Weeknotes 2025W12

I started off the week inspired to write something. I dusted off the drafts and wrote a post about reviewing fiction books. Whenever I get the energy to actually write notes about books after I finish them, this is the checklist that I use as a guide.

For a day off, we hiked around Smith Rock. It’s a beautiful place that I’ve been to many times. We didn’t make the trek up Misery Ridge and instead walked up the river for a while. We saw some climbers, lots of birds, and a couple of otters catching fish.

AM and I watched Parasite. What a unique thriller. Highly recommend.

I’ve been toying with the idea of taking my Spanish learning more seriously. Currently, I follow a few blogs and people on social media where I read in Spanish, add new words to my flashcards, and review those every day. Listening has always been the biggest hurdle for me when learning languages but content geared for learners is a little too easy for me and native content is too hard. This week, I tried out Jiveworld. It’s an app developed with the NPR team behind Radio Ambulante. Jiveworld takes each episode, breaks it into chapters, and you go through phases of warm-up and learning to build up to listening to the chapter at full speed with the transcript covered. They put in cultural notes and it’s a very well-designed tool.

Lastly, I made some edits to the podcast website I am developing. It’s my best work yet and it should be launching soon!

Links

• My Web Values: Why I Quit X and Feed the Feed the Fediverse Instead by Richard MacManus. If your social media—or how you use the internet at large—isn’t serving you or your values, it’s time to make a change.
• Understanding Solar Energy by Brian Potter. Really great deep dive into the economics of solar energy.
• Getting out of a book slump by Noisy Deadlines. How inclined I am to regularly read comes in waves. Sometimes switching it up can get you excited about reading again.
• The Twin Paradox by The Multiverse Employee Handbook. Really fun and informative podcast told in the style of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
• They lied to you. Building software is really hard. by Andreas Møller. Invest in learning tools for yourself instead of relying on tools too heavily.
• The Document Culture of Amazon by Justin Garrison. Writing is an excellent way to condense and share thoughts, especially in a business context.