My all-time favorite scent is the smell of rain on soil after warm, dry weather. If I could bottle it up I would.

Dan Pfeiffer, writing at his site crooked.com, outlines what he sees as the way Democrats can win what looks like an impending impeachment battle. I’m especially enamored with his main message:

Donald Trump has abused his power to hide multiple crimes and massive corruption. He has used the Presidency to punish his enemies, reward his friends, and enrich himself at the expense of the American people. No one is above the law, not even a rich politician.

This line needs to be said about a billion times between now and Election Day.

Margaret Engel, writing in The Washington Post, has a tremendous profile of political satirist Randy Rainbow. He’s great and this gushing piece matches his gusto.

Hundreds of thousands watch the short videos he produces every 10 days or so, featuring show tunes and pop songs he has refashioned with biting new lyrics. These DIY productions are funny and oh-so-topical and include clever video manipulation of news footage to create sassy mock interviews with prominent political players — mostly of the Trumpian variety — topped off with costumes ordered online.

It’s no secret that in 21st-century America, power over public opinion doesn’t reside exclusively with editorialists or news anchors. We are now Entertainment Nation, and society’s jesters — Stephen Colbert, Samantha Bee, John Oliver, Trevor Noah, Bill Maher, etc. — have become as influential as the Walter Cronkites and David Brinkleys of yore.

Rainbow, with his snappy riffs on the politics of the day, is a prominent part of this new and influential group, but he offers something distinct: a very old tradition of musical satire updated for the YouTube age. Think of him as a modern-day Gilbert and Sullivan, or the millennial version of the piano-playing Mark Russell or Tom Lehrer — the key difference being that his get-it-out-fast production marathons and savvy use of social media bring his commentary to the public quickly, directly and with no filter. Competitors like the Capitol Steps strive to put the mock in democracy as fast as possible, but with multiple writers and cast members, they can’t equal Rainbow’s speed. In a world on hyperdrive, he delivers near-instant gratification: Within minutes of Trump lawyer Michael Cohen’s appearance before members of Congress, for instance, Rainbow was taking song requests from fans on Twitter. Three days after Roger Stone was arrested in January, Rainbow posted “The Donald Trump Cell Block Tango,” a video parody of a number from the musical “Chicago.”

“Musical satire updated for the YouTube age” is spot on. Watch Very Stable Genius and just marvel at his lyrics.

I’ve been thinking about my own personal focus for several weeks now. I’m trying to be more focused on my family, focused on my job(s), and focused on my personal projects. My problem is I tend to go scattershot with my attention, and then I run into problems.

This blog, for instance, has no theme or niche. It is about a lot of different things that interest me. Does that mean it’s not really about anything?

I try hard to be a good husband, father, step-father, employee, writer, copywriter, editor, etcetera, etcetera. Can I be great at those things too? Do I need to pare down my list to be great at the most important? Is good enough… good enough?

I like writing about pop culture, productivity, Apple products, politics, being a dog owner, and a bunch of other things. Then I wonder if I’ve put a whole bunch of unrelated eggs in one basket and now can’t give any of these topics enough mental attention and focus.

Being a jack of all trades and master of none seems like a well-rounded place to be. However, I can’t seem to shake the idea that only scratching the surface of whatever is interesting me at the time isn’t as fulfilling as holding a stronger focus on one thing. Additionally, I then can’t figure out the one thing to focus on.

Back to thinking about my personal focus. Maybe I’ll have an action plan soon.

Kara Swisher, writing at The New York Times, has called out Facebook for not doing anything to stop the proliferation of a doctored video of Nancy Pelosi.

This is ridiculous. The only thing the incident shows is how expert Facebook has become at blurring the lines between simple mistakes and deliberate deception, thereby abrogating its responsibility as the key distributor of news on the planet.

Would a broadcast network air this? Never. Would a newspaper publish it? Not without serious repercussions. Would a marketing campaign like this ever pass muster? False advertising.

No other media could get away with spreading anything like this because they lack the immunity protection that Facebook and other tech companies enjoy under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Section 230 was intended to spur innovation and encourage start-ups. Now it’s a shield to protect behemoths from any sensible rules.

I’m seriously considering dropping out of the Facebook ecosystem completely. Honestly, there’s little there that interests me anymore.

The last gift the three-day weekend gives us is the four-day week.

