q1, 2024
the year is already a fourth of the way over, which is pretty crazy.
it has been a fun year so far. my new job really got going — i’ve been writing a lot and reading a lot and planning a lot and generally have had no time to be bored. no complaints there.
extracurricular writing and i have had a pretty tenuous relationship thus far into 2024. what used to be a day to day love affair filled with much texting back and forth has turned into month-to-month long distance friendship phone call, where much must be updated at once in a long-winded spiel with far too many details and far too little context.
alas, you work with what you have and what i have is a few hours in this starbucks and an urge to write a new post about the last few months of my existence, focusing on what I have read/watched/listened to, living in Canada, and a few pithy remarks about life. this isn’t going to be the most entertaining nor the most educational post you have ever read, but it should, at the bare minimum, make you shake your head with a smile at least (!) twice in some form of exasperation, admiration, exhaustion, admonition, and/or appreciation. in fact, i think the last sentence alone will likely account for at least one shaking-head-smile from at least 50% of my readers.
enjoy.
Books Consumed by Kram in Q1
Atlas Shrugged — Harry Potter for Libertarians. I enjoyed it so much I offered family members up to $1 per page to read it. So far, nobody has taken me up on the offer.
The Fountainhead — an analysis of a great man amidst a dying society.
Sovereign Individual — containing great mental models for how to position oneself as the world further digitizes.
There is truth in the cliche that you are some amalgamation of the five people you spend the most time with. A similar idea thrown around is “you are what you eat.”
I agree with both -isms and will go even further —what you think is likely correlated to what you read.
And in Q1, from a book perspective, I consumed a rather limited perspective of ideas centered on the ideals of libertarianism. Which means my brain is currently flowing with ideas of How Great Men are Good, and Why Government Should Be Limited, and What a Great Thing Capitalism Is.
This is quite interesting, as I have usually centered myself upon the political spectrum — yet, due to the writing I have recently read, I find my thought patterns shifted quite sturdily to right of center.
In Q2, we’re definitely going to take a break from Ayn Rand and imbibe some more progressive content. I’m quite interested to see where and how my beliefs shift after doing so.
On the Silliness of Living in Canada (5 Things)
To receive my Canadian Work Visa, I ubered to the border, exited Canada, walked across Peace Arch Park, entered the United States, touched an American flag, exited the United States, walked across Peace Arch Park, entered Canada, asked for my work permit very nicely (eh), ubered back to my apartment. I am now allowed to work in Canada for two years. Laugh out loud.
Canadian Bacon is not a thing — as far as I can tell.
Instead of friends who live down the street, I have friends who live in entirely different countries. So on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, I have a standing call w/ the amigos of India and when it crosses my mind I throw a call over to Italy or Slovenia between 6 am-9 am (European time) to say hello and, well, for my American friends, I usually call you guys around midnight and you never pick up — let’s work on that in Q2.
I get paid in CAD, a laughable form of fiat. I also pay for things in CAD. This means everything I purchase in this country of red, white, and not blue is roughly 25% off when contextualized against the dollar. I like this.
Film (and that’s Hollywood, baby) is a major industry in Vancouver. A film crew knocking out a Hallmark move is not an unfamiliar site on a Tuesday afternoon. The building I work at, in fact, has housed two Christmas movie sets since I’ve worked there. If you squint quite hard at the Hallmark channel this year, you might see me in sweats, a green puffy jacket, and a sweet Texans beanie walking behind some version of the Grinch stealing Christmas.
TV Shows Purveyed by Kram in Q1 Even Though He Said He Wouldn’t Watch TV in 2024
Avatar the Last Airbender (Live Action) — the animated show is perfect. The live action show? It’s fine.
3-Body Problem — the book series sits inside my top 5 all time. The TV show? I would recommend it to a friend.
House of Cards — two episodes I watched whilst cooking dinner on a Tuesday night. Not necessarily my normal vibe. It is far too serious and requires far too much attention, but I find myself looking forward to episode three.
Despite making a 2024 New Years Resolution of “no TV” (for the sole reason of telling other people about it so they know I’m better than them), I slipped up and kinda sorta maybe drained two full seasons of two full shows (Avatar and 3-Body Problem). Do I have any regrets? No.
