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Yoga2487Practice2211Teaching1212Ashtanga1090Reading1049Humor781Reflections767Reflection756Travel697Washington dc674Music562India539Philosophy531Community528Food492Family440Indoors371Nature352Celebration333Mysore319Art291Stretching284Politics271Writing245Love236Friends236Dc212Photography210Talking192Milestones186Living room182Twitter179Usa178Health175Asana171Home interior170Speaking161Gym161Home159Yoga studio153Posing137Goa134Outdoors128Work128Strength training118
On this day
October 30 in years past
October 30, 2024 · 2 entries
October 30, 2023 · 3 entries
1. finished @jakeshears memoir “Boys Keep Singing” this weekend, so this collab is 👨🍳💋 2. @herreraimages substack is just *so* good. 3. Here’s to melting chrome (go watch and you’ll get it.)
in imageCheers to growing up Gay with a flamin... G.
To telling on ourselves before we could talk.
To telling on ourselves before we could talk.
in imagesham-e-ali
@solarshami
We all long to write the poem that will
stop this death.
11:25 PM • 4/16/22 • Twitter for iPhone
@rachel.cargle
@solarshami
We all long to write the poem that will
stop this death.
11:25 PM • 4/16/22 • Twitter for iPhone
@rachel.cargle
anytime, really
in imageNo one:
Me anytime, really
No one:
Me anytime, really:
Me anytime, really
No one:
Me anytime, really:
October 30, 2016 · 11 entries
Bestie activities. @pujaloveit
Bestie activities. @pujaloveit
I dub thee "Opus"
I dub thee "Opus"
Moon day, All Hallows' Eve Eve, & vegan chicken wings. Craft beer. Witch Craft. Crafty Bas…
Moon day, All Hallows' Eve Eve, & vegan chicken wings. Craft beer. Witch Craft. Crafty Bastards.
"We gotta let go of all of our ghosts-- we both know we ain't kids no more." -- Adrle bringing the horror.
Serving it as it comes.
Serving it as it comes.
Happy Halloween!
Happy Halloween!
October 30, 2015 · 1 entry
She told me to let go of my hope, and it was the hardest bit of yogic wisdom I had ever received. But the sky, it changed. Like being far from the city, I could see all the stars. No hope, no fear.
October 30, 2014 · 4 entries
Partner & I got called "fag" 3x at Langdon Park, next to new chuck brown memorial. @MurielBowser @DavidCataniaDC @DCPoliceDept
@mroike and I took Charlie to Langdon Park Dog Park and got called "fag"3x while crossing in front of the basketball court.
My little expert. #charliegram
My little expert. #charliegram
October 30, 2013 · 5 entries
October 30, 2011 · 11 entries
I've always wanted a zombie boyfriend-- the kinda guy that wants me for my brains, but treats me like a piece of meat.
Zombie Jobs & Superboy
Zombie Jobs & Superboy
Zombie Jobs & Superboy
Zombie Jobs & Superboy
Zombie Jobs & Superboy
Zombie Jobs & Supes
Jobs & Supes
Jobs & Supes
October 30, 2010 · 1 entry
"He's not even wearing a costume! Thats just his caveman outfit and some S&M gear!"
October 30, 2008 · 2 entries
October 30, 2006 · 1 entry
I totally ran a marathon on Sunday. I managed to run 26.2 miles in 4 hours, 9 minutes. Woo Woo!
Marine Corps Marathon.
Marine Corps Marathon.
FIELD LOG
By the numbers
13,259entries logged
24years afield2003–2026
41on this day
37doodles
167pickings
Dec 2003logbook opened
FROM THE DESK
Writing
FROM THE SHALA DAILY
Digests
In This Issue
- 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…
- Vinyasa Yoga: Breath & MovementOct 4, 2026
Brahmari Pranayama: The Bee Breath Technique for Calm and Clarity This video introduces Brahmari Pranayama, also known as Bee Breath,...
FROM THE FEED
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 · $5.50FROM THE FEED
The 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 · $5.50FROM THE FEED
The 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 · $5.50FROM THE LEDGER
Pickings
FROM THE FIELD
Latest dispatches
Doodles
№ ?
Unearthed
A I wonder why I keep getting taken back to last Tuesday.
Venue Hire last min offer
New member: Maia Wagner — needs follow-up
Greg Cooke Yoga Club membership
Venue Hire last min offer
New member: Maia Wagner — needs follow-up
Greg Cooke Yoga Club membership
Venue Hire last min offer
New member: Maia Wagner — needs follow-up
Greg Cooke Yoga Club membership
Venue Hire last min offer
New member: Maia Wagner — needs follow-up
Greg Cooke Yoga Club membership
The full ledger
13,259 entries · 2003–2026 · filter & browse below
View
October 2026
✎ Essay · Yoga Professionals
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
✎ Essay · Practice
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 · $5.50The 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
✎ Essay · Philosophy
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 →✎ Essay · Shala Digest
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 · $5.50Octavia Butler
✎ Essay · Shala Digest
Overcome 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 →Send ada love!
test from b6
test from b6
✎ Essay · Philosophy
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
✎ Essay · Shala Digest
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 →
✎ Essay · Philosophy
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
✎ Essay · Philosophy
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
✎ Essay · Shala Digest
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 · $5.50If pattern matching beats narrative reasoning, what exactly are you training when you teach — and how would you know a student has acquired somatic pattern recognition rather than just a better vocabulary for describing their practice?
Slop 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)
Slop 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)
✎ Essay · Philosophy
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 →
✎ Essay · Shala Digest
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 · $5.50
futurism.comMeta Glasses Said to Be Recording Even When They’re in Sleep ModeMeta's AI-enabled glasses are reportedly recording conversations even when in sleep mode, activating without the required 'Hey Meta' wake phrase. Multiple users across different device generations have observed this behavior, raising serious privacy concerns about devices designed for discreet recor✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
The VergecastEverything’s recording everybody. What now?A sharp, lived-in conversation about the cultural gap between what tech companies call 'privacy' and what regular people actually feel. V Song's field reporting from inside the surveillance-wearable experiment makes the abstract visceral.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50The Next Big Idea DailyWhy We Want Things We Don’t NeedTwo authors, one theme: the hidden machinery behind wanting things. Eric Athes maps how novelty hijacks the brain; Katie Kelleher complicates it by insisting beauty still matters — together they make a surprisingly complete argument about desire.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50Life KitHow to find your flow state when you’ve lost itA rare episode that earns its science: Husky's neuroimaging findings about metabolic efficiency during flow are genuinely surprising, and Diane Allen's arc from frozen elbows to writing her own music gives the theory emotional weight.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
✎ Essay · Philosophy
The Point Is to Need Less
You've probably noticed that the need doesn't resolve. You take the workshop, do the training, get the certification, find the better teacher, discover the right lineage, and six months later you're still looking for the next thing. The gap between you and sufficiency never quite…
Read the essay →Get MichaelFilter
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