We don't believe in the sweater curse in this house.61 words · 1 image
The all-knowing internet confirmed that the crab and the jellyfish I saw on Cedar Creek have a symbiotic relationship. More precisely, they are demonstrating commensalism. This is where one organism receives a benefit and the other organism receives neither benefit nor harm. The crab gets a free ride at no cost to the jellyfish. Seems like a good deal.-------------------- While tied up in Beaufort on this past trip, a man passing by on the boardwalk said "That is a handsome boat!" Handsome,…
I talk about national politics, by I also take action at the local level. I mean, super local. Okay, it’s my living room.
Last night I descended into a hot and labyrinthian basement of a building in Northeast Minneapolis (not far from The Crane Theater) to check out a new-to-me theater company. Despite the heat, I was impressed by Brick by Brick Players' mission ("to create Theatre of Joy in the Traumatized Body"), and their production of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. Similar to Ten Thousand Things, they are bringing this production out into the community, performing at a juvenile detention center and elder care…
Two pens that should never be opened up and serviced yourself. Send them to Pilot to have it done properly and to preserve your warranty. I'm often asked how I got into this hobby, and how I managed to learn enough about fountain pens, ink, and paper to feel comfortable (1) starting The Gentleman Stationer and (2) later, opening a pen store. Both have a pretty straightforward answer: lots of personal trial and error, and reading extensively online and attempting to learn as much as possible…
Network will turn 50 years old later this year. I'll be posting my review then, but for now this feels very timely.
I have a new camera for my creative endeavors. I asked Truman if he would pose a couple of times so I could make a couple of comparison shots and he obliged. He let me know when he had sufficient, as seen in the last photo in this series.
18:59 - Feeling really lethargic and bleh. In the mood for nothing. I've been lying in bed for hours. We did go out for about an hour today. That was something, I guess.
Woke up at 3:30, the stars were so bright on this early moonless morning. My alarm wasn't set to blare for another hour and a half. I debated what to do, get an early start to the drive on the last day of a trip seems to be my mantra, so I repacked everything up and headed to breakfast in Flagstaff, which is still 3.5 hours away. Biffs Bagels always comes through, that and Tea at sbux on the patio. I though driving through the painted desert would be stunning at sunrise, but it turns out I was…
Platform 4 Platform 4 Platform 4 Platform 3 Manchester Victoria railway station is endlessly interesting, and I don't spend enough time there, but I looked in today. There are several quite different locations, and each is worth exploring. Today I only had time for the dark dungeon that contains platforms 3 to 6. This is a very dark, very noisy, and quite unpleasant location where almost all the trains are diesel-powered, and the low roof ensures both the noise and the exhaust fumes are…
Good morning from Nashville Superspeedway! It was an early practice, so I am just now sitting down to write something. We actually came to the track yesterday afternoon to pick up our credentials and make sure we had a seat in the media center. We always do that if possible. I don’t like surprises on […]
I am reduced to reporting on the minutiae of daily life; everything else is overwhelming. (Half an hour this morning finding out where something I was absolutely sure had been moved had been stashed in my new place. At least I did actually find it. View this as a cautionary tale. I’m getting very little done, very slowly, and not very well, but it’s the best I can do, so I plug away.) It’s taken me a whole week to figure out how to walk through doors here. Well, the extremely heavy (because…
Happy Brighton Trans Pride!
Watched: Dark Matter S1E1, Are You Happy in Your Life? 🍿
The Boston Globe ran a piece recently about a controversy in the Cambridge Public Schools. The issue is not unique to Cambridge, and its resolution, I think, illustrates the hopeless situation that the convergence of racial and economic issues has gotten us into.In 1960-1, I was among the first children in the US to do Algebra I in 8th grade. The idea of giving Algebra I to exceptional students had developed, I believe, in response to Sputnik. When I went into 7th grade at North Bethesda Jr.…
Humanity’s superpower is cultural evolution, which we had working long before language. Back then we “vibed” by watching and copying others’ behaviors, and synching those to ours. In this way, we learned how to, and coordinated our: production, governance, norms, bonding within each community, and badging to show to which communities we belonged.The rise of language was at first a small aid to coordinating such things. Words mainly referred to things we vibed, so we checked language claims…
I recently (26th-28th June 2026) went on a three day climbing trip to Hampi and this is my day to day log of a small set of things that happened. Find day 1 here and day 2 here. Onto day 3: Longest session Well well, promise was broken again but not as bad this time, we started our hike by 07:00 AM. It was early morning but weather was already starting to looking promising. Not much direct sun, big non-rain clouds till the horizon. It was the literally the best weather to climb! We decided to…
Another rainy day, perhaps the last before the summer high pressure system establishes itself in the Gulf of Alaska. Despite the call for showers for the rest of the day, a thin line of cloud edge appears this morning out over the Strait and a robin is singing plaintively in the tree tops. It's that moment when it isn't clear if it is still rain or if the sounds coming from the trees are the drippings of the canopy. For the forest floor, it doesn't matter. This morning I have been reading the…
A kingdom for a heart Brutus had finally accomplished it. A kingdom for a heart. Not his kingdom, nor his heart. The ritual came as second nature to him. Even the horrendous sight of seeing his beloved Lucrecia take her own life in front of him felt, though maddening, necessary. If he couldn’t be with her, no Tarquin should have her. His obsession would never let him continue watching his beloved brother in arms Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus, as much as he loved him, be tethered to his divinely…
What are these "uncs" I keep hearing about? Is that a new brand of fuzzy boots for men?
