Work light / Dad gift / Searchable Attenborough

Recomendo - issue #519

Best work light

My sister has one of these Nightstick rechargeable floodlights and uses it for crawlspaces and poking around the yard after dark. It throws a strong beam — 600 lumens on high, 225 on low — and the single push-button switch is easy to find by feel. What makes it extra useful are the three built-in magnets and the detachable hook, which rotates 360 degrees so you can clamp it onto a pipe, car hood, or garage door and work hands-free. It recharges from either AC or DC power. — MF

Dad gift

I have recently been enjoying a tool I did not know I needed in my workshop. It’s a no-name high powered blower. When working in a shop, there is a constant need to clean away bits, sawdust, shavings, and other detritus that accumulate on a surface or tool. One blast from this and it is all sent to the floor. This replaces air hoses, or even other dedicated blowers because it fits onto any of the cordless batteries I already own, and because it is charged it is always handy. It also works for cleaning up patios and driveways. This delight in blowing stuff clean might be a dad thing. So I nominate this as a very dad-ish Father’s Day gift. Get one that fits his particular color batteries. — KK

Searchable Attenborough

Searchable Attenborough is a nature documentary archive that has indexed nearly 5,000 episodes across 90 of David Attenborough’s series. You can search by animal, habitat, location, natural phenomenon, or theme, and it accurately points you to the streaming service where you can watch. It feels like having direct access to learning about Earth and all its kingdoms. — CD

Counterculture design archive

Far Out Company is a curated archive of 1960s–70s counterculture visual art — concert posters, TV shows, underground newspapers, commune newsletters, comix, hippie business advertisements, and album art. I love the DIY design aesthetic of this era: hand-lettered type, day-glo colors, psychedelic illustrations. Artists and designers like Wes Wilson, Rick Griffin, and Milton Glaser were doing world-class work for free newspapers. It’s a good resource for design inspiration or a trippy rabbit hole to fall into. — MF

Art inspiration

Kids are so naturally creative they should be our art teachers. And their creativity is boundless as long as you don’t hamper them by calling the assignment making “art.” It’s more fun than that. Those two premises enliven artist Austin Kleon’s newest book, Don’t Call It Art. Kleon’s mission is encouraging creativity in kids and adults by means of stories, reminders, examples, and bits of his own art. His little tome is charming and inspirational. — KK

Free Pomodoro app

I’ve been looking for a replacement Pomodoro app for over a year, ever since my old browser extension stopped being supported. After trying a few that all wanted subscriptions or felt too distracting, I finally found a truly free one called Breaks. It runs quietly in the Mac menu bar, is easy to use, and lets me customize my focus and break times. — CD

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Book Freak #214: Thoughts Without a Thinker

Psychotherapy from a Buddhist Perspective

Get Thoughts Without a Thinker

Mark Epstein is a psychiatrist who also meditates, and in Thoughts Without a Thinker he uses both practices to make the point that the solid, permanent self we work so hard to build and protect is the same self that keeps us anxious. If you loosen your grip on it, a lot of everyday suffering will decrease.

Core Principles

The Self Is a Construction

We spend enormous energy projecting an image of being complete and self-sufficient. Epstein argues that the feeling of a solid, unchanging “me” behind all of this is something we assemble, not something we find. He describes the self as stitched together out of the gaps in our emotional experience, the raw spots we rush to cover up instead of looking at. Seeing how the assembly works is the first step toward holding it more lightly.

We Suffer When We Avoid Direct Experience

Much of our pain, Epstein writes, comes from being afraid to experience ourselves directly. Feelings are fleeting and constantly shifting, but we treat them as fixed, solid facts about who we are. A passing wave of anger becomes “I am an angry person.” A moment of doubt becomes “something is wrong with me.” When we let experiences stay as fast as they actually are, they have far less power over us.

Bare Attention as Medicine

The central tool Epstein draws from Buddhism is “bare attention”: noticing exactly what is happening, moment by moment, before you pile your reactions on top of it. There is the cold of the air, and then there is your story about the cold. Bare attention watches the raw event and the reaction as two separate things. The goal of this practice is not to feel calm or blissful. It is to watch the sense of a fixed self loosen as you observe it.

Don’t Build a Better Self, See Through It

Epstein calls the Buddha a kind of original psychoanalyst, using a method of self-inquiry centuries before Freud. But he points out a key difference. Much of Western therapy hunts for a “true self” hidden under our defenses, waiting to be set free. The Buddhist view says there is no such self underneath, only layers of constructions to see through. The work is to stop polishing a better self-image and start noticing how the image gets made.

