In this week's P.O. Box:

April dribbled a soccer ball for the first time yesterday. It took me by surprise because it wasn’t something we had been “practicing” or anything.

I was giggling to myself while watching her try to control the ball down the driveway before the impulse kicked in…

I should record this.

When April turned one, I wrote about how I’ve traditionally been bad at remembering to take photos and videos because I enjoy soaking up a moment without any distractions.

These days, I’m constantly wrestling with the desire to be present or try to capture it with a photo or quick video. The urge to document has been stronger than ever recently because April is now doing so many things for the first time—saying her name, using a fork, walking backwards (it’s one of her favorite bits), taking a bubble bath.

I’ve been trying to unpack exactly why this gravitational pull to capture moments exists after discussing it with my pal Denny Carter on his new ‘Dad Szn’ show the other day.

A lot of it comes from a reasonable place of wanting to share it with family and friends—specifically her grandparents who live thousands of miles away and devour every morsel of April content—but there’s also this element of wanting to preserve the moment.

In that same piece I mentioned above, I talked about the idea of ‘pre-nostalgia’:

I think I’ve become (increasingly) acutely aware of how much I am going to miss these moments from April’s early years. I know Future Pete is going to ache longingly for them. And acknowledging that has resulted in doing whatever mental gymnastics I can to slow down this inevitable march of time.

While futile, a photo or video often feels like a way to combat that.

This month’s book club selection, Recursion by Blake Crouch, has all kinds of trippy explorations about memory and what our memories mean for shaping our reality.

It’s proved to be a fun page-turner, but this quote stopped me in my tracks the other night:

Damn, that’s heavy.

This line is specific to a plot point in the book, but it is very interesting to think about the haziness of our memories being a feature and not a bug.

And if that’s true, I guess I’ll have virtually no anesthetic for the nostalgia I’ll feel some day watching this:

📺 The Top Underdog Drafters Reveal Their Tactics. New video up on the Deposit Kingdom channel. I asked a bunch of the top streamers/drafters about their favorite strategies for drafting in early contests like The Big Board. Check it out:

🙏 The Biggest Spiritual Winners & Losers From Free Agency. Gather around for a story about hope, heartbreak, and redemption…

☣ The Very Fishy Ohtani Gambling Scandal. This week on LOLz we catch up on the latest news and drama around the world, including Kate Middleton, Shoehei Ohtani and his interpreter, the Draft Network expose, and the NBA adding live betting to League Pass.

🚢 Our First 2024 Draft (An Extreme Zero RB Team, Duh). Topics discussed: a WR1 battle between Tyreek Hill and CeeDee Lamb, whether Trey McBride should be the top tight end, Bully TE strategy, double tapping from the same RB room, and why it’s always time to load up on rookies.

☕ Best Ball Breakfast: Big Board Drafts. Topics discussed: the biggest risers and fallers post Free Agency, the bizarre Justin Fields trade, late-round gems not selected in every draft, and a rookie WR I'm loading up on.

🏆 Fantasy Life roundup. Wrote about the weird end to the Justin Fields saga and also tried to unpack the funny business surrounding Marvin Harrison Jr. right now.

⏰ The Biggest Board Draft (New $100 Contest). Underdog heard our prayers for a higher buy-in pre-Draft contest so we had to rip one on Off & On The Clock.

🍾 Best Darkhorse Bets For The NBA Playoffs. The Club talks hoops (and Gradey Dick jokes).

For April, I cooked up something fun and asked Patrick Laird and Davis Mattek to guest curate our selections. Then we’ll get together for a show in early May to discuss.

We’ve done a mini-book club together a few times previously (Radical Markets / Uncanny Valley) and always enjoyed it, so figured we’d run it back in conjunction with The P.O. Box Off Szn Book Blub.

Here is what they came up with for us (randomly a big month for authors named Stevenson):

Book #6 for April (Non-Fiction): The Trading Game: A Confession by Gary Stevenson

A vivid, blistering memoir that takes readers inside the high-stakes drama and hubris of the trading floor, a rags-to-riches tale of Citibank’s one-time most profitable trader, and why he gave it all up—a Liar’s Poker for a new generation.

Book #7 for April (Fiction): Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson

From the bestselling author of Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone, a fiendishly fun locked room (train) murder mystery that "offers a tip of the hat to the great Agatha Christie novel while at the same time being a modern reinvention of it."

Book #5 for March (60% DONE): Recursion by Blake Crouch

Book #4 for March (COMPLETE): The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America by Erik Larson

Book #3 for February (COMPLETE): Gambler Secrets from a Life at Risk by Billy Walters

Book #2 for February (COMPLETE): Chain Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

Book #1 (COMPLETE): Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results by Shane Parris

Watched the exhilarating, anxiety-inducing (and often maddening) Netflix documentary The Deepest Breath this week.

It follows an ambitious Italian woman trying to set world records in what has to be the most dangerous sport in the world.

If you liked things like Free Solo and 100 Foot Wave—and have a stomach for watching people push their bodies to the brink of death (at times I did not)—it’s worth a watch.

We got one show on tap this weekend for YouTube Members:

ETR’s newest hire, John Daigle, joins me on After Dark to talk about his new gig, upcoming content plans, and reuniting with his former roommate. Become a YT member to watch live (top 2 tiers).

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