This week’s sometimes-weekly summary of things I noticed on the internet.

FPO: The Blumenthals’ Anniversary Book

A great idea, beautifully executed:

Traditionally the first anniversary gift is made of paper. I was inspired to do this many months ago while reading through our old text messages — I was just cracking up, and realized this would be a great source for a diary or journal project.

Stefan Sagmeister: The power of time off | Video on TED.com

Looks like I need to take more time off. Seven years’ of fresh work from one year of thinking? Sign me up.

Exclusive: Rapha to launch riding holidays | Rapha

And maybe here is where I can spend some of that time off.

Derek Powazek – Spammers, Evildoers, and Opportunists

The problem with SEO is that the good advice is obvious, the rest doesn’t work, and it’s poisoning the web. I’m going to tell you about the problems, and then tell you the one true way to generate traffic on the web, based on my own 14 years of hits and misses.

the impossible cool.

“Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.”

kung fu grippe: Read All Day

I studied English at Cambridge and I cannot tell you how hard I pushed for the study of sentences that created forts made of sofa cushions. And now it seems I’m not the only one for whom they have a special significance.

The Best Decline Letter of All-Time: Edmund Wilson

I’m so impressed by this that I’m currently sketching out an index-card based conversation simplifier to be deployed at my wife. Stay tuned for progress reports, pictures of me being evicted and possible desperate offers of bits of me for cash.