It wasn’t an stress-free experience ripping apart the two Riso ink drums I recently finished servicing. The first went very smoothly while the other — the one which needed a more thorough cleaning, went well — until it didn’t.

During final reassembly (for the third time) after resolving an issue with a bent sensor wire that was incorrectly completing a circuit within the drum, the very last screw lost its head. You don’t realize how soft metals are until the right combination of stress and friction come into play. Luckily I was able to methodically drill out the broken screw and repair things well enough to then reprogrammed to use Risofederal Blue — and get it back in action.

I owe a sincere debt of gratitude to traveling Riso technician extraordinaire, Robert Baxter, who taught me a few new tricks and really helped save the day.

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It was only recently when my old pal Neil up in Toronto suggested I maybe write up a little something about how I’m doing this. Initially, this was a funny thought to me, mostly because it’s almost second nature — and also, because how I’ve been doing this is definitely far from following anything resembling a best practice or even being all that smart. It’s actually pretty dumb, which honestly, is probably why it works so well for my needs.

It all started in 2020 by choosing a handful of things I could comfortably track daily — and that felt interesting in terms of patterns that data might reveal. In particular, health related data was of interest and an easy place to start given that I was increasingly trying to be more active — walking, running, and cycling. Other data points have come and go but many have remained consistent over the years with the idea that at some point I’ll have enough data to transform it into something informative and interesting.

Simple Tools

To avoid it turning into a very obsessive endeavor, I’m trying to be fairly lazy about it, and so my approach has been to focus on the simplest tools possible. In my case, this means it’s really only required my phone, watch, a few specific apps, and a big dumb spreadsheet¹ which is where the real work happens.

The Reward is in the Process

I try to generally only add or edit the spreadsheet once or twice during the day. Most of the data is either very easy to remember (at least within a 24 hour window), easily recalled from apps I use regularly, or captured and synced using my Apple Watch automatically. Nothing too crazy — and I bet I could automate some of the data transfer into the spreadsheet, but it’s not been a priority and just easier to manage it all manually.

As you might guess, my Apple Watch does most of the work capturing health-related data. It’s just a matter of logging it in the spreadsheet. Apps like Goodreads and TMDB cover collecting data on reading habits and media consumption which then get logged in the spreadsheet as well. Other data I extract from this site’s git repository or from the site backend to automatically report on defined periods of time.

The manual-ness of it has been helpful at times because it forces me to engage with and sometimes interrogate the data as it’s entered. It’s a chance to think about it — and to question why I’m even collecting it in the first place… And perhaps chip away at what I might ultimately do with it.

Although I’ve had passing thoughts of building an app or something a little nicer than the spreadsheet — mostly because editing in the Sheets app on my phone is pretty sucky — I think I like how basic and dumb my approach is. It works — and is good enough that I remain unconvinced that something new would magically make it occupy less time/energy or let me record even more data with little increase in effort.

What’s Next?

One thing I started mulling at the end of the year was to start digging deeper into trends using the full breadth of data, and to start creating charts and graphs to really look at it differently than I have thus far. It might start to pay off the effort of capturing all this data for myself in the first place. At least I think so.

Footnotes

1. Google Sheets has proven to work well for my needs in part because I can use the native app and offline access to have it always be available whenever or wherever I might be when it’s time to update it. ↩

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I’m thankful 2025 is over. I’m glad that the new year is a chance to start over — to try again. I was on high alert at the beginning of the year as evidenced by the release of the quickly sold out Simple Sabotage Field Manual book and subsequent Do Not Obey in Advance bookmarks. I mostly dealt with that anxiety in part by limiting social media access. I deleted my Instagram account outright and removed everything else from my phone.

Instead of doomscrolling, I used that time and focus to instead put it towards things that actually matter like spending more time with family and friends, and towards personal projects like the aforementioned ones above plus a new sticker set, writing, designing and producing Context Window, producing a new edition of Ten Rules for Teachers and Students — and have made progress on projects that will hopefully come to fruition in 2026.