When I was a young boy I played cards with my friend and his Sicilian father. Dad would cheat. He’d palm cards, fudge the score, take extra turns. When I got to age 9 I realized he was cheating and I was so mad. Cheating was wrong! I realized much later that he was teaching us a lesson. That while it might be wrong, sometimes people will cheat you. He taught us to recognize being cheated. When I was 15 I applied for a job at the local grocery store. Part of the hiring process was a test for…
This actually isn’t that complicated; stop letting people lie to you.Assumed audience: People familiar with and potentially open to (as I am committed to) a Christian view of ethics, informed heavily by the virtue ethics tradition in particular. Many technology-enthused nerds often offer as a truism the idea that you have to have familiarity with a given technology to be able to judge it rightly. This is nonsense. Do you have to try cocaine to judge whether it is good for you? Do you have to…
I’ve finally got the line-up of things that will be at the Peanuts shop at Comic-Con… but before I get to that, let me note that my Comic-Con plans have changed, and I will now be there only on Thursday. If anyone wants to mee with me, it can probably be arranged; drop me a line. It looks like this year’s Peanuts shop (and remember, this is the one inside the convention, with a totally different set of items than the one outside) will be focused on board-riding, whether Surf or Skate. Ya got…
The Milan Metro has five lines named, understandably, the M1, M2, M3, M4 and M5. I decided to tackle them in order, because of course I did, so early on a Sunday morning I boarded an M1 train to its southwestern terminus: Bisceglie. That's the terminus for the time being. Milan has the habit of extending its metro in dribs and drabs, a couple of stations here, three more there, and as we'll see these extensions don't always go to plan. Earlier this year a three kilometre extension to Olmi was…
What I'm...Working on Mostly dealing with issues related to course content packages Contemplating A budgeting system for time management Returning to running Buying and playing Granblue Fantasy: Relink for Switch 2 How my Bear Blog is becoming a record of the weeks rather than a blog What I would like for the theme/goal(s)/intentions of my next birth year to be Reading About system analysis and design (mostly in support of the budgeting system idea) Drinking More Rosso Caffe Playing Kirby Air…
What kind of a man are you? You should ask yourself this question often in your life. This is an identity-building question. It shapes how you think. Before that, it exposes how you think. It forces you to become the ideal version of yourself. This question opens so many doors for introspection that, if you are truthful, it has the potential to transform you. No amount of resolution, willpower, or commitment holds a candle to this question. Make a promise and keep it. Every time you are tempted…
We have been bouncing back and forth at Madison urban campgrounds, taking advantage of all the great restaurants and music venues. But it's been hot! With the heat index, the combined humidity and temps into the mid 90's have made it hotter than Tucson. Additionally, in the last week, the wildfire smoke from Minnesota and Canada has completely socked us in. Basically, it's like sitting at the campfire with the smoke blowing in your face all the time. With a front coming in yesterday, we have a…
Dropped by a Scooter’s Coffee here in Maumelle, Arkansas. It’s good! ☕️ WillowTree did the Scooter’s app. 😃 Unfortunately I didn’t get to work on it but boy-o-boy did the team do an amazing job!
It's Saturday, July 18 and I'm actually sort of on some kind of roll here and not overly late with with week's update. Imagine that. We received some new this week at work that pretty much backed up everything that we had expected to hear. Not really anything that I can discuss, but it's great news for us and should - in the long term - save us a decent amount of money on licenses and subscriptions. Plus, we'll get the opportunity to learn some new things which is very nice. I need to step up…
Good morning from Charlottesville, Virginia! ☕️ On the road with our youngest daughter, Bug. I’m passenger for the first couple hours because I have a difficult time waking up. 🤣 Hey, I’ve only had a single cup of coffee this morning! We’re on the road to California to visit family, Bug will visit friends while I work. Of course we’ll make the rounds to all of our old haunts just to see how things have changed in the area. Our old favorite coffee shop, Exeter Coffee Co, shuttered at the end of…
