Journal & Field Ledger
Handpicked. Curated. No ads. No spam. Cozy and real, made daily by Michael.
Read MichaelFilter
Get the hand-curated daily edition and follow the Journals. No feed, no algorithm, no slop.
afield since 2003 · michael joel hall
Saturday
October 31, 2026
Action Indicates Priority
I'm sending these out because I quit social media and I need attention. What I actually want is for you to reply and tell me you're coming. I'll drop one every night at midnight. You can register in the morning when you get up —…
Read the essay →Breathing Through Depression
Both high-dose and low-dose yoga with breathing exercises significantly reduced depressive symptoms in adults with Major Depressive Disorder over 12 weeks.
Read the essay →Threads
On this day
October 31 in years past
Ashtanga for Beginners
Are you new to yoga or curious about Ashtanga's transformative potential? Discover the profound benefits of Ashtanga yoga for beginners in our article. This practice offers an accessible entry point for those starting their yoga journey. From enhanced flexibility to mental clarity, Ashtanga empowers you to embrace a holistic approach to wellness. Dive into our article and explore why Ashtanga can be your perfect introduction to the world of yoga, bringing vitality and balance to your life. Start your journey today!
Read the essay →
Mysore Yoga Explained: A Complete Guide
Interested in the unique Mysore method for Ashtanga yoga practice? Dive into our article to discover the essence of this transformative approach. Mysore style offers a personalized, self-paced practice where you'll receive individualized guidance from experienced instructors. This method empowers you to build a strong foundation, deepen your practice, and foster a lasting connection with yoga. Explore the enriching world of Mysore Ashtanga through our article and embrace a path of self-discovery and growth. Read on to unlock the secrets of this traditional yet highly effective yoga practice.
Read the essay →
Cowboy Matrix Pumpkin
la.
V
Cfas
@michaelgeovanni
home shortly.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/national/climate-environment/mars-chocolate-deforestation-climate-change-west-africa/
FIRE
FIRE
Cher & Dionne obv
2 hrs • 2
Gays on Halloween:
Witch
Zombie
Vampire
Marie
Antoinette
B Like
Ada Kate Wight and 32 others
Puja Sardana
Merman
Comment
ML
when your bf and your bff
out here in these streets
reading you like LaVarr
1
10
https://www.engadget.com/2016/10/31/peter-thiel-silicon-valley-billionaires-justice/
The lineup there for November is awesome!
Wanna make some shapes with me, @jrene01 , and @ashtangadispatch ??? Share your pic, your thoughts, and your perspective all this month.
The Ashtanga yoga method is so much more than the shapes we make with our bodies-- there's the community, the teachers, and a technique for fostering insight.
As Oscar Wilde said "life is too important to be taken seriously" -- so let's have some fun! -- Find the entire Intermediate Series (and more) in the latest Ashtanga Dispatch —> visit ashtangadispatch.com/themagazine. *5% of all proceeds go to @eaglemountboz, a small charity making a BIG difference by providing outdoor adventures for kids with disabilities.
#yogagivesback #makeadifference #yogachallenge #ashtangadispatch #yogainspiration #intermediateseries #practicedaily #ashtanga #kidsmatter
By the numbers
Writing
Digests
- Breathing Through DepressionOct 31, 2026
Both high-dose and low-dose yoga with breathing exercises significantly reduced depressive symptoms in adults with Major Depressive Disorder over 12 weeks.
- Yogic Agency: The Practice on PurposeOct 25, 2026
There's no secret to a transformative practice. Anyone selling one is selling something else. What there is: yogic agency.
- Overcome Cognitive Biases with YogaOct 24, 2026
Discover how Ashtanga yoga acts as a powerful ally in confronting our deepest cognitive biases and illuminating a path towards clear perception.
- Vulnerability and Risk in PracticeOct 22, 2026
Vulnerability is one of the most overused words in self-help. The underlying idea is real. The marketing version mostly isn't.
- Complimentary Forms of Exercise for Ashtanga YogaOct 18, 2026
In this video, Michael Joel Hall discusses the ongoing debate within the Ashtanga yoga community about incorporating complementary exercises, such...
- Meditation and Panic DisorderOct 17, 2026
An 8-week mindfulness program produced clinically significant improvements in anxiety and panic symptoms for 22 people with diagnosed anxiety disorders.
- The Debate Around Practice IntensityOct 11, 2026
Michael Joel Hall discusses the paradox of Ashtanga Yoga, highlighting how it demands effort while requiring patience.
