I use the ISO weeks from Monday to Monday, so ISO Week 2026-W35 is the week of 2026-08-24/2026-08-30. Churn or Calm You know the analogy of how your favorite waterfowl (duck or swan) appears effortlessly gliding above the surface, while they’re ferociously paddling out of sight under the water? That’s very much what the tail end of August has felt like. Thankfully there’s a lot of progress happening amid the stress, but it’s not all observable yet. That’s why I ended up participating in Blaugust2026 much less than intended, and this weeknote is coming out nearly a week “late”. Appreciations of the Week Two specific technologies vastly improved my week: My new reading glasses, which arrived mid-week; and Obsidian Dataview, a plugin for Obsidian that lends your Markdown notes some basic spreadsheet or database powers. Reading How My Glasses Are Read The existence of luxury surveillance eyewear (aka “pervert glasses”) has made it tricky to find frames I like that don’t give off “I’m a creep who might be recording everything” vibes. My new reading glasses pass that test, but being aware of this possibility now means I’m considering ones with thinner arms for my next full-time glasses—which I hope to get in the next month or so. Current contenders include all-black Clubmasters or black and silver New Clubmasters. I’m so deeply disappointed that Ray-Bans partnered with Meta in the first place that I’ve been considering entirely avoiding their frames. However, those frames are by far the ones I like most at my new favorite local optometrists, and I’ve heard that with progressive lenses it’s best not to shop online. There is no ethical vision correction in the current conjucture, it would seem. Obsidian Dataview I’ve already written a few notes about how I use Dataview and Obsidian more generally. Lately it’s been helping me plan my semester and reading schedule. I keep a note for each article, book, etc. on my qualifying exam reading lists. Each note contains details like which of the three lists it’s on, whether I’ll be re-reading it or reading it anew, or if I’ve already recently read it. Dataview makes spreadsheet-like views of this info, right there in an app I enjoy using and without the context switching hassle of moving to a dedicated spreadsheet. Obsidian has created a similar plugin called Bases. As I’m already quite familiar & satisfied with Dataview, I haven’t found a reason to experiment with Bases (much less switch over in the middle of my exam project). If you’re relatively new to Obsidian, it’d be prudent to start with Bases instead of Dataview. I’m a fan of inviting the lowest number of external dependencies into long-term processes whenever possible. For the pedagogy part of my dissertation project, I’ve started thinking I’d use Bases with students, to help them get authentic experience with data use (aka “data literacy”). So I may end up exploring Bases more in the not-too-distant future. Lightly-Annotated Linkapalooza Student Protests are What Created the University as We Know It. This opinion piece for CNN by David M. Perry and Matthew Gabriele relates how two separate bar Parisian bar fights, one in 1200 and another in 1229, laid the groundwork for what we know know as the “university”. Solidarity between instructors and students let them survive the authoritarians who wanted to control these new institutions and their pursuit of knowledge rather than accommodation to the establishment. Visual Design Rules You Can Safely Follow Every Time by the interface designer Anthony Hobday condenses a lot of experience and insight into brief explanations. Much like Butterick’s Practical Typography, this feels like a site worth bookmarking both to reference and share with others. TWI(R)L This week I (re)learned… meat proxy, an unfortunately useful word all grim prints not only exists, but is currently having a summer sale DHH is way worse than I thought