So many worries about the Fed’s direction in the coming years—beyond the usual. Transit funding, affordable housing, education… it all feels so precarious right now. Trying to stay optimistic, but it’s tough not to feel the weight of it.

Nearing my mid 40s and the font sizes are definitely getting bigger.

As a staunch urbanist, I love the idea of the 15-minute city, but that lifestyle seems out of touch from most people’s reality. Allowing nearby amenities is easy from a land use perspective, but work, school choice, and childcare are other matters entirely. How do advocates reconcile the problem of most working households needing to commute to wherever they can find work, or needing to drive their children to consolidated schools outside their neighborhood? This is our traffic problem.

Finished reading: Dog Man: The Scarlet Shedder: A Graphic Novel (Dog Man #12) by Dav Pilkey 📚

I probably enjoyed this one as much as my son (5), particularly the parts about A.I. I also love how he named a robot character in this series “80-HD”.

Jake Paul / Mike Tyson in the context of our societal collapse: bread and circuses.

Portlanders notoriously don’t shovel their sidewalks when it snows here. I’ve heard the argument that it’s pointless to buy a snow shovel when it only snows a couple times per year and melts fairly quickly. But guess what snow shovels are also great for? Soggy leaves on concrete! 🍁

I avoided this fallen can of soda water all week knowing full well that it would be there for me when I ran out of them on Friday. Here we are.

I decided to stop complaining about having so few friends as a middle-aged man and committed to a goal of one social meetup event per week. This week was trivia, next week is a writer’s group. With enough meds, I might even work up the courage to do an open mic night, but probably not. #anxiety

A pair of quotes that gave me pause today:

The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.

— Pablo Picasso

There is a quality even meaner than outright ugliness or disorder, and this meaner quality is the dishonest mask of pretend order, achieved by ignoring or suppressing the real order that is struggling to exist and to be served.

— Jane Jacobs

My wife scheduling that JC Penney photo shoot the minute I break down and trim my Movember mustache.

Currently reading: The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs 📚

Haven’t read this since grad school and have been meaning to revisit it. Oregon chapter of the American Planning Association book club pick for January. Figured I’d get a head start.

Book search down again for Epilogue on Micro.blog. @help

Finished reading: Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari 📚

Looking at open enrollment options and comparing insurance costs between my employer (government) and my wife’s (health care). Her premium for dental through the same provider is 8 times as expensive. This system is stupid.

Of all the scientific and technological advancements made in my lifetime, not one is more important than the Squatty Potty.

As much as I loathe DT and Musk, I unfollow people who body shame them. Don’t care if it’s punching up, that’s some right wing stuff I just don’t tolerate in my feeds.

More sunbreaks. ☀️

My mother-in-law officially retired, so we’ve been getting a little relief with the kids lately. Last night we got out in Northwest PDX. I won a pretty decent gift card to Ringside a while back and we had to use it. Nice place, but not our normal thing. We would never spend that kind of money on streak had we not had the gift card. Spent some time shopping and had drinks beforehand. We had a lot of fun. NW is a beautiful area. I feel very fortunate.

Finished reading: Mermin Vol. 1 by Joey Weiser 📚. We enjoyed this one, looking forward to book two.

We may or may not have put up the Christmas tree today. 🌲

I wonder who they voted for.

Demonstrators with Nazi flags appear at ‘Diary of Anne Frank’ performance

Went on a date with my wife, found a Lego brick in my pocket. #parenting

Bridge City. Gloom rolled in, but we’re dry at the moment. Photos from the passenger seat.

Quoting scripture in response to conservative Christians voting for Trump isn’t hypocritical if you’re not a Christian. You don’t need to be Christian to recognize when they’re not living by their own tenets, just as you don’t need to be an engineer to drive a car.

Always a strange day for me between being my brother’s birthday and also the day my wife and I went on our first date, 9 years ago now. No lack of fodder for reflection. I like this photo of her smiling big with her eyes, taken in the foyer of my first apartment in Portland. Love her.