- Thirty Minutes a DayOct 10, 2026
A Johns Hopkins review of 47 clinical trials with 3,515 participants found that 30 minutes of daily meditation improved anxiety and depression symptoms, with effects lasting at least…
The Read
techdirt.comNever Mind The Deepfakes, Chatbots Have To Deal With Election Lies Being Free, While Truth Is PaywalledThe article examines how AI chatbots struggle with election misinformation, not primarily through deepfakes but because reliable news sources block AI scraping while low-quality sites remain accessible. A NewsGuard study found 67% of top news sites block AI tools while 91% of low-quality sites allow✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
nautil.usJust Imagining a Workout Can Make You StrongerMotor imagery activates the same brain areas as actual movement, with inhibitory signals preventing muscle activation. Research shows mental practice enhances performance across activities, with optimal sessions around 20 minutes. Studies demonstrate measurable strength gains (22% in pinkie muscles)✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
nautil.usWhy Your Boss Might Live Longer Than YouA Stevens Institute study of 27,000+ Americans found self-employed individuals had a 10% reduced mortality risk compared to wage workers, with longer self-employment correlating to greater benefits. The effect was strongest for opportunity-driven (not necessity-driven) entrepreneurs and partially me✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
whyisthisinteresting.substack.comThe Monday Media Diet with Claire StapletonClaire Stapleton, former Google exec turned labor organizer and memoirist, describes a media diet shaped by feeds, group chats, and YouTube vlogs rather than traditional news. She reflects on how institutions capture our longing for purpose, drawing parallels between Graham Greene's The Quiet Americ✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50The Listen
Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas372 | Erik Winfree on DNA Computers and RobotsWinfree reframes DNA not as biology but as a minimal programming substrate, then traces the full stack from theoretical computer science to test-tube chemistry — a rare conversation where philosophy of computation and wet-lab reality genuinely collide.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
The 404 Media PodcastIs the AI Boom a Bubble?Mike Isaac cuts through the AI hype cycle with hard-won skepticism from covering every previous tech bubble, while offering rare structural insight into why OpenAI's IPO timeline is messier than anyone admits. The Meta settlement framing — product changes over dollar amounts — is the sharpest take in the episode.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
The Next Big Idea DailyHierarchy Is Broken. Here’s How to Fix It.Halevi and the McKinsey team offer rare diagnostic precision about why hierarchies fail — and concrete, psychologically grounded fixes at every level of the org chart. The ballet promotion story alone is worth the listen.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
Life KitHow honest should you really be? Tips for sharing good and bad newsVanessa Bonds translates social psychology research into genuinely usable decision frameworks for the hardest interpersonal moments. The science is specific enough to be surprising, practical enough to use tomorrow.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
The DailyElizabeth Holmes and Nathan Fielder Keep Us GuessingA masterclass on how Nathan Fielder weaponizes documentary's own conventions against itself — and why pairing him with Elizabeth Holmes is the perfect collision of two reality-distortion artists. The Penn & Teller analogy alone is worth the runtime.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50The Watch
TEDIs AI Turning Us All into the Same Person? | Sandra Matz | TEDMatz reframes the AI risk conversation away from jobs and misinformation toward something quieter and harder to argue with: the slow algorithmic erasure of the self. The 'dial' proposal is genuinely actionable, not just rhetorical.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
Washington Week PBSWashington Week with The Atlantic full episode, Aug. 28, 2026A sharp, sardonic dissection of Trump's inversion of alliances — hating Canada, respecting Kim Jong-un — with a Canadian reporter at the table and real trade mechanics underneath the absurdity. The Dolly Parton coda lands harder than expected.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
TODAYMeet the Couple Behind Panda ExpressA rare look at the Cherngs' unsentimental, clear-eyed philosophy on building an empire — immigrant grit meets shrewd business candor. The orange chicken origin and their unapologetic 'American Chinese food' framing alone make this worth returning to.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
StarTalkHow The Brain Perceives Time, with David EaglemanEagleman dismantles the brain's greatest myths — that memory records, that senses are fixed, that slow-motion fear is real — with experiments wild enough to match the claims. The dream-as-real-estate-defense theory alone is worth the price of admission.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
Tale FoundryThe Book of Dead FairiesA genuinely weird artifact — pressed fairy corpses as Victorian psychosexual metaphor — that earns its darkness and lands a quietly profound point about preserved imagination and the shame of looking back at who you were.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50Pickings
Latest dispatches
Doodles
Unearthed
hangover
@pizzeria_etto
affagoto
hangover
@pizzeria etto
STIA
The full ledger
13,262 entries · 2003–2026 · filter & browse below
Action Indicates Priority
I'm sending these out because I quit social media and I need attention. What I actually want is for you to reply and tell me you're coming. I'll drop one every night at midnight. You can register in the morning when you get up —…
Read the essay →Breathing Through Depression
Both high-dose and low-dose yoga with breathing exercises significantly reduced depressive symptoms in adults with Major Depressive Disorder over 12 weeks.
