SPI: 12.22.21
Welcome to the result of my positivity practice, where I spend 10 minutes per day thinking about what I’m enjoying, and finding value in.
A Song:
This song is like listening to the smoothest caramel. All the feels.
A Picture:
I took this photo on the banks of the Madison River at Buffalo Jump State Park in Montana. It was a beautiful late summer evening the day before my then girlfriend, now wife, left for some solo travel in Europe.
Some Inspiration:
Red Rising. This is a book series by Pierce Brown that I very much enjoyed. I decided to feature it now thanks to a great discussion of sci-fi books that I had this weekend with a good friend (thanks Drew). It’s a mix of apocalyptic space adventure, politics, strategy, and a little Hunger Games thrown in the mix. If you’re looking for a way to decomp this holiday season, you could do a lot worse than this series.
https://www.goodreads.com/series/117100-red-rising-saga
This Terrifying Possibility - a False Vacuum. Here to ruin your whole day, the SPI newsletter! Apparently there’s something known as a false vacuum in physics. It allows for the universe to be in a close to vacuum state, but not quite as full vacuum as it can be. This not-quite-full universal vacuum could decay into a lower vacuum state with no notice at all. In this new lower vacuum state, the constants of nature would likely be fundamentally different. Matter, light, energy, gravity, everything would likely behave differently. Humanity would be instantly erased, and everything we’ve built as a species would be invalidated or destroyed. I’m letting this be a reminder to not take life to seriously, and enjoy our time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_vacuum_decay
Find movies that are actually worth watching on Netflix. Speaking of decompressing this holiday season, find something decent to watch. It’s no secret that Netflix has a trash user interface, and that it’s deeply biased toward content it owns. This is so much the case that it’s insanely hard to dig into the mountain of content that’s not featured on the app. If you want to find a movie / show to watch on it that doesn’t suck, use Flickmetrix. It allows you to search the Netflix library by critic and user reviews. Use the advanced search for better results. Also, Netflix has detailed content category codes that it uses to categorize its library. These are normally hidden from users, but the Netflix Codes site has them listed. For examples, if you’re in the mood for a “Christmas children & family films from the 1990s” there’s a category for that. Happy watching.
https://flickmetrix.com/
https://www.netflix-codes.com/
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