Musical Highlights

I covered my musical highlights from 2025 separately, but according to Apple Music Reply, I listened to 25,000 minutes of music covering 494 albums and around 2,500 songs. My top artist this year was Kathleen Edwards with 2,394 minutes of listening followed by Kate Bush, Genesis and Peter Gabriel. These particular choices were clearly providing valuable emotional support throughout the year which definitely plays into my listening habits overall. Aside from Kathleen Edwards having not one, but two albums in the running, it was also a Pink Floyd-heavy year with three albums landing in the top ten. Perhaps most interestingly to me though is the return of Radiohead in regular rotation. I have no complaints about this.

Reading Highlights

I handily surpassed my reading goal of 35 books for the year. I largely focused on fiction as a way to stoke my imagination rather than dwell too much on reality. I only left the late Frank Gehry’s biography unfinished, but will close that out early in the new year. Stephen King’s The Life of Chuck probably comes out as my favorite read since I read it twice. I also really enjoyed The Incident Report, Don't Suck Don't Die, Intermezzo, The Salt Path, Weepers, and The Ministry of Time a great deal. No real duds which is good.

Looking Forward

I’m very much over the chaos of another clown show presidency but I’ve found ways to largely tune out the worst of it. What concerns me most is where we go once it’s over. Following the acquisition in March, work feels stable. Since so much else outside work and home frequently feels spinning out of control, this is particularly comforting. That stability allowed me space to regroup and reconnect in many ways and I’m looking forward to more of that in 2026.

Mostly, I’d like fewer billionaires and f!*king nazis wrecking things for most of us.

Footnotes

1. The culture at work is largely in-office but also flexible, so 191 days in SF doesn’t feel off the mark to me. That’s around 73% of possible days throughout the year. ↩
2. Like last year, not a lot of travel but the trips we did make were all great. ↩
3. Despite fewer trips out to walk the dog than in 2024, to my surprise I still managed to walk almost 10% more. ↩
4. Although I went a little easier in 2024, I managed to get out on the whip about 20% more over 78 days than 2024’s 948 miles. Mostly I was happy to finally complete the ride from San Francisco to home. No crashes too which is always a good thing. ↩
5. I expected my coffee consumption to have gone up more. Only a 20 cup difference between this year and last. ↩
6. Conversely to coffee, I drank less tea this year. Nearly 80 cups less, largely prompted I suspect by fewer days working from home. ↩
7. I upped my reading goal this year to 35 books (from 30 in 2024) and managed to read 40, a 17% percent overage. All that time on the train to and from SF helped me cover those 11,210 pages. ↩
8. I watched more movies in 2025 too — 80, up from 67 in 2024. And of those, 23 were in a theatre which is more than double how many I saw in theatre last year. Weapons, Bugonia, Hamnet, and Superman were all favorites. Heck, I saw Superman three times in theatre! Last movie of the year was House of Dynamite. ↩
9. A drop of about 15% compared to last year, but I equate that to other my attention put towards other endeavors and a general feeling of wanting to be a bit less online all the time. ↩
10. Despite fewer total posts, shared links in Through Lines issues was up… quite a bit. By 290 (almost 25% year over year) to be exact and despite a move to a more manageable bi-weekly cadence. I expect to change this up a bit more too if only because it’s still kind of exhausting putting those together. ↩
11. The Library is pretty well-formed at this point and so additions were considerably less this year — only about 20% of what was added in 2024. ↩
12. Under the hood of the site though, I made about 16% more commits to the site repo. Lots of behind the scenes fiddling including improvements to the Now, Library, and other pages which were at least partly driven by a big pile of new plugins I developed for Kirby.. Maybe 2026 will see some kind of redesign? ↩
13. The Riso didn’t see as much action in 2025 — only about 38% compared to last year. Coupled with a notable increase in paper costs and limited availability in general made for fewer prints. Specifically 3472 vs 8938 in 2024. The fact that I switched gears with my original plan to produce Context Window myself and ran out of steam on a second iteration of the Simple Sabotage Field Manual were likely the main drivers otherwise. ↩
14. Kind of the same as last year. Not zero, which is good. And sooner or later maybe I’ll actually consider tabling at one of the local art book fairs. ↩
15. I wasn’t planning on upgrading any tech this year but ended up with a new phone after my Sony A7ii camera died. A better phone with much better cameras made more sense than another standalone device. Technically this should maybe be -1 since the Mac running the Riso bit the dust. I did also recycle a big pile of devices with Apple last month. ↩
16. Same as in 2025. No meaningful activity on the long-gestating Eclectic Fence typeface I started several years back. ↩
17. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Instagram is no longer a going concern for me after deleting my account. F!*k Zuckerberg. ↩
18. My Polaroid count dropped to about 60% of 2024’s output. Despite adding a new camera (the new Polaroid Flip), I’m ok with this though I do need to spend more time with that camera. ↩
19. Pressing Matters is still holding strong as my only ongoing print subscription. ↩
20. Apparently I had 5 fewer haircuts this year than in 2024. I thought it would be more. ↩
21. I backed 2 Kickstarter projects in 2025 (4 in 2024) and both were fulfilled in short order. I’m still patiently awaiting the Newland Camera project from 2022 to arrive though they finally started shipping orders in small batches this year so hopefully early 2026? ↩
22. Nada. This is ok. ↩
23. Also nada, thank goodness. ↩
24. The correct number of cases again, thankfully. ↩

