My Instapaper queue is crammed full of articles. Unfortunately for all of you, the bulk of them relate to a couple topics I’m really into now that won’t necessarily be that interesting to anyone else. So just a few things to share this week.


This is really long, and really geeky, but here is a very detailed look at how the Millennium Falcon came to be. I admit I got about halfway through and just skimmed the rest while paying more attention to the really cool sketches and storyboard samples.

A Complete History of the Millennium Falcon


This is a useful piece for anyone who has to communicate with a broad audience through writing. There are plenty of rules I violate and it is always good to be reminded of ways your writing has become lazy.

43 Words You Should Cut From Your Writing Immediately


Of course Joe Posnanski put KU’s Big 12 title streak in perspective better than anyone else.

Year After Year


Dana O’Neil with a fantastic feature on the informal “league” of games between the managers of college basketball teams. I love that records are kept and there are ratings. And that ringers come in and alter the outcomes. Pretty sure the anonymous KU ringer that is mentioned is a former Big 12 player of the year.

The game before the game: Inside the managers’ matchup


Finally, we just wrapped up a project where each of the girls got to re-decorate their rooms. The biggest part of the project was all their walls got painted. As we were picking colors, we laughed at the names given to paint colors. That’s kind of a requirement every time you’re browsing for paint, isn’t it?

Anyway, this is a few years old but popped up this week and seemed to go perfectly with what we’ve been doing.

The Color Thesaurus