Jamie Thingelstad

We fired up some popcorn and watched Fighting With My Family this evening. It was a good story mostly about the relationship between siblings that have the same goal but only one gets there. But it was billed as a comedy, which I wouldn’t call it that at all. It was produced by Dwayne Johnson but he’s only in four scenes. Stephen Merchant wrote and directed it, and he’s very funny but there wasn’t much funny here. And Vince Vaughn, whose comedy I particularly liked, was in it and frankly had the funniest takes in the whole thing.

So it wasn’t that it was a bad movie. It was a good enough movie told with the backdrop of professional wrestling. But given the people involved in the movie, and the billing of “comedy” we were expecting a very different thing than we got.

Finished cycling 11.6 miles in 62.6 minutes. First time outside on the bike this year. Very nice and lovely ride around the lakes. 🚴‍♂️

When I visited our new Warsaw office I was able to meet several brand new TeamSPS members as well as many of our Kyiv-based team that I hadn’t seen since before the pandemic. I also was able to bring the SPS Growth Cup there as part of the office opening celebration!

Here is the Growth Cup safely laying in its very rugged case ready as I received instructions on handling and the mechanics of the case.

We loaded any empty space in the trunk up with a bunch of t-shirts and challenge coins from Cyberweek 2024!

Growth Cup is bag checked and being dropped off at the oversized luggage drop in MSP. Delta says the Growth Cup is oversized luggage and decides it needs its own $400 ticket to fly to Warsaw. My suitcase is next to the growth cup for comparison — the Growth Cup case is very big!

Growth Cup comes out of normal baggage claim in Warsaw rotating around the carousel. We’ve arrived!

Yuri wheeling the Growth Cup to his vehicle.

Luckily Yuri drives a relatively large Land Rover but even then we have to lower the rear seats and are just able to slide it in. Eugene sitting next to it!

Growth Cup has arrived safely into Warsaw co-working space and ready for special event!

And it is all worth it — TeamSPS Eastern European team in our Warsaw office! 💙

The only picture of me with the Growth Cup — moving it from the office to my hotel room for the 4am departure to the airport to return home. Note the small Poland sticker — that fell off almost immediately.

When returning the KLM gate agent needed a weight for the package. I let her know I didn’t think it would fit on the conveyer. She said it has to be weighed. So I hoist it on the belt and have to hold it but I’m told I cannot be touching it. I finally tip it slightly toward the side and we get a weight. Interestingly KLM doesn’t feel a need to charge the Growth Cup extra and sends me to oversize luggage check.

When checking the Growth Cup in Warsaw they scan it and the security guard gives me an odd look and asks what this is. “It is a trophy” I say. He replies “Yeah, but for what?”. I tell him “It is a tradition at our company to celebrate growth.” He looks at me with a very dismissive look and moves on. There are no photos allowed in this room. And I realize after the fact that I’ve been locked in here with the Growth Cup until the security guy decides I’m safe to move along. He buzzes me out.

No pictures were allowed in secure area — AI generated version of scene.

KLM didn’t charge for the cup but they also decided to hurl it around with abandon it seems. The Growth Cup is received with a damaged wheel. I suspect it has been dropped on the wheel and smartly I think the wheel is intended to break before the case. It expands the wheel enclosure and can no longer spin. As I drag the Growth Cup with one wheel working and one wheel completely stuck it is signficantly less fun to travel with this. Plus, the carpet is sanding the wheel down creating a flat spot. Getting Growth Cup from MSP International Arrivals to the Lyft picking me up is trying.

I’ve been sharing some photos on the family text of the Growth Cup journey and my daughter responds:

I love that you’re traveling with the growth cup
It’s so cute
You’re it’s protector and guardian abroad 🥰😝

She’s right — I feel like the Guardian of the Growth Cup. Physically and metaphorically.

Growth cup in baggage claim at MSP, taking a little break from dragging it along.

Growth Cup loaded into the back of the Lyft on the way home.

Growth Cup chilling out in the garage waiting to head back into the office.

