Matthew Haughey

Apple's message falls flat

You've probably seen the tone-deaf ad from Apple about their new super thin iPad (update: they apologized for it). I get the concept they were going for—it's like a thousand devices rolled into one, but the way the ad was shot revels in destruction of

family

Dear Fiona…

The thing I remember most about your first few days on this planet was the anxiety. The actual birth was an ordeal in and of itself, but barely 24 hours later nurses were shoving us out of the hospital, giving two young adults with the least amount of experience around

My new book project is officially a go

I mentioned a book I was planning to write in my "Embrace the weird" post a couple weeks ago. This book idea is definitely weird, as it's a super niche one. I'm writing a guidebook to the fourteen stadiums that host National Women'

Even more CMS talk

After writing my previous post about my dream blogging content management system, the folks over at Shop Talk asked me to come on and discuss it more. It’s on their site here and I’ve uploaded the episode MP3 directly here as well. Shoptalkshow 6120:00/3743.55591836734671× I

Feeling duped by Amazon's "magical AI" bullshit

Back in the Summer of 2019, I was in Seattle doing customer interviews for work, and I stopped by a friend's apartment in downtown Seattle. I spent a few hours there while using his wifi along with a spare desk. Nothing was too unusual until I went to

Embrace the weird

The other day I was complaining to a friend how I've been spinning my wheels lately, having trouble finding any projects or gigs I could work on. He came back with a quick, short, smart response: Who cares? Just make weird shit. It hit me like a ton

A sandwich so good I nearly wept

I'm a big fan of food and I'm always looking out for new places to eat, especially in Portland, Oregon where lots of new food places regularly spring up in food carts and restaurant pop-ups. Over the past few years I've also grown fond

Everyone should try and experience a total solar eclipse at least once in their lives

Today's total solar eclipse features four minutes of totality stretching from Texas to Vermont, but I didn‘t make travel plans to head out to the midwest this time around. I wish I could see it but I feel ok missing it because I got to live it

blogging

Ideas for my dream blogging CMS

Ever since I changed over from Wordpress to Ghost to power this site, I've gotten emails and replies asking me if Ghost is really good and worth making the jump from any other blogging engines. My answer is this: it's currently the least bad one out

The annual visit to the Woodburn Tulip Farm

Every year around late March/early April I check out the Woodburn Tulip Farm website to see what their field report is looking like. For the past few weeks I've been obsessively watching cherry blossoms on trees instead and totally forgot about the tulip farm until I saw

NWSL week 2: The good, the bad, and the ugly

Instead of a rundown of every game in week 2 of the NWSL season, I thought I'd instead mention a few high points and low points from the weekend full of games. The Good The Washington Spirit vs. Bay FC game was tied 1-1 and scoreless for the

Some tips for road trips

Since the pandemic began, I've been taking lots of solo road trips around the western US in lieu of flying. And after 20,000 miles of trips in the last couple years, I thought I'd write up some tips I picked up along the way. Reduce

sports

NWSL opening weekend recap

Women's pro soccer in the US finally kicked off their 2024 season this past weekend and I tried to watch all seven games, so here’s some quick thoughts on each. San Diego Wave vs. NY/NJ Gotham: Challenge Cup In the past, the NWSL kicked off each

youtube

The weird world of altruistic YouTube

It all started innocently enough. I bought a new lawn mower and searched YouTube to figure out how to use it well. I'd only ever mowed a tiny patch before and figured I should know what real landscaping people do in their jobs so I could replicate it.

Giving a pill to a cat vs. a dog

Our pets have small ailments right now and we're giving pills to both a cat and dog and there is a difference in how that goes. Tricking a cat into eating a pill is like sitting down to chess with a world-ranked grandmaster. 👨🏻 pspspsps hey buddy, come here

money

American billionaires are a policy failure

I was glad to hear President Biden mention a minimum income tax rate for billionaires of 25% in his recent State of the Union address. Honestly, I don't think it goes far enough, but I wanted to write down some reasons why I think it's a

The newest episode of Search Engine is incredible

PJ Vogt started one of my favorite podcasts on earth, Reply All, and before that, did one that was also great for On The Media at NPR. A couple years ago, he did a podcast series on crypto, but last year returned to covering the weirdest corners of the internet

cycling

A few bike things I love

I've ridden bikes all my life, and pretty seriously on the road and dirt since the early 2000s. I try out a lot of bike gear to get things lighter, stronger, and more comfortable. I figured I might as well write up some quick reviews of things that

movies

The movie theaters aren't alright

At various points in my life, I've tried to maintain a hobby/indulgence of going to a movie theater once a week to see a new film. I love movies and can never get enough of them, but setting aside 2-3 hours and $20 each week to keep

youtube

My favorite YouTube video of 2023

The other day I was thinking about all the hundreds (maybe thousands?) of hours of YouTube I watched in the past year and how one unexpected video stuck with me for weeks. It was this one, about how to enjoy poetry. In all my 51 years, I've had

A short tip for keeping your phone away while driving

The other day I had to grab a USB-A to USB-C cable to use CarPlay in my spouse's car that I was borrowing, and I grabbed the first one I could find in my house which was weirdly only 6 inches long. I honestly don't know

Notes from a long road trip

Last week I drove about 2,000 miles from northwestern Oregon down to Southern California and back. It was about 15 hours each way and I saw a lot and took a few notes along the way. Nothing beats dead straight roads for audiobooks I've done this trip

A ranked list of all the 2024 NWSL soccer jersey/kits

The NWSL is the pro women's soccer league here in America, and I've followed it pretty closely since 2015 (2013 was their first season). In the early years, teams struggled to pay players more than a pittance and a few teams went belly up, but thanks

music

80s covers that are so good that they made me briefly forget about the original versions

In no particular order:

The Bezzle is another good one from Cory Doctorow

Cory Doctorow’s newest book, The Bezzle, is a second installment in his Martin Hench, tech-nerd, forensic accountant series. It was released Tuesday and I got my Kickstarter-backed audiobook onto my phone the same day. Yesterday, I started a 12-hour road trip to California and listened to the ~8hr long