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Although I’m still waiting on the arrival of a couple necessary parts to fully reassemble this fluorescent orange Riso ink drum, I decided to dive head-first into giving it a thorough cleaning yesterday. This meant carefully and thoroughly disassembling it first to get down to the deepest — and goopiest depths of the drum.

It’s deeply messy work, but the fact that I got everything apart and kept all the various screws organized so they can all go back in the right places counts for something in my books. As soon as the screen assembly jigs arrive (next week), I’ll put the last pieces back together — and hopefully be back up and running.

I’m switching colors on this drum from Fluorescent Orange to Federal Blue. The fluorescent colors have a tendency to dry out a lot faster than Riso’s normal inks, and I’m excited to start using a new-to-me color.

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Yesterday I finished the final work of cutting the small viewfinder cards to accompany a new edition of what is (probably) my best-selling Risograph zine: Ten Rules for Teachers and Students. This is the fifth printing, so… I intended to make a larger edition than the 25 books I ended up with, but my Bright Red ink cylinder apparently had other ideas, and while printing the last color on the last spread, made it only about halfway before running into a P04-513 ink overflow error.

This particularly frustrating error likely means I’m going to have to disassemble the ink cylinder to clean it and (gulp) hopefully put it back together again. I’ve seen a demo of the process in person, but never done it myself. I just managed to source the Screen Spring Jig needed, so once those arrive, hopefully I’ll be back in business.

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The value of print is actually not about paper. It’s about the set of demands and offerings that that paper has. Privacy, stability, reliability, sovereignty.

Robin Sloan

The Bay Area especially is finally catching up to how empowering and extensible print is among a world of ones and zeros. Some of us, ahem, were onto this many, many years ago. What caught my attention in particular from this quote by author Robin Sloan was the word sovereignty. It might actually be the best word. In fact, the four adjectives Sloan chose are a nice and neat summation of why print remains important.

Footnotes

Hayes, Cydney. Print is Forever, Gazetteer SF, Dec 22, 2025.

