Weekly Good Things 2025 Week 15

Kicking off #100Videos | Podcast Project | The #ReverseCommute

Hello! Hello! Welcome to another weekly episode of Good Things – your guide to living intentionally and more fully one good thing at a time! I give you a peek into my everyday life during the week, and roundup my good links, ideas, books, and more.

Sitting under my Bearaby “Egg” Weighted Blanket

For the past few months, I’ve had trouble focusing.

Why yes, haven’t we all? But in a way that’s significantly more frustrating than my normal lack of focus™️

• 1. *Gestures broadly* the world. 

• 2. It’s been cold and I haven’t been outside nearly as much as normal.

• 3. *Gestures broadly again* THE WORLD.

While I can’t change my immediate external situation, I *can* make different supportive choices for myself to make my day to day improved. So I’m continuing on over the next few weeks building back up to more time walking outside, primarily for the brain benefits.

May 1st kicks off another season of GVRAT, the summertime virtual race that keeps me occupied from May 1st to the end of August. (My vice in 2020 was doing 1270 miles during that time frame. These days I just do half of that, about 6 miles a day!)

Rain or shine. Yesterday I hopped on the commuter rail and did another “reverse commute” run home in 38 degrees in New England weather on April 12th.

I’m also giving myself grace around finishing things.

I spend a lot of time thinking about my word choices, my writing, how I express myself, and when I’m feeling overwhelmed, sometimes the last 5% of anything is much harder than it needs to be, and so I tend to do a large amount of work on various projects without getting the payoff of completion.

So, we’re working on releasing things.

Perpetual note to self: don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.

Just put it out in the world, as a snapshot of now.

But also, if my writing seems disjointed here, please do give me a pass, it’s how my brain is feeling! And give yourself a little grace if you need it right now, too!

Creative Project: #100Videos

As a human, I’m bubbling with ideas, but often feel constricted by skills issues. One area of interest that I’m exploring right now is video as a creative medium.

I want to be able to easily pull together a video without much effort – a skill that only comes from practice and putting in the reps.

So I’ve devised myself a tiny experiment to do so. #100Videos. There’s not a time limit. I’m just going to make videos, learn something new each time, and keep going.

I’m also making a #swipefile of videos that use interesting techniques I want to try.

Good Things: Assorted Thoughts

📝Cal Newport removed social media from his phone for nine years and then wrote 4 best sellers. I’m fascinated by people opting out of technology.

What would a world be like disconnected from the internet? Would I enjoy the silence? Create more? Find myself lonely?

Then I remember that some of the most prolific creative folks I follow are chronically online and make it work. Note to self: seek balance.

♠️ A slot machine cycle. Over the past few weeks, I’ve fallen down into the rabbit hole of a 2.99 purchase of ad-free Solitaire. (Do not recommend.) Last year the same thing happened with Two Dots, a mindless and soothing phone game. A few years before that it was the Sims.

What starts as a coping strategy turns addictive, I overdo it, play late into the night, start dreaming about the game, get tension headaches, and then delete it from my phone.

In this case, I haven’t quite severed myself from the app yet, but I’m calling myself out that it’s almost time.

I’m trying to figure out what I’d like as my replacement soothing activity – I think it’s going to be art.

Do you need to quit something with me?

🖌️ Personal Branding and Digital Identity: some art for my digital home. A few weeks ago, I made a little logo header for

Journalist Brain by Lisa Thalhamer

, and then updated my own logo.

It’s had me thinking a little bit more about branding and design, and how nice it is to choose colors and fonts and squiggles for both your work and personal projects.

• How do you express yourself visually beyond the words on the page?

• What kinds of feelings do you want to evoke with your visual identity? (For others AND yourself?)

• How do you choose a personal style that is reflected across the physical and digital world? (Been playing with Pinterest for mood, activation, and style boards for myself.)

I’m going to spend the next few weeks working on some fiddly design and doodles for myself here, my websites, and for my various projects, who knows, even picking some Canva templates for presentations, and am looking forward to having fun this way!

A few places I plan on updating:

• Updated colors and fonts

• Squiggles and dividers for newsletters

• Social media headers

• Social templates

• Presentation templates: I like giving workshops and presentations, but frequently find myself overwhelmed by design, when I want to be focusing on the ideas and content!

Good Things: More Assorted Thoughts:

• Civic Engagement. I went to an Action Lab workshop hosted by the BCBSMA Foundation focused on improving collaboration and community engagement around health equity initiatives. It’s had me thinking about civic engagement generally. How do we get more involved in our communities? How do we learn from each other in different communities? How do we spread the word about resources and good work happening in our neighborhoods? If we go into communities, how do we work with the community itself to support change?

• Facilitation. Been thinking a lot about my own training in Pre-Texts, a facilitation methodology for workshops designed to help us ask better questions (on that note, I’m always looking to collect tools for effective workshops, including crafts/games/play)

• Aging and Demographics. In South Korea, childcare centers closing and becoming dementia care (with the same staff) due in part to the rapidly aging population (this episode of Radiolab - Growth)

• Play. On that note, I’ve been going down the rabbit hole of science for seniors doing craft projects and science with aging residents of long term care facilities. I’ve also been thinking a lot about creative projects in our communities. How do we come together to create art?

