Outside of work

I always have a few research rabbit holes going at once, so I’ve been getting a lot of mileage out of well-organized & named tab groups. One of my current obsessions: I went to an incredible artist talk a couple weeks ago in William Burroughs’s old apartment (Mark Leckey exerts the Physics of Mystics). His work explores the pre-Renaissance understanding of images as presences with immense sacramental or diabolical power, and what that means in a digital era where images proliferate, gather data, and look back at their viewers. Some of the 30+ tabs in that group: Marguerite Porete, Byzantine Iconoclasm, and The Saturated Sensorium: Principles of Perception and Mediation in the Middle Ages.

I was scrolling through Browser Company mentions on Twitter and came across this. Someone shared that Dia reminded them to wish their mom a happy Mother’s Day. It made my day. I had a similar moment recently: Dia reminded me to follow-up on some research for a bike trip with my friends in July. It totally slipped my mind over a busy weekend. Anyway, I don't think AI is here to replace us, but I like that it helps us be better children & better friends.

I’m growing things on my roof for the first time and Dia has pretty much become my gardening partner, err, maybe mentor is the more accurate term. I ask it all sorts of questions right on the page: what compost to use? what’s the best time to plant my strawberries? how close can two basil plants live before they start resenting each other? It hasn’t complained once, and I just got my first sprouts!