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1. Destination — Neko Case. It disappoints me to no end to not see Neko Case’s latest appear in any best of lists. She’s never exactly been mainstream so I kind of get it, but this album is a powerhouse as evidenced by the lyrical mastery in this track, the title track, and others. Her best album yet? I think so.
2. The Chamber of 32 Doors — Genesis. Few albums hold the kind of place in my mind as this one. Iit represents the kind of sprawling musical adventurousness and risk most artists don’t dare risk with little hints at changes the band would undergo, and eventual massive international success. Lyrically, this track has a few lines that really hit hard for me.
3. Western Clear Skies — Jeff Tweedy. A triple album is a tough sell. Could Jeff possibly have culled enough brilliant songs to need not one or two, but three LPs to fit it all in? As someone who’s gravitated more towards his output in Wilco than solo tracks, I hazard to say the answer is “yes.”
4. Ramona, Patron Saint of Silence — The Mynabirds. I encountered The Mynabirds somewhat randomly via Bandcamp and was immediately caught by the band’s subtle, quiet beauty. Lyrically, this song along with Disarm and Cocoon sold me. Easily a favorite new artist.
5. Say Goodbye, Tell No One — Kathleen Edwards. I’d been waiting for this album for a while after seeing Kathleen perform in February and it really delivers. While it maybe isn’t a huge departure in her sound, having Jason Isbell producing and his backing band pitching in gives it a bit of a different flavor. I’m looking forward to seeing her again — along with this album’s songs — in a couple months.
6. Moments — Ben Folds with the National Symphony Orchestra. To me this album represents a big middle finger to the current administration as it came following Folds’ resignation as musical curator for the Kennedy Center and NSO. I kind of fell off the wagon with his music so this expansive performance feels like a homecoming in a way.
7. Nowhere Special — Matt Berninger. What’s cool about this record is that it has a kind of urgent energy that’s missing in a lot of albums by his other band, The National. I don’t think I really get what it’s about, but I mostly just love the kind of frenetic, mumbling rhythm of this track.
8. The Machine Song (Demo #2) — Pink Floyd. Another 50th anniversary reissue that makes me feel old, but that aside, this early demo for Welcome to the Machine is particularly moody — almost frightening.
9. Tiny Threads — Deep Sea Diver. I really loved the last Deep Sea Diver record and this one surpassed my expectations even more. Pretty much solid all the way through but Tiny Threads is just one track that stood out immediately for me.
10. Event of a Fire — Blondshell. I read about the band in the Times, which was enough to get me curious, but I wasn’t expecting to jive with this album as much as I have. Rock songs that turned out to be punchier than I expected.
11. The Great Resolution — Ken Yates. I saw Ken open for Kathleen Edwards earlier this year, performing solo. It was immediately evident that this was a great songwriter and sensitive, clever lyricist, so a natural fit for my tastes. I think he may have played this song during that show.
12. Average Ghost — Arthur Buck. I haven’t really thought about Joseph Arthur in a long time, and so this album with R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck totally caught me off guard and surprised me in the best way possible. There’s a little R.E.M. jangle in there that gets me every time.

Honorable mention to a few other albums of note: Kate Bush’s The Best of the Other Sides, David Gilmour’s The Luck and Strange Concerts, Roger Waters’ This is Not A Drill, a new (and wild that it exists) single from Sugar — House of Dead Memories, Margaret Glaspy’s The Golden Heart Protector, Springsteen’s Nebraska '82 Expanded Edition, and Kathleen Edwards’ superb Covers EP.

Footnotes

1. Also that I’m not particularly apologetic for how cool or uncool my choices might be. I’ve never been one to follow trends and tend to not gravitate towards anything that feels like a “one hit wonder.” The musician in me wants something that will grow and last for a long time — and what’s cool to a musician I suspect may often be different than to non-musicians. Especially us weird drummer-types. ↩

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I’m in the midst of reprinting a new edition of the 10 Rules zine (by popular demand). Things were going well today until I ran into what appears to be an ink overflow error on the Riso (error P04-513). This of course popped up just as I was printing the second color on the last spread.

Assuming I can work around that error, next up is finishing the third color and then a whole pile of laser cutting, folding, gluing, and stapling. And then I can dip back into the other little project I’m hoping to complete before the holidays are up.

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Art & Design

• Brian Henning’s work on H&Co.’s Discover Typography site brought type to life like no one else had done. It deftly illustrated the depth and versatility of the foundry’s fonts. Lucky for us, he’s archived it and shared details about its history on his own site.
• Speaking of H&Co’s fonts, Doug Wilson and Tobias Frere-Jones capture the origins of Gotham, perhaps the foundry’s most instantly recognizable type family.
• If you’re looking for a last-minute design book for someone you know, Hybrid: Curiosity in All Things, a monograph of the San Francisco design studio, would be an excellent choice. I have the black edition and it’s a beautiful beast of a book.
• Lynn Rennie’s Drawn to Canada project beautifully encompasses national identity through many of the recognizable objects, people, and symbols of the country.
• Every year, my favorite printer, Hemlock produces a very special set of holiday gift wrap. The 2025 edition created in partnership with Asimov Collective is as much art in its own right as it might be wrapping paper.
• The vision for the future Eames Institute Museum in Novato, CA makes me think it’ll be worth the drive north for regular visits.
• Zara Picken’s Modern Illustration archives her personal collection of print ephemera showcasing the pioneering work of early commercial illustrators circa 1950–1975.
• I’m watching with curiosity as Aphera, a new indie photo editor for the Mac inches towards release.

