Jamie Thingelstad

We had a great time seeing Justin Willman at The Fitzgerald Theater tonight! We first discovered Willman watching his Magic For Humans show on Netflix when we had dinner in the Tesla during the pandemic. It was our go to show for a Lion’s Tap cheeseburger or Lake & Irving meal in the car.

Tammy saw he was coming to town and got us some great seats. To make it even cooler the performance was a special taping for a new Netflix comedy and magic special he is doing. That added complexity of signing release forms before we went to our seats and having a large boom camera moving around from the balcony. Additionally absolutely no phone use at all. I snapped one picture of the theater before it started.

Willman’s performance was amazing and funny. The kind of show that you leave just feeling happy and good about things. The magic was impressive and I have no idea how he does any of it at all. Willman also has some family connections to Minnesota and the Twin Cities. He clearly knows the area well, which made it feel even more homey.

Added the Bullfrog X8 hot tub to pair with the Urban Wing sauna. Happened to get it installed on the 10th anniversary of signing the purchase agreement for Magic Pines. Looking forward to some delightful time this winter! 🌨️ Now to get everything ready to use!

It is nearly Thanksgiving and the time I start to crave some lefse! I come from family where lefse was made from scratch and I’ve taken part in making it myself. We even have a lefse iron and proper turning sticks. My friend Patrick does it from scratch. But it is a lot of effort and a big mess for something that you can get in other ways. So I tend to buy my lefse instead. I happened to have two different lefse packages at home so I thought a comparison would be fun.

Freddy’s Lefse

Freddy’s Lefse is made in Fargo, North Dakota and they have been at it since 1946. I’ve ordered their lefse online multiple times and I really like it. They make a traditional round lefse that is very thin and has just the right chew to it. As an added bonus, you can splurge and get Freddy’s own mix of cinnamon and sugar in a nice shaker. Why would you do that when you almost certainly have sugar and cinnamon in the cupboard? The ratio they use to me is perfect and they seem to use a very finely ground sugar that works just perfect in the lefse.

Laura’s Lefse

I had never had Laura’s Lefse before but Tammy saw it in the store and got me a bag. I was super happy for it to be the first lefse of the season. Looking closer I couldn’t find any “Laura’s Lefse” online except for Walmart and Sam’s Club website. I looked closer and the product is made in Gonvick, Minnesota so I looked for lefse in Gonvick and sure enough Mrs. Olson’s Lefse is there. Tellingly Mrs. Olson’s sells lefse in rectangular sheets just like this bag of Laura’s Lefse I have. Why does it get a different name for the retail stores? I have no idea. Reading about their company it turns out Laura was Mrs. Olson’s actual name.

As I mentioned this lefse is cut in a rectangle. It reminds me of buying sheet pasta for lasagna. I had never seen lefse prepared that way. It is also notably thicker than Freddy’s, and on the thicker end of lefse I’ve had. If you are using it for a savory snack that is a good thing. Rolling one of these sheets with a slice of ham and cheese would work very well. The weight of Laura’s (er, Mrs. Olson) is actually slightly lighter than Freddy’s but is a smaller size.

So which is better? They are both good but for a traditional lefse with butter, sugar, and cinnamon my preference would be Freddy’s. If you are making savory snacks I would use Mrs. Olson’s. And if you just want some darn lefse cause it’s so good? Either will be just fine.

1,000 days today.

Ukraine marks 1000 days of full-scale war. “For 1,000 days, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have been confronting the enemy on the front line, which stretches over 1,000 kilometers,” Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Nov. 19, Day 1,000 of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine. — The Kyiv Independent, November 19, 2024

🇺🇦

Every iPhone I have had, since the original iPhone, I’ve had an Apple Leather case for. The iPhone 14 Pro was the last phone I got that I could get that case for. Apple has stopped making the leather cases.

When I got the iPhone 16 Pro I tried not having a case for a couple of weeks and I found it too nerve wracking. The device is noticeably smaller without the case. And the feel is great. But I found it a touch slippery and I was worried about dropping it.

I tried one of Apple’s Silicone cases and I hated it. It doesn’t slide in your pocket easily. When putting it in a suit coat it would “stick” to the pocket. I didn’t like how it felt in my hand at all. I don’t know if I could say a good thing about it. I had previously tried the Clear Cases and didn’t like those either.

Thankfully Mujjo has rescued me. I got the Leather Case for iPhone 16 Pro and it is great. The leather feels like it should. It is good to grip but not sticky. I feel reconnected to how my phone should feel. My only gripe is the Camera Control is just a cut out versus the sapphire crystal that Apple’s cases use.