From Kram’s Notepad Beside His Bed, Likely on a Stormy Night in Vancouver.
Date, Unknown.
Sometimes I can’t ignore the sound of the future’s thunder.
Rumbling and tumbling; time roils.
The world, I fear, might, just might, be torn asunder.
Movies That Made Kram Put the Phone Down and Pay Attention in Q1
Canadian Netflix is much, much better than American Netflix and has a fantastic roster of old-school movies. I leveraged my newfound Canadian-work-permit-Netflix-access as much as I could, throwing away a couple Sunday afternoons to dive into a few classics.
Shawshank Redemption — Mid-90s Morgan Freeman, a prisoner wrongly accused, and a library. 11/10.
The Departed — Matt Damon as the bad guy pretending to be good, Dicaprio posing as a bad guy while employed as a cop, Jack Nicholson and Mark Wahlberg going for it. 9/10.
Dune Part 2 — not a fan. Go read the book, don’t waste time on the film. 6/10.
Dune (1984 Version) — better than Dune 2. worse than Dune 1. worth a watch if you know who Frank Herbert is. 7/10.
Pulp Fiction — finally got around to this classic. I now understand the Uma Thurman and Samuel L. Jackson lore. 8/10.
Pretty Woman — i am fully in love Julia Roberts. 11/10.
Transcribed From Kram’s Notepad Initially Scribbled Down Whilst Sitting at the Park Eating Fried Chicken.
Date, February 25th
Life on Earth is beautiful. Look around you. No, look closely. Stop looking at the room you’re in, bent over your screen, a slave to the age of the internet. Look out the window to your left or your right and look with eyes that see, rather than eyes that look.
Life on Earth is beautiful. Inhale with your eyes the green of your lawn, the curve of your tree, the roof of your neighbor, the verticality of your skyline, the majesty of the sun, the beauty of the sunset, the airiness of a cloud, the vibrance of a flower, the agility of a squirrel, the gaiety of a bird, the strength of dirt, the complexity of concrete.
Life on Earth is beautiful. So stop for a minute and enjoy it. We live in a complex system of math so beautiful it became life itself. Appreciate it. Breathe in and savor that oxygen and be grateful and breathe out slowly, dispersing carbon dioxide, and be grateful again.
Life on Earth is beautiful. Don’t forget that.
Music Kram Found Since January 1, 2024
Song — Highway Queen (Mt. Joy)
Album — Away From the Castle
Song — Young in Paradise (Mac Saturn)
After a few years off of the music perusal grind, I found a bit of time to listen to new music. In addition to the (talking to pookie voice) absolutely fire recommendations above, I also fell back in love with country music, finding myself listening to full length albums from Flatland, Eric C, Zach B, John P, amongst others.
Things Kram Plans to Write About in 2024
In January, I posted a little essay about space and optimism called “Da Optimistic Space Time Continuum” — a title that absolutely bangs and that nobody congratulated me for.
I am still exceedingly optimistic about the world. A few topics that particularly get me especially excited include weather control (woah), nuclear (woah), ozempic (woah), technology proliferation (woah), food abundance (woah), and renewable energy upgrades (woah).
I’ll likely write a deep dive on each this year. For a taste of what is to come, here are a few links. Sorry for not writing more — I was a bit busy with work.
Controlling Weather Patterns and, Hence, the Environment
UAE: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/dubai-rain-cloud-seeding-heat-weather/
Emissions lowering: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/jan/24/eu-fossil-fuel-co2-emissions-hit-60-year-low
Weather control: https://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/control-weather.htm
Rewiring the Environment
https://www.piratewires.com/p/we-ought-to-have-more-creatures
https://www.npr.org/2021/09/14/1036884561/dna-resurrection-jurassic-park-woolly-mammoth
Nuclear Might Be Good?
Long Live Humanity (Cuz of Life Extension Tech)
https://www.piratewires.com/p/we-need-to-be-living-forever
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/22/well/ozempic-diabetes-weight-loss.html
Technology is Becoming Abundant
Food is Becoming Abundant
Energy is Becoming Abundant
For context, before writing on a certain topic, I usually read around 50+ links like the ones I shared above.