Try It Now

1. Set a timer for five minutes and sit quietly with your eyes closed. Each time you notice a thought, silently label it “thinking” and bring your attention back to your breath. You are practicing watching thoughts instead of being carried off by them.
2. The next time a strong emotion hits, find where you feel it in your body. Is it tightness in the chest, heat in the face, a knot in the stomach? Don’t try to fix it or explain it. Just describe its texture and location for thirty seconds.
3. In the middle of a worried thought, ask: “Who is aware of this thought?” Look for the thinker behind it. Notice that you find more thoughts and sensations, but no solid, separate “me” doing the thinking.

Quote

“We do not want to admit our lack of substance to ourselves and, instead, strive to project an image of completeness, or self-sufficiency. The fabric of self is stitched together out of just these holes in our emotional experience.”

Book Freak is published by Cool Tools Lab, a small company of three people. We also run Recomendo, the Cool Tools website, a YouTube channel and podcast, and other newsletters, including Recomendo Deals, Gar’s Tips & Tools, Nomadico, What’s in my NOW?, Tools for Possibilities, Books That Belong On Paper, and Book Freak.

Good Book Light/2 Free Checked Bags/Best Layover Airports

Nomadico issue #211

Versatile Book Light for Bed or Travel

After years of me bugging my wife to get a book light for places where the bedside lamp is too bright, she finally found one she liked enough to plunk down 14 bucks for: this Compact LED rechargeable light. It folds up small for travel but has an impressive array of functions, like 4 brightness levels, different intensity levels to go more amber when trying to fall asleep, and a flexible head that can bathe 2 pages of a book with light. Battery life is 9 to 80 hours depending on brightness.

Every World Cup Player in One Place

Like most people who grew up in the USA, I get bored with most futbol/soccer matches since all that running around usually doesn’t accomplish much. Apparently that’s a surprise to FIFA since 175,000 too-expensive World Cup tickets remained unsold this week. If you want to dive in deep though, The Guardian has you covered: this website provides details on every single player from every country that’s participating in the event this year. Study up before arriving at the sports bar wherever you’ll be in the world.

Airline Hook-ups and a better Delta Amex

This has been a busy month already for airline news. Philippine Airlines is set to join the OneWorld Alliance, which will add 31 new markets nobody else in that group is serving. Southwest added another “interline partner” with Singapore Air, which means you can complete your last leg on Southwest when the first one is booked on Singapore, via one ticket. (They’ve also done this with Icelandair, Turkish, ANA, and Philippine Airlines.) Last, if you have a Delta Amex, that just got a lot more valuable. Delta added a second free checked bag on domestic flights, in addition to the one for you and your companions. Get it here and earn 70-90K SkyMiles points depending on your spend and there’s no annual fee the first year!

Best Layover Airports

If you’re going to have a long layover somewhere, which are the best airports to be stuck in? This report crunches a lot of data—including which are best for sleeping—and my only quibble is that the quantity of lounges is rated too highly. (The only lounge stat that matters to a traveler is which one they can actually get into.) Asia dominates the top-20, with Singapore’s Changi Airport predictably taking the gold medal. Did you know they have 247 places to eat there?! Atlanta made a surprisingly good showing at #3, with others in the top-10 including Seoul, Dubai, Tokyo Haneda, and Shanghai. Bogota scored #2 in the Americas, while Heathrow and Schiphol were tops in Europe.

A weekly newsletter with four quick bites, edited by Tim Leffel, author of A Better Life for Half the Price and The World’s Cheapest Destinations. See past editions here, where your like-minded friends can subscribe and join you.

What’s in my NOW? — frank

issue #258

I’m following where I feel there is energy flowing and honoring that. These days I’m just making projects with Claude and other AI agents together. It’s the age of dreamer to manifest into reality what one envisions without any middleman involved. Also I’m writing occasional essays at: pilgrima.ge

PHYSICAL

• LEZER Trigger Massage Point
  This item has been a life saver for me when I have an ache on my back or soreness near my groin area where I just needed something to target it right at the spot with some tough love. This was exactly what I was looking for and it does the job beautifully every time I needed it. I carry this with me when I travel since it’s light and small.
• Axiom S2 VX Pack
  I recently just switched to this backpack after having my only one-bag as the Tom Bihn Synapse 25 for over 12 years (which I love too). This bag has great design in terms of laying out various compartments including a place for your water bottle on the side for easy access and easy laptop access on the opposite side. There is only one easy-access pocket on the top near the handle too. I find this bag’s size to be fair for my one-bag travel if I don’t bring an extra pair of shoes.
• Luna Sandals – Mono Winged Edition
  Before these sandals, I was wearing Earth Runners running sandals. The straps on the Earth Runner aren’t that durable and usually breaks around two years. I’ve had these Luna sandals for over 3 years and they’re still going strong. They’re very durable and I walk, hike, and run in these during my travels as well as every day wear.

