mary.codes

Five-ish things that I loved this week. Hopefully I can keep this up every Friday. I love newsletters, but I don't really want to deal with actually sending out newsletters and email addresses and all that jazz, so this is my comprimise. Subscribe to my RSS feed if you want updates.

Constellations are Younger than Continents (article)

It makes perfect sense, but I never really thought about it. Constellations are comprised of stars that aren't within any physical proximity of each other, and therefore, will travel at different velocities. The night sky looked different to our earliest Stone Age ancestors.

This led me to research a little bit more about the subject, and I learned about the proper motion of stars. It seems like this is something I would've learned in an introductory astronomy course, if the astronomy course at my college wasn't the most popular science course on campus and I could never get registered for it.

You Wouldn't 3D Print a Toilet... (article/video)

You're right, I wouldn't 3D print a toilet because I can barely get my printer to print small things. But I'm glad that someone tackled the problem of 3D printing a toilet. Not because it needed to be done, but because it's a fun project.

Not only did Emily the Engineer 3D print a toilet for fun, but she also went crazy over-engineering it once it worked, adding a toilet paper holder, a bidet, and wheels.

Solving my BIGGEST fear… (video)

I really like Rubik's cubes. I own a few different small ones of various shapes, but I've only learned an algorithm to solve the regular Rubik's cube, and I've already forgotten it as well. I don't think I'd ever figure out how to solve a Zettaminx. I have a Megaminx and I've solved 1/3 of it without "cheating" and looking up an algorithm.

Maybe I'll figure out how to finish this some day (allegedly it's similar to solving a regular 3x3 cube). After that, perhaps I could tackle a monstrosity like this.

Probably not.

New Ways of Working Playbook (website)

I'm very intrigued by this site. It's a collection of resources for "New Ways of Working", which seems to be a philosophy for improving employee engagement at work. It's a way to bring humanity back to the workplace and combat burnout and "quiet quitting".

I feel like this is a resource to be consumed slowly and thoughtfully instead of chomped all at once, so I'll be adding it to my to-do list. Hopefully I'll get through it in the next couple of weeks.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder (game)

I received this game for Christmas and I'm obsessed now. It's a Mario platformer with additional power-ups that allow you to interact with the environment in different ways. It still feels like an old-school Mario game, with warp pipes and the same enemies, but there are also new enemies and locations. It also looks gorgeous and has a fun sense of humor. Level 2, with the singing Piranha Plants, had me laughing so hard.

(spoiler video)

Fun fact, the childlike reflexes that had me running through Super Mario Bros. games in the 90s are totally gone. This game for babies is totally kicking my butt. 🫠