This is highly recommended, a series where I provide a compelling argument for why you should like something that I like.

Dear Reader,

One of the worst things about the New York City Subway is that it’s the fucking worst. But one of the best things about the New York City Subway is the variety of standing and sitting options.

This is highly recommended, a series where I provide a compelling argument for why you should like something that I like.

Dear Reader,

Ok.

Let’s fucking go.

Let’s talk about TIME, baby!

This is highly recommended, a series where I provide a compelling argument for why you should like something that I like.

Dear Reader,

I’ve got sensitive feet. If I try to walk anywhere (inside or outside) without any shoes on, there’s a good chance my sensitive feet are going to get hurt. For these sensitive feet, I blame my mother. (She’s really a lovely woman. Don’t let this complaint taint your image of her.) She made sure that I was ALWAYS wearing shoes, especially when going outside. No barefoot romps through the field behind our house or down the block to play Kick The Can with the older kids who lived on my street that I can no longer remember.  

This is highly recommended, a series where I provide a compelling argument for why you should like something that I like.

Dear Reader,

I’m having one of those days where I’m trying to figure out what to do. And not really on a practical level: I got up this morning, I went on a run (which after a night of Chinese food and Narragansett tall boys didn’t feel that great), I made breakfast, I took a shower, I put on some clothes, walked down the block to the Franklin Ave. subway station, stepped on the number 2 train when it arrived and went to my office, which is where I’m now writing this.

This is highly recommended, a series where I provide a compelling argument for why you should like something that I like.

Dear Reader,

Do you guys know what buildings are? I’m assuming that if you’re reading this blog, you probably know what buildings are. But I guess that I should probably never assume anything.

This is highly recommended, a series where I provide a compelling argument for why you should like something that I like.

Dear Reader,

I still remember eating purely for pleasure. I still remember getting my first car and driving to the gas station within walking distance of my house to buy a giant bag of Gardetto’s Original Recipe Snack Mix and a Coke Icee. I still remember stopping by Sonic before high-school golf practice to scarf down five mozzarella sticks and a massive cherry limeade. I still remember doing all of this and not really getting (that) fat.

This is highly recommended, a series where I provide a compelling argument for why you should like something that I like.

Dear Reader,

There are some things you can’t control. You can’t control the weather. You can’t control whether or not the train shows up on time. You can’t control when you start to lose your hair. (You can only react to it –shoutout Hims, sponsor the blog.) When you think about it, you can’t really control anything.

This is highly recommended, a series where I provide a compelling argument for why you should like something that I like.

Dear Reader,

What the fuck is going on with Movie Pass? It was so great. (It was too great.) That’s probably why it’s not so great anymore. What’s the Robert Frost poem? “Nothing great can stay great forever because being great is an inherently ephemeral quality”? Such a wonderful poet.

This is highly recommended, a series where I provide a compelling argument for why you should like something that I like.

Dear Reader,

I used to drive around St. Louis, Missouri in a white 2010 Volkswagen Jetta, which was pretty nice. I know that describing things as “solid” belies a level of detail you’ve come to expect from the highly recommended series, but that’s what this car way -- solid. It felt solid. It worked solid. And I’m pretty sure it’s still solid, even though I sold it. (About once a week, Austin complains that something feels weird about the car. It usually turns out to be a branch that got stuck in the undercarriage, i.e. user error.)

This is highly recommended, a series where I provide a compelling argument for why you should like something that I like.

Dear Reader,

A while ago, I heard this story about the man who invented pockets, Edward Tillingham. Apparently, Tillingham had a problem with losing things.

This is highly recommended, a series where I provide a compelling argument for why you should like things that I like.

Dear Reader,

Do you have a therapist? I’ve always thought having a therapist was dumb because I’m a normal Midwestern boy with little to no neuroses and the ability to deal with my feelings in a healthy and productive way that doesn’t involve paying somebody to listen to me. The only therapist I ever saw that seemed to make things better did so because they stopped being a therapist and started being a love interest in a sports-based mid-90s romantic comedy.

