{"id":374,"date":"2026-01-21T09:02:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T14:02:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/willsisskind.com\/blog\/?p=374"},"modified":"2026-01-21T09:02:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T14:02:19","slug":"1-21-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willsisskind.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/21\/1-21-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"1\/21\/2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Card of the day: <\/strong>Three of Cups
Currently listening to: <\/strong>Blink-182, “Bored to Death”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not like me to write two posts two days in a row, but I thought I would check in. It’s about fifty-five billion degrees below zero in Boston today, or at least, that’s how it feels. As I get older I realize that my supposed immunity to cold weather never existed. When I was young I would go out into the snow, build an igloo, take off my coat, and sit in the snow as one would relax in a sauna. Now when my face frosts over the second I leave the Dunkin’, I wonder how the hell I ever thought that was a good idea. I would never let my kids do that. But knowing that they’ll get the DNA from me and my wife, they’ll be little rebels and not give a shit what I say. Good for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway, I got myself a tablet the other day, because I felt the mighty need to have another device in my life that wasn’t my phone. I hate reading on the small screen, but I never get the opportunity to hit the library and I have too many books on my shelves (and no budget to buy more.) So I picked up a brand-new Lenovo something-or-other from this person on Facebook Marketplace for fifty bucks, because that’s the only thing Facebook’s good for nowadays. The seller hadn’t even taken the box out of the plastic. The model isn’t new: It’s about three years old, has half the RAM of most new tablets these days, and needs some serious external memory to make it worth a damn. But I’m going to use it for two main things: Reading and light writing. I haven’t downloaded any social media apps on it (besides Discord, for Start-Track purposes) and I don’t intend to do so. I get my fix of that from my other devices; I don’t need to poison another one. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first thing I did when I set up the main functions of the tablet was download Libby, the library app, to which I connected my trusty library card and immediately put holds on three books. One of them, The Ministry of Time<\/em> by Kaliane Bradley, became available immediately. A day after I started it, the other two books (both by Grady Hendrix) were ready. I realized my hubris knowing that I had limited time to read all three books before they were due, for I wasn’t about to delay someone else’s hold for my own benefit. That’s just poor library patronage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But to my joy, The Ministry of Time<\/em> is a good read, and a somewhat fast one, with plenty of fun and drama throughout. I won’t spoil anything except there were certain moments near the middle where I had to fan myself. Also, my man Barack had it on his 2024 summer reading list, and you know Obama knows ball when it comes to the culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I can’t recommend Libby enough, but you will have more luck if you use the app on a regular tablet. You can use Libby with a Kindle or other e-ink device, but transferring titles over to it from the app is a hassle and a half. My wife cursed at her Kindle for a whole day before figuring out how the dang thing worked. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s all for now. I am working from the office: Thank goodness the coffee is always hot and free here. I will need a lot of it to stay both awake and warm today. Be well and take care of each other.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Card of the day: Three of CupsCurrently listening to: Blink-182, “Bored to Death” Not like me to write two posts two days in a row, but I thought I would check in. It’s about fifty-five billion degrees below zero in Boston today, or at least, that’s how it feels. As I get older I realize […]<\/p>\n<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-374","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"h-entry","8":"hentry"},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willsisskind.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willsisskind.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willsisskind.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willsisskind.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willsisskind.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/willsisskind.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":375,"href":"https:\/\/willsisskind.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374\/revisions\/375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willsisskind.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willsisskind.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willsisskind.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}