My current and mostly normal obsessions
How often must something occupy your mind before it becomes an obsession? Two times? Ten times? Who designates this obsession threshold? My obsessions consist of a lot of strange things, most of which you probably care nothing about like Belgian waffles, stegosauruses and crafting the perfect sentence. But what about things normal people care about? What do you care about? Music, apps, books? Good. Read on my normal friends. Here are the latest and greatest things I can't stop thinking about. I'll save my stegosaurus and sentence-loving stories for another day.
Album
Yellow & Green by Baroness
Yellow & Green is an oddly majestic metal album with a glimmer of indie rock. Think of the wistful vocals of Fleet Foxes and then pair it with infectious, schizophrenic sounds of metal. While distinctly different from Baroness' previous albums, it's one of the few two-disk albums out there worth the ambitious 75-minute listen. And then a few more listens after that because it's that damn infectious. With a melodic and smart guitar sound, writing while listening to this album is truly sublime. Fun fact: This band was the inspiration for Beer Baroness, a Tumblr documentation of my craft beer adventures.
App
Solar : Weather
As a self-proclaimed weather fanatic (I blame my family's incessant Weather Channel watching), acquiring attractive new weather apps is a favorite pastime of mine. Freud would probably say my app collection is my way of compensating for unfulfilled sexual desires or something equally wild, but I just think it's fun. It's like a modern-day stamp collection awaiting me inside my iPhone! Solar has quickly become my go-to favorite weather app. It offers the ability to manipulate the vivid and radiant colored backgrounds with a drag of your finger and animates all forms of precipitation. At $1.99, this simplistic and magnificently designed app makes even an overcast day in Lancaster, Pennsylvania seem beautiful.
Web
BrainPickings.org
I felt like I was living under a boulder when I first discovered BrainPickings.org. It is likely the most creative and inspirational compilation of ideas I've ever stumbled upon on the internet. The website touches on everything from music and literature to science and anthropology. Here you'll uncover Bertrand Russell's 10 commandments of teaching, explore David Ogilvy's 10 tips on writing and so much more. Maria Popova and the team of contributing writers at Brain Pickings always seem to trigger such rich thoughts. If you're not already reading the site, you should be.
Book
Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
A quick adventurous read about code-breaking, data visualization, mobile ads and a touch of romance. This insta-geek classic, tells a story of an enigmatic bookstore and a cryptic code that spawns a quest for immortality. It reminds you of all the reasons you love the intimate, papery feel of a book between your fingers. Plus, the book's cover glows in the dark serving as a great guide to the kitchen in the dark of the night. What more could you want?
