a great portfolio of products …
2022-03-21: Aer Travel Pack 2 - A Very Good One Bag Travel Kit I picked up Aer's flagship product, the Travel Pack 2, last year in preparation of work travel …
2021-08-06: Garden Fresh Tomato We struggled to grow tomatoes this year, namely because we were out of town for several weeks and …
2021-07-06: Pioneer Wallet - Molecule Card Holder Review Pioneer has been building a special materials series of wallets since 2016, which is right around …
2021-06-14: The Hyper Key Solution for Mac The beauty and efficiency of keyboard shortcuts has mostly eluded me. While I've memorized native …
2021-04-10: Western Rise - Apparel Review These past several years, I've been bouncing around a few technical-fabric apparel brands, seeking …
2021-03-11: Zipper Pulls A fleeting thought about zipper pulls -- the kind that are either natively part of your bag, purse, …
2021-03-09: Updated Take on One Finance - Two Months In In a double-whammy, I've updated initial thoughts on my experience so far with One Finance + …
2021-02-07: Democratized Technology & Its Empowerment of the Predominant Headline Narrative After reading Jessica E. Lessin’s “What Critics of the News Industry Get Right — and Wrong” essay, …
2021-01-17: Switching Banks: Simple Bank to One Finance [Includes updates after using One for four months; scroll to bottom.] January 7th brought …
2020-08-24: ➔ Deep reading being eroded by skim reading via modern child development These processes include …
2020-08-22: Just received my first book from Black Garnet Books, the recently-launched Black, woman-owned …
2020-08-21: ➔ I’m always sleuthing for great advice on meetings, agenda, and whether/why to have one. This is a …
2020-08-18: Just watched Boys State 📺 (Apple + A24 joint). Excellent, superbly cinematic documentary.
2020-08-18: Just grabbed a subscription to Brand New to keep it afloat. I’ve probably read dozens of their …
2020-08-15: ➔ Perlstein’s Fourth volume on the rise of the US right Like trying to keep up with American …
2020-08-07: Chip Butties Really fascinating to come upon such a strange delicacy in the UK. Baffling. But worth …
2020-08-04: Great read from Current Affairs found by Gruber (via Kottke – hah, love how this stuff gets …
2020-08-04: Journalism & Paywalls Great read from Current Affairs linked to by Gruber (via Kottke -- love how this stuff gets around) …
2020-08-01: Tooletries Shower Kits | A Most Notable Review First, Some BackgroundAfter stumbling upon these ingenious (maybe? Let’s give it a few months) …
2020-07-29: ➔ A lovely memoir about family, heritage, and Taco Bell. Taco Bell was easy, and inexpensive, and …
2020-07-23: Delightful to see useful, playful hardware designs again from Sony, like this portable AC unit. Not …
2020-07-22: Writing is thinking. 📝
2020-07-21: Solidarity in the Twin Cities Reading through a few recent posts from Minneapolis’ Trylon cinema blog, Perisphere, I came across …
2020-07-20: Great reminder from Gruber on the differences between the Return and Enter keys.
