Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! I admit, I’ve lost whatever blogging rhythm I built up since before I got sick in January. Not promising anything, but here’s a silly post to remind me what posting something new feels like. It’s been a while since I’ve shared manga I like, and la … | Continue reading
I watched this performance by Hania Rani last night, and I immediately fell in love. I found her Bandcamp, and today, I bought two of her albums: "Esja, by Hania Rani" "Home, by Hania Rani" Without question, they’re good, and I love them. Along with Hania’s albums, I bought thes … | Continue reading
The longer I’ve gone without writing a new entry, the more I question the value of this place. I’ve been spending more and more of my time in my notebooks, and in many ways, they have replaced what this website used to be, as a place to explore myself, my life, and my role in thi … | Continue reading
I knew I was getting better when I noticed I was dancing to my music while I cooked dinner the other night. The last time I had worked out was on Friday, January 20th, and when I woke up the next day and felt that scratch in my throat, I knew I was in for a rough week. Little did … | Continue reading
For the past week, I’ve been battling a cold that has kept me from living the life I want. I first felt the sickness coming last Thursday when I felt that familiar yet godawful tickle in my throat that developed into a full-blown old man’s cough by the weekend. I remember I slept … | Continue reading
I feel good. Great, even. Many (but not all) of my new habits and routines I’ve been building over the past month seem to be clicking all at once now, and my days feel good, and because of that, I feel good. I woke up to twenty—twenty—low heart rate notifications on Friday, an … | Continue reading
Yesterday, a little kindergartener spent the day in the main office because she was in trouble. We sat her down on a desk in the corner and kept an eye on her here and there to ensure she did her work. Occasionally we would see her poke her head out, and every time we would tell … | Continue reading
I finished six notebooks last year, and I have every intention to finish more this year. Writing in my notebooks has become one of my most valuable activities, and the thought of living without them frightens me. I’ve been journaling for a long time, but my decision to do them in … | Continue reading
Om Malik, in a post titled Why internet silos win, writes: It doesn’t matter whether it is Twitter, Instagram, or Mastodon. Everyone is playing to an audience. The social Internet is a performance theater praying at the altar of attention. Journalists need attention to be relevan … | Continue reading
Last week, Ted Gioia wrote a good article about Barnes & Noble’s recent turnaround, and in it, he quotes James Daunt, the current CEO of Barnes & Noble: Back when he was 26, Daunt had started out running a single bookstore in London—and it was a beautiful store. He had to borrow … | Continue reading
What a way to ring in the new year than by watching this incredible, incredible movie. I went into The Banshees of Inisherin not knowing anything about it, something I’ve learned is the best way to approach movies nowadays, and I’m glad I did. I’ve never gone from laughing my ass … | Continue reading
May you burn in hell forever. But also, not really because 2022 wasn’t that bad of a year. Here’s to an even better 2023. Happy New Year’s everyone! Reply via email in: notestagged: friends good times montana | Continue reading
I love music (who doesn’t?), and in America, you show how much you love something by how much you paid for it, so how much did I spend on music this year?! I spent $937.22 on music this year. Is that a lot? I feel like that’s a lot. That’s an average of $78.10 a month, which, yea … | Continue reading
My favorites of the year I read 10 books this year, the fewest number of books I’ve read in a year since I began to log them back in 2010. Why did I read so few books this year? Because I tried something new: I began to use my notebooks as a commonplace book. Whenever I underline … | Continue reading
Today was supposed to be the last day of school before the holiday break, but: Wind chills as low as 60 below zero and a temperature range of -38° to -8°? Yeah, no thanks. School was canceled yesterday and today because of this really really cold winter storm affecting “a bro … | Continue reading
Here’s an end-of-year recap I’m totally down for: Some highlights I love: I watched 23,601 minutes of baseball, or 16 days My 23,601 minutes were more than 99% of Padres fans My viewing record was 80-66, dispelling this long held belief of mine that I was the reason the Padres … | Continue reading
Small update to note a new lowest heart rate. I want to link back to this later if I ever go lower than this, but if I do, I might be dead, so I won’t get that chance. C’est la vie. Reply via email | Continue reading
Because my health is on my mind: My heart rate hit 35bpm again last night. This morning I woke up to 11—eleven!—low heart rate notifications. For context, yesterday I wrote that I had 12 all week. Back when my friend first challenged me to a competition, I was worried, not … | Continue reading
Friendship bread It’s the holiday season, and a friend of mine gave me this delicious loaf of bread yesterday. She called it “friendship bread,” something I wasn’t aware was a thing. She gave one to another friend along with mine, and my other friend later told me that it was rel … | Continue reading
Received a new book haul today:The Antidote by Oliver Burkeman because I loved Four Thousand Weeks and I want to continue reading more of Oliver Burkeman’s stuff (he’s got a pretty good newsletter) The World of Urban Sketching by Stephanie Bower because when I do it, I love to sk … | Continue reading
Alden Gonzalez, writing for ESPN (paywall): From the start of Monday to the end of Wednesday, 20 major league free agents agreed to contracts totaling nearly $1.6 billion. The vast majority did so while outshooting their projections. And if there was one phrase that could encapsu … | Continue reading
There’s a good-sized snow mound on one side of the playground at school, a mound created by the plow truck driver. The kids have loved playing on it during recess for the past week, but after speaking to a few of the teachers, I’ve learned that they’re the only ones happy about i … | Continue reading
One of the bits of friction I encountered when setting up my lists on my Bookshop store page was finding the books I wanted to add. Typing the title and author for every book was tedious, so I wanted something quicker. Fortunately, if you’re an Apple user, there’s Apple Shortcuts … | Continue reading
