Welcome to this week's edition of our Quality Linkage column. This week's edition will be a bit shorter than usual.
Story time! Skip this if you don't care: My family and I pulled our RV into a beach-adjacent campground last night, thinking we'd be staying there for a couple nights as a fun mid-point break between where we started and our far-away main destination. Right before going to bed — and we were exhausted at this point — we found our home being invaded by a growing horde of large termites (?!?!?!) that were apparently living in the soil near our site and climbing up our tires and falling through our roof vents (ugh), and no other sites were open, so we were forced to hitch back up and leave the campground for the closest Walmart parking lot we could find. When we got there, a nearby gas station had some kind of alarm klaxon going off for the next couple hours, so uh...you can guess how much sleep we got.
Never let it be said that the traveling life is without its “adventures,” folks.
Anyway, we're unexpectedly back on the road earlier than scheduled, and thus I have much less time to devote to this week's column. (We're parked at a truck stop as I write this.) Hopefully next week's will go better ?
??: Have you ever gotten a fragment of a song stuck in your head and can't quite place what it is or where you heard it, to the point where it starts driving you a little crazy, like an itch you can't scratch? In this episode of the Reply All podcast, host PJ Vogt investigated exactly such a case:
A man in California is haunted by the memory of a pop song from his youth. He can remember the lyrics and the melody. But the song itself has vanished, completely scrubbed from the internet.
Rarely has an ending been more satisfying.
??: On the subject of music, Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters this week wrote an ode to rock concerts for The Atlantic as a way of reminding us of the communal power of live performances:
I don’t know when it will be safe to return to singing arm in arm at the top of our lungs, hearts racing, bodies moving, souls bursting with life. But I do know that we will do it again, because we have to. It’s not a choice. We’re human. […] Without that audience—that screaming, sweating audience—my songs would only be sound. But together, we are instruments in a sonic cathedral, one that we build together night after night. And one that we will surely build again.
?: One last music thing and then I'm done. Remember that Tobias van Schneider guy I mentioned last week? Well, it turns out he's curated a bunch of mixtapes to help get you through your creative work sessions:
RULES FOR USAGE
- Listen & make cool things.
- Share with your friends.
- Let me know if you like them.
The mixtapes all link to Spotify, but Argentinian designer Nicholas Vanetti has recreated a couple of them on Apple Music — namely, the “Section5” and “Diamond Veins” playlists.
???: Cards Against Humanity, as a rule, is not a game you'd play with kids. However, seeing as we parents are stuck inside with our kids, the folks at CAH have released a 'Family Edition' of the game (at least in public beta form) that you can download, print, and play for free.
The FAQ at the bottom of the page tells you all you need to know:
Is this just Cards Against Humanity with all the bad stuff taken out?
Nope! We rewrote the entire game from scratch and extensively play-tested it with children so adults and kids can have fun together.So like, what’s in there?
Six hundred poop jokes.Is my kid going to have to say swear words?
The content is PG-rated and we play-tested it with families. We recommend flipping through the cards before playing to remove anything you don’t want in there. “Crap” and “boobies” is about as bad as it gets.
?: One of the weirder things I've been missing during quarantine is the ability to go look around at IKEA and grab a cheap meal at their cafeteria. But that's okay, because last month the IKEA UK Twitter account tweeted an official recipe for their famous Swedish meatballs in the style of IKEA assembly instructions. Now you can (sort of) recreate the experience at home!
I do wonder though why that recipe is so different from this PDF on the official site...
NSFW for language
??: I always enjoy reading Sophia Benoit's very-much-NSFW relationship column/newsletter because she's good at this whole 'giving advice' thing and is hilarious to boot. The main reason I'm linking this particular entry is this tidbit that you might find useful if you often struggle with intrusive and/or anxiety-inducing thoughts:
I think one helpful thing to do when you have depression or anxiety is to label your thoughts as they come in, but don’t get too caught up in what you think. Unfortunately, when you have a mental health issue like depression or anxiety your brain becomes a big f** LIAR who tells you things like, “You lack motivation,” “You never finish anything,” “Everyone has more friends than you,” “This guy is waiting to dump you.” THOSE ARE ALL LIES.
So try your best to label thoughts as they come in by going, “Ok, that is actually not true and not helpful, thank you brain but I’m not taking that in.” Or “Ok, so what if I never finish anything? That’s not my business!” You do not have to entertain every insecurity you have!!!!
You know when you accidentally imagine a weird person naked? Like a neighbor or a random coworker and you have no reason for having imagined them naked, your brain was just like ?BOOM HERE IS SOMETHING!!? That should tell you a little something about how reliable thoughts are. They aren’t.
☕️: If you're at all into espresso and have ever wondered, “I wonder what's really going on inside the portafilter?” then this video from 2014 featuring a transparent PF answers the question nicely.
Neat Stuff We've Published Recently
- Speaking of espresso portafilters, the PortaKeeper wall-mounted rack lets you keep yours out of the way, clean, and accessible at all times.
- Cook anything and everything on the Evo Flattop Grill's huge oil-seasoned steel surface.
- Kerby Rosanes' new Worlds Within Worlds coloring book is 96 double-sided pages of pure imagination.
- The Sonos “Move” is a durable, battery-powered smart speaker for great sound indoors, outdoors, and on the go.
- With Charty, you can use Apple Shortcuts to plot different kinds of data into beautiful charts.
- ...and with FusionCast for Mac, you can easily turn your podcast episodes into videos for publishing on any platform.
Got any suggestions for articles, videos, stories, photographs, and any other links you think we should be posting in our weekly Quality Linkage? Please do let us know on Twitter.