I’m happy to have found a good leather case again.

Reading the newest book from Yuval Noah Harari, Nexus. Sam Harris interviewed him on Making Sense, Information & Social Order, and I got the book right after. The approach to “information networks” is interesting.

The Urban Wing sauna was delivered today! Darin and crew did a great job. It fits in the spot just right. I love how bright it is inside. Can’t wait to fire this up and have a good sweat soon! 😅 🔥

Stories are to people
as programs are to computers.

I have launched a Supporting Membership offering for the Weekly Thing. I previewed it in Weekly Thing 299 and shared it on the Weekly Thing Forum. So what is this Supporting Membership all about? What does it get you?

Nothing. 😊

Well, that isn’t true. It will make you feel great.

Supporting Membership will be a way to raise money for non-profits that we can support as a community. All of the money from memberships will be accrued and once a year I will disperse that to a non-profit. I plan to change the non-profit on each anniversary of the Weekly Thing when the funds are distributed. I will also likely do a “member drive” ramping up to each anniversary.

The first non-profit Supporting Memberships are helping is Creative Commons. I use a Creative Commons licenses for the Weekly Thing and my blog. I’m a big believer in Remix Culture and see the benefits that an organization like this provides. Creative Commons was founded by Larry Lessig who I think has done incredible work. Here is Lessig’s TED Talk from 2017 on Laws that choke creativity.

Back to Supporting Memberships. Members receive a gold star in each issue of the newsletter. It looks like this:

🌟 Thank you for being a supporting member of the Weekly Thing!

There is nothing else different.

But Supporting Members will help me support great organizations that are making an impact. So a huge thank you!

The links to sign up as a Supporting Member are included at the bottom of each issue of the Weekly Thing, right after the Fortune.

I’m hosting the IndieWeb Carnival in April 2025 and I’m getting pretty excited about it. Starting to think through themes and such. 🤩

On November 9th I sent the 300th issue of the Weekly Thing. I sent the very 1st issue on May 13, 2017. It took 7 years 5 months 3 weeks and 6 days to get to 300.

So, what have I learned from sending 300 newsletters? What insights have I gleaned? In no particular order…

• Structure and process is key. There is no way I could do this for 30 issues much less 300 without having robust automation and process to make it easier. It is still very similar to what I wrote in 2023 at How I Find Links for the Weekly Thing, Task Management for the Weekly Thing, and How I Build the Weekly Thing.
• Breaks in summer and winter. For the first while I didn’t do this and then I read how James Whatley of Five Things on Friday takes a break and decided I should do that too. I’ve taken July and August off of the newsletter for a summer break as well as Dec 15 to Jan 15. This works really well since we often take a vacation and have very busy summers in July and August, and the winter break covers Christmas, New Years, and my birthday. Without these breaks I’m pretty sure I would have burned out by now.
• Fun to play and experiment. I started sending the newsletter to learn and experiment. I’ve continued that. Sections have changed over time. I created the Weekly Thing Forum which isn’t busy but is meaningful. I just started Supporting Memberships to raise money for digital non-profits. I’m playing with Straw Polls as a new section. I want to keep this evolution.
• People unsubscribe and that’s okay. Most every week people unsubscribe after I send a new issue. On the whole, a few people sign up each week and about half of that unsubscribe each week. It is just human nature but the unsubscribe signal at half the volume is more impactful to me than the subscribe signal at twice the volume. I mostly ignore unsubscribes.
• I am so glad I don’t know what you click on. I’ve written on audience capture before and I couldn’t be happier that I’m completely ignorant if you click on anything in the Weekly Thing. In case you are not aware most email newsletters track every link that is in the email and track when you click them. This would completely mess with my brain and I no matter how much I try I know I would start including links because I might think they would get clicks. I have no idea what or even if anything is popular with you.
• Writing the intro can be challenging. It may surprise people but I often find the intro to be the hardest thing for me to write. Covering the links is topical. Currently is pretty obvious. The Journal is my blog syndicated. But the intro? That is only for the newsletter and I often find myself looking at a blinking cursor thinking “Huh?”.
• People like blend of personal and professional. One of the things I consistently hear from people about the Weekly Thing is that they love the blend of professional and personal. The fact that there are links about super technical topics, and then a Journal post about picking Apples or something. Many people have commented that the Weekly Thing is the only newsletter that does that and they like it. Perhaps there are folks that dislike it? 🤷‍♂️
• Buck most trends of growing newsletter. I’ve ignored a ton of advice on how to grow, grow, grow the popularity of the Weekly Thing. It is much longer than most would suggest it should be. It has a ton of links which Gmail doesn’t like it probably puts it in the promotions or junk. I don’t have a topic that I focus on and instead meander around. I’m okay with this.