Type of Note

• It’s hard to argue with Asura’s description of itself as a feral, free-flowing display typeface that mixes poster-era elegance with a hint of delightful chaos. Legibility be damned.
• The lack of overshoots gives Horizontype a particular vibe, and blending that with internal tension and its clipped terminals and diagonals and you get something fresh that comes in both standard and mono variants of the design.
• AM Impero reinvents a classic Art Déco style geometric sans serif with strong thick/thin contrast and occasionally unusual curve choices while staying true to its historical origins.
• Also from CAST is Vittoria, a distinctive condensed all-caps geometric sans also in the Art Déco style. The almond-shaped bowls and sensuous curves give it a timely and elegant look.
• ABC Camera is the Swiss cheese of fonts, re-interpreting the idea of light traps as a visual feature by scaling them up substantially within its soft rounded letterforms.
• Mastermind’s condensed shapes and cozy flared serifs are full of subtle flair and chock full of nostalgic charm — through the lens of practical and contemporary sensibilities.
• Honorable mention to Cockpit from Feliciano Type, ATF Super Condensed, Blot from Briefcase Type, and an early release of Path Grotesk by Typeji on Future Fonts.
• Also, because its been in the news lately, a brief history of Times New Roman from Matthew Butterick.

Technology

• Building on existing CSS grid and flexbox capabilities, Webkit has introduced a ratified version of what is being called CSS Grid Lanes which blows the doors off what’s currently possible with layouts.
• The RSL standard for ensuring AI companies pay for being allowed to scrape content is official. I suppose that means it’s time to investigate a little more closely.
• The Safari team also shipped a boatload of useful new features, improvements, and fixes in version 26.2.
• At this point it’s unquestionably true that tech has lost its way. The question then becomes: should we expect that it can find its way back? It's Time to Save Silicon Valley From Itself.
• Some required reading: Cory Doctrow’s The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Criticizing AI.
• Color Palette Pro has been making the rounds for a couple weeks, but now its creator Ryan Feigenbaum has shed some light on its development.
• I need one of these.

Music & Film

• St. Vincent (Annie Clarke) rips through Bowie's Young Americans on Colbert with a couple of sneaky lyric changes including I’m afraid of Americans.
• Another cut from David Gilmour’s Live at the Circus Maximus in Rome: the Floyd classic Fat Old Sun with a cracker of a guitar solo.
• An official music video for Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here. It only took 50 years. Also still one of the unquestionably great albums and album covers of all time.
• Kathleen Edwards doing a fab acoustic rendition of When the Truth Comes Out from her latest album, Billionaire at Jack Kerouac House in Florida. I’m looking forward to seeing her again when she rolls through SF in February.
• James Gunn’s hard partying and drinking Supergirl looks like fun.
• Disclosure Day looks like a return to classic Spielberg form.
• It's Never Over, Jeff Buckley is going to be a tough watch.

Humanities

• Stephen Fry has launched a campaign to gather recommendations to entice even the most reluctant readers. If the UK considers this a problem, I have to imagine the decline in the US is vastly greater. What’s the best book you’ve read in the last year?

One More Thing

• A holiday challenge: do one thing for yourself that brings you a moment of calm or joy. Make something. Take the first step to learn a new skill. Visit a local gallery or museum. Read a book you’ve ignored for months. Go for a hike in nature and listen to the birds.

It’s nice to be on vacation for a couple weeks after fighting off a nasty cold. It’s nice to be able to disconnect, relax, recalibrate and to get some focused time to hopefully wrap up a couple of projects before diving back into work in the new year — and of course to spend time with family and friends. I’m off to spend some time in the studio today, but wishing you a very happy holidays!

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One more from our recent visit to the Neon Museum is Las Vegas. Dealing with burnt out incandescent bulbs used in signs like this seems like a nightmare.

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