I decided that it should become a tradition that the Growth Cup gets a sticker when it goes places. It had previously been to Australia when our CEO took it with him on a trip, so I took care of that one and also applied a Poland one. The case doesn’t hold a sticker well, but so far well-made vinyl stickers seem okay.

I wonder where the Growth Cup will go next…

The tulips are blooming and looking amazing at the Arboretum.

Finished 2.34 mile walk in 50 minutes (21.37 min/mile). Walked around a new lake when visiting Quinn’s new apartment. Nice apartment and nice lake! 🚶‍♂️

Happy Star Wars Day — May the 4th be with you!

A reasonable mental model for X.com is as Elon Musk’s personal blog, with commenting enabled.

It is no more a “platform” than a casino is a park.

We saw Thunderbolts tonight (opening night) and it thought it was pretty cool. It had a bit more complexity to the story than your average Marvel movie.

Finished 2.78 mile walk in 52 minutes (18.71 min/mile). Nice walk catching up with friend. 🚶‍♂️

Standard Water is putting drain tile into our basement to better manage ground water. What a crazy process and it shows how much this is going to help. There was a literal stream of water when they jackhammered the route. Wish I could have watched the action!

I had Siri read me a long email while walking and it was like stepping back to olden times. The TTS was lacking, not recognizing acronyms and with poor inflection. And I couldn’t even just ask “read this”, that failed. Instead I had to manually select the text and then press “Speak”. 😬

I remember at some point in my early 20’s being curious why, it seemed to me at least, that as people aged they listened to less new music. This was all well before the Internet and I don’t even recall how I came to the research on this. Perhaps the research came to me and I’m remembering it backwards. Regardless I distinctly remember reading this research that showed that in fact people do listen to less new music as they age. In fact, people in their 20’s, my age at the time, listened to the most new music. And that with each decade after the library of music grew at a slower and slower rate.

I think back to this more often than one may suspect. In my mind this suggested a level of adaptability and “seeking new” in the brain that decreases with age. Even then I found that prospect concerning and thought to myself that I need to make a concerted effort to avoid this stagnation. Tammy and I go to a decent amount of new music and happily I can say that Brandi Carlile, one of our favorite artists, wasn’t even around in my 20’s so there is some renewal happening.

But the other thing that is true is that music plays a different role in our lives as we age. Tammy comments regularly how music in her 20’s was so impactful and such a big part of life, much more than it is now. Certainly part of that is that our lives are much broader and expansive as we age and music correctly isn’t as big as it was when we were younger. But now I watch Mazie and Tyler and how they engage with music and I see that emotional engagement that reminds me of those days. When I was Tyler’s age I was deep in the Violent Femmes and Run-DMC. I remember being Mazie’s age and exploring the Minneapolis music scene after moving here for college and voraciously absorbing Hüsker Dü and The Replacements, before bridging to the new with Uncle Tupelo. All these bands still sit heavy in my musical rotation.

I think we are pretty lucky that our kids like similar genres of music that we do, and as they are exploring new music they are constantly going to artists that I don’t even know exist. Seeing their excitement and connection to music has me inspired to renew my own musical interests.

Being who I am, this has me thinking of some actions:

1. Bring music back to my commute time. I’m not sure when I decided that drive time was best for podcasts but I did. Somehow I became that stereotypical 50-year-old man listening to talk radio all the time. I think I would like it and I’d even be a bit better off to make this time more for music.
2. Pay attention to the release date of albums. Focus on music released in the last year or two. And yes I still listen to albums versus cherry picking songs.
3. Get my kids engaged. I’d like to get an album recommendation from my kids about once a month and commit to actually listening (not in the background) the whole thing. I want to get my brain to do the work of listening to new, and not just going to that routine of the past.

Musical renewal doesn’t suggest going backwards to emotions of the past, but does focus on not being anchored to those routines. Exploring new artists and sounds, keeping interests fresh, and connecting with different people through shared musical appreciation.

This post is part of the IndieWeb Carnival on Renewal hosted by me in April 2025.