week 1 of 2025
Sasha Lupine creates cool illustrations. This one feels fitting for starting out the new year right, although coffee is better than tea.
Another new year and another attempt to get in the habit of saving and sharing neat things that have resonated over the past week. I’ve started and abandoned the project a few times. Hoping to start and continue going this time around.
A big change this year is that I’ve finally migrated the whole project to be under my own control instead of using various online blogging platforms. Learn more about the new system here.
Anyway, here are few neat things to start out the year…
“Stop trying to be cool. Be nerdy and obsessive about the things you love. Enthusiasm will get you farther than indifference.”
An emotions wheel to help find the right word to express how you are feeling since saying you are Happy or Sad is too limiting. I love that feeling Creative falls under the Powerful category. This year, I hope to be more Astonished/Amazed.
The Cupertino theme makes Obsidian look more like it is a native Mac app. Amazing how the simplest things make life better. Also, the new Web Clipper is really good.
Open Source Mac Apps is a good collection of software presented in a visually pleasing way. A number of these have been installed on my computer. Also, Sindre Sorhus has made tons of amazing little apps that are well worth trying out.
recent video games
As a teacher, I love using the two week holiday break to rest and reset. Breaks are the only time I get to immerse myself in video games. Over this break I have played…
- Stray completely lived up to the hype. Just finished and wanted to start over immediately.
- Little Orpheus on Apple Arcade is entertaining for the story and narration alone.
- Monument Valley series. Replayed 1 and 2 so that I could be in the right mindset to play 3. Love how the concept has evolved.
- Very Little Nightmares on iPad. Great visual detail and styling. Clever, interesting puzzles.
- Disco Elysium is just getting started. Deep and interesting characters and choices. Love the visual styling. Worried I won’t have time to get lost in it now that classes are starting back up.
- Coming up next: I just got Dredge on a holiday freebie from Steam. Bought Islanders for a buck. Both seem like they could be fun casual games to play when I have a spare minute.
the duck cult in my class
So there is a rubber duck cult in my classroom. It all started with this video that I showed my students at the end of class one day…
After that, some students brought rubber ducks in to the class. Then more students brought some in. And more. And more. There are now about 150 ducks in my classroom. Every year, I give all my students a rubber duck on their first day of class to keep as a Spirit Duck.
Somewhat different, but I’ve now adopted this as my Spirit Duck for 2025.
