{"id":46653,"date":"2026-08-09T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/?p=46653"},"modified":"2026-08-07T05:40:48","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T12:40:48","slug":"reading-maps-days-since-nearbywiki","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/reading-maps-days-since-nearbywiki\/","title":{"rendered":"Reading Maps \/ Days Since \/ NearbyWiki"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Chart the journeys of classic novels<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Reading Maps<\/a> plots the routes characters travel in novels and films \u2014 you can trace the Pequod\u2019s ocean path as it chases Moby Dick, or Victor Frankenstein\u2019s pursuit of his monster from Geneva to the Arctic. Hundreds of journeys are mapped so far, sortable by setting (Sea, Overland, River, Rail, Survival, and more), and each one breaks the story into stops you can follow one at a time: where a ship or train left from, and what happened there. Since the stops follow the plot, the site will happily spoil the ending if you haven\u2019t finished the book. \u2014 MF<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Track days since things<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I use the Countdown Days Since & Until<\/a> app to track how long it\u2019s been since health and beauty appointments so I know when it\u2019s time to reschedule \u2014 I\u2019m really bad at remembering to get my hair cut. I also use it to count down to vacations and anniversaries, occasionally opening the app to see how many weeks or days or even hours are left, and it\u2019s nice to get a little surge of anticipation as the time between things shortens. After using the free version for years I finally paid $4.99 to unlock extras like adding photo backgrounds to certain events. Unfortunately, this particular app seems to be iOS\u2011only, but any simple \u201cimportant dates\u201d tracker would be useful. \u2014 CD<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wikipedia entry nearby<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I find it entertaining to see what is listed in Wikipedia nearby to wherever I am. On any device that knows where it is (like a phone), load this NearbyWiki page<\/a>, and it will show on a map all the nearby items that have a Wikipedia entry. Most are places, but occasionally it gives you something unexpected. \u2014 KK<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My fountain pen paper and ink<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Some of you have asked what paper and ink I\u2019ve been using with the fountain pen I wrote about last week. Both were recommended by the woman working at my local art supply store: a Leuchtturm 1917 120gsm notebook<\/a> and Noodler\u2019s Nightshade ink<\/a>. The heavy paper handles wet ink \u2014 no bleed-through, no ghosting, and the nib glides. The ink is a purple-blue that shades nicely on the page. One warning she gave me: Noodler\u2019s bottles come filled almost to the brim, so open it over the sink. I took her advice and I\u2019m glad I did \u2014 it was full to the top. \u2014 MF<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coders using AI<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

All my friends who years ago stopped writing code themselves are now using Anthropic\u2019s Claude to write code for them. This 20 minute tutorial put out by Anthropic<\/a> is basically the course they use to train their own coders on how to use Claude (to make future versions of Claude). It\u2019s the best tricks they know on how to tell an AI to code for you (aimed at those who already know how to code). \u2014 KK<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Better than my Instagram feed<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve recommended the Seek app before, but lately I\u2019ve been spending more time on the Observations page of the iNaturalist website<\/a>, which shows a live stream of sightings from the full iNaturalist community rather than just my own Seek scans. You can filter the stream by species, location, and date, and it feels like a photo feed curated by the living world instead of an algorithm. It\u2019s more interesting to scroll than my Instagram, but this view doesn\u2019t exist in any of the apps, so for now I just keep the page bookmarked. \u2014 CD<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Sign up here<\/a>\u00a0to get Recomendo a week early in your inbox.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recomendo – issue #526<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47588,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[2323],"tags":[2324],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46653"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47588"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46653"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46653\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46654,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46653\/revisions\/46654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}