second impact [2023-12-17]

As I make a donation to the impactful QSAC, I had come across this short, beautifully shot, and important story told by an individual with autism. This is the kind of story telling I think more folks need to see.

I’m pretty it was in 2023 that I really found myself wanting to fall down the Radiolab archive rabbit hole. Having consumed all those episodes available on the podcast RSS feed provided to supporting members, I started to question whether those were really all the episodes.

Sure enough, I’d learned that there was far more to listen to in the oddly silo’d off Radiolab Classic feed. But even that wasn’t the full history of all things Radiolab. The RC feed I believe only went back as far as 2007, and Radiolab had it’s first “season” back in 2005. And there were episodes that predate Radiolab proper — back when the show was very experimental sounding, and was composed of seemingly regular WNYC/NPR episodes.

Thankfully, some fine independent archivists have done their best to collect all the possible episodes and some additional materials.

And so, I’m at ground zero, and working my through. I’m hyped.

The result of having listened to one of these archived episodes is I’m picking up listening to some Blues. Starting with…

second impact [2023-10-22]

After tearing through all available chapters of Kaiju No. 8, I picked up reading Akane-banashi a coming of age, shōnen manga that’s got me hooked after only the opening chapter. There are some manga that as you read beautifully convey a sense of physical motion, and emotion that you immediately have visions of how if (and hopefully when) they become an anime, they will hit even harder. One Punch Man, and certainly Ping Pong were two stories from years ago that did that for me. Kaiju No.8 and now Akane-banashi are some of the most recent. And sure enough a trailer for Kaiju No. 8 came out, and now I’m eagerly awaiting its release. And if Akane keeps up, I can’t wait to be able to re-experience the story in an animation.

Akane-banashi Volume 1 cover

This week I decided to make a rare mobile game purchase with Subpar Pool. I've not made it too deep yet, but if it recreates the challenge, and sense of accomplishment that What the Golf? did, I'll be satisfied.

Like most Nintendo fans this week, I’ve fired up Mario Wonder. Off rip, it’s got the same magic I felt when I popped in Super Mario World into the SNES and flipped that power slider up. What a great release to finish off the original Switch era.

Finally, I’ve strayed pretty far from continuing to read Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World on the new Barnes & Noble NOOK Glowlight 4 Plus.

I’m half way through, and perhaps the reason I’m not finishing it is because quite a bit of it resonates with my unintentional approach to the world as I’ve gone through life. (But an approach I’m grateful for, as this book lists many example about how it’s the broadly skilled and knowledgeable that can make differences in business and elsewhere.)