2020-07-20: Crazy times in hyper-trading ➔ Ranjan Roy on investing in a scathing piece about robot-investment firm, Robinhood: It's …
2020-07-20: I really hoped this guy would have survived more than a few days after he finally bloomed, but a …
2020-07-19: ➔ Matt Mullenwag (Automattic’s CEO), interviewed in this New York Times Corner Office …
2020-07-18: Nicole Cardoza schools inquisitive minds regarding AAVE (aka Ebonics): There is no historical or …
2020-07-18: The BBC has an intriguing examination of an occupied radio frequency that may or may not be used for …
2020-07-17: More on the “why” of the Lincoln Project, explained by Vox. This point is apt: Liberals …
2020-07-15: ➔ Agreed with Dave Winer on this bit: Project Lincoln so far has been great entertainment. Good for …
2020-07-14: Tackling Kaufman’s tome for the remainder of the summer. 📚
2020-07-14: Linked List (First Post!) ➔ Read the New York Times Magazine interview with Charlie Kaufman, who published his first book last …
2020-07-14: July 14, 2020 ➔ Read the New York Times Magazine interview with Charlie Kaufman, who published his …
2020-07-02: Reviving RSS Via Feedbin & NetNewsWire I had an RSS crisis a few months back, if you can call such a thing something so dire. I'd been …
2020-04-30: Back to the Mac It’s been an unusual couple of years for my computing. My primary directive from work is use to a …
2019-11-14: Scenes from Grand Marais We did a pleasant jaunt up to Grand Marais for a few days, taking in the quiet small town before it …
2019-05-30: The Aer Cardholder Wallet Been a while since I’ve tried a new wallet. After using the Trove wallet for years, a new cardholder …
2019-04-28: The Millennial Appeal of A24 Over the last seven years, a small New York studio’s films crept into the film distribution scene. I …
2018-12-04: The Delightful Escapism of 'The Good Place' Trucking through modern television series is usually an exercise in exuberance or exhaustion, no …
2018-05-11: Thorough overview by The Wall Street Journal on "how pizza night can cost more in data than …
2018-05-09: I'm sure people are going to fall into two camps with Google's Duplex: you're for it, or you're …
2018-04-28: Lava Cheese Exploring Iceland’s Snack Directly (But Indirectly)My wife recently jetted over to Iceland for a …
2018-02-17: Just Use DuckDuckGo " data-test="image-block-inline-outer-wrapper" > <figure class=" …
2017-12-09: Apple AirPods Review A Foray into the Future of Audio Platforms While the unveiling of Apple’s AirPods at last year’s …
2017-11-10: A Round of Memorable Op-Eds This Week While I've been around the clock a number of times with some of the most astute and compelling …
2017-09-30: Trove Returns with the Swift Wallet Iterating on a Good Thing The team behind what I've called (and remain firm on) the best slim wallet …
2017-07-15: The Two Faces of Apple The evolution and success of Apple products in the future will likely hinge on how deep their …
2017-06-18: The Listening Machines " data-test="image-block-inline-outer-wrapper" > <figure class=" …
2017-05-28: Facebook's Overreach A few recent reports on Facebook’s activities should have its users, policy makers, and …
2017-05-21: Faster Web & Less Bullshit, Please It wasn’t long ago we were witnessing a cosmic shift in web development to accommodate the influx of …
2017-05-17: Your Referral Here " data-test="image-block-inline-outer-wrapper" > <figure class=" …
2017-05-04: Facebook's Data Dilemma Authoring a tech post on the Guardian this past Tuesday, Antonio Garcia-Martinez, a former product …
2017-04-23: The Trials of Deleting Uber Uber's public image has had a hell of a first quarter. I can't recall the last tech company in …
2017-04-22: "Nobody's Got to Use the Internet" We heard some fighting words from US Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) this week, a stocky old man …
2017-04-15: The NSA & CIA Fail the American People Remember the Apple iPhone / San Bernardino case from early 2016? Here’s a recap: The F.B.I. has been …
2017-04-07: Take the VPN Route with Caution We should have seen this coming. That online scammers are now attempting to piggyback on the …
2017-04-06: New York Strikes Back Against ISP Data Law According to the New York State Senate, there is new state legislation in motion that would combat …
2017-04-02: The End of The Deck Ad Network The Last Bastion of Privacy-Conscious Advertising is DeadBack when the Internet was breaking out and …
2017-03-29: Privacy Sold So Much for Draining the Swamp It's official. In what should have been a non-partisan issue and …
2017-03-23: Congress Moves Toward Eliminating Internet Privacy Rules In another unsurprising feat by the Republican-led Congress, "lawmakers moved to dismantle landmark …
