in which i reveal the best toddler toy on the market

December 13, 2021

Welcome to Corgi-Class Starship, the newsletter that loves this rain but doesn't so much love the insistent, incessant nigh-rhythmic plinking of one particular gutter drain pipe somewhere near the back half of the house 

You'll Like This

Update(s) on thing(s) I made or somehow helped to bring about.Idea Factory GiveawayLast time when I talked such a big game about getting the edit done on the most recent episode we recorded (which admittedly was many months ago), I was in a universe where Felix was getting more regular sleep, so as much as I don't want to admit it, all bets are off right now. I'm not hopeful, but I am optimistic, to steal a phrase from a show or podcast or something I'm forgetting at the moment.Our hot streak of new ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ratings and/or reviews had to come to an end sometime, but hot damn, people, you got us to 43, which is so close to 45 (or dare I dream: 50) that I can practically taste it.It tastes like mint.Instant Band Night 15: Probably In MarchI think at this point we should probably reschedule for March, because it doesn't seem like there'll be a vaccine for kids under 5 by the time mid-January rolls around. I'm now taking nominations for the name of the March version; since it was supposed to be March of 2020, maybe we can do somethin' with that. I'll update the event pages accordingly. (Eventbrite) (Facebook)+ +  r e t u r n i n g   i n   2 0 2 2  + ++ +  h a n g   i n   t h e r e  + + 

Medium Ramble

Skippable if you're in a hurry.Holiday cards from friends are starting to roll in and they're great. We're gonna make it happen this year!! That's all I've got for this week. Please take care of yourselves. 

#dadthoughts

Also skippable if you're in a hurry or don't care. No judgment.This year's Halloween for Quentin was a reprise of the prior year's astronaut costume, and more or less ever since, he's been putting little strips of masking tape on his shirts and pants to make his outfit into a spacesuit. We gave him a roll of the blue painter's tape a while ago for him to use on whatever he wanted,* and this is how a fair bit of it has been expended; it's almost gone as I type this. I wonder how long this fad or phase or whatever it is will last; there's another roll of blue tape waiting for him (maybe we'll make it a stocking stuffer), so it's not down to a question of supply. Who has bets for me?Felix's War on Naps From 3-9p is still in effect. He's had a few sleep hiccups during the night a few times, too, which is .............. less than optimal, but it's still a far cry from some of the other horror stories I've heard. My ability to get him back to sleep is either improving or it's just much easier to accomplish at midnight than 4p; either way, I'll still gladly accept.* I highly endorse this, btw: little kids love playing with tape, and the blue tape is about as harmless as you can get. He still needs my help to tear it off, but he can also cut it with scissors (whose access we control and supervise) and just go hogwild. It's got an insane bang:buck ratio and I recommend it. 

Fascination Corner

I read a lot of newsletters; here are some links that caught my eye. 

  • The first few paragraphs of this must-read -- "Trump's Next Coup Has Already Begun" -- will simultaneously boil your blood and chill you to the bone. So that's fun! (~$Atlantic) 

  • This list of actions to try if you're feeling a little powerless and insignificant in the face of climate change is a nice thought, but also literally none of the categories it lays out apply to me. (Guardian) 

  • "I Went Undercover In QAnon For A Year, And Here’s Everything I Learned" (Junkee) Pair that with this longer read on "The Great (Fake) Child-Sex-Trafficking Epidemic" (~$Atlantic) 

  • Here's an interesting longread on what it's like to work for a company that can effectively pay you to do literally nothing. (The Verge) 

  • A photographer put a camera trap under her bird feeder and the results are worth a look. (Beneath the Bird Feeder) 

  • IEEE Spectrum is here to break down Alphabet's Everyday Robots materials. (IEEE Spectrum) 

  • There might not actually be such a thing as "pristine nature," only because it seems we humans have been out here messing with the environment around us for, oh, the past 12,000 years. (Knowable) (Paper) 

  • Sure, you might be a little impulsive, but is it an actual Problem? Now there's a test for that. (UC Berkeley) 

  • It's possible dogs have an active working vocabulary of almost 90 words. (Science Alert) (Paper) 

  • Whafuck: there might, uh, be a galaxy or even galaxies plural out there with no dark matter in them. Which ...... uhhhhh. Huh. (Royal Astronomical Society) 

  • The simple inclusion of a little noise -- invisible to humans -- into an otherwise clear photo can wreak havoc with machine learning models; The Scientists wonder if there's a way we can draw on lessons from how our boring meat eyes actually work to get around this problem. (Quanta) (Paper about a text-based version of the problem) (Paper about approaching the solution) 

A Fictional Thing

Something made-up that somehow suggested itself to me and which I could not escape.A band and their albumThe Honored Absent Ones, Six Hundred Thousand Fools Later(If you've made it this far, feel free to hit REPLY and tell me what you think this band/album sounds like, because now I'm curious) 

Thanks

If you've read this far, I thank you. Feel free to forward this to someone you like, or inflict upon someone you don't.