— Jason L Blair (@jasonlblair) May 28, 2019

So true.

David Frum, writing in The Atlantic, reported on Robert Mueller’s first public address since his report landed echoes what Mr. Mueller wants everyone to do: read the report.

The basics are not in dispute.

A foreign power interfered in the U.S. election to help the Trump campaign. The Trump campaign welcomed the help and repeatedly lied about it. The lying successfully obscured some questions the investigation sought to answer; in the end, it found insufficient evidence to charge a broader conspiracy. President Trump, in public and in private, worked to stop the investigation.

Mueller says he can do no more. The rest, Congress, is up to you.

Time to see what’s next on Nancy Pelosi’s To Do List.

As much as I’d like to, it is impossible to change the past. Unless I get into a souped-up DeLorean, the past will always be the past. However, the future isn’t written.

Changing the future starts right now.

I’ve been bouncing around different ideas on what I should focus on. Time to make a decision and focus.

You can do the same.

Nicholas Bate on making check-lists…

There are fewer mistakes with accurate, easily-accessible check-lists. Ask your pilot. Your surgeon. Your roadie.

It’s time you had a few.

Just a small reminder, Veterans Day celebrates the service of all U.S. military veterans. Memorial Day honors those who died while in military service.

Melanie Hamlett, writing in Harper’s Bazaar, has a story that I had saved to Instapaper a while back and then saw again recently. I read this bit, and then I realized it’s me.

Kelly’s boyfriend refused to talk to other men or a therapist about his feelings, so he’d often get into “funks,” picking pointless fights when something was bothering him. Eventually, Kelly became his default therapist, soothing his anxieties as he fretted over work or family problems.

I admit I still do this to my wife, and I recognize I need to stop. She absolutely “soothes my anxieties,” and I see I need an alternative. Part of the problem is that my close friends with who I can have deep emotional conversations aren’t nearby.

I’m not sure what I should do… maybe find some new friends?

Jason Fried, writing in his company’s blog Signal v. Noise, has a smart post about advice for young people about to graduate. His advice makes a lot of sense.

The advice was this: Habits are always forming. No matter what you do, you’re also forming habits too. Keep that in mind with whatever you do.

When we talk about habits, we generally talk about learning good habits. Or forming good habits. Both of these outcomes suggest we can end up with the habits we want. And technically we can! But most of the habits we have are habits we ended up with after years of unconscious behavior. They’re not intentional. They’ve been planting deep roots under the surface, sight unseen. Fertilized, watered, and well-fed by recurring behavior. Trying to pull that habit out of the ground later is going to be incredibly difficult. Your grip has to be better than its grip, and it rarely is.

So be aware of what you do, what you’re doing, and how you’re doing it. Every do digs deeper. Every does grips stronger.

It’s something I wish someone would have told me twenty-five years ago.

Mike Bloom, writing for The Hollywood Reporter, pulls ye olde chestnut out ranking the episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation in honor of the 25^th anniversary of the series finale. Surprisingly, I have little to quibble with his list.

“Family” and “Inner Light” should be higher and the omission of “Unification, Parts I and II” is a mistake. I’d simply remove “The Outcast” to fit it in.

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed. Time is finite, but there’s always too much to do.

I’ve found that I only operate well when I focus. I have to focus on what’s most important, what I can do to make a difference, and where the resources are to help.

Personally, I get caught in the weeds a lot. I can be super detailed and then not detailed enough. I lose the big picture. My wife is really skilled at focusing on the most important thing and seeing the big picture simultaneously. Me, not so much.

Being easily distracted is also not a good thing for me. I have to actively focus on what’s the best thing I can be doing at this exact moment. Otherwise, I’ve blurred my attention, and I’m not going to accomplish anything.

My solution is to write things down because when I don’t inevitably, I will miss things, forget things, or just flat out fail. I’m not as good as I should be at juggling multiple things, but at least I’m aware of my shortcomings and have actively tried to fix them.

All I can do is continually strive to get better at the things I’m deficient in and keep maximizing the skills I excel at. James Clear says, “If you get one percent better each day for one year, you’ll end up thirty-seven times better by the time you’re done.”

Just get one percent better.

Jason Kottke pointed me to an essay on Medium from Yancey Strickler linking the rise of advertising, tracking, and trolling of the mainstream internet to the movement towards online environments more private such as newsletters, podcasts, invite-only message boards, etc.