Read the essay →
Built to Collapse
She ran the shala for nineteen years. Three hundred students across two decades. She knew every body in the room, every injury, every limitation, every breakthrough. The curriculum lived inside her. The culture was her personality. The place was, in every meaningful sense, her. Then…
Read the essay →techdirt.comNever Mind The Deepfakes, Chatbots Have To Deal With Election Lies Being Free, While Truth Is PaywalledThe article examines how AI chatbots struggle with election misinformation, not primarily through deepfakes but because reliable news sources block AI scraping while low-quality sites remain accessible. A NewsGuard study found 67% of top news sites block AI tools while 91% of low-quality sites allow✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50(empty reply)
Sources:
• [2026-07-20 · planner] Jul 20, 2026
• [2026-08-02 · later · watch] Aug 2, 2026
• [2026-07-31 · planner] Jul 31, 2026
• [2026-07-30 · planner] Jul 30, 2026
• [2026-10-26 · mail · The Washington Post] Oct 26, 2026
• [2026-07-27 · later · read] Jul 27, 2026
• [2026-07-08 · planner] Jul 8, 2026
• [2026-10-27 · mail · WPManageNinja Community] Oct 27, 2026
• [2026-10-26 · mail · LinkedIn] Oct 26, 2026
• [2026-07-27 · later · read] Jul 27, 2026
• [2026-08-04 · article · Pablo Enoc] Aug 4, 2026
• [Mail · danielle del vecchio] Oct 14, 2026
• [Mail · Elaine C.] Sep 8, 2026
• [2026-07-20 · article · Official Alan Watts Org] Jul 20, 2026
• [Mail · TYC] Oct 19, 2026
• [2026-08-10 · later · read] Aug 10, 2026
You Can’t Have a Bad Practice
Here's what a bad practice actually requires. It requires you to show up with an idea of who's practicing — how much energy they have, what their hips are doing, how steady their attention is — and then find out, somewhere around minute fifteen, that…
Read the essay →nautil.usJust Imagining a Workout Can Make You StrongerMotor imagery activates the same brain areas as actual movement, with inhibitory signals preventing muscle activation. Research shows mental practice enhances performance across activities, with optimal sessions around 20 minutes. Studies demonstrate measurable strength gains (22% in pinkie muscles)✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas372 | Erik Winfree on DNA Computers and RobotsWinfree reframes DNA not as biology but as a minimal programming substrate, then traces the full stack from theoretical computer science to test-tube chemistry — a rare conversation where philosophy of computation and wet-lab reality genuinely collide.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50nautil.usWhy Your Boss Might Live Longer Than YouA Stevens Institute study of 27,000+ Americans found self-employed individuals had a 10% reduced mortality risk compared to wage workers, with longer self-employment correlating to greater benefits. The effect was strongest for opportunity-driven (not necessity-driven) entrepreneurs and partially me✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50whyisthisinteresting.substack.comThe Monday Media Diet with Claire StapletonClaire Stapleton, former Google exec turned labor organizer and memoirist, describes a media diet shaped by feeds, group chats, and YouTube vlogs rather than traditional news. She reflects on how institutions capture our longing for purpose, drawing parallels between Graham Greene's The Quiet Americ✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50r/Onyx_Boox - My Palma 2 Pro as a pen-first productivity device: the home screen is my daily planner page
Page 1 (Current page)
Page 2
Item 1 of 2
Disclaimer: This post was created with the help of Claude, as were the apps. Maybe you can take some ideas from it.Disclaimer: This post was created with the help of Claude, as were the apps. Maybe you can take some ideas from it.
My idea was to present the idea of a launcher which makes use of the stylus and the note taking while beeing minimalistic.
I wanted my Boox Palma 2 Pro to work like a paper planner that's there the moment I pick it up, not like another phone where I have to dig through apps first. So now the home screen is today's planner page, and I write on it directly with the stylus.