With those thoughts… where might the Weekly Thing go in the future? I have two ideas that have persisted long enough that I feel they will happen when the time is right.

• Weekly Thing Podcast. I’ve pondered a podcast to go along with the Weekly Thing for more than a couple years now. I’ve taken this one a ways actually. I’ve worked through the structure and approach. I already have automation built to help me create the outline of each issue. There are two barriers for me on this one. First, getting comfortable with audio versus writing. I’ve been told I have a good voice for it, but I’m not super comfortable on the microphone. Second, the time required. Recording and editing a podcast takes a good chunk of time. And I ultimately would like to have guests on as well. So, this will wait for a while.
• Yearly Thing. I keep thinking about taking each year of the Weekly Thing and creating an ebook and maybe even a printed book that captures the content from that year. It could be in part almanac? I’m not sure. The idea would be to publish one a year.

You can find me on the web.

So much chatter lately on leaving social platform this to go to social platform that.

The new thing.

The better thing?

What is everyone chasing?

I’ll be right here on the web.

Same place I was before.

Same place I’ll be in the future.

Tammy and I went to the sold out 7 Nights in the Entry at the Parkway Theater, part of the Sound Unseen 25th Annual Film festival. Chris Strouth of Twin/Tone, Greg Norton of Hüsker Dü, and Rick Fuller introduced it. This was only the seond showing ever!

The steps…

• I deleted my tweet history in 2016. I didn’t want my archive on a site that I didn’t control.
• I left Twitter in 2017. Micro.blog showed up and I knew I wanted to only write on my own site.
• Twitter was a failed company.
• I removed all my connections, destroying my “network” on Twitter.
• I thanked Elon when he dropped the Twitter brand and made it X. I have no brand affinity to X.

When I joined Twitter in December 2006 as user 82,903 it was fun and new. It was an open platform with a lot of experimentation. Twitter clients were super innovative. I remember posting via SMS! The creation of “retweets” by the community before the platform figured it out.

But the fun turned sour over years. I don’t believe there is a good form of social media. It isn’t the logo on the front or who is running it. It is the fundamental thing. It is addictive software patterns and amplification of engaging content with no regard for our health or wellbeing.

I honestly can’t think of an innovative new thing to come from social media in the last several years. It isn’t about the product anymore, it is just marketing.

So in November 2024, it was time to cut the last vestige of social media I had. It was time to delete my Twitter X profile. I had destroyed everything else I had on that site but had left my profile there. The only utility of that was to hold my username. But I don’t want any connection to these networks. It isn’t about the brand. I believe they all end up in the same place. There is no healthy cigarette. No good form of gambling.

By way of this post please be aware that any content or information that may appear on X is absolutely not from me.

I had some fun with ChatGPT and the image this conjured up for me.

I’m seeing a lot of people that I was connected with on Twitter X deleting their profiles. This actually ends up having an impact on my blog because of embeddings. When I left Twitter years ago I exported my archive and imported it into my blog. Over the years I’ve merged that content in as “native” as I can. The reality is that Twitter status updates are often very different than a blog post.

There were a number of retweets that I did that I also migrated. When I did those I used Hugo’s ability to embed a Tweet using a shortcode. That results though in build errors if those Tweets become unavailable. I get an error that looks like this (I anonymized the identifiers).

Error: ERROR Failed to get JSON resource "https://publish.twitter.com/oembed?dnt=false&url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fusername%2Fstatus%2F123456789123456": Failed to retrieve remote file: Forbidden, body: "{\"error\":\"Sorry, you are not authorized to see this status.\",\"request\":\"\\/oembed?dnt=false&url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fusername%2Fstatus%2F123456789123456\"}"

I debated how to approach this and decided that I would delete my references to these as well. That seems like the best way to honor the original authors intent. They deleted that content themselves. The result is that I’ve deleted several historical posts on my blog in recent days as people have deleted their accounts on X. Mostly those posts had no meaningful content from me.

Dig the cool display design for the Minnesota Tekne Awards stage. Fun to see the displays in a non-traditional layout that is connected to the imagery.