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We didn’t realize how much the cat wheel had helped Fingol until the first one broke and he kept vocalizing his boredom. But now he’s got a new and improved cat wheel to keep him mostly occupied!

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That opening bassline and vocal.

My current "set to replay" song.

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Just discovered this band (with one of my favorite names ever) and if the song wasn't catchy enough, the dance video completely captured my heart.

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We bought a cat wheel for Fingol a few weeks ago and have slowly been making progress on getting him to actually use it.

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Los Angeles–based designer Emily McDowell was diagnosed with Stage 3 Hodgkin’s lymphoma at age 24, enduring nine months of chemo and radiation before going into remission.

“The most difficult part of my illness wasn’t losing my hair, or being erroneously called ‘sir’ by Starbucks baristas, or sickness from chemo,” McDowell writes on her website. “It was the loneliness and isolation I felt when many of my close friends and family members disappeared because they didn’t know what to say, or said the absolute wrong thing without realizing it.”

The 38-year-old designer has been cancer-free ever since. But the emotional impact of the experience lingered, inspiring her to design a newly launched series of Empathy Cards—emotionally direct greeting cards that say the things she wanted to hear when she was ill.

The blurbs about each card are great to read (click on the photos), as is the Slate article describing the inspiration for the card line

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Originally, I intended to recap my experience becoming an American for this personal tumblr, but I realized that it might work as a submission for The Pastry Box. If it seems like I've been getting into writing recently, it's because writing was my first love long before the Internet and web design were around. Until I committed to writing the MVC article though, I hadn't realized how much I'd missed it.

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On what's happening in Baltimore: "When nonviolence is preached as an attempt to evade the repercussions of political brutality, it betrays itself. When nonviolence begins halfway through the war with the aggressor calling time out, it exposes itself as a ruse. When nonviolence is preached by the representatives of the state, while the state doles out heaps of violence to its citizens, it reveals itself to be a con."

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Passed the test & got sworn in; now an official U.S. Citizen and American!

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Yesterday, my piece on the glorification of the full-stack employee was published on Model View Culture. While feedback has been largely positive, there has also been a bit of confusion around what I'm trying to say, so to clarify, I'm not knocking generalists. I think both generalists and specialists have their place in the world, but each company should think carefully about what's right for them.

What I AM against, however, is the romanticism and build-up around being a generalist that leads to hubris and sloppy hiring practices. People in tech often seem to have a need to create this mythology around being superior. I'm not totally sure why that is, given that we're already making much more money than most other workers. Can't we let the work speak for itself?

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Warning: a small dose of vanity ahead

Last week, I had a photoshoot in my favorite park with the super talented Katy Weaver. It’s been a few years since I’ve had any high quality photos that I really feel great about, partly because I no longer am around photographer friends and partly because I’m just not naturally photogenic, especially in candids (I either tend to look goofy, murderous, or like a deer in headlights).

But Katy was awesome at making me feel comfortable and I had tons of fun trekking around the park and posing in weird spots. In the top photo, where I’m just surrounded by foliage galore, I’m actually standing on top of a picnic table. Because hey, I’ll do whatever I have to in order to get a good shot.

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There is only this

I am so sorry for your pain. And I am so, so sad that it didn’t get better.

Rest in peace.

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Grief

"All the king's horses and all the king's men / Couldn't put Humpty back together again."

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Choice quote: "Privilege doesn't mean you don't suffer, which, I know, totally blows."

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Masanori Kono via Spoon & Tamago.

Lustik: twitter | pinterest | etsy

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Two years ago, I tweeted half-jokingly that my first song would be based off of Cupcake Ipsum. It may have taken awhile, but you can’t say I don’t keep my word.

It was a long process to even finish the song, although I definitely got some help along the way - thanks Hannah for all your input!). The output is not remotely perfect by any means, but I do feel a sense of relief from finally putting something out there that I at least don’t think is 100% terrible.

Hopefully with each musical effort, I’ll get closer and closer to closing the gap.

Oh, and if for some reason, you do really like Cupcake Ipsum, you can download it here.

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Moving on

To commemorate my last day at Idealist, Mandi and Joshua made me this amazing wallpaper. Because we all know each other's work passwords, I woke my laptop from sleep and saw this beautiful creation staring back at me.

Usually, there are a few people that I particularly like in a company, but I genuinely liked the majority of my Idealist coworkers, and I will miss being around them (and all our jokes and gifs).

This week, I'm taking a tour of Portland's co-working spaces in an effort to figure out where I want to be located when I start my new job on Monday as Senior Product Designer at Upworthy. I've never worked full-time remote before, so we'll see how I adjust, but I'm insanely excited to jump into the work, and delighted that I get to continue on my new career path of being a do-gooder in the world.