This is highly recommended, a series where I provide a compelling argument for why you should like something that I like.

Dear Reader,

Flying is still fun to me. I know I’m supposed to think it’s a pain in the ass. I’m supposed to hate the hours I spend at the airport. To gripe about exorbitant airport prices. To bitch about getting stuck in the seat next to a person that can’t help but spill into my personal space. I’m supposed to Tweet out all of this bullshit about how much it blows that we’ve reached a level of technological innovation that allows human beings to magically suspend themselves 30,000 feet in the air and get from one place to another so quickly that you barely have time for a drink.

This is highly recommended, a series where I provide a compelling argument for why you should like something that I like.

Dear Reader,

I was prepared to write a full-throated defense of the most important meal of the day. I really was. I love breakfast food more than anything else. And my life has changed since I started eating a substantial and (reasonably) healthy breakfast every morning. (I have a three egg scramble with peppers and onions plus a banana.)

This is highly recommended, a series where I provide a compelling argument for why you should like something that I like.

Dear Reader,

Have you ever tried to clean out the inside of your backpack? Like when your terribly bland lunch you prepped over the weekend leaks out of the cheap tupperware container you stored it in, covering all of your belongings in some unidentifiable food juice?

This is highly recommended, a series where I provide a compelling argument for why you should like something that I like.

Dear Reader,

When runners (like real runners who run all the time) run, they get a buzz. Similar to the kind of buzz I get when you shotgun a couple of cheap beers. As many times as I have tried to find the former buzz, the latter buzz is much more attainable. And honestly, that’s ok. Drinking beer is (usually) a lot more fun than permanently damaging my joints by shuffling through Prospect Park at a slower than average pace for a relatively fit twenty-six year old.

This is highly recommended, a series where I provide a compelling argument for why you should like things that I like.

Dear Reader,

I know what you’re thinking: “But Nick, blogs were a big thing like 10 years ago. Why would you highly recommend writing one now?” And reader, that’s a pretty good question. A good enough question for me to think of some pretty good answers. So let’s not waste any more time with my patented tangentially related blog expositions and get right into the meat of the highly recommended structure (also patented).

This is highly recommended, a series where I provide a compelling argument for why you should like something that I like.

Dear Reader,

I am the Snack King™. If there is a snack to be had, I’ve snacked it. I’ve explored the sweet, the salty, the somewhere in between. I’ve had to work hard to become the Snack King™, putting in time with the more obscure snacks that others think they’re too good for. No snack is too good for me.

This is highly recommended, a series where I provide a compelling argument for why you should like stuff that I like.

Dear Reader,

When you look like an asshole, do you know that you look like an asshole? Like, do you know that everybody is looking at you and thinking “who the hell does this guy think he is walking around like a real asshole”? Do you know that you’re the guy who people complain about to their roommate when they get home? Do you know that you probably look like an asshole because you’re wearing wireless headphones? Because you’re wearing Apple AirPods?

This is highly recommended, a series where I provide a compelling argument for why you should like stuff that I like.

Dear Reader,

I don’t remember when I first got a Playstation 2, but I do remember the first time I smashed a Playstation 2 controller. Aggressively crouched on the edge of a futon with a pleather cover, I was in the middle of an intense matchup between college players identified only by numbers (fuck the NCAA) on NCAA Basketball 2004. (This was back when Melo was good enough to be on the cover of a video game.)

This is highly recommended, a series where I provide a compelling argument for why you should like stuff that I like.

Dear Reader,

When I moved to New York, it immediately became clear that I was not adequately bagged up. I owned a backpack worn mostly by teenage girls that still shop at Urban Outfitters, a couple of those giant blue IKEA tarps and a medium-sized, free tote bag from a baseball game. But this totebag wasn’t a New York tote. It wasn’t like the totebags I would see at the Central Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library, emblazoned with public radio stations, used book stores and everyone’s favorite brands.