Food We Will Eat If/When You Visit Kram in Vancouver
The Thai Food Truck on Robson — order fried rice, specify that you want it spicy.
Ignite Pizza — i always grab an XL pie on the way home from the office on Friday. Half double pepperoni, half cheese.
Ask for Luigi — genuinely the best Italian I’ve had outside of Italy. Walk in around 6 or grab a reservation two weeks out. Will certainly ask for luigi again.
Danbo — I don’t like ramen, yet I am in love with Danbo (a ramen restaurant).
Short Form That Was So Good I Saved It On My Laptop
If I am an onion, as Shrek says I am, then a layer you have to understand is that something I love more than pretty much everything except for breakfast tacos is weird ideas laid out in an essay format that is far too long than necessary. I spend the first 45 minutes of nearly every day reading weird essays about odd topics and I save my favorites on a .txt file called “kewl ideas.”
I would say in Q1 2024, I read less short-form than I have in a long, long time. I was writing a lot for work, reading a lot for work, and, when I could spare time, I was reading really, really long books with grand, sweeping theses. I did, however, get to steal a few minutes here and there to splurge brain cells on big ideas and wonky turns of phrases from some of my favorite writers.
Here are a few of pieces that I saved:
Usefulness of Useless Knowledge
Books Kram Started in Q1 and is Set to Finish in Q2
The Time Machine — for airplane reading, only.
Anna Karenina — to prove i’m better than you.
The Righteous Mind — an attempt to understand political polarization.
Against the Written Word — studying parody and fun writing.
All the Birds in the Sky — a little fantasy for a life over-indexed on non-fiction.
A side note on books — I read many books at the same time. Sometimes in the same day, I will read 10 pages of 5 different books. There is room in the brain for many ideas and many plots and many characters and many facts. Reading many books at once brings texture to the reading experience — instead of a single idea percolating your existence, as tends to happen when a singular focus is given to a singlular book, reading multiple books forces the brain to bounce and layer and stack and filter ideas at a rapid pace, which often results in the marriage of multiple concepts and me coming up with new, cross-concept ideas.
A side-side note on books — Kram is on pace to hit 600 lifetime books this year. He will celebrate by purchasing a special edition copy of The Foundation.
A side-side-side note on books and reading and bookstores. This will be turned into a longer post with a real thesis and a better throughline, but, for now, it is a ramble…
On Books and Reading and Bookstores
Books are, for the generation of z, a medium placed atop a pedestal. To read is not something to do, it is something to brag about.
And because of this pedestal, (and I’m generalizing here) the generation of z predominantly reads trash or forces themselves to read things that are entirely un-fun. They read self-help books and bad fantasy books and business books because tiktok tells them to or they struggle through non-fiction or memoirs or classics because these are important books to read.
The trash is no better for your brain than social media (just good branding cuz it’s trash in book form instead of screen+scroll form) and the un-fun is no way to get into the habit of reading.
This bothers me. So here’s unsolicited, unasked for advice from Kram on reading and enjoying reading and books:
only read books that are interesting to you
only read the first half of a self-help book. if you can’t figure out how the book ends, you’re fucked anyways.
read non-fiction to increase your context
read sci-fi to get excited about the future and to figure out what to be wary of in the present
never read something just because you think you should
stop reading when you start to lose interest in a book
go to half-priced books and find something random — your trendy bookstores are laid out like social algorithms, looking to catch your attention on what’s new and hot and cool. fuck that…
read new books but read them with much skepticism
read history with much skepticism
bookstores are traps, attempting to convince you that the new book, just released, is what you should buy. don’t fall for it. the old books, the classics, that’s where the good stuff is. libraries know this. trust librarians. not bookstore workers. unless, of course, that bookstore is Blue Willow.
read old books, avidly.
underline your books. treat them badly. dog ear them. rip the corners. throw them down on the desk. spill coffee on them. use them as coasters. books are just books
splurge for the hardcover when you can
read books that you disagree with more than books that you agree with
read books more than you watch tv and more than you listen to music and more than you watch movies
read fiction to increase your empathy
bring books with you wherever you go and instead of wasting 15 minutes scrolling, steal 15 minutes reading
read books about philosophy and argue with the authors every claim just for the hell of it. they’re dead, they won’t mind.
— kram