Because it can sometimes be hard to keep a positive attitude with everything going on in the world, I thought I’d share this article. Also, books are just a good time.
Reading is relaxing, and many people do it as a counterbalance to our overstimulated age.
But what exactly is happening when we read? What’s going on beneath the surface that makes reading a book feel so restorative?
The answer lies in how reading changes our neurochemistry in real time. Reading isn’t just about decoding words on a page. It’s a complex neurochemical process that affects everything from our heart rate to our hormone levels.
Go ahead, change your neurochemistry for the better.
It’s Monday, which seems like a perfect time for a bit of wisdom on the intersection of art and commerce. This quote comes from sci-fi author John Scalzi, who has famously taken a stand on the importance of being paid for creative work, and knows a thing or two about building a viable living around art.
As a writer, and as a creator, nothing one ever does, professionally or personally, needs to be wasted. It’s all fuel for the creative engine…
Anyway: If you’re a writer or creator, never be ashamed of what else you do. It’s 2026 and this special flavor of gilded age we live in at the moment means that what qualifies as “selling out” has an extremely high bar. Making a living was very rarely “selling out” in any era. I think these days the phrase should be mostly reserved for writing things you absolutely don’t believe, for the sort of people you would in fact despise, with the result of your work is you making the world worse for everyone. Avoid doing that, please.
Short of that, get paid, have those experiences and develop new tools. All of it will be useful for the art you do care about. That’s not selling out. That’s learning, with compensation. — There Is No Selling Out Anymore
“Your ambition should be to get as much life out of living as you possibly can, as much enjoyment, as much interest, as much experience, as much understanding. Not simply to be what is generally called “a success.” ― Eleanor Roosevelt
Today I’m happy to report that I spotted the first sign of spring.
Yes, we still have a couple feet of snow on our lawn and predictions call for another wave of cold soon, but I also saw my first outdoor insect of the year. It wasn’t anything fun or even remotely photogenic, just a fly, dull except for the fact that it arrived on a breath of spring.
Every spring, thousands of fish swim through the Oudegracht in Utrecht, searching for a place upstream to lay their eggs. But the Weerdsluis is often closed. You can help the fish continue their journey! If you see a fish, press the doorbell. This alerts the lock operator to open the lock.
Tomorrow morning very early, the last full moon of the winter season will coincide with a total lunar eclipse. When? Check the links below for precise times, but as an example, maximum eclipse in Ottawa will be at 6:33am ET.
The result? A blood moon.
We’ve talked about this phenomenon before, but this will be the last one for a couple of years.
Visible from Asia, Australia, and North America, this is the last total lunar eclipse until the December 31, 2028–January 1, 2029 New Year’s Blood Moon Eclipse.
If your view is obstructed you can watch this livestream from the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles.
“Buttercup’s mother whirled on him. ‘Did you forget to pay your taxes?’ (This was after taxes. But everything is after taxes. Taxes were here even before stew.)” ― William Goldman, The Princess Bride
J.R. Johnson 
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