What if...algorithm-free reco list, no. 15?
Beverage hacks, sonic experiments, nerd mundanity, etc.
Hello!
Back with another batch of things and ideas I’m into. Per usual, I realized a lot of these (plus several others I held back) are circling a common theme, so there will be something longer about that shortly.
Alright, here’s the stuff:
Ordering cold brew with no ice
Or light ice if you must. This tactic decreases that gross feeling of cubes smacking you in the snout (I’m not a straw user), and you get way more of the good juice.
Ari Shapiro vs. David Simon
I know, I know. Interviews are not meant to be battle royales. But in seeing Ari Shapiro was the new host of The Mole, I did some “what’s that guy been up to” googling and stumbled upon this evisceration from 2023. Few things please me as much as an AI simp trying to do their schtick only to be essentially told to get fucked by someone who is echelons above them on a creative level. (Simon is the creator of The Wire.)
Not using noise canceling
Recently, I read this newsletter that asked if noise-canceling is bad for us. Is it? I remain unconvinced. But it got me thinking about my immediate habit of turning noise-canceling on the second I smash my AirPods in. As an easily overstimulated person, I deeply appreciate the ability to control even the slightest bit of external inputs, so I’m not sure this is a forever thing. For now, I’ve been keeping noise-canceling off—and more frequently, going on my little walks without any headphones/audio at all.
Fantasmas (HBO)
Whoever is green-lighting budgets to let Julio Torres go full freak mode building his little worlds, I pray that they continue doing it forever. There’s this one specific joke in episode two—I believe it’s the second or third one when Julio is talking about niche emojis and their use cases. Had me howling and I am so tempted to just re-tell it, but I shall not! Nothing but respect for the integrity of Torres’ vision! (Problemista and Los Espookys were also phenomenal.)
“Spreadsheet Superstars”
This longread diving deep into the Excel World Championship is everything I love about journalism: a sense of “being there” that isn’t too writer-absorbed, a feeling similar to your bestie gushing about their latest hyper-fixation, and a commit-to-the-bit layout that just borders on kitsch. P.S. There’s a toggle in the bottom right corner to switch to black/white if your eyes also cannot handle neon green.
Sharing your novel draft, chapter by chapter like you’re writing fanfic
I regularly think about how the trajectory of my life would have changed if I’d discovered fanfic, much less allowed myself to dabble, as a freaky little youth. So I am making up for lost time and simultaneously adding extra accountability to crank out this new novel by inputting (very rough, let’s be honest) chapters as I finish them to a doc called “Archive of Olivia’s Own.” Besides a deadline I agreed to with my agent, it’s the only thing enabling me to go from “I am a hack” to “I’m a hack who is maybe going to finish 90k words by October 1, and at least one person is having a silly time reading them.” Major shoutout to Kayla and Christin for being my audience of two. <3
Internal Family Systems
Oh, you mean I get to world-build an entire cast of characters with names and feelings and elaborate backstories like I’m rebooting Inside Out, custom to my own brain? And this is somehow going to make me feel better? I too was skeptical, but it is both extremely my shit and horrifyingly vulnerable. And uh, it appears to be working. I am obviously not a trained medical professional and I would strongly endorse not diving into this without one. But worth asking if your therapist offers it as a modality.
Riffing on your friends’ work
I don’t know how else to explain this in a quippy way, but my pal Dan wrote his own algo-free reco list and it was one of the cooler things to happen to me in recent memory. I am extremely with him on going to the movies alone, but ready to brawl about sitting in the front row. This is what they call discourse. (Dan also makes music, among other things!)
Their Vicious Games by Joelle Wellington
A few weeks ago, I was in a writing funk and even reading was making me feel bad about myself. So I dug around for something that’d be unlike anything I’ve ever written to try and get back to that feeling of being ten years old gobbling down a book in a single sitting. This YA thriller—wherein ”a Black teen desperate to regain her Ivy League acceptance enters an elite competition only to discover the stakes aren’t just high, they’re deadly”—was a ride. Need the miniseries ASAP.
This newsletter brought to you by:
Everything above, obviously.
Frozen waffles.
My own masochism, because writing this is tremendously easier than exploring the murkiness of act one where I still have no idea who anyone is or what they sound like. Jokes on me though, because that twisted little word count goal still stands and guess what I’m doing after this?
Is this a safe space to admit that I kind of like the sensation of ice cubes smacking me in the snout? I love a frigidly cold beverage in the hot summer months and that requires a lot of ice (I am willing to try light ice, though).