Peter McEwen wrote a generous contemplative guide to meeting and metabolizing difficult emotions. The essay is structured into pith, concise, and elaborate versions of the same practice, so it’s worth returning to over time. But if you only have time for one takeaway, it’s this: when a difficult emotion shows up, you don’t have to resolve it. You drop out of the story and into the actual sensation in your body, and you stay with it in small doses, even if it’s only a few seconds. Practiced over time, this small, kind act builds your capacity to let conflicting feelings sit side by side without needing to fix them. For me, I know an emotion has metabolized when there’s no charge left, and I feel open and spacious inside, not tense or clinging. — CD

On r/BuyItForLife, a Redditor said he’d snapped the blade on a pair of Fiskars loppers from around 2010. He filed a claim on Fiskars’ website, telling them he didn’t have his receipt from Lowe’s after 16 years. Fiskars sent him a shipping address for the broken loppers, and 10 days later a brand new pair showed up — an upgraded design, judging from his photos. Commenters shared experiences with other brand names that also honored replacements without a receipt. One person got Calphalon to replace scratched 15-year-old nonstick pans. Moen sent someone free replacement faucet cartridges. Philips replaced an out-of-warranty Hue-Lite strip. And someone got a replacement pair of sunglasses from Maui Jim. — MF

Here is a cool tool that will appeal to maybe 1% of this audience. The Jorgensen Ratcheting Bar Clamp is a new style of bar clamp that ratchets tight and then quickly releases with one hand. You squeeze it to tighten and squeeze another part to release. It’s the fastest clamp I’ve seen. Great for tasks that require a lot of clamping and unclamping. Comes in 4, 8, and 12-inch bars. About $15 each. — KK

I don't know why I didn't get a real magnifying desk lamp a long time ago. Amazon has many different models available. This is the one I got. It has a large magnifying glass with an LED illumination ring. It comes with a heavyweight metal stand and a clamp. My wife uses it to make collages, and I use it to draw and practice my cursive penmanship. You can adjust the brightness and color temperature with the control attached to the power cord. It uses USB power and comes with an AC adapter. — MF

Origin Myth Map is an interactive world map of the stories cultures have told about where the universe, Earth, and humanity came from. There are almost too many ways to navigate it — you can move through time, filter by themes, or follow the lineages and relationships between myths. Every creation archetype, from primordial waters and cosmic eggs to world trees, opens another path, so I think the best way to explore it is simply to follow your curiosity. — CD

This Instagram account – DesignPatentDaily – simply posts one ink drawing from a US patent every day. The drawings are stunningly beautiful: functional and elegant. Crisp line diagrams, no fluff. Print out and frame. Much prettier than most modern art. — KK

One of the best tutorials on story writing I know is this hour-long YouTube lecture by the author of Toy Story 3. He explains Pixar’s story process – which anyone can borrow – and then goes through all the ways he failed and the lessons he learned from finally getting it right. The coolest parts of this lecture, Toy Story 3, Mistakes Made, Lessons Learned, are that he shows very early versions of the film that clearly don’t work, despite months of work. The general lesson of creating things iteratively applies to all art forms. As a bonus, you get a master class on how the story of Toy Story works, and why it’s so powerful. — KK

I’m getting my garage replaced with a 410-square-foot studio guest house in my backyard, and I want it to feel as spacious as possible for visitors, so this article with five clever design tricks for making small homes look bigger got instantly bookmarked. The tips are basically this: get furniture off the floor, float pieces away from the walls, hang curtains higher and wider than the window, commit to one color throughout, and size furniture to the room to avoid the “dollhouse effect,” where too many small pieces make a room feel more cluttered instead of bigger. We’re installing a Murphy bed to help free up floor space, and I’m most intrigued by the tip to float furniture by pulling sofas, chairs, and tables away from the walls, leaving 18 to 24 inches of walking room behind them. Apparently that gap creates the illusion of depth by introducing more light, shadow, and overlapping sight lines, so I think I’ll try that out. — CD

The Slice 10400 Box Cutter is a utility knife with a curved design that lets you cut open boxes more stably, as the curved part rests on the box while you cut. You can adjust the blade to 3 different positions. The 1st position extends the blade slightly, which is good for cutting the tape on a box without worrying about cutting through the cardboard and into the contents. When you extend the blade further, it’s good for breaking down larger cardboard boxes. The blades are ceramic rather than metal, and Slice claims they last 20 times as long as a metal blade. I’m not sure, since I haven’t had it long enough to test that, but the ergonomics alone make it worth it. — MF

For the past couple months, I’ve been photographing feathers I find on my favorite hiking trail and feeding each one to AI for identification. No matter the markings, colors, or patterns, it kept telling me they belonged to a turkey. Turns out there are a lot of different-looking turkey feathers. But then I found one I was certain was from a Cooper’s hawk, and AI called it a turkey again. I got a more accurate ID from The Feather Atlas, a database run by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Its Identify Feather Tool lets you narrow things down by pattern, color, and size until you land on a match, and it confirmed what I was hoping for. The interface is clunky, but I like that it isn’t AI. — CD

