Last week, Southern California experienced a heavy rainstorm that caused a power outage in our area for 18 hours. We would have been in the dark without the Goal Zero Lighthouse 600 Camping Lantern. It features a bright and adjustable LED light, as well as a built-in lithium battery that can charge smartphones and other USB devices. In case of a power failure, the lantern can also be powered manually by turning a crank for one minute, which provides 10 minutes of illumination. — MF
Good book recommendations are hard to come by. I'm rarely excited by what Goodreads or Amazon recommends. Right now I'm creating a reading list based on Readow.ai recommendations, which uses reviews from readers to give unbiased suggestions on what to read next. The more titles you add, the more personalized your matches will be. — CD
Every new tech generates new art forms. So I’ve been waiting for new art forms based on AI to arrive. One suggestion of a new AI art is a Instagram account that posts AI generated scenes from a unified fictional world. Somehow the artist(s) have figure out the prompts to explore this elaborate fiction consistently. (They are not the only one doing this; others have similar worlds, but theirs is the best so far.) This alternative world, manifested in detail, is zany, stunning, and oddly beautiful. Check out TheVisualDome for a hint of what is to come. — KK
ChatGPT is a versatile chatbot that can perform various tasks, including answering questions, simplifying complex sentences, and summarizing articles. The "Awesome ChatGPT Prompts" repository offers a variety of text prompts that allow users to instruct ChatGPT to take on different personas, such as a travel guide, debate coach, chef, or dentist. The results are impressive, but it's important to note that ChatGPT does not have full knowledge or understanding of the information it provides. It's important to seek outside confirmation before acting on any advice it gives. — MF
Laundry detergent sheets are a thing. Instead of pouring either powder or liquid into the tub, you drop in a napkin-like sheet of detergent. At home this makes no difference, but these tiny tidy sheets are exactly what you want when you travel. Their concentrated form takes up no room, they weigh less than an ounce, and there’s no possible mess – nothing to spill. I keep some small sheets in a baggie in my luggage. They work in a basin or in a machine. Many similar brands make laundry sheets. I use True Earth Eco-Strips ($13). — KK
Here are a few of my favorite end-of-year lists, with two samples from each:
“Keep your identity small. ‘I’m not the kind of person who does things like that’ is not an explanation, it’s a trap. It prevents nerds from working out and men from dancing.“
“Cultivate compassion for those less intelligent than you. Many people, through no fault of their own, can’t handle forms, scammers, or complex situations. Be kind to them because the world is not.”
40 Ways to Let Go and Feel Less Pain
“Channel your discontent into an immediate positive action—make some calls about new job opportunities, or walk to the community center to volunteer.”
“Remind yourself these are your only three options: remove yourself from the situation, change it, or accept it. These acts create happiness; holding onto bitterness never does.”
37 per cent of the world’s population, 2.9 billion people, have never used the Internet. [International Telecommunication Union]
A deep learning model trained on 85,000 eyes can tell male from female eyeballs with 87% accuracy but no one knows why. [Edward Korot & co]
— MF
The Museum of Failure is a collection of failed products and services from all over the world. It’s kind of weird, kind of sad, kind of funny. You can check out the collection here. — CD
Rather than making new year’s resolutions, I answered these seven pairs of questions, structured as a “Personal Annual Report” in this downloadable PDF created by Shane Parrish at Farnam Street. For instance, “What can I do this year that will leave me in a better position for next year?” The quick exercise is worth doing once a year. — KK
I usually like my espresso black, but lately I’ve been adding Peak evaporated full cream milk. Unlike most canned evaporated milk, which has added sugar and thickeners, Peak contains nothing but milk, minus a lot of the water. It tastes delicious, more so than half and half, and a little amount is all I need to lighten my coffee. — MF
Here is an uplifting, charming film that should not work, but does. It is a live-action film with a talking sea shell as the hero. Marcel-the-shell overcomes disabilities (he is just a sea shell!) to reunite his lost family. It’s adorable, strange, inventive, weird, and heartwarming. Marcel the Shell with Shoes On began real life as a YouTube short that went viral, and was turned into a feature film with expert stop-motion effects. It’s so odd, but joyful, you won’t forget it. Available for rental ($6) on all the commercial video streams. — KK
This new tool by the Clearer Thinking team helped me discover and build a list of my own guiding principles. Your principles are what guides you when making decisions and if you know what they are, you can have less anxiety surrounding decisions and make them faster. Here are a few questions and principles that influence my decisions:
Choose life-expanding choices over comfort.