Strickler uses the dark forest analogy at the center of Liu Cixin’s science fiction trilogy, The Three Body Problem.

When we look out into space, the theory goes, we’re struck by its silence. It seems like we’re the only ones here. After all, if other forms of life existed, wouldn’t they show themselves? Since they haven’t, we assume there’s no one else out there.

Liu invites us to think about this a different way.

Imagine a dark forest at night. It’s deathly quiet. Nothing moves. Nothing stirs. This could lead one to assume that the forest is devoid of life. But of course, it’s not. The dark forest is full of life. It’s quiet because night is when the predators come out. To survive, the animals stay silent.

Is our universe an empty forest or a dark one? If it’s a dark forest, then only Earth is foolish enough to ping the heavens and announce its presence. The rest of the universe already knows the real reason why the forest stays dark. It’s only a matter of time before the Earth learns as well.

This is also what the internet is becoming: a dark forest.

It’s an incredible read and clearly a movement that’s not going away.

Lev Grossman wrote some words and Annie Leibovitz took some pictures previewing Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker. Of course, everything looks incredible.

I am uncharacteristically anticipating J. J. Abrams will actually pull this off.

Patrick Rhone, writing in his email newsletter, tells the story of minimalists and maximalists, puzzles and preconceptions. It is smart and exactly what I needed, especially the last part.

The difference between the puzzle being a soul-draining burden or something that brought me peace was all in how I chose to see and engage with it. The “problem” with being a minimalist living with those who are not is that way too. I can’t change who my wife and daughter are or the stuff that brings them joy. All I can do is accept them as they are. By accepting them as they are I am also accepting all the stuff that they bring. But what I can change is me. I can grumble less about it all and open my heart to the possibility that not all the stuff is useless. That some of it might actually be a benefit to me. And only through compassion, acceptance, and love will I ever know.

Robert Rosenthal, writing on his IlliniBoard.com site, talks about what it’s like to root for Illinois athletics and to root for the players. If you don’t understand college athletics or University of Illinois sports, you might be itching to scroll past this post and story. I would urge you to not do that here.

Rosenthal loves Illinois football and his guys. With the news of Bobby Roundtree’s terrible spinal injury, his essay is a both a love letter to fans and a plea to the football gods that Bobby can live a normal life.

I don’t pray much, but I might give it a shot for this young man. Maybe you can do the same?

This story is amazing. Emily Buder, writing in The Atlantic, tells the tale of Byron Levy and his grandson Colin in a video that stunned me when I watched it.

The younger Levy came to call it the “memory book.” But it wasn’t just one journal—it was hundreds, filled to the brim with thousands of illustrations, anecdotes, inventions, thoughts, dreams, adventures, misadventures, and historical events filtered through the lens of one family. It was an impressionistic retrospective that began in early childhood and spanned three generations. It was a lifetime of memories, and the memory of an inner life.

Jonathan Michael Erickson has put together an in-depth study of the Daenerys Targaryen character arc. Erickson has his doctorate in depth psychology focusing on embodied psychology, the unconscious mind, and imagination.

His analysis is spot on and something I had not thought of throughout the course of her story.

And in the heat of that moment, I don’t think Dany really knows what she’s doing. Calling her the “mad queen” implies that she has genetically inherited some psychosis from her father. But maybe she’s simply the Traumatized Queen? Among the most insidious aspects of trauma is that it can collapse time, confusing what is actually happening in the present, while also dissociating us from ourselves. In this sense, trauma is really the opposite of “character development,” because it throws us outside of ourselves, the people we have become, and leaves us trapped in the past. In season seven Olenna Tyrell tells Dany that she should “be a dragon” — and that’s what we see here: her humanity swallowed by her inner monster, she becomes death from above, and we no longer even get to see her face.

And it’s absolutely heartbreaking. It’s heartbreaking to see this powerful woman with so much potential for good become consumed by her own shadow. It’s awful to see a person we believe in betray their deepest values. To watch Dany transform into the very monster she set out to destroy. It’s so painful that to really let it in might be hard to bear. Many have complained that the final season of the show lacks emotional resonance, but when dealing with material this dark, I wonder if in part we don’t want it to resonate? If on some level, the expectation for another Marvel movie about heroes runs so deep that when we are presented with a genuine tragedy instead, we want to throw things at the screen?