Wow, a whole new genre is emerging: real-time AI video generation. Exhibit A is Infinite Slop, which calls itself “an endless AI-generated TV channel that chat decides what airs next.” Thousands of commenters vote up prompts in response to what is playing, and new video is generated instantly, soliciting more prompts, ad infinitum, in a cycle. The result is a 24-hour stream of absurd, surreal, bizarre, silly, astounding, meme-maxing video slop from the hive mind – that is also weirdly mesmerizing, and even satisfying. Hard to look away. Some bits are genius. The new ability to generate video as fast as you can watch it will be used in other ways, such as in games, but this infinite slop is the first crude step as performance art. It is one week old and already has millions of fans and ads. — KK

Paper2Audio converts text documents into audio files. Feed it a PDF, EPUB, plain text, Word document, or URL, and in a few minutes it generates an audio file playable on your computer or a smartphone app. The free version satisfies my needs: up to 56 hours of audio per week, a variety of AI voices, adjustable listening speed, and a reader view so you can read along while listening. The plus plan, $9.50 a month, gives you 168 hours a week and lets you export audio files. I haven’t needed to do that yet. — MF

Here is another round of my favorite bits of wisdom:

• The first step of any meaningful pursuit is to severely underestimate its difficulty. — Sara Hooker

• Life punishes the vague wish and rewards the specific ask. — Tim Ferriss

• If I had only one hour to solve a problem, I would spend up to two-thirds of that hour in attempting to define what the problem is. — William H. Markle

• If you absolutely can’t tolerate critics, then don’t do anything new or interesting. — Jeff Bezos

• One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one’s work is terribly important. — Bertrand Russell

• Try and fail, but don’t fail to try. — Vinod Khosla

• So little of what could happen does happen. — Salvador Dali

• Save like a pessimist, invest like an optimist. — Morgan Housel

• Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago. — Warren Buffett

• The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek. – Joseph Campbell

• What I learned on my own I still remember. — Nassim Nicholas Taleb

I find it helpful to be reminded of what we already know in a handy phrase. — KK

A friend in London recommended Feather & Down Magnesium Sleep Butter, and it has become a permanent part of my bedtime routine. I massage it into my arms, legs, and feet, put on a pair of cozy socks, and go to bed. I don’t know whether it’s the magnesium, the lavender and chamomile scent, or simply the ritual, but it makes me feel deeply cozy and relaxed. I almost don’t want to recommend it because it’s low in stock on Amazon, but I just bought a backup jar and will probably need to figure out how to import it from the UK. — CD

I’ve recently started using a fountain pen for most of my writing. It’s easy to transfer my writing to a computer — I just take a photo and tell AI to turn it into text. I found out the hard way that fountain pens leak on planes, so when I travel, I use a gel pen instead. I bought the one everyone seems to love, the Pilot G-2. Writing with it feels as effortless as writing with a fountain pen. I’d probably use it at home, too, if I could refill it from an ink bottle. G-2s do come in a wide variety of ink colors. — MF

Apparently, the ideal amount of time to catch up with a friend is 84 minutes. Just enough time for family updates, gossip, work, relationships, and travel plans. My favorite way to spend time with friends is hiking, and those visits usually stretch into two or three hours. But maybe a more satisfying get-together could be a leisurely meal followed by a short walk. A little more time together, without making a whole day of it. — CD

I’ve been drawing in my sketchbook with Crayola’s Slick Stix paint sticks, which is like drawing with lipstick. The colors glide onto the paper with full coverage and minimal effort. Kids really love the Stix cause it makes covering areas super easy. I love them because just one application of color is completely opaque. Like wax crayons, they are instantly dry. You can add colors on top of colors, too. For some reason the Crayolas are no longer available, but there are hundreds of imitators. They are called paint sticks, or tempera sticks, or twist crayons, because the colors are held in a case that you twist to protrude. A typical set is Kwik Stix ($11), which are not as slick as the Crayola’s but good enough. They really are fun to use. — KK

Artist Olivia Tai wants to know how people really use AI, so she sets up stations in public areas where anyone can write a confession on a slip of paper and drop it in a box. Her website, What We Tell AI, has scans of 400+ handwritten notes about people’s secret relationships with AI. Here are a few:

• I trust AI to tell me the truth more than most of the people around me.

• I’m Christian — I realized that I was using AI to help me with issues / give me guidance when I should’ve been talking to God instead.

• Sometimes I ask ChatGPT to reply to messages by uploading a whole conversation. I am a terrible texter and this helps me A LOT!

• I cloned my ex’s voice to have a final conversation with him. It helped me finally move on. 10/10 recommend.

• Claude is my boyfriend and I wish he was real.

— MF

It’s a hassle to carry reading glasses everywhere I go. I bought some ThinOptics Keychain Reading Glasses that bend in half and slide into a case the size of a car key. They pinch comfortably on my nose, so they don’t need arms. They are nearly flat and incredibly lightweight. — MF

Neal Stephenson publishes impossibly long science-fictiony novels. He also is a keen observer and writes an irregular Substack with much shorter essays featuring his eclectic interests. He doesn’t post often on Graphomane, but it is always interesting when he does. — KK