My friend Linh gave her daughter advice on how to make her own mind:

I said: May, what I am telling you now are based on what I know, what I believe in, how I see the world. But you shouldn’t just rely on me, you need to read a lot, read a lot, and look around you, before you make up your mind. Don’t be lazy and let me think for you. Know that your parents will influence your view of the world, but times change, ideas change, so what I know now might not be as complete as when your time comes. Like my dad used to believe in one thing, and I thought so that’s how the world is, but then I found out that it isn’t, for me. That was when I got to college, I met a lot of people, learned a lot of new things, read a lot. So be like that, always learning, and before you choose to believe which side is the good guy and which side is the bad guy, try to ask yourself which side has more knowledge with them? Which side respects the rights of the weak and the helpless equally as of those who are strong and powerful. And then you go from there.

What a wonderful advice from a parent. I miss reading her blog. I wish she comes back to write more. I just went to her blog post on my phone and there were eight pieces of ads surrounding one post. What the fuck, WordPress.com?

Anahad O’Connor has an insightful guide on sleep apnea. Here are a few signs if you might suffer from sleep apnea:

• Are you a loud or regular snorer?
• Have you ever been observed to gasp or stop breathing during sleep?
• Do you feel tired or groggy when you wake up? Do you wake up with a headache?
• Are you often tired or fatigued during the day?
• Do you fall asleep while sitting, reading, watching television or driving?
• Do you often have problems concentrating or remembering things?

Oh shit, I think I have all of them.

Kevin Roose writes in The New York Times:

A few weeks ago, the world on my phone seemed more compelling than the offline world — more colorful, faster-moving and with a bigger scope of rewards.

I still love that world, and probably always will. But now, the physical world excites me, too — the one that has room for boredom, idle hands and space for thinking. I no longer feel phantom buzzes in my pocket or have dreams about checking my Twitter replies. I look people in the eye and listen when they talk. I ride the elevator empty-handed. And when I get sucked into my phone, I notice and self-correct.

I have been following Bethany Heck on Twitter for a while. I even tempted to apply for the opening positions at Medium she tweeted. It appears that she has been let go recently, which led her to update her portfolio website. It looks amazing, particularly the typographic showcase on the homepage, which has a similar concept to my portfolio site.

Elizabeth A. Harris writes in the New York Times:

For decades, lawyers for the disabled have used the Americans With Disabilities Act to force businesses to make their spaces more physically accessible, by adding ramps, widening doorways or lowering countertops.

But the steady migration of commerce and culture to the internet has given rise to a new flood of litigation, over the accessibility of websites to the visually impaired. The number of such lawsuits nationwide nearly tripled in 2018 over the year before.

Making your website accessible is a must.

Jane E. Brody writes in The New York Times:

Because manufacturers try to hit all bases, over-the-counter cough remedies most often contain combinations of three or four ingredients when a patient may need only one or two. Typical ingredients include a cough suppressant, an expectorant and an antihistamine, when better hydration or drinking hot tea with honey may be all someone really needs to quell a nagging cough.

I’ll try hot tea with honey next time.

If you have to pick one book for Black History Month, check out Isabel Wilkerson’s The Warmth of Other Suns. I am just starting and already loving her writing. Here is how she described one of the main characters who had been through the Great Migration:

She has an endearing gap in her teeth, which go just about any which way they please, and her hair is now as soft and white as the cotton she used to pick not particularly well back in Mississippi. She is the color of sand beach, which she had never heard of growing up but had never seen for herself until she arrived in Chicago half a lifetime ago. She has big searching eyes that see the good in people despite the evil she has seen, and she has a comforting kind of eternal beauty, her skin is like the folds of a velvet shawl.

So beautiful.

Sarah Lyall writes in The New York Times:

His new book, “Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style,” is the climax (so far) of his nearly three decades in the copy-editing business, and it shows his playful sense of humor as well as his deep appreciation for clear writing and good language. The book is full of no-nonsense pronouncements on matters like the Oxford comma (use it) and the word “literally” (use it at your peril). It is also idiosyncratic, because writing style is highly personal, subject to an individual’s taste and whim.

Purchased!

An illustrated travelogue by Christoph Niemann is beautifully executed as an online interactive storytelling. Must experience.

Yesterday after work I stopped by our public library to pick up a few books. Then I saw Michelle Obama’s Becoming displayed on the shelf. I grabbed it immediately with joy. When I got home and turned on the Facebook app on my phone, there was an ad for the audio version of of book. How the hell did Facebook know when my phone was in my pocket the whole time? Creepy as fuck.

Earlier this evening, I went to our neighborhood meeting to hear a proposal from private companies wanting to build housing for low-income families, seniors, and Mason students. Just now, Facebook is showing me an ad for house prices in my neighborhood and I don’t even have location turned on. Damn, this is intrusive.

I wrote about about not being able to leave Facebook just two days ago. Now I am back on contemplating it. Oddly enough, the NYT app keeps showing me ads for bras on every article I read. I know I am getting titties, but come on, they are not large enough for bras.