2017-03-20: MN Police Receive Search Warrant for Anyone Who Googled a Name As a former Minnesotan, this story piqued my attention over the weekend. Police in Edina, which is …
2017-03-17: Google Gmail Phishing Scam An important heads-up to anyone using Gmail (particularly on the domain itself): Here's how the …
2017-03-17: Oxford Comma Woes in Maine If you know me at all, there's a particular grammatical deployment of the comma I prefer when it …
2017-03-16: Pod Save the World's Interview with Glenn Greenwald Crooked Media's newish podcast, Pod Save the World, has a great 45 minute interview with The …
2017-03-12: Weekend Reading List - Hope Amidst the Darkness Round-up for March 11-12 Machine Bias: ProPublica's ongoing investigation into machine/data-driven …
2017-03-07: WikiLeaks Unloads 'Alleged CIA Hacking Documents' This happened just a short while ago, but an important development nonetheless. According to the New …
2017-03-04: Weekend Reading List Round-up for March 4-5 New Bill Would Force NYPD to Disclose Surveillance Tech Playbook: Though not …
2017-03-03: The Terms of Service Dilemma Great piece from The Guardian on how no one reads terms of service for apps/services/hardware they …
2017-02-22: Our Privacy, Our Data: A Call to Be Defiant There was once a time when human societies were truly free from mass surveillance — at liberty to …
2017-02-05: Big Changes Ahead: Defiant Sloth Relaunching Hello readers. It was inevitable that this day would come, particularly if you’ve been reading the …
2016-11-30: Newspapers’ Revenue Decline & Ad Blockers Jonathan Irons writes about his defense of using ad blockers on news sites and how these companies …
2016-09-08: Hostile, Ad-Ridden Articles This is a brief bit about hostile reading experiences. I've been keeping a reference gallery of …
2016-07-01: Weber Spirit E-210 - Grill Review Growing up, a summer seldom went by that didn't include copious amounts of steaks, hot dogs, and …
2016-03-30: SlimFold Wallet Review It's been a while, but I'm back at the wallet reviewing game. This time we have a marvelous new …
2016-03-12: The Privacy Quandary Revisiting the advertising industry of yesteryear in shows like Mad Men feels quaint when you …
2015-12-15: Saga of the Leftovers How do we deal with the fragility of life? How do we cope with lost love and lost family? How do we …
2015-09-12: Next Keyboard for iOS Review An Attempt to Change Typing Across iOS Back in February, I backed a Kickstarter project with a …
2015-08-15: What the Ad Blockers Debate Reveals Thoroughly-written post at Monday Note, detailing the woes and triumphs of the advertising industry …
2015-07-15: Is That an Apple Watch? The whole thing was a gamble. We1 had both mentioned our curiosity and disdain for the Apple Watch …
2015-07-11: Trove TAG & Cable Clip Review My new go-to, English-made wallet Trove has released a few more products over the past month, adding …
2015-03-22: The Time I Decided to See a Movie Without Watching Its Trailer I was three hours from wrapping up a ridiculously long week of work, adjusting my posture in the …
2015-01-24: Trove Wallet Review - The Best Slim Wallet I've finally found it. After years of seeking the most minimal, functional, and succinctly designed …
2015-01-10: Apple Leather Case for iPhone 6 Plus Product Review For the longest time, I've distanced myself from big phones and phone cases, but last …
2014-11-13: Apple Pay Makes Buying Shit Easy, Fast & Secure The last few months have seen an enormous amount of activity around mobile payments. This has mostly …
2014-10-17: All You Need is Edge of Tomorrow Leaving a movie theater thoroughly entertained is usually rare. Or perhaps my opinionated tendencies …
2014-09-25: Stop Whining About the iPhone 6 Plus Size I made a huge, last minute decision at the crack of 2am Sept 12 -- I decided to shrug off years of …
2014-08-21: Jodorowsky's Dune - A Documentary on Artistry When I originally saw the pre-release poster for the documentary Jodorowsky's Dune on a February …
2014-08-17: The Super Nintendo: A Retrospective Every time I write about a game it seems like I'm pulling out a dusty box of memories and …
2014-07-11: Is Silicon Valley Funding the Wrong Stuff? I don't normally "link-list" stuff on this blog, but I felt this article hit a nerve for the kind of …
2014-06-12: Snapback Slim Wallet 2.0 Review A Wallet Reboot of Sorts Last year, the SnapBack Slim (1.0) was launched as a Kickstarter project. I …
2014-05-25: Canadiano Coffee Maker Review A recent gift from the brother and sister-in-law prompted me to write a review about it. The …
2014-04-07: NYT Now App Review From a Casual News Observer Journalism and news have had a rough decade. Everyone has seemingly …
