Hello world!

In case the inspiration for this weeknote’s title isn’t clear, it’s because of flowers I had blooming.

🔖 My Favorite Stuff from the Internet This Week

• Reddit Reads: Book recommendations from reddit
• Coloniality and globalization: a decolonial take
• The Best Cheeses for Mac & Cheese, According to Experts | The Cheese Professor
• GoPro Labs
  • I fell down the rabbit hole of GoPro’s Labs and all the cool stuff I can do like Simplified Sunset and Sunrise Time-lapses. You can also generate a QR code that does precisely what you want. I want to spend more time turning my experimentation into things that are part of my workflow.
• NPKILL - Maintain your development workspace clean.

• A year or two ago, I wanted to set a goal of “no more npm” but I decided I might be able to settle on “no new npm”. As I surveyed all the places where I rely on npm, I gave up on the idea before making it one of my official goals. That means I am in need of tools like npkill. It’s a must-have for me especially given how many npm things I try out still.

🌱 Gardening

I’m on the sixth consecutive week of newly bloomed flowers in the garden. Beyond the sunflowers I just can’t stop talking about, my Tithonias have been blooming. This week, the first of the dahlias bloomed and they are gorgeous! The header photo for this week’s note shows a bee taking a look at the yellow dahlia.

🎧 Music

I haven’t been listening to much music lately but I started getting back into it a tiny bit this week:

Total tracks played: 29 Unique tracks: 29 | Unique albums: 2 | Unique artists: 2

Top 5 Genres This Week

1. 🎬 Soundtrack (20 plays)
2. 🍿 Pop (9 plays)

Top Artists

• Hans Zimmer (20 plays)
• ABBA (9 plays)

Top Albums

• Hans Zimmer - Dune (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (20 plays)
• ABBA - ABBA Gold: Greatest Hits (40th Anniversary Edition) (9 plays)

📘 Reading

I read quite a bit this week!

Books Read: 3

• Samurai William: The Englishman Who Opened Japan by Giles Milton (Read on 2026-08-13)
  • The actual story here is quite a bit more interesting than what we saw in Clavell’s Shogun. If you enjoyed Shogun and want to know more about the Anjin-san who inspired Blackthorne, this is definitely worth a read.
• The Curfew by Jesse Ball (Read on 2026-08-14)
  • Truly delightful! Don’t read too much about this book: just pick it up! It’s a very quick read.
• Sundiata by Djibril Tamsir Niane, Mamadou Kouyaté (Read on 2026-08-15)
  • Excellent! Shogun has inspired me to seek out historical works that don’t center European colonialists and this totally fit the bill.

In Progress:

• The Lost Journals of Sacajewea by Debra Magpie Earling (Progress: 4%)

🍿 Movies

I watched the 21st movie of 2026 this year. It was a movie I’ve been wanting to watch for a very long time:

• My Neighbor Totoro, 1988 - ★★★★½ (Watched: 2026-08-15)

What a beautiful movie!

📯 Social

I posted another sunflower photo on Mastodon this week. This photo is one of my favorites not only because I love the look of the Orange Mahogany Bicolor flowers but also because the bee looks grogeous and her pollen baskets (also known as leg warmers) really stand out.

Thanks!

— Brie