The new provost is an interesting person and an ultra-charismatic speaker, which makes for a p good podcast. madison.citycast.fm/podcasts/…

I had a great birthday yesterday.

  1. The kiddo and I have been going to the gym together. We could do most of these workouts at home, but she likes the novelty of going to work out in public, people watching, and noodling with electronics while you’re on the elliptical. I enjoy her company there and it’s an incentive for me to keep going. Plus it really does elevate my mood (annoying).
  2. I leveled up from walking to jogging yesterday. Time well spent.
  3. I finished my Halloween 2021 quilt, which used the spooky darlings prints from Ruby Star Society. It’s not my best work, but she’s cute anyway.
  4. I felt loved.

U of M not selling student data (yet)

This story spun up yesterday with broad outcry from academics, and with good reason. Institutions needs to define and clarify their relationship to tech in order to assuage ongoing concerns about monetization in a fast-moving landscape. gizmodo.com/universit…

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I don’t need a WYSIWYG editor on micro.blog, but some buttons for linking and styling on new posts would be a no-brainer addition to this app.

This is the kind of book that connects the dots on some big ideas, primarily how traditional gender roles intersect with capitalism to produce the economy, and in turn, how these systems, tensions and behaviors then reproduce inequality. It’s also, at the root, about how ideas form reality. By reframing some of the feminist classics - and the Marxist ones, too - the writers recast some of our old stories about how the world works, and set up a framework for future scholarship across a number of disciplines.

This is an intensely academic and dialectical book by some of the best thinkers who work at the intersection of Marxism and feminism, and worthwhile for anyone thinking about how work, labor, gender, sex, and culture press on the individual and the collective alike.

If this feels too heavy but you like the subject, check out the editor’s prior book, “Feminism for the 99%.” It’s similar in form to bell hooks’ classic “Feminism is for Everybody” but with a clear collectivist and activist call to action.

Finished reading: Social Reproduction Theory by Tithi Bhattacharya 📚

The (very decorated) author (his first novel) spent time on the faculty in my Big Ten hometown. I already recognize some of the side characters. 👀 Currently reading: Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar 📚

Escapist and breezy. Finished reading: Seven Days in June by Tia Williams 📚

This smart graphic novel zooms in and out on engineered systems happening all around us: electricity, water, the internet. Fascinating and clever. Currently reading: Hidden Systems by Dan Nott 📚

I’m divorcing my Apple Watch because I’m in love with my Oura ring. I need fewer CTAs and notifications in my life, and more reminders to prioritize sleep and mindfulness. Plus, you can pay for one with your HSA.

V proud of myself because, despite going to the quilt store yesterday and getting everything BUT what I went there for, I found enough batting scraps to put together a quilt sandwich and began hand quilting it last night. She’s going to be cute.

Nicki does party songs, Megan does praxis.

The latest You’re Wrong About podcast about the pro-life movement is an excellent primer for anyone who knows a little but doesn’t feel like an expert. Covers the history of the movement, where they came from ideologically, how they organize and why it’s effective. yourewrongabout.com

Finished reading: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid 📚

I liked this one mostly because it asks nothing of the reader, save for enduring the completely unnecessary side story about the biographer.

Goodreads never did anything for me

I just spent a pile of money on books, with the goal of reading for pleasure every day, and with the intention of sprinkling some light stuff around my generally serious reading preferences. While I usually read like a dad, heavy on the serious memoirs and book-length nonfiction explainers, I’m trying to take on some lighter reads because mom needs a little sugar with her medicine. So far, I’m doing an okay job of keeping track of my reading habits here, which is why I ponied up for a paid membership to this site at all: flotisserie.

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I’m looking for some lightness in my reading list for the next couple of months. Found this list of funniest novels from the Booker library: thebookerprizes.com/the-booke…

Devastating, bleak, relentless.

Finished reading: The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan 📚

❄️ big, fat snowflakes ❄️

Currently reading: The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan 📚

Dystopian, but not so far away.

First real snow today.

🍿 Saltburn, baby.