PicoBlog

These days, credit card companies are falling over one another to offer perks that differentiate them from the competition. And as part of the benefits that come with my Chase Sapphire Preferred card [1], I get occasional reports about my credit score and activity on (pause for dramatic effect) the “dark web.” Here’s an email Chase sent me today. The tone can be paraphrased as “Nothing to be alarmed about, sir, but perhaps you want to climb into your fallout shelter before you click this link.

Amazon L7 is the manager of managers, or “Senior Manager” level. Team sizes vary by discipline, ranging from 20 to 80, and represent the first time a leader manages through other managers. Equivalent FAANG levels include Meta M2, Microsoft 66, and Google L7. Success at this level takes different skills than small team management, particularly at the high end to be promoted to Director. Dave Glick and I separately developed “L7 manager talks,” which we gave to new Senior Managers on our teams and when coaching others.

Heaven Heaven is a place A place where nothing Nothing ever happens - Talking Heads Carmageddon. Looking north from Sunset Blvd. July 2011. In my last piece I said I was going to write soon about where the sidewalk ends. Traveling in Central America and Mexico earlier this year I couldn’t even count the number of  times I found myself walking on a sidewalk that ended abruptly or was in such a state of disrepair that it was hard to imagine a disabled person or infirm senior making their way up the block.

Dear Reader, As you may have noticed, I’ve been on a memoir kick of late, and this is one I’d recommend for a variety of reasons—subject matter, story, time period, excellence of writing—just to name a few. If you’re a fan of C.S. Lewis, you owe it to yourself to read about his early years. As a reminder, these monthly reviews are long essays with plenty of book excerpts to get a feel for the author’s writing (and not just my musings about it).

“The Sharpener is a wonderful resource for poets. Not only will you be treated to Sean's finely curated reading lists, the craft letters are something really special. I've taken a lot of writing courses and I feel he truly cares about helping people write good poems. Instead of offering opinions and judgment, he offers clarity and solutions that take into account the psychological aspects that can inhibit us from doing our best work.

I will be at Club Vintage by The Seaport this Thursday from 5-7 p.m. with a bunch of clothes I am selling. Come shop! Come hang! Here’s the flyer (I’m not selling most of what’s on it, but there is great stuff like a classic Sicilian sundress, Prada nylon shorts and fun tops galore. Hit up the cafe to see cool new stuff There is an excerpt from an early chapter of Women Who Run with The Wolves that has been swirling through my mind lately.

As a young man, the Swiss writer Robert Walser wanted to be an actor. In 1895, having fled a bank apprenticeship, he followed his brother, Karl, to Stuttgart, moving into an attic room across from the Royal Court Theater. A humiliating appraisal at the hands of another actor laid bare his inadequacies. The encounter is depicted in several later stories. (“You possess not the faintest trace of theatrical talent,” one doyenne concludes.

One thing the Sickos Committee has always struggled to do is to find a way to quantify the term “Sickos” as it applies to college football. Everyone has their own definition - scores, types of plays, weather, weird outcomes, etc.. We understand this is college football - it’s all about the endless debates, and it has been since the sport started in the … ncG1vNJzZmirmZi4sL%2FCqKSmoaSpsqZ60q6ZrKyRmLhvr86mZqlnpJ2ybr%2FInKKoq12YvK65yK2rnp1dpb%2Bmv8Snq6xllJrBrrHR

Hello and welcome to the Nice-ish Ramblings Podcast with me the Nice-ish Psychologist where once more I am flying solo. Hope you don’t mind my singular chats, but I am still experiencing some technical difficulties with this brand-new virtual podcast studio I bought – should have just fucking forked out for Zoom. But here we are. Anyway, today I want to talk about an interesting phenomenon that I've noticed on social media.