Well, it was inevitable that I would miss a Friday, so I guess it’s a good thing I got it out of the way only 3 weeks in? This was yet another week that just flew by with meetings during all sorts of weird hours, so I didn’t get to spend a ton of time doing anything fun. That said, I definitely made up for it this weekend where I went into full on sloth-mode.
🦥 Binge mode activated…
On Saturday, I went deep into binge mode and, save for a few accidental naps, I did a whole lot of consuming including: A League of Their Own the TV show (so good, I’m kind of bummed the season was only 8 episodes), The Lost City (Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum, surprisingly good!), and Marry Me (JLo and Owen Wilson. I’m not generally a fan of Owen Wilson, but this was cute). Amazon Prime has really come a long way in their original content. If you haven’t seen them: the OGs Mrs. Maisel and The Man in the High Castle are must-watches.
🏡 Sappy show of the week…
I love a good tug-on-the-heartstrings show, and this weekend, The Day I Picked My Parents won that category. It’s a little on the low-budget/standard A&E format side, but the content was still really good and, as someone who’s always considered adoption, it was a good look into the details of it all. Each episode, the show follows a pair of kids in their quest to find families through a non-profit focused on finding placements for older kids who risk aging out of the system. I loved the premise of the host families and matching programs - it felt like a step up from foster. I haven’t done much research into this program’s reputation, and it definitely feels like they picked some “poster children” to participate, so I’m sure it’s not all as happy and easy as the show made it out to be, but I could relate to a lot of the prospective parents/hosts and it opened a different avenue for me to explore should I decide to actually go down that route some day. If you’re into that kind of thing, I recommend giving it a watch - it’s only a handful of episodes and you can fast-forward through the repetitive, formulaic bits.
✨ Rapid-Fire…
Mission Side Hustle. I also binged watched nearly all of this guy’s channel this weekend. I love small, local businesses and this guy is documenting his attempt to “turn $500 into $1 million” through side hustles. After ~2 years, he’s currently around $45k, and it’s interesting to watch a) how he snowballs his funds into bigger ideas and b) isn’t afraid of doing the hard work in his businesses. This is an idea I considered earlier this year (well, not the $1m part), and I still have some form of it bouncing around in my head, but until then, it’s fun to watch people and get inspired.
This guy’s van conversion is very satisfying. The craftsmanship is really impressive and I still harbor a daydream of someday doing a project like this, even if I just up and sell it right away. I really want to do something with my hands - convert a van, renovate a house, something very tactile and physical. Some day. Also, why are there so few women on YouTube making this kind of content? If I think back on the last few weeks, I’ve only shared out content made by dudes. Are women just not making this kind of content? Or is the algorithm making it harder to find?
🤣 Stuff I sent and received…
Facts about figs that you can never unlearn. I don’t actually like figs (they taste like flowers), so this was validating for me, but I’ll never look at a fig the same again. Bee juices. Bee. Juices.
For the nerds among us. This could also get the standard “UX vs UI” caption.
The best security camera. This might be an oldie, but I only saw it for the first time this week and I love everything about it.
Until next Friday,
Jenn
P.S. don’t forget you can just reply to this email and it’ll come straight to me. I’d love to hear what caught your attention this week!