So, I decided to take the weekends off from writing this journal, but did that mean I didn’t still mentally write bits, and then throw bits into the drafts for it? It absolutely did not. Which feel like an accomplishment in itself, that I’m finding desire to write regularly, to my imagined1Also imaginary, but still, addressed in tone, I suppose? audience even without it being an assignment or requirement or whathaveyou. We’ll see if we can keep it up, eh?
What I read
The newest edition of Metafoundry, the newsletter from Deb Chachra, whose new book, How Infrastructure Works, I’ve noted here before. This latest edition is a collaboration with Robert Martello to jointly discuss a topic I’d never heard mentioned before: how the Boston Tea Party, which happened 250 years ago Saturday, had causal ties to the brutal actions of the British East India Company in Bengal a few years earlier.
The Company directly contributed to a famine, by enforcing strict taxes into a food shortage, killing between 7 and 10 million people in 1770. This led to worldwide outrage at their actions and the permission and latitude they were given by Britain. Which led to a credit crisis that the British responded to with the Tea Act (which functioned as an effective bail out of the East India Company by allowing them monopoly sales of their Chinese tea stocks into the American market).
Which the Americans responded to by dumping the whole lot into Boston Harbor.
We think of Globalization as a modern response to new ages of communication, transportation, and commerce, but actions on the other side of the planet resulted in local ripples in 1773. The world is a whole ocean of interconnected ecologies, communities, and systems, which can go unnoticed until the waves collide and crash into precipitous actions.
What I watched
I watched the Tampa Bay Buccaneers take down the Packers up in Green Bay! Though I didn’t watch it in Green Bay, as was planned, due to some unexpected and untimely illness. Still though, hell of a performance from the Bucs!
Additionally, as I have a first round bye in my fantasy league, I got to watch the week (mostly) carefree. Which was nice!
What I listened to
The morning edition of Dan LeBatard, which touched on the most unhinged bit of the offseason so far, whereby message board nutters floated the disruption of airline travel to keep a QB from transferring:
Projects In Progress
Webapp: Spent a lot of time thinking about this while trying to sleep, which was fun. Then put some time into actively implementing a backend solution, learning as I go. So, forward progress, I suppose?
Notes:
- 1Also imaginary, but still, addressed in tone, I suppose?