** Created: ** 2026-02-02

Weekly Whaaa…?

I use the ISO weeks from Monday to Sunday, so ISO Week Week 05 is the week of 2026-01-26/2026-02-01. (But as this is my first weeknote of the year, I’ll touch a bit on all of January, too.)

Site Refinements of the Week

I did a lot of digital puttering over the weekend, mostly customizing the footer by adding some links and a couple buttons: one associated with the People Pledge and another from Andy Carolan of a smiley face and the words “Made By a Human”. (It took a bit of time toying with image color dropper tools and WebAIM’s color contrast checker to determine that the light blue background has by far the best color contrast—and that sadly neither the green nor the orange had high enough contrast for me to use them.)

An /ai Page

That “Made by a Human” links to a new /ai page here, which outlines How I Do—and Mostly Do Not—Use “AI” Tools. It grew from being a simple “nope, none here” to a more substantial mini-essay about what I think are some necessary contexts for thinking about AI use.

In particular, I’ve been thinking about considering AI use symptomatically for a while now, as well as thinking about this moment where more people are inclined to be curious & attentive to the technology they use as moment charged with opportunities for people to advocate more for what I’m calling “small tools, sociably made”.

(Or perhaps that should be “…sociably produced”? I feel like the first version is snappier, but the second emphasizes processes of production more; I of course appreciate emphasizing processes. I’d be thrilled to hear which resonates more with you, if you feel so inclined.)

I’m sure I’ll be writing more little essays about those topics soon enough, especially since I’ll be co-facilitating a “faculty learning community” on developing a framework for use of generative “AI” tools this semester.

Slashes & a Changelog

Beyond those, I also added a /slashes page and a /changelog, where you can find out even more of what I’ve been tinkering with and changing on here lately.

For, as Ethan Marcotte memorably put it, “let a website be a worry stone.”

Viewing, Reading, and Listening

The West Wing

We’ve been watching The West Wing, having started it back in December. It’s my first time watching it beyond a few clips, and I’m certainly enjoying it. Some of the episodes are truly phenomenal—most recently in our viewing, I’m thinking of “The Long Goodbye” in particular, which I think could easily work viewed all on its own, without any necessary context.

Groundhog Day

We also watched Groundhog Day. I haven’t seen it in probably more than a decade, and my spouse doesn’t think she’d ever seen it. I couldn’t remember the way it ended, only a few tidbits here and there. I also had totally forgotten it was a Harold Ramis film!

Moby-Dick

I’m about halfway through Moby-Dick, which I began reading along with a group of people on Bsky organized by Jacobharr.is.

Although I’ve owned a copy for a while, it’s my first time actually reading it. I equivocated about putting both it and Benito Cereno on my exam reading lists, but ultimately decided that they were a bit too early for the time period I really wanted to cover. (There’s a good chance that they’ll each sneak into the dissertation itself, of course.)

The Norton Critical Edition asserts that the name “Davy Jones”—as in the phrase “Davy Jones’ locker”—comes from the Black Caribbean word “duppy” (i.e. “ghost”) and “Jonah” (i.e. “the Biblical person who met with the insides of a whale and lived to tell the tale”).

That’s not a etymological lineage possibility I’ve ever encountered before, but it strikes me as very plausible—at least as plausible as the OED’s assertion that “Davy” is likely from Welsh sailors invoking St. David. In any case, it’s fascinating to learn another possible taken-for-granted Black Atlantic connection.

Anyways, about midway through January, Life Happened To Me and I decided that keeping up with the other Bsky readers was less important than a couple of other projects, so that reading has taken a back seat for the last week or 10 days. The group read was a very productive intervention in my daily patterns, though, helping give me a place to focus my attention when doomscrolling beckoned (and here I’m referring both the book itself and the feed of reactions or insights from other readers).

Tin Man’s “Hidden Acid”

The Hidden Acid four track release deftly negotiates the lines between techno and house, plugging along with a pleasant motorik pulse. If you’re a fan of 303 synth leads, you’ll find lots of enjoy—and if you don’t have a clue what “acid” or “303” might refer to here, these tunes are some of wonderful introductions.

Focumon

Sometime over the last couple months—most likely in the Betwixtmas, somewhere between Boxing Day and New Year’s—I thought long & hard about which pomodoro-style timer I might prefer to keep in the new year. I’ve used & liked LlamaLife & Focus—they’re both great, and Focus especially so if you have an Apple Watch.

But I realized that with each of them, every day felt a little Groundhog Day-ish, because neither really promotes the sense that your focus & effort is adding up over spans of days, weeks, or months.

I’d seen Focumon mentioned as another alternative and decided to give it a try. Having used it over the holidays and all through January, I can say that it’s definitely a solid contender. It’s working well enough that I stopped my other subscriptions and will be using it this year, as least though my exams. (I appreciate that the developer promises it will remain free to use, and it’s already been useful enough that I’m actually paying for an account.)

Getting to see the development of the little pocket monsters and have them build up the strength to take on bosses on different levels provides just enough long-term growth to help me recognize that I’m building toward larger goals.

The minimal co-working in other people’s “training centers” also provides just enough sociability to keep me on track.

LlamaLife, Focus, and Focumon are all solid choices, each slightly better at some things than at others. If you think that you could benefit from extra reinforcement that your daily efforts are adding up to something larger over time, I’d certainly suggest watching the Focumon “About” FAQ video and gauging whether it’s worth trying out. (That’s not an affiliate link, by the way!) The same FAQ page also has product comparisons tucked away at the bottom, such as this comparison with Habitica.

Whether or not these three options are up your alley, I hope you find something that works for you!

---

Kudos

Did you enjoy this? Let me know:

Perhaps even leave a comment below?