Going analog

This week’s weird idea

I have joined a trend: I recently moved my weekly planning and scheduling to a paper planner. I was inspired in part by this quote from Field Notes:

"I’m not writing it down to remember it later,
I’m writing it down to remember it now.”

When I write down an appointment on a specific page with a specific pencil, that is an artifact that I have made. When I type an appointment into an online calendar, that is just data I’ve handed to an app to format for me.

To be fair, I’m still using an online calendar to track recurring and Zoom appointments. But every week, I copy those over to my Leuchtterm Hardcover B5-size 2026 Weekly Planner & Notebook. This gives me three memories of the same thing: the appointment itself, the action of writing the appointment down, and where the appointment physically sits in space on the page of a book.

Have a look

I watched this in the hospital. Steven Colbert being Steven Colbert. Starts fun, gets funner, then even more funner. I checked, and was unsurprised to find that Colbert is the youngest sibling in his family. This whole thing has such chaotic "little brother" energy:

Have a listen

It’s not exaggerating to say these guys have had as much an influence on my sense of humor as Monty Python. Calling it "improvised absurdist sketch comedy” is correct, I guess, but that’s like calling the Pacific Ocean “a rather large body of water.” Lines from the following sketch show up at least daily in conversations between my daughter (also a fan) and me:

And keep breathing

You know what? I think I added this section to remind myself to keep breathing.

Just now, putting together this issue, I would occasionally glance down at the header and realize I was taking wimpy little breaths—sometimes even holding my breath. I would then relax my chest, and just let it draw in a big lungful (technically, two lungfuls) of that sweet 21% oxygen mix that surrounds us. (My brain loves the stuff, as does the rest of my body.)

It sounds woo-woo, but seriously, remember to occasionally stop and just enjoy a breath. It’s one of the joys and privileges of being alive.

Until we talk again, I remain,

Your pal,

Jamie

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