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Measure Twice, Cut Once: Applying the Ethos of the Craftsman to Our Everyday Lives“Applying the ethos of craftsman to our everyday lives” by Brett & Kate McKaySomething to be learned and remembered in here. Including doing good work, not flash.

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This caught me just right. ;) - That duvet of truth; I’m reeeally close.

Tailscale

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“To be an artist …” -Viggo Mortensen(via socialclubofficiel, via hannahfarthing)

Taking a deep breath, with the reminder, it’s gonna be okay. :)

Hope you enjoy this fun stop-motion LEGO version of Crazy Life as sung by “Home Free”.

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Amiright? 😉

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How permanent time change would workWe (including me) definitely groan about the time shift each year, but good to consider what a year would look like without our twice-annual ritual of clock corrections.(via The Baltimore Sun)

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Here Erik Spiekermann describes why he got back into letterpress after thirty years working on-screen (very successfully I might add). It echoes many of my own reactions, attractions, and sentiments having been letterpress printing (albeit in limited fashion) these last couple years.

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“Creativity Explained - On Type with Erik Spiekermann”Typefaces, typography, typesetting - all things I’ve found myself playing with on-and-off for years, and seemingly always coming back to. Now finding renewed inspiration and focus in the art and practice of letterpress.Which, in turn, has brought me into contact with designer and typographer Erik Spiekermann who gives some brief but good advice about the proper use of type in this short video.Hope you enjoy gentle reader. :)

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Not only do I really appreciate the fun use of #typography in this book cover,this is such a neat book premise & approach (not unlike the author’s hit TV series “The Good Place”) :)“How to be Perfect” by Michael Schurhttps://digitaledition.baltimoresun.com/infinity/article_share.aspx?guid=df167348-41a4-4b79-8548-5721eea98e4fvia The Baltimore SunSchur’s unending quest to be perfect

Admission: I can be a sucker for well-done kids songs (as I suspect we secretly all can … go ahead, you can admit it too). ;)

One show the tykes have enjoyed is Puffin Rock (on Netflix), a super-cute show aimed at the very young ones (1-5 I’d guess). The characters, stories, sounds, songs, dialog, etc. are always very touching, but this particular song featured in an episode titled “Rock Music” (or something similar) is particularly memorable.

This video comes from another parent who went through the effort to put it together for his daughter, and excerpts snippets of the melody from where it appears in different parts of the episode then weaves them into one track, so you may hear transitions. But you’ll get the idea. :)

Hope you enjoy too (and apologies if it gets stuck in your head like it is in mind). ;)

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PRIXEL PressThe Prixel Press by Brandon Gamm.A great little movable type kit for kids of all ages to explore making their own prints from their own press. So cool too that he commissioned a typeface perfectly suited to the grid layout that looks great in all directions (not an easy accomplishment).Priced at $125 and sure to provide hours of creativity.

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M’s Christmas music playlist. Apparently 28 hours spanning centuries and styles of music. Will hafta take a listen (and perhaps you, gentle reader, will enjoy too). :)

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Not that this video needs any promotion by me (now at 5.3 million views), but it was a lot of fun listening to this medley of sea shanties by Home Free.Brought back a few memories from high school when I had the pleasure of singing some sea shanties with the a capella choir I was a member of (Tenor II). Didn’t have the bass these guys are sporting, however. ;)Hope you enjoy!

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May the God of infinite goodness, who by the Incarnation of his Son has driven darkness from the world and by that glorious Birth has illumined this most holy night (day), drive far from you the darkness of vice and illumine your hearts with the light of virtue. R/ Amen.May God, who willed that the great joy of his Son’s saving Birth be announced to shepherds by the Angel, fill your minds with the gladness he gives and make you heralds of his Gospel. R/ Amen.And may God, who by the Incarnation brought together the earthly and heavenly realm,fill you with the gift of his peace and favor and make you sharers with the Church in heaven. R/ Amen.And may the blessing of almighty God, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, come down on you and remain with you for ever. R/ Amen.From the Solemn Blessings at the conclusion of Christmas Day Mass

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BrickSeek – Live Life at Half PriceLooks like worth checking out from time to time.

Julie Andrews - The Sound of Christmas From Around The World (1990)

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You cannot chose your future; You can only choose your next step.-yours truly

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Titan of American musical theater transformed art formStephen Sondheim has passed, age 91. :’(I have such a great respect for Sondheim as a master of language and a purveyor of the creative process. Inspired and informed by his work, including Company, Finishing the Hat, and Sweeney Todd.May he rest in peace, and thank you for the gifts.

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President Abraham Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation Washington, D.C.October 3, 1863A Proclamation.The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People.I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.