DIGITAL

• Claude CodeI first started coding with Claude back in February and now over 20 projects later still making new ones as well as updating existing ones. I feel like it’s the best coding agent out there albeit other people dig Codex more. I feel like you really need to get the right skills and plugins in order to truly unlock the full power of these agents. I’d recommend superpowers and compound-engineering as some plugins to install. You can just use Claude as a harness without paying for Anthropic’s plan by using DeepSeek API. Another great harness is Open Code.
• Pilgrim – Mindful Walking
  This app is great for me to take daily walks with. Sometimes when some ideas or inspirations hit, I’d hit record and note down those thoughts which then gets transcribed on-device for me to use along with some of the context on my walk like where did the inspiration hit as well as the weather and moon cycles. And when I travel and just wander about, it gives me a great summary on exactly where I had walked on a map as well as the ability to create a small web page and postcard-like image for me to share with my friends.

INVISIBLE

energy begets more energy

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Megg and Mogg in Amsterdam / The Collector

Issue No. 122

THE BEAUTIFUL GROTESQUES OF MEGAHEX ARE BACK WITH MORE TALES OF DEPRAVITY AND FRIENDSHIP

Megg and Mogg in Amsterdam (and Other Stories)
by Simon Hanselmann
Fantagraphics
2016, 164 pages, 6.6 x 9.1 x 0.8 inches

Buy on Amazon

The entire loveably dysfunctional freak family that stole our hearts in Megahex (and sold them on the black market for hookers and blow) are back in Megg and Mogg in Amsterdam (and Other Stories). Once again we enter the bizarre funhouse world of Megg the witch, her cat familiar/lover Mogg, and their coterie of hangers on: Owl, Werewolf Jones, Mike the Gnome, Booger (a boogey woman), Dracula, Jr., and others.

On the surface, little has changed. The revolving door of Megg and Mogg’s house still spins to let their drug-addled crew enter, hatch a series of ridiculous schemes, inhale all of the drugs and fast food, and then we get to watch as one nightmarish scenario after another plays out like a slow-motion train wreck. But there are deeper relationship themes that run through Megg and Mogg in Amsterdam. Over the course of the book, strips begin to introduce trouble in Megg and Mogg’s relationship, and Megg’s growing attraction to Booger. Werewolf Jones also is having trouble in his marriage and is fighting to retain custody of his two sons (while doing every boneheaded thing in the world to ensure that doesn’t happen). The title of the book refers to a trip that Megg and Mogg take to Amsterdam to try and patch up their failing relationship.

The level of depression and depravity that drives Megg and Mogg (even more intense here than in Megahex) might be too much for some, but there is also an undeniable heart that beats at the center of this work. There is obviously a lot of love and solidarity to be found within the complex relationships between these characters – in the midst of the binge drugging, the frequent release of bodily fluids, and the seeming complete lack of any motivation or ambition on anyone’s part. The gloss of Megg and Mogg is undeniably juvenile, but it all feels deftly counter-balanced by an intelligence and a weird shape of hope that always keeps me rooting for these cartoon human monstrosities. – Gareth Branwyn

THE COLLECTOR FOLLOWS AN 1880’S ROGUE AND DANDY AS HE TRAVELS IN SEARCH OF TREASURES

The Collector
by Sergio Toppi
Archaia
2014, 252 pages, 8.5 x 11 x 1 inches

Buy on Amazon

I was delighted to discover this terrific collection of comics by Italian artist Sergio Toppi. Although I’d never seen his work before, it instantly got my attention and seemed familiar. It combines a flat graphic art style, a swashbuckling sensibility and witty writing that I found irresistible.

Sergio Toppi (1932-2012) was an artist and illustrator from Italy, whose books have been published for decades in Europe but only recently translated and available in the U.S. through Archaia, a division of Boom Entertainment. The Collector won the Soleil D’Or prize for Best Series at the Soliès-Ville Festival. It’s easy to see why.

The book follows the exciting exploits of an 1880’s rogue and dandy, known as “The Collector,” as he travels the globe in search of treasures. Not a seeker of gold or jewels, he collects only artifacts with historical significance. This sets the stage for adventures featuring Hopi Indians in the American Southwest, camel-riding Ethiopians, Mongol tribesmen, warring Irish clans, Maori chieftains and more. Although the artwork is in black and white, it’s most highly folkloric and historically colorful. The separate wide-ranging episodes and characters are knitted back together into a satisfying finale.

Each page is laid out in dramatic fashion with bold layouts. Some pages have conventional multiple comic panels, while others feature free-wheeling compositions, along with other full-page designs, more fine line illustration than comic book. Toppi is a master of drawing the human figure and the characters are richly rendered in various cultures’ costumes and in far-flung settings. That, combined with his inventive crosshatching, splatters, scratches and bold use of solid blacks, reminds me of two of my favorites: Bernie Fuchs and Mike Mignola.

