Week-old humpback whale calf ✒️ Written by: Abbie It may have been a little while since we uploaded a blog post, and that's because we've simply been so busy traveling, settling, and—regrettably—working. While we still have many stories to share from our travels, in the background we have officially finished the first half of our Aussie adventures and found somewhere to call home. That place being the beautiful Gold Coast. We decided on Gold Coast when we passed through during our campervan…
An Account at Oriskany |The Battle of Oriskany (/ɔːrˈɪskəniː/ or /əˈrɪskəniː/) was a major engagement of the Saratoga campaign during the American Revolutionary War. On August 6, 1777, an American column of Tryon County militia and Oneidas marching to relieve the siege of Fort Stanwix was ambushed by a contingent of Britain's Indigenous allies and Loyalists. It was one of the few battles of the war in which most non-Indigenous participants were settlers born in the Thirteen Colonies. The…
We were recently in Puck, a small town on the Bay of Gdańsk (Poland), to take a closer look at the town and the harbor. It was a lovely walk, and of course, as always, I was magically drawn to the water. I can’t really imagine a vacation without the sea. At the pier, a few water sports enthusiasts were getting their surfboards ready, and a couple were already out on the water. The wind in this area is apparently always quite brisk, and I found it absolutely fascinating to see how fast one of…
Our new addition to the family, Nelly, has arrived and she's causing havoc already. 🤣 Thanks for reading this post via RSS. RSS is ace, and so are you. ❤️ You can reply to this post by email, or leave a comment.
In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book. Previous contributors include Jesmyn Ward, Lauren Groff, Bret Easton Ellis, Celeste Ng, T.C. Boyle, Dana Spiotta, Hanif Abdurraqib, Andrew Sean Greer, Roxane Gay, and many others. Emily McBride’s novel Queen Mab is a brilliant debut that marries folklore to postpartum depression. The New Yorker wrote of the book: “The body horror of birth gives way to the fairy-tale…
Detail from the first life-drawing from today’s session I did my last life-drawing session of July earlier today, making a total of four sessions. I’ve got another life-drawing session booked for tomorrow afternoon. Thirty minute drawing with Sanguine pencil & Conté crayons I’ll probably not keep up with four sessions a month, but if I can commit to two or three per month then I won’t feel like I’m having to learn to draw again from scratch, which is definitely how I felt at the beginning of…
1) And how would it be? A new world? A new life? A new time, made for a new form of living and a new way which is mad or madder than the madman who lives to die or dies to live.What is this? What is desire if nothing else than a spot or a place in my heart to which I swear to live and remain unfearful to die, or if at all or if anything else, who am I now or who will I be now? Who will I become now that the older versions of me have been dismissed? And so, if I am free to exist, then how can I…
As Wielder of Arms flapped her vast, strong wings she climbed away from the ground. She crested the village and saw beyond it hundreds of people running. They were armed for war and Wielder realized the others had been stalling. She cried to her friends, “We have been betrayed! More foes come to join the fight!” The people below begged Delver to wait, “Yes, we had sent word for aid.” "We’ll tell them to stop. We wish not to fight. If you wait, the peace will hold.” But Wielder of Arms heard…
Just a quick announcement from Rockstar this morning — the video is basically just a moving JPG, so don’t worry yourself too hard about hitting play — but what’s fascinating is that the reveal will be on Netflix in addition to YouTube. I wonder who is paying who on that one?
A good two-state toggle can actually express all three data model states. Until recently, if you looked at most websites with a theme toggle[1], you’d find three options: Light, Dark, and System. Examples of tri-state dark mode toggles. In (LTR) reading direction: Ant Design, Red Hat Design System, Web Awesome, Excalidraw, Taiga, Astro, Hero UI. Thankfully, these days the trend has shifted towards a simpler two-state toggle, but tri-state ones are still incredibly common. Examples of two-state…
Inspired by Automatticians James Kemp and Dave Smith, I’ve been thinking a lot about how much of our discord in the design of WordPress stems from the differences of our two big tribes: Bloggers and Builders. Many of the OG developers of WordPress, including myself, tend more towards the blogging side. Writers, photographers, podcasters, journalists, the people for whom a reverse chronological stream on the homepage is the most obvious thing in the world. We link out a lot, love comments,…
Henry Bolingbroke and his cousin, Richard, were childhood friends, but when they were older Henry became one of the Lords Appellant in 1387 who took it upon themselves to curtail what they saw as excesses and corruption in the administration of Richard when he became king.Not only had they been friends, but Henry's father and Richard's uncle, the powerful (and sometimes feared) John of Gaunt, was a steadfast supporter of Richard personally and of royal authority generally.After all that…
For my birthday in June this year, my parents fulfilled one wish I had: they gifted me a new pair of headphones of my choice. I have a pair of AirPods Pro 2 that I had been using extensively and exclusively since 2023 up until then and still use now where over-ear is inappropriate, but I wanted headphones with bigger drivers, better soundstage, and active noise cancellation. The AirPods Max (2) were out of the question for many reasons, most of all their price. Even though my parents were the…
The beauty of blogging with Pika is how low the barrier to entry is. Think of a thought, write it down, click “publish post,” and you’re good to go. No bloated “update your plugin” horror show that ruins your layout yet again (hello, WordPress); no friction (though friction can be a good thing in itself). Can’t everything in life be this simple, please? I’ve noticed, however, that a quiet, organic division has crept into my daily publishing routine. And that’s one that I don’t like: short,…