2014-04-04: Facebook's Paper App & Its Undesirable UI Direction A Review from a Dormant Facebook User For someone who doesn't regularly use Facebook (as in: next to …
2014-03-15: Life Expenses Through Reporting A smidgeon over a year and a half ago, I finally received my invite to Simple, the self-described …
2014-02-20: Colossal's Curation is Amazing There are some sites I follow via RSS daily, and there are others that I visit every few weeks or …
2014-02-10: In the Name of Unread Last week saw the release of a beautiful new RSS feed reader, Unread, from Jared Sinclair. After …
2014-02-01: My TV Show Watching Habits Eclipse Film While it may not seem that extraordinary to the average person, my television show watching habits …
2014-01-25: Squarespace's Logo Creation Tool I have a new logo up on the site, if you didn’t notice. It cost me hardly any time at all. It’s …
2013-12-04: Ephemeral Photos Meteor App (iOS) Review With the proliferation of badass mobile devices rocking both front- and …
2013-11-23: The Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition Review " data-test="image-block-inline-outer-wrapper" > <figure class=" …
2013-11-01: New RSS with FeedPress The sorry state of the RSS ecosystem since Google Reader's fallout has left bloggers and news sites …
2013-10-28: LogBlog App Review Every day, billions of human beings poop -- unless, of course, you're this guy (apparently). As most …
2013-09-10: Gaming Achievements in the Modern Era I remember long weekends in ‘96 at my neighbor’s house, swapping turns comandeering the …
2013-08-29: Snapback Slim Wallet Impressions & Review Here we are, back to wallets. Another minimal, thin, elastic-binding money dumpster. The Snapback …
2013-08-06: Pret's American Grapefruit Juice: A Notable Review Have I completely lost my mind? A review of a grapefruit juice from Pret a Manger, of all places? …
2013-07-26: Around the Internet (July 2013) A few things discovered or linked to across the Internet the past couple of weeks that I've either …
2013-07-17: Analog <> Digital An easy guess would be to assume there will be an outcry over the big change when iOS 7 hits Apple …
2013-06-24: For What Shall It Profit An informed follow-up piece to the Verge's article prematurely proclaiming Pocket as the victor and …
2013-06-08: Free & Pro Options for Services Devir Kahan evaluates the merits of pricing digital services with free and paid options, using …
2013-06-01: Instapaper vs. Pocket Updated: Sept. 25, 2013 -- Jump to Scorecard Bookmarking has been part of Internet browsing since …
2013-05-07: Kairo - A Minimalist Exercise in Puzzle Gaming Grainy, misty monolithic landmasses hovering in a field of white. Ethereal music droning like a …
2013-03-25: Introducing an Exhibit on Hostile Reading Experiences If you grew up reading newspapers and magazines in their analog formats, you know quite well the …
2013-03-22: NSFWCorp Tentatively Squats Over Modern Journalism with a Solution "NSFWCorp is the future of journalism with jokes, which basically means we tell you what's going on …
2013-02-22: Defending & Deflating the Use of the Oxford Comma If you know me at all, you know that I'm a stickler for the Oxford comma. Why be a stickler for a …
2013-01-28: Gaslight Coffee Roasters Gaslight Coffee Roasters is the latest entrant near Milwaukee Ave in Logan Square, the street that …
2013-01-27: Words, Words, Words The Web, years later, is still about words. (via 37signals)
2013-01-09: Supr Slim Wallet Review The Minimal Wallet that Gets it Right Twenty-twelve seems to have been the year of minimalism across …
2013-01-05: Favorite Stuff in 2012 But Not Necessarily Made in 2012 It's a series of lists. But they're good lists. Favorite Films …
2012-11-05: Dishonored: Honoring the Genre Looking Glass Studio Built Long dismissed as mere entertainment (as most mediums, like literature and film were in their own …
2012-10-19: Room 237 & Immersion Criticism Chuck Kolsterman's documentary review of Room 237 has me itching to see it at the Chicago Film …
2012-10-12: As Dusty and Torn a Map as Possible Slate has a fantastic essay on Cormac McCarthy's writing style and production. The man is a literary …
2012-10-03: Siri's Humor is Charming From the The Verge's Siri detective work. <div class=" image-block-outer-wrapper …
2012-09-24: Dredd 3D: A Film Review (Really) Though it should be obvious to the intrepid filmgoer, pretentiousness should be avoided when …
2012-09-13: I Finally Understand ADD Kudos to xkcd's ADD.
2012-09-12: Milwaukee 2012 If you happen to be interested in my recent jaunt to the northern lands of Wisconsin (specifically, …
2012-08-27: Defiance Tumblr has been a fantastic writing platform that I used -- admittedly, infrequently -- since …