I enjoyed the cinematic approach of the staging and the clever use of scale. Tiny figures draw you into a wider landscape, then are immediately juxtaposed against a close-up portrait, all within one page’s layout. If you remember that scene from the film Lawrence of Arabia where a nearly infinitesimally tiny camel-riding Peter O’Toole is boldly placed into a Cinerama desertscape, you’ll know what I mean – wow! I’m looking forward to reading another translated Toppi book: Sharaz De: Tales from the Arabian Nights. – Bob Knetzger

Books That Belong On Paper first appeared on the web as Wink Books and was edited by Carla Sinclair. Sign up here to get the issues a week early in your inbox.

Bamboo

Tools for Possibilities: issue no. 193

Best growing instructions

Practical Bamboos

In our yard we’ve been nursing along some small clumps of bamboo, and since then I’ve been investigating other hardy bamboos. I own a lot of bamboo books, but Practical Bamboos is by far the most useful of all. Other bamboo books are more encyclopedic; this one focuses on “only” the 50 most useful bamboo species, spelling out what types are good for fence rows, which are drought resistant, which work well in containers, and how to identify those variants from lookalikes. There’s very specific growing tips for each variety and solid advice about the principles of growing bamboo plants in general. This is the manual to get. — KK

Sustainable wood harvests

Coppicing & Coppice Crafts

Coppicing is an old art of the repeated harvesting of small-diameter wood from the same bush or tree. Once cut, the branches grow back, often pretty fast. Coppicing is common tradition around the world, particularly where big lumber is scarce. This book teaches the traditions and skills of coppicing as practiced in England. Coppicing is a useful art for homesteaders because you can sustainably extract wood products from a small lot or even fence row. Coppiced wood can be woven, used for carving, making chairs, charcoal, and for firewood. This English book is the best guide to the craft, instructing you in how to grow, manage, and use coppice bounty. One note, emphasized by the book: the biggest challenge in coppicing today is controlling deer, which were not a problem in old days (everyone ate them), but their huge populations now devour coppice shoots indiscriminately. — KK

Coppicing makes use of a mysterious property that most trees have: when cut down they do not die but grow again from the stump or roots. People have used this behavior for at least 6,000 years to generate renewable supple of wood for fuel or to use for many crafts, simple or specialized.

• Tips on dealing with brash
  If there is a lot of waste, burn brash on fires raised off the ground, or onareas of little value such as rhododendron stumps.
  If there is not much waste, scatter it around and it will rot away veryquickly.
  Make brash piles but keep them small and dense.
  Consider chipping but remove the chips and compost elsewhere.
  Making dead-hedging keeps brash relatively tidy and in one place, andhelps to deter deer if tall enough (a dead hedge is really just a tidy wind-row).

Using bamboo

The Book of Bamboo

Bamboo works. Bamboo does more things than any other material. Many of its traditional uses are inventoried here. A shape-shifter, bamboo’s super-human abilities are amazing. Its grass fiber is all that plastic would like to be, plus more. This is an encyclopedia of bamboo ideas. — KK

• Arundinaria gigantic: 30 feet by 1 1/4 inch, – 10°F
  (Arundinaria macrosperma).
  One of two bamboos native to the continental United States, its “canebrakes” once covered large areas from Virginia to Texas and provided an effective exist from the South for runaway slaves headed north for freedom before the Civil War.We live surrounded by such an abundance of tools that the advantage of a material that requires few tools, and those hand powered and even handmade in many cases, is not so apparent in industrial centers as in the hinterlands where bamboo is most abundant.
  

• Bamboo’s high silica content is famous for dulling tools. Tool effectiveness will be increased, time spent sharpening reduced, and work in general cheered by using molybdenum steel or an equally hard alloy. Many a bamboo house has been machete built, but more tools are demanded for more refined work, some peculiar to processing bamboo and therefore unavailable at standard tool sources. The Chinese bamboo tub and bucket maker requires some thirty different tools and gadgets to measure, cut, fit, and assemble his wares.
• For kites or other miniworks, soak the pieces to be bent overnight in water with a dash of ammonia, then tie in desired shape around a mold to dry. You can heat small pieces in a candle flame. The mortar holding the fibers in place becomes flexible with heat and permits bending to chosen shape, which is retained after cooling. Take care not to scorch or burn bamboo by leaving candle too long in one position. Try using a bucket of hot sand to shape small pieces, as eyeglass doctors do to shape plastic frames. Don’t force the bamboo’s pace, nor try to bend it too far, or you’ ll crack it.
  
  

• Bamboo animal cages and feeding troughs reduce expensive importation of metal cages, are more amiable to the cages, and can be repaired from locally available material.
  
  

Once a week we’ll send out a page from Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities. The tools might be outdated or obsolete, and the links to them may or may not work. We present these vintage recommendations as is because the possibilities they inspire are new. Sign up here to get Tools for Possibilities a week early in your inbox.

What’s in my NOW? — frank