Visit my store Over the weekend, I spent time sprucing up my Bookshop store page. I’ve had the store for a few years, but I hadn’t publicized it, and the only list I had were the books I read in 2020. A few things prompted this activity: I love buying my books at Bookshop.org, an … | Continue reading
A short post to note a personal accomplishment. I’ve meditated for 5,000 minutes with Headspace. Another way to think about it: that’s 3 days, 11 hours, and 20 minutes spent focusing on my breath with my eyes closed. Reply via email | Continue reading
I forgot about Bandcamp Friday. Here are the (admittedly) few albums I purchased today: First things first, whenever there’s a new Doon Kanda album, I’m excited. Instant buy. Millions Now Living Will Never Die by Tortoise. Need I say more? Thanks to Last.fm, I found and bought Hy … | Continue reading
The friendly competition between my friend and me is ongoing, and she has been kicking my ass all week. Today, I decided to change that by doing 30 minutes of yoga in the morning, then a 20 minute strength workout followed by a 20 minute HIIT workout in the afternoon. I’m now kic … | Continue reading
In the end, NaBloPoMo was a blast, and I’m going to miss it. “What could go wrong?” I asked in my introductory post. Thirty posts later, and I can safely say that I loved every minute I blogged in November, and goddammit, I’m going to keep blogging, aren’t I? Fuck’s sake. In the … | Continue reading
“In another lifetime, I used to be an EMT,” I told the 8th grade student on our way to the gym. She giggled and continued walking. “Back when I was a firefighter. Me and the principal used to be EMTs, actually. Once upon a time.” “Wait, for real? I thought you were joking.” “What … | Continue reading
This morning, my phone reminded me that I was very lazy over holiday break. I averaged 3,190 steps over the previous five days, which is accurate. I spent my break living like a lazy person, and I enjoyed every second of it. But I knew that type of life wouldn’t last forever, … | Continue reading
I’ll get this Brid.gy thing working… testing testing Reply via email | Continue reading
Toward the end of October, I added Headspace back to my morning routine. I first heard about the app from this 2015 article in The New Yorker. At the time, I had used Insight Timer to help me meditate, an app I loved for its simplicity and the fact that it was free. But Headspace … | Continue reading
I started blogging because of a girl. This was back in 2014, a genuine lifetime ago. I had moved to Montana a few years before, and this girl became my first real Montana friend. Friends is all we were, though I did want it to be more than that. Unrequited love and all that. We m … | Continue reading
My new FUJINON XF16-55mmF2.8 lens I’ve done lots of sleeping and not enough reading this week, so this edition of my Notes (original name, huh?) will be shortish. Yeah, that’s the excuse I’m going with… Anyways! Here are some notes from today, this 25th day of November, 2022: New … | Continue reading
I used to keep a gratitude journal. Every night I would write three things I was grateful for, and in the beginning, I felt like it helped me appreciate life and being alive more. At some point, though, this exercise began to feel like a task to check off as quickly as possible, … | Continue reading
I slept for nine hours and thirty-nine minutes last night. I’m not sure how I was asleep for longer than I was in bed, but I’m not questioning it. As soon as I woke up, I texted my friend, “I slept in past 8 and I slept for over 9 hours… can’t every day be like this?!?!” I wis … | Continue reading
Today was my last day at work before the holiday break, giving me five days to rest and recuperate, and for some reason, I had a strong urge to watch films this week. In the spring of 2004, I was accepted to the USC School of Cinema-Television (now known as the USC School of Cine … | Continue reading
It’s been dreadfully cold in my parts of Montana the last few days, so much so that I can feel my beard freezing. I took this photo on my iPhone while running errands yesterday morning, and I considered deleting it because it wasn’t the picture I wanted to take, but it shows that … | Continue reading
To continue with some of my feelings from yesterday, I have to admit that something I missed (forgot?) is that perfection does not exist. I wanted to live perfectly, to do every. little. thing. I consider to be part of a “perfect” day/life without fail, but I couldn’t do it. I co … | Continue reading
I began the Miles Morales Spider-Man game on my PS4 today, and I felt a bit guilty about it. First, I purchased this game last holiday season, and this is just one example of many where I’ve purchased games only to never play them, or play them months or even years later. Second, … | Continue reading
I’m still trying to wrap my head around what exactly I’m wanting to do with these weekly notes (this is only my second one), but I’m the type of person that needs to do something to get a feel for it and not one that’s good at planning ahead… Anyways! Here are some notes from tod … | Continue reading
Dropped my car off at the dealership to get some work done on it, and I had a lovely—but very cold—walk home. It was 10°F on the walk home, about 21°F on the walk back. A genuine heatwave! My car is in better shape, and I’m under my covers. A good but lazy Friday. | Continue reading
I grew up in the ‘90s, and one of the most popular channels in my household growing up was MTV. Our family loved tuning into MTV and watching music video after music video (yes, MTV used to play music videos!). Every day before school, my mom would turn on the TV, and we would al … | Continue reading
Chris Coyier quoting Dan Cederholm: As soon as I typed the HTML for my first hyperlink, the power of it hit me. This is the DNA of the web, the fabric that connects all of the bits and pieces all over the globe. It sounds so primitive now, but when this was all new to me and I w … | Continue reading
I now have an omg.lol account and landing page, and I have also joined their wonderful social.lol Mastodon instance. I am @mariovillalobos@social.lol there. At the moment, I’m syndicating my website there, but I dunno… things can change. Still trying to figure all this out! | Continue reading
Om Malik: I have known the truth about social platforms. I quit Facebook and Instagram years ago, and candidly I am better for it. I don’t need 5000 friends — 15 good ones will do. I don’t need 5000 friends — 15 good ones will do. I read this article today, and this line has stay … | Continue reading