On the death of Pitchfork
It’s a sad day for me. While I am always somewhat loathe to admit it, I’ve been an inveterate Pitchfork reader for years. But, following the recent news that the loved (and hated!) music website will be swallowed up by GQ, I sense the end of an era. It’s impossible to understate the influence that…
On goal-less-ness
It’s funny to think—but three weeks ago, I was certain that I wouldn’t drop the daily blogging. Funny, because I have—very much so. Come the first of the year, I dropped blogging like a bad habit. I was somewhat surprised at my disinclination to the daily wrestling match with myself…until I remembered how unpleasant it…
On the end, or a new beginning
I have been looking forward to this. I nearly gave up at a dozen different points—most often, when I fell behind. I’m shamed by how often I fell behind on posting. But it was the leeway I granted myself, the only way I knew for sure that I could actually publish 365 blog posts in…
On self-imposed anxiety
There’s a Venn diagram I think about—wondering at its overlap: the things I care about and the things I’m anxious about. I imagine that tidier minds than mine have less a Venn diagram going on with these two categories, and more of a concentric one. I am only anxious about things I care about. (Or…
On who is more exhausted
Even though I was the spouse stuck working in this “dead week” of the year, my wife still worked harder. As we remember whenever our two little boys are home for longer than a weekend, parenting is a real and really exhausting job. We long ago realized that looking after kids and conducting any kind…
On getting to see the trees and the forest
One reason I’m excited about my new job is that I get to work both inside and outside of the process. My last role mostly found me fixated on the proverbial trees: there were only rarely opportunities to step back and see the forest. As a result, process improvements were not only few and far…
On Selena and English
Until yesterday, I knew little about the late Tejano star Selena save for her tragic death at the hands of her friend. (Who was also the president of her fan club! And stealing money from her! It’s a crazy story if you don’t know it.) I decided to remedy this cultural ignorance by putting on…
On the skeleton crew
I know the popular opinion that I should care…but I never much mind working this last week of the year. Aside from the irritation of needing to juggle childcare and family commitments—fairly sizable irritations!—work this week has a rare slowness and a quiet to it that vanishes come the first week of the new year.…
On looking toward a growth mindset year
I know, I know. New Year’s resolutions, right? But I can’t help it. Milestones make me swoon. When I see the approaching end of the calendar, I get a little giddy. The painful irony is that this is in spite of those resolutions that have either fizzed out or irritated me to no end, even…
On wrapping with some care
I’ve never been one to care about wrapping presents. I’ve long viewed it as an arduous and paper-wasting activity. They’re going to rip it off and then ever think about it again? So, why bother? But the things happened to me this gift-wrapping season that changed my mind: So, while I still did a somewhat…
On the pain of learning from knowing nothing
How hard could it be? Is there a thought more infamous? More foolhardy? I should know better by now: I can’t count how many times I’ve asked myself this rhetorical question and then been bludgeoned by the cold reality. And yet—and I’m not sure what this says about me—I keep having it, and keep getting…
On the observation deck at Daniels & Fisher Tower
Last week I had the rare privilege of visiting the top floors of the Daniels & Fisher Tower—the downtown Denver icon. When completed in 1910, the 22-story tower was the tallest building between the Mississippi River and California. For decades, the tower was Denver’s tallest building and an essential part of the city skyline. But…
On a whole new world of words
I got pretty comfortable with architect lingo the past eight years. Programming, parti, AHJ. After three weeks at a landscape and planning firm, I am still chuckling at the odd words and phrases that keep coming up. Multibenefit. Armature. Ecosystem services. PDA. (No, not that PDA.) It’s fun, in a way, all the head scratching…
On Google Maps not knowing
Google doesn’t know the best commute. It shocked me when I realized this. I don’t know how Google Maps comes by its route recommendations—but the app almost always tells me to take the same route to work every day. To be fair, there was another route that Google suggested. It was a matter of traffic,…
On finishing strong
I am behind on my blogging. I find this fact both irritating in a primary way—I hate being behind!—as well as in a secondary way—why do I even care about being behind on a blog no one reads? Good question. All I can offer myself is there’s little I find more frustrating that disappointing myself.…
On the deviousness of certain Christmas songs
I don’t mean devious in topic matter—I’m talking musical structure. For the past couple years—having overcome a certain Scroogey tendency (and having improved as a guitar player)—I like to pick up the old axe and break out the holiday songbook. (Metaphorically, I mean—I use the Guitar Tabs app.) And, every year, I am blown away…
On the office vibe
Every office I’ve ever worked in has a distinct vibe. It’s some combination of the physical office itself, the work being done there, the people, and—of course—the amorphous blob of a concept that is “office culture.” I’m vague on definition here because I’ve never encountered a satisfactory one. Definitions can have the curious side effect…
On the silly superiority of living at high altitude
Not long after moving to Denver—at an approximate elevation of 5,280 feet, it’s called the Mile High City for good reason—my wife stumbled across a post in the Denver subreddit that subsequently imprinted itself on me. The original post was the simple question of what newcomers liked most about living in the region. Of course,…
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Taylor Coe 