The Weekly Wrap: January 21, 2024

In the past nine days, we've had two days of childcare. As much as I love getting to go sledding with my kid, I am very tired. Snow days don't mean what they used it.

I love having a hybrid schedule and the ability to WFH, but that just means I'm working two full-time jobs when our daycare is closed. In the past, when an office closed it CLOSED. Sure you might answer an email here and there but that was it. These days, it's business as usual just from a new location. Some technological advances come back to bite us. 

Why can't we all just enjoy a random day off from time to time? Does it really hurt the bottom line of capitalism that much?

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• How Google SEO is making websites look the same. [The Verge]
• A good list of life lessons. [Annie Macmanus]
• Try a legacy mindset. [WaPo - gift link]
• Life is trail mix. [Hedger Humor]
• The assault on libraries and the trauma it creates. [Literary Activism]
• A fascinating look at how a photographer endured shooting that really, really cold football game. [PetaPixel]
• You read this in Elmo's voice. [Link in Bio]

• Making a football game good TV. [The Daily]
• Some ways to soothe stress. [Life Kit]
• The birth of jazz. [Atlas Obscura]
• The case for bringing back the SAT in college admissions. [The Daily]
• What all those political polls mean. [The Indicator]

• The Norwegian film Quake is the sequel to Wave. This is one of the better disaster films in terms of building things up before everything pops off. In fact, three-quarters of the movie is build up. There were also some phenomenal orchestration choices that add to the tension. Also, I love that streaming makes it easier to randomly see foreign films. A few years ago, I never would have known this existed. [Tubi]
• I don't know what kind of movie After the Dark was supposed to be. The alternative title is The Philosophers and that feels more descriptive. The plot has a classroom of teenagers deciding which ten people to save in an apocalypse scenario. It has a measured pace but was also trying to be action. I dunno - it was its own thing. Also, the professor demonstrates lots of bad pedagogy. [Tubi]
• We got into some fun documentaries this week:
  • The Secret Life of the World's Busiest Airport is a behind the scenes look at Atlanta's Hartfield-Jackson airport. I learned some new things! Like, there's a control tower for all the activity that happens at the gate. Also, did you know that all the knives used in the airport restaurants have to be inventoried twice a day AND locked to the prep tables? I didn't. I found myself saying, "Huh. I didn't know that," more than once. [Amazon Prime]
  • The same team made The Secret Life of the Cruise. This was another behind the scenes look. I found the details of this one less interesting but the scope was fascinating. It's all just so big because of the number of passengers. [Amazon Prime]

• Slow cooker chicken tikka masala was the perfect warming winter dinner this week. This one is far more involved than your usual dump and wait recipe. You have to marinate the meat and brown it before adding it to the pot but it's worth it. While nothing can compare to the version we get from a local restaurant we love, this was quite delicious. I'm glad it made enough for the husband to make two lunches AND for us to freeze more for a future dinner. [Spicy Southern Kitchen]
• There was a bag of frozen corn just hanging out in our freezer. I opted to use it in shrimp tacos with corn salsa. Sadly, our avocado went bad before we could use it. I subbed in Monterey jack cheese. It wasn't a bad choice but avocado would have been better. [Cooking Light]