The setup
1. Overwatcher, the planner. It's my personal fork of Tools for Boox by Gábor Auth, with parts of the Ledger fork by Michael Joel Hall.
Daily pages with a schedule (it pulls in calendar events), a task list with checkboxes, and notes
Open tasks carry over to the next day automatically
The Palma and my Note Air 4C sync through my own WebDAV server over Tailscale, instead of Google Drive
No ads, no analytics
2. Ink Launcher, a small home screen app on top of it.
Today's page: It shows the current day split into four full-width parts (morning, afternoon, tasks, notes), because the whole page is too small on the tall 1:2 screen.
Pen writes, fingers navigate: Swipe sideways to switch parts, up for the app list, down for notifications.
Live ink: Writing uses the Onyx pen SDK. The strokes are saved straight into Overwatcher's data, so they show up on the Air 4C after the next sync.
Schedule: It opens on morning or afternoon depending on the time of day.
Status line: Battery, open tasks and notifications. Tapping "open tasks" jumps to the oldest unfinished task.
Sync indicator: It sits next to the date, which is handy when Tailscale is down.
App list: Text only, with search and favorites. It also opens the Boox Library and Notes.
Why
I want as little friction as possible: pick it up, see today, write. There's no unlock, find the app, find the page. The Air 4C is the big desk planner, and the Palma is the pocket version of the same pages.
How it was made
Both apps are vibe-coded: I described what I wanted and an AI coding assistant wrote the code. This post was also written with AI. It's early, and I made it my default launcher this weekend, so expect rough edges. I'm sharing the idea, not a download, but happy to talk about it.
Tip for anyone on a third-party launcher: Library and Notes have no app icon of their own and normally only open from the Boox launcher's widgets. They can be started directly, at least on my firmware:
Library: action com.onyx.action.LIBRARY
Notes: action com.onyx.intent.action.MAIN_ACTIVITY with the string extra json = {"action":"OPEN_NOTE"
The 404 Media PodcastIs the AI Boom a Bubble?Mike Isaac cuts through the AI hype cycle with hard-won skepticism from covering every previous tech bubble, while offering rare structural insight into why OpenAI's IPO timeline is messier than anyone admits. The Meta settlement framing — product changes over dollar amounts — is the sharpest take in the episode.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
futurism.comCreator of Super Smash Brothers Offers Blistering Takedown of AI-Generated GamesMasahiro Sakurai, creator of Super Smash Bros and Kirby, criticized AI-generated video games as derivative and unprofitable, arguing that AI excels at copying existing systems but cannot produce genuine originality. He contrasted AI's imitative capacity with human creativity, using game designer Fum✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
Samadhi on a Tuesday
Samadhi lives in a particular part of the spiritual imagination — somewhere between mountaintop and miracle. You picture it arriving after years of austere practice, maybe in a cave, definitely in silence. When it finally comes, it announces itself with appropriate ceremony. This is wrong…
Read the essay →Yogic Agency: The Practice on Purpose
There's no secret to a transformative practice. Anyone selling one is selling something else. What there is: yogic agency.
Read the essay →
popville.comHeads Up: The Marine Corps Marathon is Sunday and there will be parking restrictions and street closuresA PoPville alert about the Marine Corps Marathon on Sunday, October 25, 2026, listing extensive parking restrictions (2AM-2PM) and street closures (5:30AM-3PM) throughout DC, including major arteries like Wisconsin Avenue, Independence Avenue, and several bridges. The notice is purely logistical, in✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
popville.comYO!! Movies and More opening in SW Tomorrow!! “The Revada Arts Center to Open in Southwest DC, Providing a New Home for the Arts”A press release announces the October 2026 opening of the Revada Arts Center in Southwest DC, a multidisciplinary arts hub co-stewarded by Theater Alliance, IN Series, and 4EYE Film Center. The center features performance spaces, a cinema, rehearsal studios, and community engagement areas, positioni✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50Overcome Cognitive Biases with Yoga
Discover how Ashtanga yoga acts as a powerful ally in confronting our deepest cognitive biases and illuminating a path towards clear perception.
