PicoBlog

I’ve been reading folk horror stories—old ways of explaining reality with mythology instead of science. In the old stories, the Fae embody wild, dangerous energies, but also (oddly, and obviously magically) are endearingly powerful. And honestly, we’ve all encountered fae in places like writing groups, deciduous forests, at spelling bees, on public transportation, and in our minds when we read those fairy tales. 1 Fae have “hard to stop” energy.

We know Vincent Van Gogh painted beautifully. We know he cut off his own ear. But what else do we really know about the brilliant Dutch Painter? A glimpse of the letters he wrote to his younger brother, Theo, reveal much: his drive; his pain; his insecurity; his soul that yearned for God. A look at 10 things he wrote that will shed light on the brilliant, haunted artist: 1) “It constantly remains a source of disappointment to me that my drawings are not yet what I want them to be.

With hotel prices going through the roof it’s harder than ever to find somewhere affordable to stay but over the years I’ve learned how to cut the price of my trips to London without settling for grotty hotels or far flung locations Frustratingly there’s now so much demand for accommodation there aren’t the last minute bargains there once were and even booking ahead doesn’t save you as much as it once did.

Happy Sunday! Giving a big shout to our sponsor, Dermstore, and our ongoing GEETHANKS code for 15% off! Use it on Supergoop, the Elemis cleansing balm or literally almost anything else your heart may desire. This week the Geezers went nuts for these $18 Rothy’s dupes. I have three pairs (and bought backups). They’re soft, stretchy, machine washable and fit pretty true to size although I would suggest going a size down if you’re between sizes.

One question that does pop up now and then in the community is, “How do I handle dreams about anxiety?” Generally, this question will come from someone who is now feeling anxious or even experiencing panic in their dreams. They dream about being anxious, those dreams are disturbing to them, they wake up feeling unsettled, and want to know what to do about that. Well … there’s good news and bad news here.

Welcome to another episode of the Willoughby Hills podcast! In today’s episode, I speak with Mark Ellison, a New York City based carpenter who has been in the business for more than 40 years. While he’s spent his career working on some of the highest end projects in Manhattan for some of the wealthiest people on the planet, he was relatively unknown until Burkhard Bilger profiled him for The New Yorker in 2020.

The number π (3.1415926…) has now been computed to 105 trillion decimal places! The computational background behind this feat is discussed by Jordan Ranous in yesterday’s article 105 Trillion Pi Digits: The Journey to a New Pi Calculation Record. The calculation, which took 75 days, was achieved using the Chudnovsky algorithm, which is based on formulas for π discovered by Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887–1920). In his 1914 paper Modular equations and approximations to π, Ramanujan listed a large number of formulae for the number 1/π, including the one shown below.

What makes a cozy game? It’s an answer I should probably have readily available, consider I’m the one titling this week’s newsletter. If I’m to recommend cozy games, I should probably have a definition of some sort. So, here goes nothing: A cozy game — at least as I’ve used the term here — is a game that doesn’t take too long, isn’t too competitive, and just feels good to play. It could also mean (and may mean here) a game that you can easily get comfortable while playing.

This is the kind of thing that you’ll find if you browse the YouTube comments sections under videos of “You Were Cool,” the Mountain Goats’ most famous unreleased song: One of my friends was trans and committed suicide back in 9th grade. I had met them online in 6th grade and we clicked instantly. I always thought she was the coolest most understanding person. They came out to me just a few months before they took their life.