Do you have great specific use cases for AI?

• I’m creating a list of ways to use AI in creative ways. (Note, there are already some great resources out there for this, like the Every podcast. I’m not looking to re-invent the wheel, but rather as a way to facilitate my own learning and interests here.)

• I’m particularly interested in how AI can be used to support better thinking and creativity, rather than a replacement for good work!

• I’m gathering ideas about prompt engineering, but also practical things like how AI can help with task initiation and executive functioning.

👋 If you are new here, welcome! I try to fill these newsletters with a little something for everyone. (If you are just here for the food, it’s at the end! Feel free to scroll, I won’t judge!)

Good Things This Week

1. Tackled a nagging task: Taxes. Taxes. Taxes. I also use the season to do a deep dive of my spending over the course of the year. Just how much Trader Joe’s do I buy? (That’s between me and my Amex Blue Cash Preferred which gives me 6% cash back on groceries. Referral Link ;p)

2. Good Things to Listen To: my Podcast project is live here:

   Podcasts Now

Mixed Media:

• 📖 Reading: reading my last few chapters of The Stormlight Archive, and then I’ll move onto finishing Sanderson’s Secret Project Books. Jonathan Stroud’s new Scarlett and Browne.

• 📺 Watching: I found The Residence, a “detective” series with an ensemble cast and vibes like Knives Out to be a delightful distraction this week!

• 🎧 Listening: I’m listening to the new season of Bone Valley and will spring for a paid monthly of Lava for Good in order to finish it. I *loved* the episode of Tim Ferriss with Craig Mod and will be picking up his new book Things Become Other Things: A Walking Memoir when it comes out next month.

• 🎬 A Youtube Video: all of Cecilia Blomdahl’s videos of Svalbard are incredible. Here’s her new offgrid cabin before and after.

• 🤣 Memes and randomness of the week: Dishoom is coming theoretically to New York (next year?)

Some work from Art Salon afternoons

Collected Wisdom

• Coffee on the stoop. These people pull up a chair at the end of their driveway and have conversations with their neighbors. This is a lovely idea for community building I’d like to do more of in my neighborhood.

• Mindfulness Hack: Driving in Silence apparently this is a TikTok trend, but I remember when my friend used to drive hours at a time without a working AC or a tape player in the 90s.

Slow Drip Gardening:

It’s a good thing I didn’t buy a bunch of plants prematurely, as it has snowed for two days.

But! Crocus are popping up! These beauties aren’t mine, but I did see a handful of leaves popping up where I planted some at the end of the fall. My spring flower share is starting this week, and I’m looking forward to the beautiful Anemone’s in week one.

Greek Fish with Tomato, Onion, Potato for Passover

The Week Meal Plan:

Why do I do this? I’ll note, my meal plans tend to be more of a directional support for me than what I actually end up eating in my week. (I think a lot of people who do meal planning feel obligated to actually eat the things they come with rather than just using as a placeholder/inspiration. I do not feel so constricted.)

🍒 Good Eats from the Past Few Weeks:

• Goodies from Sophia’s: honey greek yogurt! (Now apparently my routine?) The last trip I also picked up some 2% plain.

• Udon: I crave noodles, and ate a lot of them last week. I picked up some frozen Sanukiya Udon at a mark-up at Sakanaya, because it’s surprisingly hard to find them around here. (Fun fact, you can microwave them!)

• From Trader Joe’s: the passionfruit meringue tarts from France.

This week’s meal plan: it’s Passover, so I’m generally refraining from leavened things. (I do eat Sephardic beans, peas, rice.) I’m also trying to eat more from the pantry and freezer to sort of eat down some excess, so I’ve gone back to pulling several things a week for my defrost bowl.

• Sunday: Lamb chops with peas

• Monday: Beef with greek chickory greens, olive oil, and lemon (horta)

• Tuesday: Beet salad with blue cheese, almonds, coriander vinaigrette, leftover lamb

• Wednesday: Chicken with artichokes and lemon (Joan Nathan, gift link)

• Thursday: Salmon salad with roasted carrots, potatoes, and marinated leeks

• Friday: Matzah Pizza

Lunch Options: Some shelf stable Indian TJs meals from the pantry. Tinned fish and marinated artichokes. Lamb vindaloo.

Snacks: Yogurt and blueberries. Cheese sticks. Hardboiled Eggs (prepped). Turkey Chomps. Aggressive amounts of fridge-cheese. Cottage Cheese with olive oil and good black pepper.

Treat options (mostly in the freezer): [Chametz which aren’t officially being eaten: Trader Joe’s Brownie Coffee Ice Cream Sandwiches. Apple Tartines. Trader Joe’s Chocolate Cheesecake Bites.]

What are you eating this week?

Here’s to a very good week!

xo, Sam