I thank my camera for showing me the architecture of things. All buildings: big or small, beautiful or ugly, are the spiritualisation of matter — Dean Cavanagh My Fujifilm hangs around my neck like a talisman. A magic box that opens a portal to the spirits of the buildings. I notice the forms and the spaces and the way that they capture and bend my reactions. Oooh, I like this. Or. Ohmygosh, is one fuggly1 hunk of concrete. I have a rudimentary mixed up comprehension of a few architectural…
Much in the same way that the SECNAV in 1975 created 15 new “cruisers” from thin air by reclassifying DLGs to CGs to gain a two-cruiser lead over the Russkis, the Navy has just dubbed 19 planned Blocks V and VI Virginia class SSNs as SSGNs to fill the gap left by the four retiring TLAM-commando boats. The first of four Ohio-class SSGN conversions, USS Georgia is pending decommissioning after 42 years of service, with her sisters Ohio, Michigan and Florida soon to follow. Each was given a $1…
Florida-based KelTec continues its established trope of delivering strange yet intriguing new guns to the market, introducing the SUB-SDP last week. The pistol, dubbed the “Nub Sub” in the company’s own marketing materials, is based on the KelTec SUB2000 folding carbine, made into a pistol format and sporting a stabilizing brace instead of a stock on a shorter extension tube and a 6-inch barrel. Set up to take Glock-pattern 9mm double stacks (i.e., G17, G19, G45), the base model ships with a…
Sixth Fleet images, some 40 years ago this month. How about this surreal photo of a 44,000-ton Soviet Kiev class (Project 1143 Krechyet) “heavy aviation cruiser” (CVHG) seen from across the deck of a Sovremenny class destroyer, Mediterranean, August 1986. USN Photo DN-ST-86-11164, via NARA And this full-length version, sans Sovremenny: USN Photo DN-ST-86-11165, via NARA How the Kiev and the Sovremenny stack up to the rest of the fleet: DD-ST-86-06685 The above CVGH is believed to be the Minsk,…
I am officially on vacations. Vacations will last until the day before my birthday — three weeks. On my birthday I go back to work. I look forward to going next week to our vakantiepark, letting children roam free. We go to the same one as last year because it fits our needs. This week’s reflection will be short as I try to minimize my digital and online time (I got carried away). I forgot to make actual notes since most of the week went on to finishing my task before leaving work. I did…
One obscure, but very useful Bash trick is CTRL+X CTRL+E, which will open $EDITOR to edit the current line. This means I can switch to a Vim session with whatever I was typing on intact. This is handy for those times where I need a search-and-replace operation or fix things in a long command or build a long complex command from scratch. I’m aware of Bash’s vi-mode, but I prefer using the default Emacs keybindings because I also work in other’s remote servers. Also, it’s a Vi emulation. I’ve…
When AI-generated code breaks something, the real problem is often how we reviewed, understood, and trusted it.
Gianni Infantino has scrapped his plan to sell stakes in FIFA's competitions, including the World Cup, to investors. It was always the wrong idea – custodians don't get to sell what they're only trusted to protect. | Read full post >>
There has been quite a few Lord of the Rings games in recent years. I think that's a good thing. I hope this brings more people into the boardgame hobby. There are two games in the Lord of the Rings Trick-Taking Game series so far - The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers. I have only played some of the missions in The Fellowship of the Ring. I was told The Two Towers is
Come write HTML with me this Saturday. HTML Day is an annual celebration of getting together and writing HTML, created by Elliott Cost and Laurel Schwulst. Saturday, August 8, 2026, is this year's date, and I'm running two online sessions again, same as last year. Sessions Two one-hour sessions, so folks across time zones can join in. Oceania Time — 6-7pm AEST European Time — 6-7pm CET The European session also works out to 9-10am PT, 11am-12pm CT, and 12-1pm ET, if you're in North America. No…
Performing circus can teach kids about hard work, dedication, teamwork, performance, etc. Most importantly, it teaches kids how to fail in front of a crowd, get back up, and try it again. “Smile and Style” as they say. The crowd, for their part, will cheer even louder when you get it the next time.
I kinda like this framing of doing work vs. going to the gym: At work, if your job is to move a bunch of heavy things from one side of the room to another, you should use whatever assistive tech you have on hand: a wagon, a forklift… even an AI-powered robot. But at the gym, it makes no sense for that robot to lift weights for you. The point of weightlifting isn’t to move heavy things across the room; it’s to actually lift those heavy things.
[🎶 Look out! Here comes the Spider-Man ad! 🎶] Surprise! You don’t really own your BMW.Link: https://www.techspot.com/news/113327-bmw-putting-spider-man-ads-dashboard-after-promising.html
Celebrating 25 years of blogging with gratitude, reflection, and a sweet slice of success surrounded by creativity and joy. August 6, 2001, 25 years ago. I started blogging. I had a website made by Microsoft FrontPage and hosted on GTE (now Verizon) in the homepages they offered back in those days for residential customers. In fact, your ISP provided everything for you. You had so much website space and an ISP-provided email, which you lost if you changed providers. That's foreign today. But I…
This is a survey for developers about everything but coding, that is accepting answers up to September 5. If you’re a developer, it’s worth participating! It doesn’t take long to fill and can help understanding the current environment of the dev industry in such chaotic times.
Why read the book? R.C. Sproul answers a common question: does prayer make any difference? He shows that prayer does not change the mind of God. God already knows and plans all things. Yet prayer still changes things. God uses the prayers of His people as one means to bring about His will. The book also shows that prayer changes the one who prays. It softens the heart and builds obedience. Sproul covers the place of prayer, its purpose, its pattern from the Lord’s Prayer, how to practise it,…
