Michael Pipolo

November exercise: every day this month, I’m gonna post about something or someone I’m grateful for. Conventional wisdom is that hedonic adaptation comes for everything eventually, but that hasn’t really been my experience: sometimes I feel almost overflowing with gratefulness for the things that surround me. But I’m not good at all about expressing this stuff out loud, so people who know me often get the impression that I’m severe and critical. Let’s go!

8/30. I’m thankful for ginkgo trees. My office is surrounded by them, and I enjoy so much seeing their slow march through such a beautiful spectrum of greens and yellows. This sort of “uranium yellow” phase is one of my favorites. And maybe not as commonly known: they’re positively ancient creatures, having been around in essentially this same form since the Jurassic period (~170 mya). It produces for me a certain sense of awe around them.

7/30. I’m thankful for vaccines! 10/10, no notes, probably my favorite invention of humanity. Just walked into Costco and got my Nuvaxovid covid booster for the fifth year running, from our favorite local biotech firm @Novavax. More people oughta know about this shot: it’s a traditional protein-based vaccine with a reduced side effect profile and (arguably) longer-lasting immunity than the mRNA shots (Moderna, Pfizer).

I don’t know what “chud” means, I only know it’s pronounced like “chutzpah”

6/30. I’m thankful for Maryland’s superb public library system, and for the @LibbyApp that they use for audiobooks and ebooks. I use the Maryland library system so much… it’s truly among my favorite uses of taxpayer dollars. And Libby! Libby is a labor of love, an inspiration to software developers in so many ways: it’s full of creative, smart UX details, beautiful to look at, and—I don’t even know how they do this but I respect the hell out of it—IT’S 4.3 MEGABYTES.

I dreamt I was in the UK and got an Uber and who was my driver but Thom Yorke! Then a Radiohead song came on and I was almost like hey Thom is it weird when your songs come on but then I thought, you know, he probably gets that a lot, and just played it cool

5/30. I’m thankful for the @AFISilver theater in Silver Spring! It’s marvelous to have such a gem close by: great movies that don’t come to chain theaters, some nice 70mm showings of both new and old movies, director retrospectives, etc.

In the market for a room or sublet in NYC January–March (preferably Brooklyn, even better if near Sunset Park or Park Slope). Can't hurt to throw it out there, right?

4/30. I’m thankful for all the bees and wasps that visit (and often sleep in!) the flowers in my yard. It brings me so much happiness to sit on my stoop and watch them, truly. I saw this new species the other day, perhaps Augochloropsis metallica? (badass name, right?)

Right into my veins

Damn, 2026 really flew by. How is it Christmas morning already!?

Oh honey… the antivaxxers are still happily circulating it and infecting their children with it in large portions of this country.

3/30. I’m thankful to live in a democracy.

2/30. I’m thankful for katydids! There weren’t any katydids around where I grew up in California and Montana, and I’ve found them endlessly charming since moving here. Every summer I await their arrival and enjoy their serenades on night walks. (My partner and I take bets in the spring on the first night we’ll hear one.) Photo of the one time I was blessed by a katydid finding its way inside.