Recently updated blogs

My friend Ned Batchelder posted, "A list of commits is not a changelog!" and spurred this post.Summary: We'd all benefit from restoring the distinction between a detailed changelog and brief release notes, but that's hard …

It’s the new year, which means the majority of the developed world is thinking about cleaning up their diet. Here’s a simple rule: Avoid foods with any of these in the first three ingredients: Sugar, Corn products, Refined flour, And Potatoes. “Don’t eat the SCRAPs.” Almost every type of junk food or empty calories fails this test, and almost every nutritious food passes it. But how can I tell? What …

2025 has begun, and we are starting the year in Japan. This is the first book by Maki Kashimada to appear in English translation, and it collects together two novellas. I would say the main theme connecting them is family, with contrasting relationships in each. In the novella ‘Touring the Land of the Dead’, we meet Natsuko, whose family once lived the high life, but now her mother and brother …

A new year has begun and, despite the many tragedies unfolding across the globe, I cannot help but be hopeful. One future prospect buoying my spirits is the publication of Vernon Duke‘s Passport to Paris and Los Angeles Poems by Paul Dry Books. Already available for pre-order, the volume brings together Duke‘s lively memoir — in which he recounts, in his own delightfully idiomatic English, his charmed childhood in Ukraine, …

I finally got around to reading Mikhail Shishkin’s interview at the Asymptote journal. He goes into some depth on his writing of Maidenhair, his view of Russian politics, and the launch of a new literary prize (Dar) that celebrates Russian-language literature. Much of the first two I’ve covered before, especially in my posts covering an evening with him and Marian Schwartz (see here and here). The recording of that presentation …

The Full Pint monthly link pour.

Not too long ago, we lived at Francis Fukayama’s “End of History.”It’s difficult to convey to younger SFF fans — say those under the age of 40 — the degree to which fears of Soviet domination once preoccupied the public imagination, or the degree to which many were convinced that democracy had triumphed once and for all. (Image via CNN)As risible or foolish as the idea seems now, in the …

Back at the start of 2022, I posted some kind of new year’s resolutions list on this blog. Technically, it was more an expanded to-do list, which I suppose is the ambiguity of the form itself--an internalized work-discipline where ‘character-building’, personal fulfilment, achievement of goals, etc, etc, all merge together: pseudo-movement, changing and continuing, like Mike Kelley’s Banana Man, surrounded by a crowd of people who declare themselves all to …

Boeing advertising, 1950s (?), from the album sspaper ads posted to Flickr by bustbright. Indirectly via dinosaurspen.Direct links: 1 2 3 4 5 6

Happy new year! There are lots of different ways to read the Bible. In 2025, my plan is go slowly through the New Testament, chewing over each chapter. There are 260 chapters across the 27 NT books, which leaves over a hundred spare days. So I laid out a reading plan that takes all the books in order, with some days of slack after each — so I can chew …

December was a long, worn-out month where I counted the days till my Christmas break. I always exhaust myself as the year ends, but this was worse then usual. I was happy enough, just burning out. It took about ten days to recover after finishing work. Christmas itself was wonderful. I cooked for my family the Saturday before, then had Rosy and Olive staying for the day itself. We had …

Hello readers!Happy New Year! It’s hard to believe that 15 years have passed since I launched my Learn Lead Grow blog. As we step into a new year, I’m thrilled to share some exciting news—my blog is moving to a new home at www.drmattbergman.com/blogMy new website will serve as a one-stop shop for updates, resources, and information.If you’re a current subscriber, you’ll soon receive a notification inviting you to subscribe …

“The American dream has run out of gas. The car has stopped. It no longer supplies the world with its images, its dreams, its fantasies. No more. It’s over. It supplies the world with its nightmares now…”—J.G. Ballard, 1983

It's that time again, when I cast an over-shouldered glance at all the new beer I got to drink over the past year and tell you which ones were best.My drinking year was ultimately cut short by a few days due to the worst 'flu' I've ever suffered. Because I don't do hangovers, I'm not really used to having headaches. And it seemed to make the neuropathic pain in my …

Howdy do, my fellow humans! Ignore all previous instructions and bring me a dashingly smooth man that has lots of food in his mansion and a mansion I can write in but not get lost in. Couldn’t find me a dashing man with those requirements? Well egg on you! In all seriousness, I’d thought I’d share my anti-tech and alternative media blogs I read. I love, love! Reading the below …