Read the essay →test from b6
The Name Creates the Gap
Jordan wanted a handstand for two years. Every class. He watched other people float up, watched himself not. Something grinding and grasping in his chest, increasingly desperate. He got the handstand. That's not the interesting part. The interesting part is what happened six months before…
Read the essay →The Next Big Idea DailyHierarchy Is Broken. Here’s How to Fix It.Halevi and the McKinsey team offer rare diagnostic precision about why hierarchies fail — and concrete, psychologically grounded fixes at every level of the org chart. The ballet promotion story alone is worth the listen.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50Life KitHow honest should you really be? Tips for sharing good and bad newsVanessa Bonds translates social psychology research into genuinely usable decision frameworks for the hardest interpersonal moments. The science is specific enough to be surprising, practical enough to use tomorrow.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
Vulnerability and Risk in Practice
Vulnerability is one of the most overused words in self-help. The underlying idea is real. The marketing version mostly isn't.
Read the essay →
The Eight Limbs Aren’t a Ladder
There's a version of yoga instruction that goes like this: master the ethics first, then the postures, then the breath, then the senses, then the concentration, then the meditation, then the union. Eight rungs. Bottom to top. Do the lower ones right and eventually you…
Read the essay →
theguardian.com‘We are beyond heartbroken’: Cindy Crawford, Rande and Kaia Gerber share tributes to PresleyA Guardian article reports the Gerber family's first public Instagram tributes to Presley Gerber, who died aged 27 at a rehab facility in September 2026. Cindy Crawford, Rande Gerber, and Kaia Gerber each shared emotional statements remembering Presley as a 'sweet, beautiful soul.' The piece documen✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50theguardian.com‘We are beyond heartbroken’: Cindy Crawford, Rande and Kaia Gerber share tributes to PresleyCindy Crawford and Rande Gerber's son Presley died at 27 at a rehab facility in September. The family shared tributes describing him as kind, vulnerable, and deeply loved, with sister Kaia Gerber writing about learning to love him in absence. Presley had spoken openly about struggles with depression✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
Stop Trying to Stop Thinking
Everyone who has tried to meditate has failed the same way. You sit down, close your eyes, and try to stop thinking. Then you think about trying to stop thinking. Then you think about how bad you are at not thinking. Then you wonder if…
Read the essay →The DailyElizabeth Holmes and Nathan Fielder Keep Us GuessingA masterclass on how Nathan Fielder weaponizes documentary's own conventions against itself — and why pairing him with Elizabeth Holmes is the perfect collision of two reality-distortion artists. The Penn & Teller analogy alone is worth the runtime.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
Complimentary Forms of Exercise for Ashtanga Yoga
In this video, Michael Joel Hall discusses the ongoing debate within the Ashtanga yoga community about incorporating complementary exercises, such...
Read the essay →
blog.scottstevenson.netPattern Matching Beats Narrative ReasoningThe author argues that narrative reasoning—simple, compelling stories—leads to poor bets in business and investing because reality is multi-causal and illegible, not reducible to clean explanations. Instead, effective decision-making relies on pattern matching and intuition developed through digesti✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50Slop is "low-grade creative output because there's an incentive to do so," and narrative is the legible thing markets overvalue — so is yoga's story-slop (the clean arc, the alignment cue, the guru myth) a content problem or an incentive problem, and what would changing the incentive actually look like at your shala?
Your ledger just surfaced a protest in Mérida, Albanian riot police, and a Reform candidate's "concentration camps" next to an animated short about depression — what is the pattern your reading is matching on that no narrative you'd write about it would capture?
❖ Synthesize
(empty reply)
The Building Failed. Not You.
Somebody you know left. Maybe it was a yoga studio. Maybe a job, a team, a community they’d given years to. They left quietly, a little ashamed. They told a story about how they just couldn’t handle it. Weren’t disciplined enough. Too sensitive. Not the…
Read the essay →
Meditation and Panic Disorder
An 8-week mindfulness program produced clinically significant improvements in anxiety and panic symptoms for 22 people with diagnosed anxiety disorders.
Read the essay →
Code SwitchWhy fascists love “fitness”A genuinely surprising intellectual history — fitness as a credential for citizenship, not just a lifestyle — with W.E.B. Du Bois writing eugenicist screeds and Pete Hegseth echoing them in the same breath. The personal ambivalence from the hosts and guests makes the theory land.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
TED Radio HourHave we forgotten how to play?Peter Gray builds a rigorous, counterintuitive case that school — not screens — is breaking kids, while Tracy Edwards proves that unstructured freedom and self-directed risk-taking produce exactly the resilient adults Gray says we're failing to raise.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50Get MichaelFilter
Enter your email. We'll send a one-tap link to read today's edition free, in your browser — the link works for 24 hours. Membership unlocks every issue, PDFs, and transcripts.
Already a member of theyoga.club or ashtanga.tech? You're already on file — no re-registration. We won't add you to any list.