Ask yourself how this serves your growth.
Can I accept the consequences of this choice? If I can, that is true freedom.
What would my fully-actualized self do?
When in doubt, opt for the natural path over the forced path.
— CD
If you’re not the type to make resolutions for the new year, you might like this list of 27 Life-Changing Micro Habits That Require Only A Few Minutes. Here are some of them: Vow to walk around for two minutes every hour you sit at your desk. Start each workday with five long and deep breaths to calm your mind and get ready for the day ahead. Practice gratitude while you’re in the shower. Write for two minutes in the morning as you drink your coffee. — CD
Last year I drew or painted one art piece each day. This year I chose one piece to display as a mural on our living room wall. It came out fantastic! I used Wallsauce to print it out as repositionable wallpaper. I uploaded my digital file after I up-rezed it. My huge picture was 65 x 50 inches ($140), and arrived as two perfectly matched strips. The print was easy to apply (no glue, no mess) and looks like a genuine mural. The paper is a canvas-y textured plastic film, with very dense coloring. We are now hunting for other walls to beautify. — KK
Most newer phones allow you to install an eSIM, which is like a SIM card without the physical card. I buy cheap eSIMs from Airalo to give my phone fast internet data when I travel to foreign countries. I can top up my eSIM when it runs out of data. — MF
A squid cable is a power cable that splits into multiple strands so that each arm can be connected at once to the same source. I carry one as my main charging cable while I travel. There are many generic no-name brand models that are very lightweight, efficient, and versatile. My Puxnoin Multi Charging Cable ($13) is an All-in-One deal; it can charge (but no data) up to 4 devices from one USB plug. The four-foot long cable divides into two lightning cables (iPhones), a Type C cable (IPads, tablets, Samsung, Pixel), and a MicroUSB (Android, Windows, headsets, controllers). One cord to rule them all. — KK
One of my resolutions for 2023 is to “play” more often, but also figuring out what kind of “play” works for me. My friend Camille described it best when she said play should have no consequences. That inspired me to start coloring before bed, which is very relaxing and seems to help unravel all the busyness I have in my head before I sleep. I’m currently coloring a book of sacred geometry designs by Martha Bartfeld, which is now of print but I found the newest edition here: Mandala Designs. — CD
I use a simple and free app called Soundly Sleeping to play brown noise while sleeping. It muffles the wheeze of my CPAP machine and other unwelcome nighttime noises. (Brown noise is mellower than white noise). — MF
On January 1, artistic works published in 1927 will enter the public domain, which means they can be downloaded, resold, and modified in the United States without copyright restriction. Duke University has a list of notable books, songs, movies that will become free to use in 2023. They include Metropolis by Thea von Harbou, To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf, Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse, “Trolley Troubles,“ starring Walt Disney’s Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century by Phillip Francis Nowlan, and Popeye by E.C. Segar. — MF
I’ve watched a lot of videos about people making their log cabin in the woods, but this one (I Spent 3 Years Alone Building a Log Cabin) by a Swedish kid is on a whole nother level. First the guy, Erik Grankvist, is 18 years old. Second the level of craftsmanship is unbelievable. He contours each log and splits humungous boulders by hand! Third he worked on it entirely alone, moving massive logs himself. Fourth he filmed himself, which is a huge chore. There is no narration for 1.5 hours, just mesmerizing old world craft at work. I watched the whole thing. Two weeks after posting it got 9 million views. — KK
“Any habit needs all its parts in order to function. If some parts are missing, the habit is disassembled.” — Carlos Castaneda
This short insight on the structure of a habit has helped me see my patterns differently. If there is something I want to stop doing, I just remove a “part” or step from the process. Lately, it’s been deleting apps and keeping my phone as far away from me as possible so that using it becomes an inconvenience. — CD