The Fun Stuff
Cool sites
Over the last couple years I’ve been trying to use the internet not only as a tool for shopping or distracting myself — sometimes it is surprisingly difficult. Instead, I want it to feel like a place of exploration, where I can encounter new ideas, people, and find sites that make me more curious. The two listed below do just that.
I’ve been visiting LessWrong on and off for the past year. The purpose of the site is to allow people to try to become “less wrong” by improving their rationality. And the people posting to the site take it seriously. There is an extensive array of subjects and ideas covered, from logic and mathematics, to biology, to honesty.
Going to Open Web Cam Database can be a nice break from your world and a look into someone else’s. It has over 2,000 web cams from across the world that you can tune into whenever you want. Like this one, showing a Chinese robotic warehouse. Or this one from a pedestrian crossing in Tokyo with a sign that says “Stop Troublesome Halloweens.”
Cool Pictures (hopefully)
I wanted to share a few of my favorite photos I’ve taken over the last couple years. Photography has been a good creative outlet for me, letting me slow down and take things in a little more fully than I feel like I often do. Or sometimes just an excuse to buy cool gear if I’m being real. Or sometimes I just like taking pictures of things that are odd and unserious. There’s no “right way” for me to go out and take pictures, and that’s what I love about it.
Woman in motion. Taken during a work trip to Milwaukee, WI. I love the motion in the subjects leg. She’s speeding somewhere.
Slots. Taken during a work trip to Las Vegas, NV. I love the colors in this one. Don’t worry, I didn’t lose a bunch of money here…I lost it elsewhere at a blackjack table.
Blue skies. Taken during a photography outing in Salt Lake City, UT. I love the gradient of the blue sky.
It’s too easy to be serious all the time
Having a 4-year-old in the house has been one of the best things I could possibly imagine. If you’ve had one, or just been around one (they’re everywhere), you know what I mean. You’re also probably thinking “They’re also pure chaos and occasionally severely infuriating.”
Yes. Yes they are.
But the best thing, in my opinion, about having a 4-year-old in the house is that they love to be silly. They’re just starting to tell jokes — not actual jokes…just things they call jokes and you laugh because you know someday they’ll be funny if you encourage it.
They also love to dance. Mine especially having me pick him up and dance around the living room with him to club music, dubstep, trap, EDM, and anything else he deems crazy enough to deserve dancing.
They also love to play absolutely pointless games. Such as the one I played this morning where I had a Hot Wheels car that was late for work constantly and, consequently, it would need to be rushed to work so quickly on the “bus” (just a larger car that could carry it) that it would inevitably crash. We’ve done that several mornings in a row now.
I love all of it.
And I need it because I have a tendency to forget to be silly. I like to read the news. I like staying up on geopolitics. I watch YouTube videos on the military movements of groups in Ukraine and the US near Venezuela. I worry about my finances, my work, my health, my family, the weather, the bills.
I have to clean the house, grocery shop, get the oil changed, schedule doctors appointments, get enough sleep, try (and fail) to workout regularly, stay in touch with family, make an effort on days I don’t want to, and try not to look at my phone too much.
It’s easy to get lost in that world and for some reason so hard to get lost in a fun one.
So, when my 4-year-old needs someone to goof-off with him, I’m glad I get to do it. I forget my stress, my worries, and my insecurities, and do weird, silly, ridiculous, pointless stuff for a while. Like pretending to talk to him in a new language, or call him all the wrong names, or “trip” and bang my head on the wall a million times.
And when I do it, and do it not just for him but also for me, I realize that I feel a little bit more free during the rest of my day. So that maybe the next time I go on a night walk with my dog I might dance a little to my music. And I think that’s nice.