Friday Inspiration 450

A self-directed 100-mile ultramarathon, a sort-of bike theft, Aeropress + Aerobie

My friend Mark made this video, and I love everything about it: A regular guy runs his own 100-mile ultramarathon in his backyard mountain range (his third attempt at it, BTW), films the whole thing, and gets them both done, with fast food, hallucinations, and a brief section in Crocs. (video)

Organizational psychologist Adam Grant seems to be everywhere the past few years—most recently, inside my head with this tough love about “research” actually sometimes sometimes SOMETIMES being … a way to procrastinate.

A paragraph from the interview titled, “Meet the writer who added 'lol' to the end of every sentence of In Search of Lost Time.”:
"I was writing a work email and ended consecutive sentences with 'lol.' In that moment, I recognized the literary potential of using “lol” at the end of every sentence of a piece of writing, and immediately—almost reflexively—thought: 'In Search of Lost Time but every sentence ends with "lol."' I thought I would just tweet that, but then I wanted to see what that would actually look like."

Lots of people have been talking about Jane’s Addiction this week because lead singer Perry Farrell went kind of bananas on stage and got in a fistfight with the rest of the band, and that sucks, and maybe the band has its problems, and hopefully people are OK and everyone’s figuring their shit out, but whatever happens, it reminded me of this live version of Jane Says that I listened to probably 400 times the summer of 2000 (or was it 1999?), from Kettle Whistle, and how great the steel drums are and how good it feels after listening to the song for a minute and 25 seconds and they finally come in and the crowd goes nuts.

I think there’s a much better chance you’ve heard of or used an AeroPress than the Aerobie flying ring. I mean, I remember seeing Aerobie rings in the 90s, and somehow knowing that you could throw them really far (the world record throw is 1,333 feet), but I never owned one or knew anyone who owned one. But the Aeropress, I’ve used, and in my experience, people either have a) no familiarity with an Aeropress or b) think the Aeropress is the greatest thing to ever happen to coffee. BUT: Did you know the same guy invented both of them? It’s true, and his name is Alan Adler. (via Kottke)

If you read books about adventure, or the outdoors, or the Grand Canyon, or about outdoor adventures in the Grand Canyon, you probably know this already, or have heard this from someone else, but Kevin Fedarko’s book about his trek across the Grand Canyon, A Walk in the Park, is a fantastic read, and I recommend it if you need a book to read that you will talk about to everyone you know who reads books for the next month and a half.

I am a later convert to the Substack writing of Alex Dobrenko, but I read his stuff and keep thinking “this is so good,” but struggle to describe why I like it so much. I think maybe the best I can to is say that his writing voice is “wonderfully chaotic.” This essay about someone stealing his bike is exactly that, and so is the ending.

Also: I feel like I haven't mentioned the stuff in my DFTBA shop in a while, but I just got a test printed Practice Maximum Enthusiasm hoody last week and I am pretty psyched on how they turned out. And I'm very excited for the return of cotton hoody weather, which has already started in the evenings in Missoula(!). ​More info via this link​, or click on the photo below: