Welcome!

There's still 62 of us. That means I'm on the hook. 🪝

I promised myself if a week ever came without new subscribers, I'd share my postcard on my old social media.

I've never posted on LinkedIn. I haven't been active on Facebook in 4.5 years. Ringing the doorbell on those platforms with an immediate ask feels awkward. So I'm gonna show up with a gift.

Expect a new article in the next few weeks. 15 Weekly Newsletters: Lessons Learned* feels like a better re-entry than "hello again, been a while, COVID eh? Sooooo... sign up here plz!"

*Better article title pending... Suggestions welcome!

Thanks for being an early subscriber to my digital postcard. I prefer the description postcard (rather than newsletter) cuz it feels more casual, personal and specific to a moment in time. Each week I share updates, anecdotes and links to things I enjoyed recently.

TIP: First-time recipient? A reply will help prevent these emails being marked spam. Don't feel obligated to say something kind or clever. In fact, I encourage the opposite. Make your reply as conveniently incoherent as possible. A quick: "sDGHsdasd" is splendid :)

Art Armour

I've had a hectic week of literal and figurative blizzards. Tuesday night I suggested we turn down an alley to walk a different way home.

The alley turned out to be a street art experience. Each garage had it's own unique art piece. This was my fav:

My girlfriend, and I speculated: How did this come to be?

Were these commissioned? Or did painting this street's garages gradually become a graffiti badge of honour?

Then our dog Kiwi shared one of her profound canine insights:

Ahh of course! It's good to have a wise labradoodle on walks to explain the world's complexities. 😌

Summer Special

13 minutes after my camera captured the photo above, we passed this promotion on a local restaurant window:

I wonder: if I step in from the blizzard, brush the snow off my face, and order the Summer Special — would they sell it to me?

All-in Alan

My morning ritual used to begin with new podcast episodes. I had subscriptions to dozens of shows. I'd read descriptions of each episode in the morning's haul, then delete ones that lacked appeal.

Over the past few months this started to feel energy-draining (rather than energy giving). I'm now signed up for a dozen of my friend's newsletters. I'd rather read words my friends pour themselves into than podcast descriptions.

I had 3 daily news podcast subscriptions, each one I never listened to. I wanted to feel 'informed', but instead I just felt I was always falling short. I'd spend 5-7min figuring out which interview from the hundreds in my queue to listen to next. Abundance of options made every choice feel "instead of X"...

I’ve decided to swing the total opposite this year. I'm fully committed to one source: The Alan Watts Collection (100+ hrs of audio). I'm trying to deeply internalize this one POV, in contrast to my typical podcast leapfrog approach. It's been refreshing :)

Earth's Surface

One of my brilliant newsletters friends Terri shared this graphic in her email this week. It's one of the most visually striking charts I've ever seen:

Visualizing Countries by Share of Earth's Surface

It reminds me how the human body is 60% water — we've got a similar composition to the world.

Canopy

Two songs for you in theme with the visual above:

This first (for the earth's forest surface) has been my week's focus (calm) companion. The whole album, Sensorimotor, is a great musical accompaniment for digital tasks.

Canopy Lusine

Walking on Water

The second (for the planet's waters) has been my week's focus (groove) companion.

Walking On Water (feat... The Knocks

That's all till next week!

Thanks for reading,

Tommy

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PS. Replies Encouraged :)

• If you have 27 seconds to jot an impression of this postcard, please do!
• I know each of your lives bustle with activity. If it helps, think of the reply as a text (rather than an email).
• A quick jotted: “Just wanted to say I enjoy reading these little 'quick jot' prompts at the bottom each week” or "Always dig the little photo snapshots as a window into your stories of the week :) " is valuable signal of where to re-invest :)